3 posts in 3 days? i must be unemployed!

I finished the Monkey socks today, thanks to an excruciatingly long Advanced Grammar class last night. I know it's just the first semester, but I'm over school already. Must. Persevere.

Sigh.

Here's Monkey. And proof that I'm not so good with the picture taking late at night. And also proof that I could have chosen better patterned yarn for this project.

From above:



From the side, in midair, cause I'm a gymnast and junk:



From the creative angle, with the camera no where near my face:



These socks don't represent the Monkey pattern very well, partly because of the yarn, which I happen to love, but maybe for something else (Lorna's Laces in Parfait), and partly because I didn't block the socks. Honestly, who blocks a sock? (sorry, just watched Casino Royale and now I'm channeling Austin Powers.) They're much prettier in person. Most importantly, I learned about arch shaping. Ok, really just doing more decreases at the gusset, but still. I have a narrow foot, so it's important to get right, otherwise you just have a bulky sock that doesn't fit into your shoe.

In other news, I started a job today, and it closely resembles the things I asked for earlier this month, with a few key exceptions. The pay is significantly less. But I'm with cute babies all day, honing my mom skills, until 3:30 when I can go to class or just go home and study. Or dye lots of wool. Priorities you know. And I can wear whatever I want and be barefoot all day, which totally rocks because that's how I hang at home. Except now when I get home I have to change cause I'm covered in baby drool. And wow is my hand-washing OCD-ness kicking in. I'm pretty sure I'll have scrubbed them raw by next week.

OH! I blew past my 75 mile goal for April 1, and I'm now at 80, so I'm going to get on my bike this weekend and see if I can't power out those last 20 miles. Maybe I'll make 100 anyway!

new banner!

whee!

i love my new banner! i've been meaning to put something fun up there for a long time, and pete threw this together via photoshop in a few minutes (cause he's awesome and fast), and together we figured out how to manipulate the html and voila!

pretty, eh?

busy little bee

Gosh it's nuts over here! And I'm not even working.

Ok, first things first...the drawing!! As accomplished by my super scientific method of writing names on little pieces of paper, throwing them in the air and seeing which one lands first.


And the winner is.................MADGE!

Shoot me an email with your address and I'll get this skein o' joy right out to you! Congrats!!!

For the rest of you, I'll have some more Punk Rock Girl very soon!

I'm continuing to dye up yarn using some worsted I had in my stash. And I'm having so. much. fun! My first batch of colorways are musically inspired, since that's really what started it all. I'm paying tribute to some of my all-time favorite songs and bands, most of which are punk, goth, and alternative types. And as soon an my yarn order comes in I'll have several to show you. You can almost hear me tapping my foot, I'm sure.

To give you just a taste, this is Letter to Elise (god bless The Cure):



And here she is in the round:



Such a show off, that Elise.

I love the pinks and grays, but I'll be branching out soon enough (where is the mail man already?!?), and I'm feeling very red and blue.

Anarchy in the UK anyone?

resurrection of the buffyverse, and a prize

Holy crap.

Buffy is back.

Like many other Buffy fans, I'll take Joss Whedon in any form I can get, though preferably in the Buffy incarnation. And now the series continues as a comic! What a perfect forum. And great, just when I have no money, along comes a new addiction. (Mary, make sure to tell Madge!)

*****

I have to tell you, I'm so thrilled that ya'll loved Punk Rock Girl. Just looking at it makes me giggle a little, and knowing that ya'll love it too, well that just makes me giggle some more. I'm big on giggling. And silliness in general. Wish I could get a Masters of Silliness. That would rock.

Anyway, since you guys are so amazing, I'm going to host a drawing for Punk Rock Girl. That's right, I'm giving it away! But not because we aren't BFF and all, it's just that sometimes you gotta share the love. And PRG deserves a good home, since I barely have time to knit at all any more. It's taken me almost a month to get through a pair of socks (and that's the only thing I'm working on)! It's totally astonishing how fast the day goes by when you have no work to do. Super fast. Yet still, no time for the knitting. Bizarre.

So! Leave a comment in this post to enter the drawing. Don't forget to tell your other knitting friends. Unless you want better odds of winning for yourself. But I know knitters are the generous sort, so spread the word!

On a side note, this particular skein is KP's Bare superwash merino, 462 yards, 7-8 st. per inch on US 1-3 needles. If you don't like KP, stay tuned - I've ordered some yummy Kona to try next!!

just you and me, punk rock girl

Since I named this skein Punk Rock Girl, I can't get the Dead Milkmen out of my head.


Magic looped on 60 stitches:



All skeined up and no where to go:




"We got into her car away we started rollin
I said how much you pay for this
Said nothin man it's stolen..."

Ask, receive

I'm a believer in the concept that what you put out to the universe comes back to you, whether energetically, or in some other form.

In my last post, I mentioned two things I wanted, and in the span of 24 hours I had both.

Yesterday I finally made it to IKEA with Nate, and my brother and sister-in-law.



We had a blast, and I got a really cool table for my laptop, since I'm too short to reach our coffee table with ease. We also got some glasses and a great picture for one of our bedrooms.


My second wish was to see the Harlot. And guess what. Denise made it happen! (p.s. where the hell is your blog girl?) On April 20th we're heading up to Lexington, KY, since that's as close as the Harlot is going to get to Georgia, and we're gonna spend a weekend in horse and tobacco country. Woot! We might even have to drive through Nashville on the way home, since neither of us has ever been.

Since the universe is in a giving mood, I'd like a kickass, fun job that let's me work part time (30 or so hours/week), but pays me more than I was previously making (the universe knows how much), and doesn't freak out if I work from home, and also lets me wear whatever I want. Thanks. Plus, a million bucks couldn't hurt. While you're at it and all.

I, too, am in a giving mood, and a few of you asked me to post shots last weekend's yarn knitted up. From the cast on edge to the purl ridge is knit back and forth, then I magic looped it and knit in the round like a sock.

Tulips:



Bruise:



I think my mother-in-law is getting the Tulips, because she just fell in love with it, and she likes bright funky colors. I'll probably be making some more because it was just so much fun.

I also got a shipment of new dye colors to enhance my new obsession:



And now I have a new colorway drying on the deck.



Nate's comment was that I should be knitting for the Suicide Girls, so this one is called Punk Rock Girl. It's gonna make some seriously fun socks.

parum pum ping...

Man. I really, really want to go to THE Knitting Party of the Year. I wish I could meet the Harlot, and cavort with knitters from all over and take over NYC with our yarniness and wackiness and drown Central Park with our multi-colored socks. Choke on them NYC, choke! Haha!

Ahem. Better to choke on socks than smog right? I'm just sayin.

But alas. Tomorrow is my last day with the Company of Eternal Lies, and I shall soon be broke and probably working at Barnes & Noble, if they'll even deign to hire me. Once I'm completely free of the shackles of bullshit, I'll go into further detail. Also, I'm not a huge fan of NYC (smog and asthma are NOT friends). Maybe she can do the next one in Boston, or Denver, or LA (celebrity smog! at least i'll suffocate with a smile!), or hell, Atlanta! That would be perfect!! And she can do it in the IKEA, cause it's big and I still haven't been yet, and cause I said please and I can make cute faces and all. Or you know, just to suit me cause I'm me.

Sigh.

blunderificus

Look! More yarn!

Ok, it's the same yarn from this weekend. But now in yummy yarn cake form!



I tried to skein it all by my little self, but to say that the effort was disastrous would be selling it short. Yarn in tangles, spurned on in its badness by wide-eyed kitties eager for some yarn kicking action. So I wound it instead. Today I sneaked over to the yarn store during lunch and snagged myself an Ashford niddy noddy for next time. All hail Ashford.


In other yarn news, I finished the design swatch for the Star Wars hat. There are several mistakes, but they're fixed on the chart now. Knitting a circle out of a bunch of squares takes critical thinking. And maths. Both of which I'm resisting right now, as I struggle through an "everyone please just leave me the hell alone, I want to sleep and pretend the world doesn't exist" funk. I think spring break was just too short.

Anyway, here's the mistake ridden prototype swatch:



It needs love and blocking, but it doesn't entirely suck. I tried the yarn dominance trick (down yarn! bad!), but I'm not sure it worked very well. Now for the band and the text. Eep.



Oh, and did you yarny-type folks see Cookie's pattern site? I'm all aswoon over Rhiannon. But my fear is that they will take forever to knit, and I've no idea where to wear them, seeing as how I'm not Scottish, and I threw away my Catholic school girl skirt long ago. But you know how you just neeeeeeed something sometimes? Well I neeeeeeeeed kneehighs.

Clearly, I have lost my head.

dye happy

I had a wonderfully productive weekend. Caught up on a lot of school work (though not completely), went for a 6 mile walk with the hubs, and dyed some yarn. I'll continue to catch up tonight, and hope to be completely on top of my game by Thursday. I wasn't terribly far behind, but I have been lazy and stressed. The walk puts me at 54 total miles this year, which is no where near my goal of 100 by April 1, so I've revised my goal to 75 miles by April 1, and I feel very confident that I can meet it. Even if I don't, it's a lot farther than I would have done on my own, so I win both ways.


So, about the dying. I'm not so sure I'm very good at it.

This was my first attempt, with Jacquard dyes from knitpicks, and some sponge brushes I found at Michael's. I used pink, yellow and emerald, with spring in mind (specifically my long lost dead tulips...I'm in mourning).



And the close-up:



The pink looks almost fushcia, but it's not quite that bright. I loved the salmony/orangy color made by the pink and yellow, so I kept doing it.


Then I did something much darker. If I were to name it, Bruise would probably be appropriate:




I used some of the Jacquard dyes in blue, then I used the Rit dyes I found at Michael's for the black and purple.

Once I figure out how to skein them up, I'll post those pics too.


And there was one more dye job in the house this weekend.

Mine.



Man I love having black hair.



P.S. Taylor says "woof, mofos"

zenification

The hor-o-scope for Libra, according to the Divine Aunt Purl, sayeth thus:

LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 23) We all have so much stress wrapped up in money. Libra is no different, even with all the balance and Zen and so on associated with Libra folks, money can still bring up all sorts of tricky issues. Toward the end of the month, money will loom large and in charge, and you can cower, cry in a corner eating cheetos, or decide that money is just math, not magic, and while you yourself may not feel all mathy and brilliant in the moment, they have these new-fangled things called calculators which do the adding, and in this case, subtracting. The upside is that you are better prepared right now than most to handle some weird financial blip and your Zen will return right after tax day in mid-April. That's not long to wait for Zen, now is it? You Libras and your ability to remain upright in a flood, I tell you what. Share a little of that rowboat with a Cancer girl? please?


She's right about that upright ability. Me and the tree pose are justlikethis, and it's my favorite. Yeah, I might cross that thin insanity line when really stressed out, but I always look back and go "oh damn, there's that line again" and hop back over to semi-normal. But sometimes it takes a while for that realization to kick in. Ahem.

I will be keeping my cool this month though. Even though I put in my notice at work yesterday. And I have no job to go to afterwards. While that's a somewhat insane thought, it's really not that big a deal. Yes I know I just bought a house. And I have two car payments. Yet I'm still not worried. I have my resume out to a thousand different places, and I'll get something. The relief I feel is totally glossing over all the negative 'what-ifs'. Not to say that I'm not looking at those 'what-ifs', I just know I can handle them if they should arise. And that my friends, is very zen indeed.

So is this:



Look at all the sheeps! (I know they're "lambs", shush.)



Eeeee! Poor widdle bwack sheep, all awone.



These two follow their mom! And try to eat every time she stops! Run mama sheep, run!


I see these new little guys every day on my way to work (no, I do not live in the boonies, but when you're near a university people study stuff, and on my way to work is where they study the sheeps). Every day I drive past them and I can't help but squeal "baby sheeps!" in the most shrill voice I can muster, so it would really sound more like "bbships!" if it were actually audible to the human ear. Luckily for the rest of the world, I don't carpool.

They just make me so happy, what with the way they just run around being sheeps and all. And the knitter in me can't wait for them to get fluffy in hopes that on shearing day someone pulls me over as I pass by with a "hey lady, want some free wool?", in which I reply "hells yes handsome young farmer boy, I'll take all you have!". Clearly my baby sheep fascination is multifaceted.


More good things today:

1. I'm getting almost 3k from my previous employer (to my IRA), mostly because I rocked when I worked there and it's bonus time. See above about not being stressy about money.

2. Borat. Enough said.

3. Affordable karate lessons.

4. BB SHEEEEEEPSSS!!!

yarn-type pornage

there must be something about chicago.

everyone from chicago that i've interacted with has been truly awesome.

maybe it's the wind. if you have to grab on to strangers to keep from flying down the street, panties a-flashing, perhaps it's wise to make nice with those who might keep you upright.

my point here is that robin, who is from the chicago area, is wonderful. last week she posted about some hemp yarn on her blog, and said that the first person to comment got the skein. and guess what? i'm quick.

and it happened to come on the most awful day i've had in a very long time. as soon as i saw the package i just relaxed. cause i was reminded that there are other people in the world who are just cool...just because.

hempy goodness (thanks again, robin!!!):




i also got my kp order for pete's hat this week (and now pete has a blog!! omg! go check it out!):




i can't wait to get started on this hat. the swatching is done, and the charting has begun.

while i was waiting for the hat yarn to arrive, i started a sock so i could keep up with one of my goals this year. i want to work on making socks for myself that fit properly. i've taken some measurements, and i think the problem lies in the fact that my calf is bigger around that my foot. almost all sock patterns have you decrease back down to the original cast on number, which for me is too big. i'll probably do a good deal of ripping, but at least i can identify what part needs work.

this is monkey from knitty.com, in lorna's laces' parfait colorway. yay for pink socks.



as i was taking pictures this morning, i heard an eerie crunching sound.

beware, the sneaky cheerio eater...



(also, big events happened today, but i'm not sane enough to post about it today. maybe tomorrow!)

babies and tattoos....but not baby tattoos, or tattoos of babies

What a short weekend. I spent almost all day Saturday at Karen's house, finishing up the super secret knitting project. We ate lunch and dinner together, and I left around midnight. It was great to finally spend a lot of time together and talk about all the things we've been meaning to discuss.

I'll have pics of the project, if someone sends them to me ever so graciously (hint hint guys), as I forgot my camera for the event today and had to make my idle hands busy with finger foods. Mmm, cheese straws. If I had fondled some yarn, I probably would have been ok and potentially could have avoided the panic attacks followed by uttering the word "baby". Regardless, I won a sweet prize for keeping my mouth shut more often than everyone else. At least when it came to the "b" word.

And on that front, I think the hubs and I have come to an understanding that neither of us will ever really turn to the other and say, "honey, let's have kids right now". Therefore, we've decided that if it's not an accident, it isn't meant to be. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being "hell no, I'll slit my wrists and throw myself in front of traffic before I'll ever reproduce" and 10 being "please god, impregnate me now via your divine essence so that we may be fruitful and multiply like insane bunnies", we both sit at a comfortable 7: "if it happens, cool, we'll make the world a better place with the fusion of our awesomeness, but if not, no one will cry...not really hard anyway...ok maybe just a little".

Guess it would be wise to inform the parents so they can stop calling me every month to see if I'm "regular". My common response is, "yes mom, I just made number 2, and there were floaters AND sinkers!". Her reply is usually, "jeez you're so gross....you're gonna be a great mom".


Scout posted that she wanted to see some flesh art, and I happen to sport a bit of ink.



This one is my first tattoo, and is now quite faded. I swear there used to be some yellow in there somewhere. Anyway, it's on my left shoulder blade, and I got it when I was 20. I designed it myself, with a bit of fleshing out by the artist. It took about 40 minutes, and I swore I was going to die. It was the first major defining act (and there were many) of my independent adulthood. We all know the debauchery that shortly followed.




I got the lotus done over the course of several months, during the summer of 2004. I love it, even though it's a lot bigger than I intended. I had an initial design in mind, and the artist and I worked over it several times until we got something I absolutely couldn't live without. What started as a simple little geometric design across the lower back became an intense 5.5 hour exercise in patience and the art of breathing through the pain. And my skin reacted very negatively, which meant that I could only sit for an hour at a time. Getting up the nerve to go back every few weeks was tough. But I couldn't be happier, and it was definitely worth it.

Would I ever get another? Probably not. Five hours was enough.

uber me

so i forgot to mention that not only did i write a paper on leet, i had to present it too.

and i totally r0xx0r3d.

i used a leet translator as part of my hand out, as well as a guideline to gaming acronyms, and a few comics like this one (with permission, of course).

i was horribly nervous, cause that's what i do - freak myself out to the point that words escape me, then i get embarrassed, my face gets all red because i cant remember what i need to say. it's a vicious cycle. so i tried to go last. i found my nerve, however, when the guy before me did his presentation on text speak, and proceeded to swear that no one uses leet anymore, and that he could find almost no research on either topic. of course i had to show him up. but not in an "i'm better than you" sort of way.

for a grad student to say "i couldn't find any research" is just bullshit. work harder. look harder. if you still can't find anything, extrapolate and use what you can find to go further. or hell, just write about something else.

anyway, the presentation lasted about 20 minutes, including question/answer time, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. txt guy even participated a good bit, and we had a nice little banter about the whole thing.

still. must suck to get pwn3d by a girl.

Well my first paper as a graduate student is finally finished. I have a tad of fleshing out to do to answer some questions I posed, but otherwise, it is done. My gaming friends might find it interesting that I chose to write about the grammar behind leet, and its ramifications for grammar instruction. They might also be appalled to discover that I spent two years of my gaming life basically spying on the way gamers use leet, and how it morphs and alters words and phrases. Or they might just think I'm a loser. Whatev. It's definitely affected me and I use pieces of it in chat as humor or for ironic effect, or simply out of plain old laziness. Regardless, the damned paper is done. W00t! ;)


And since you guys are too lazy to guess, this is one of the projects I'll be working on over Spring Break. Pete designed his own hat, now I just have to chart it and knit it up. Isn't it cool?!? I'll probably be making a second one, once Nate sees how awesome it is.




I finished my part of the super super secret knit, so I'll have pictures of it next week once it's fully completed.

I've also been working on Unbiased from Knitty.com, in some Noro Silk Garden. It's a fun black/gray/brown/tan mix, that's sure to go with just about everything. I'll post some pics later this week. The camera and I are not friends this week, hence my lack of real pictures.

I saw this meme type thing over at Lick My Sticks, and since I love music, here goes:

Soundtrack of my Life

Directions: If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your mp3 library
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press Play.
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the Next button.
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool.
7. Don’t skip songs.

My Movie:

1. Opening credits: Give Me a Call - 311
2. Waking up: Hardest Button to Button - White Stripes
3. First day of school: Head Over Feet - Alanis
4. Fight song: I'll Be Here Awhile - 311
5. Breaking up: Teenagers - MCR
6. Happiness: Give Me Novacaine - Green Day (lol)
7. Life’s okay: Same Mistake Twice - 311
8. Mental breakdown: My Doorbell - White Stripes
9. Driving: From Chaos - 311
10. Flashback: It's My Life - No Doubt (fitting)
11. Getting back together: Forgiven - Alanis
12. Wedding song: Excuse Me Mister - No Doubt
13. Birth of first child: Black Math - White Stripes
14. Final battle scene: Freak Out - 311 (lol)
15. Death scene: All I Really Want - Alanis
16. Funeral song: Still Dreaming - 311
17. End credits: Freeze Time - 311

Guess there's a lot of 311 on my ipod, eh? Oops. Maybe it's time to diversify. It makes great running music though...

If you like it, consider yourself tagged!

agony and ivory

today has been vicious.

first, a rise-and-shine appointment with the evil tooth drill and it's maniacal master. i really hate a dental appointment, even just a cleaning. i have a wonderfully sweet dentist who runs his own dental 'spa', and still...keep the damn drills out of my mouth please. i can get a massage all day long, but turning on the drill is just going to ruin the effect. the soothing parts really are great though. i got to listen to my ipod, and snuggle under a blanket with a warm neck pillow while they poked and prodded. but i was there for four hours. FOUR simultaneous hours. almost upside down in an uncomfortable chair. agony. all to get a temporary crown and a tmj appliance. makes it sound like i'm walking around with a fridge in my mouth. luckily it's only mini fridge sized. and i only have to wear it at night, which i think i'll start tomorrow. today i'm too sore and bruised. i have a little mouth, and it only enjoys being stretched for specific, pleasurable reasons. dentistry is not on that short list. but cake is.

then i had to go to work. all drugged up and calling microwaves 'microsoft'. hey, they start with the same five letters, sue me.

then it was on to class, where i further made an ass of myself. i prefaced by saying 'i might be a tad out of it, but....'. maybe no one noticed the slurred speech and glassy eyes. i'm sure what i said was poignant and meaningful and....ah who am i kidding.

on a less stressful note, i am working on two super secret knitting projects!! so exciting!

ok, only one is really secret. pete and i were discussing the other project, and when i wanted details he photoshopped a design (cause he's super cool):

me: one insignia? text all the way around?
pete: hmm....yes. did you enlarge the pic? i even gave it a knitted texture.
me: i can tell
pete: you're not even remotely phased that i drew up what i wanted
me: it looks awesome, but i wasnt too surprised, you're a visual kinda guy
pete: i had to make sure it was manly and badass...in case you got any flowery and kitteny ideas
me: who? me? never
pete: yes you, i had no idea if Brielle (one of my old insane gaming characters) would take over during the knitting process
me: i personally detest flowers and kittens and butterflies too
pete: look at your sig, asshead
me: i made no mention of bunnies



any guesses?

go, now

I've been watching this story for a while, and I've really been shocked into silence.

The story is about Julie Amero, the substitute teacher in Connecticut who is looking at 40 years in prison for the porn ads that popped up on her computer during class back in 2004. I've been doing some more reading today, thanks to Scout, and from what I see, if they wanted to go after someone, it should have been the school's network admin. It's their job to keep this kind of thing from happening, not a teacher's fault if it does happen. And educators should have a yearly IT 101 class to help them troubleshoot for spyware and teach them the basics of operating their computers if they don't know already (and even if they do know, since technology changes faster than we sometimes can keep up with).

I'm the resident computer geek in my office, and in every office I've ever been in. Just today I taught someone how to use Outlook, and showed another employee how to burn a file to a CD. Both very basic operations. And I feel pretty sure that when I'm working at a school I'll be helping other educators with their computers. Not knowing what to do when a computer isn't operating properly is not a crime. The crime lies in letting this sort of incident inhibit the way we use technology in classrooms.


This link goes to Julie's blog. Please donate if you feel so inspired. I certainly did.

incoming: long post

i feel like i've been away forever, and i have a ton to talk about! so i'm just going to spill it and not edit, cause really, who has time?

when i'm not reading for classes, writing papers (although my writing here constitutes far more than i've written on my paper due next week...oops), or working and being stressed about work, i'm doing a lot of thinking.

thinking about everything. my finances and paying off my sizeable debt; my student teaching next year, which is not a paid gig; my current job situation and how to rectify it; how to shave off 15 lbs; how to focus on class better and think more critically about what i'm learning and what it means (cause it matters for my dissertation); how to keep my marriage from imploding thanks to all the stress i'm under; how to fit in time to knit and work out and run errands and afford to eat...want more?

in thinking about all my thinking (metacognitive much?), i'm realizing that if i don't put some organization and order into all the things manifesting themselves right now, i could easily quit my job, leave school, and find myself naked in the street insisting that the light poles are lying sons of bitches. so, i'm seeking balance, structure, contentedness, sanity, and far less stressful environments. the libra in me demands serenity now!

so i've added a few blogs to my bloglines account: zen habits and ririan project. they are both inspiring me to get things done, focus intently, and most importantly...breathe. i hear this breathing thing is good. gonna keep doing it.

to get better organized i've been reading Getting Things Done vicariously through nate (can you read vicariously?), and i'm trying out a system called tracks, which is based on the GTD system. so far i find it very useful not to have all these things on my brain, but rather stored somewhere that i can come back to them later and focus on what needs to be done right this moment. doesn't keep me from being distracted by the hot & spicy cheezits calling my name, but that's another problem altogether.

i also picked up you: on a diet. honestly, i never would have read this book if it weren't for laurie's recommendation. and what an awesome book it is, once you get past the silly similes and metaphors. it provides incredible insight into how our bodies work, in lay terms, so that we can really get a good idea of how our food affects us. and the chapters about the psychology behind 'going on a diet' is so dead on for me. i'm definitely an all-or-nothing kind of girl, so when i sabatoge a diet it is dead to me, in a mafia sort of way. but i'm really starting to embody the u-turn idea, so that when i make a mistake, it's no big, and i'll just eat an apple and call it even. me and apples are going to be bff, ya'll. i also love the idea about automating meals. i love oatmeal with some walnuts, half a banana and maple syrup, so that's been my breakfast for the last few days. yum. i'm also walking every day too. i'm up to 40 miles on my trek to 100 by april 1. i feel behind for about two weeks, but i'm picking up the slack now. i average two miles a day, so i'm not worried about making the goal.

i introduced my mom to the book as well, and ya'll...i'm soooo proud of her. she's always struggled with her weight and never done well with diets, and this book has made such a huge difference for her. just understanding why she has high blood pressure and what it's doing to her body has completely changed her way of thinking, and she's eating better than she ever has. i got all weepy in the grocery store while talking to her on the phone about it. it means so much to me for her to succeed, because my 'why' for working hard and dieting has always been 'i don't want to look like my mom'. i know that's kinda sad, but it's true.

and in honor of her success (i hope she lets me post before and after pics, cause she's rocking the hell out of this 'no diet' thing), i'm bringing sexy back. next week i'm cancelling my gym membership, since it's too far away now, and buying a weight rack and a bench to add some definition to this formerly hot frame. i have had literally zero interest in sex for at least the last two months (longer to be really honest, and that is a scary amount of time for this formerly sex-crazed chick), and i realized today that it's because i don't think i'm sexy anymore. and that's a damn damn shame. so i'm going to put in some work and get my groove back. and it will be awesome stress relief from all this other crap.

wow, that was a lot of typing. if you made it this far, bless your heart, you deserve a lie down. and now, back to my paper and being scholarly and junk.

love, peace and harmony.

<3

Happy V-Day to all of you! If you don't have a valentine, consider me your surrogate. But the job description includes flowers and jewelry, and also cookies, so come prepared.

Nate and I don't do the whole card/flowers/chocolate thing at all. Last year we went to Zaxby's for dinner...because we were hungry, not because of what day it was. (And also because everywhere else was totally packed.) The way we figure, people are grossed out by our mushiness 364 other days of the year, so we don't have to rub it in their faces on what can be a painful day for some. Tonight we'll go to our favorite restaurant (Thai, of course) for dinner, and then find some dessert. No cards, no gifts, no contributing to the corporate sponsored you-must-show-someone-you-love-them-or-else day. Regardless, I hope all of you have a great day!

And thanks for all the nice comments about my version of Central Park! I wear it almost every day, and it is so warm and snuggly!

Central Park...Cardi

Central Park Hoodie, sans hood.
Began: 12/24/06
Finished: 2/3/07
Yarn: Knitpicks' Swish
Needles: Denise size 8



Didn't notice until I posted this pic that the sweater is laid out crooked. It's actually very symmetrical and perfect.



Leather buttons by Joann's. It's almost comical that I chose a washable yarn, and dry clean only buttons.



The collar works very well. I just picked up the stitches all the way around, knit in 2x2 rib for four inches and blocked.

final post (for a while)

To say I'm a little overwhelmed right now would be a terrible understatement. I'm not going to have time to say much for a while, unless something drastic happens, so here's the condensed version of what's up. I'll be checking back in a few weeks maybe.

Work is kicking my ass, and the company isn't interested in paying me more, though weekly they add to my duties and now they want me to do the same amount of work at another site (thus literally quadrupling my work load since they took over). I'm officially the best at my job in my region, according to my regional manager. But even after I've met all the 'obligations' to earn more, they still won't pony up. Wonder if they'll miss me when I quit? If it weren't for my bills, it would be a done deal already.

School is fun and interesting, but it's about to get exponentially harder with papers and projects due in about three weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to get it all done with a minimum of stress. Ha.

I've almost met my exercise goal for this month. I'm up to 30 miles!! I had intended 33 miles, but tonight I went to a karate class instead. Have I ever mentioned how ridiculously cute I am in a Gi? Well I am. I'm also pretty quick on the uptake with the skillz. I got to fend off an attacker and I won! Well ok, they let me win. But in reality, I would have run and dropped my keys along the way. And probably had an asthma attack while inconveniently inhaler free.

Speaking of the asthma, for the month of February, I'm focusing on controlling my asthma through dietary means. I'm cutting out all sugar and sodas, and increasing my intake of omega 3 & 6 in an effort to control the inflammation that damn near kills me every day. At this point I've been able to eliminate my emergency inhaler, but only with a twice daily dosage of Advair. And thank the gods for that shit. Before I was using the Advair I was hitting my regular inhaler an average of 10 times a day. Recommended usage is twice a day, people. I should be dead. Now I can cycle for 45 minutes and not be gasping for air. And I can run in cold air. These things have never been possible before. It is truly amazing. But it's also artificial, and I want to be the one in control, not some drug.

And last but not least, my Central Park Hoodie is finished except for the button bands and collar. I'm not really a hoodie kind of girl, so I have to figure out some sort of collar fix for it. I'm thinking of just continuing the cable around the neck, instead of casting on for the hood, and adding some ribbing along with it.

Also, thank you old fart winter for killing my tulips. Much appreciated. Now go away and bring on the spring, cause I got stuff to plant.

Yardwork Saturday

Every weekend I have this insanely long list of things I'd like to accomplish. It usually includes cleaning, laundry, moving things around, running errands, and the like.

This weekend was no different. And I did get to most of my list items. But yard work wasn't on it.

After the cable guys ripped up our yard while installing our line, I got to thinking. Our yard wasn't great to begin with, but now it looks worse.

Case in point:



We used to have grass here. Not much, thanks in part to the ever famous Georgia red clay, but still.

So we went to Lowe's and bought lawn fertilizer and grass seed. While there, I saw some pretty tulips and snagged those too.

We came home, did up the 'yard' and started working on the tulips. I ended up going back to Lowe's for some real dirt (read: topsoil), and real mulch instead of pine straw.

Nate and I turned this:




Into this:




We added some gravel around the drain, topsoil, chipped wood mulch, and the tulips to the nandina bushes and daylilies (who obviously think it's spring).

It's not a lot of change and there's a lot more to be done, but it looks better than it did. I want to add a row of something under the window, but I have no idea what it would be.

Thoughts?

Oh! And I already have one bloomer!



I'm also learning more about my camera and photo editing software. Whee.

standing on the rooftop

We. Have. Cable.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And internet!!!!!!!!!!
(or as we southerners say 'the innernet')

This is the best day ever. Like someone invented the wheel right in the middle of my living room.

Exciting.

Revolutionary.

Cable.

(hey! i could write ads!)



This means so many things. Not only can I flip the channels while I knit (vital aspect of the knitting process), but I can watch NEW stuff from the Tivo and not miss shows anymore. And do my homework/research at home instead of at work (right).

WHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

how have i missed out on this man?

In the absence of cable, we've been renting shows that we kept saying we wanted to watch, but somehow failed to TiVo. I'm currently catching up on Season 1 of Prison Break, and I'm ready for the next set of DVDs already. Right now, please Netflix. Do you hear me? I said NOW!

Folks, meet the new love of my life, Wentworth Miller.



Not only is he extraordinarily hot, but his acting is superb too. Oh, and the show is pretty good. I highly recommend it.

I won't be giving up Nate for him or anything, but if we had a Celebrity Clause in our marriage (i.e. sex with a celebrity doesn't count as cheating), this guy would definitely be on my list.

Along with Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, Nikki Sixx (rawr), The Rock (holy god), Mark Wahlberg, and Karl Urban. Ahem.


Pardon me, I have to mop up the drool.

5 weird things about me

I've no time for quality posting, and no pictures to show you. It makes me very sad.

However, I give you weird stuff about me:


1. My eyelashes are so super long they collide with my sunglasses. I would trim them, but it looks weird. Ask me how I know.

2. I used to be a hardcore vegan. Now I'm working back toward that some, because it's healthier for me.

3. I'm an obsessive hand washer. Which explains why my hands are always dry and icky. And also why I always have lotion with me, though it doesn't last very long.

4. I eat my meals one side at a time. All the broccoli, then the rice, then the meat. I never let my food touch, unless it's something that's meant to be mixed together. Like putting chili on my baked potato. Still, it freaks me out.

5. I'm terrified of heights, but only under certain circumstances. I don't do theme park rides that drop you, but I can ride rollercoasters all day long.

Happy Hump Day ya'll!

This week is much better so far. School is picking up, and by that I mean I have a lot of reading and writing to do. And somehow I have to log a few miles in my running goal. I'm up to 13 so far. Must get moving.

Quickie Update (cause I specialize in quickies, you know):

1. Almost finished with sleeve #2 on the CPH. Then I'll block all the pieces and do some seaming. Still gottta do the hoodie, button bands, and pick some buttons.

2. Robin did my astrological chart for me this week, and damn does she rock. Some parts were so dead on balls accurate that it was stunning. We must all bow down to her now, in extreme reverence.

3. Still no cable. Maybe never. We might be throwing in the towel and going with Dish and Bellsouth (sorry, the "new AT&T"...eww), even though it costs twice as much. Girl needs her internets.

4. I'm such a moron. I got a gift card for Title9, which is my absolute favorite place to shop online, and I ordered this kick ass bag (imagine pink and brown for me) for school, cause I love school and so I have to buy all new school supplies and office products and various other things that make me feel "prepared". I'm a geek, this is not news. However, I've put this bag on my back for three whole days....BACKWARDS. I was leaving for class yesterday and I mentioned to Nate that my new bag would be so very killer if only the shoulder strap was comfortable. He very sensitively replied, "um...honey? you have the thing on backwards". Huh? See, I'm a backpack-over-the-right-shoulder kinda girl. Bags with two straps make this easy. This bag is supposed to hang on your LEFT shoulder. Once on, it's perfect and wonderful and even snugs up close so that if you were riding a bike it wouldn't go flying off behind you. I have to look at it for a few minutes and work the logic of putting it on for a good 60 seconds before I can actually put it on. Sorta like a 5 year old learning to tie shoes. And it humbles me. I'm 30. I ought to have the keys to the whole universe by now, and a silly bag is kicking my ass. Jeez.

That is all. Carry on.

shit, meet fan

I've just had a really horrible day as the creamy white non-dairy topping to my incredibly stale crusty donut of a week. My first graduate classes have actually been the warm gooey filling, which is not what I was expecting.

But this song is going a long way toward making me feel better. The ending is a little....psychotic, but the song totally rocks. I give you 'Le Disko' by Shiny Toy Guns:





After class tonight I'm going to get the ingredients for these cookies, which also make me feel tons better.



Yummy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. And I'll even be so kind as to post the recipe for you guys. They are seriously the best chocolate chip cookies on the planet. Even if you don't normally eat tofu, and think its squishy weirdness is just too hippy for you...shut up and make them, you can thank me later.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ¼ c. unsifted all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. Earth Balance margarine (or other soy margarine, NOT regular butter, unless you like your cookies very large and baking sheet shaped)
1 ¼ c. Sucanat
¼ c. molasses
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. tofu (silken firm)
1 12 oz. package of nondairy chocolate chips (Tropical Source is the best or if you wanna be decadent use Ghirardelli….yum)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar, molasses, and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Beat in tofu. Gradually add flour mixture. Mix well; then stir in chips.

Drop spoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes. Eat and slip into yumminess induced coma.

Finally!

Here are the progress shots of my Central Park Hoodie in KP's Swish. The light in my house is far far better than any aparment I've ever lived in, yet my pics still look like poo. Must be operator malfunction.

This has been a very fast knit and I knit the front panels at the same time on circular needles (thumbs up for the new pink Denise cables). A cable close up so you can drool over the yumminess of Swish. I just wanna roll around naked in it.



The back wishes it was seamed to the fronts already. It practically begs me to wear it daily.



The beginnings of sleeve #1. I'll finish it and the sleeve cap tonight and then cast on for #2.



P.S. Sleeves bore me to tears. Second sleeve syndrome HAS to be worse than second sock syndrome. I'm only powering through because I want to wear it so badly.

Also, we still do NOT have cable!! Charter has STILL not dug up our yard to lay the lines. We have run out of all our Tivo'd shows, and we now rely on Netflix to send us entertainment. Since we go through movies so fast, they're starting to stall our deliveries. Bastards.

So when times are really tough, we play this:



We managed to get the only one at Fry's in Atlanta on a Friday night because they are almost impossible to get in Athens at this point. Nate had been routinely (read: several times a day) checking every possible sales outlet in town, only to miss two by a few minutes. Fry's made us buy some stupid games as a bundle, but we just exchanged them for better ones elsewhere.

Thank god for Zelda.

i still knit! and now i run too!

I can't find my camera's power adapter to show you progress on my Central Park Hoodie, (I've finished the fronts and back, and cast on for the sleeves last night) but I was smart enough to download the pics I took of my niece Adreana's Drive-Thru sweater that I knit her for Christmas. Yeah I know it's practically the same colors as the one in the pattern, but I knew she'd like it cause she's two years old and she loves pink. She's soooo super cute in this sweater. Hopefully her mom will send me a picture of her in it so I can show you guys how adorable she is.



Drive-Thru, meet the Fabulous Mr. Clean.



The KP Swish is just wonderful. It washed, dried and blocked beautifully. I accidentally ordered one ball short of the dark green, so I did the colorwork on the sleeves too in hopes that I could make up for it, and it worked out very well. In fact, I prefer this version to the original, but I'm biased about that.

In other news, my running is off to a good start. I'm up to 3.35 miles from my walk on Wednesday night and my run on Thursday. Ya'll I have to wear so much gear it's ridiculous. I've got on my watch, my mp3 player (sometimes), my cell phone, my bike lights - one in my hand and one attached to my shorts (shaddup), and my inhaler (stuck between my boobs in my sports bra, real classy like). My neighborhood is kind of dark in places and very wooded so I prefer to be cautious and make sure cars can see me. Let's hope they ignore the total dork parts and just see some chick running...yeah right.

I've also been trying to do some yoga stretches every morning, at least the sun salutation, which is a tremendous help in waking me up. I'm so not a morning person. I'd rather snuggle in the warm covers than eat chocolate. And ya'll know how much I love chocolate. It's damn near shameful. Hence the running of the shame-induced ass.

I need to decide what my reward is going to be for completing the 100 miles. Probably some yarn. And then some Ben & Jerry's.

Have a great weekend folks. My first grad school class starts Tuesday. Advanced Grammar. Yes, I'm clinically and quantifiably insane. Especially when just typing it out makes me giddy. Cross you fingers that my brain doesn't become mush over the weekend and I forget everything I've ever been taught.

Evolver

I'm all about evolving as a person, becoming better by mastering skills, finding new passions, learning more, and generally creating ways to be the best version of me that I can imagine. At the end of the year, like a lot of people, I evaluate what's working and what isn't, then do a little housecleaning and try to pick up some new habits or ditch old ones.

I also use this time for some emotional cleaning too. I make the conscious choice to let go of things that have held me back, or that I continue to think about even though the events are long past. It's not always easy to say "see ya stupid events and so long memories of idiotic choices, thanks for kicking my ass and making me stronger, now get the hell out cause I'm making room for new and exciting things", but it does help in the moving-on process sometimes. I love the feeling of getting rid of old stuff. It makes me lighter and happier to deliberately let go of the burdensome thoughts of the past.

I do this with the junk in my basement too and it drives Nate crazy. I throw out everything I don't use after a year or two. Mostly because I hate lugging shit around and seeing boxes that never got opened from the last time three times we've moved. Probably the oldest things I have are my letterman's jacket from high school (soccer, academics, volleyball, and theater if you're curious), my old volleyball uniform, my class ring, and some awards from my senior year. And I've considered throwing those things out this week.

So in honor of the Fresh New Startiness of the season, I give to you (well myself really) these resolutions.


1. Stop letting my fear of failure hold me back. I have let this control me to the point of not even trying things I think I might fail at. It's the curse of being a smart kid sometimes...you find the things you're good at and stick with them so you continue to look smart. But that's not what life is about, and if I continue down this road, I'll never have the things I really want.

The best way out is always through. ~ Robert Frost

2. I’m really proud of myself for having worn sunscreen on my face for 15 years, and I’m appreciative that the result is that I look several years younger than my age. I often have people come into work and ask what year I am in college, and most people are shocked when I tell them I'm 30. Maybe they’re just dumb or being polite, but I’m taking it as a compliment. This year I’m going to work toward making changes I’ll appreciate in the next 30 years. That includes: losing 15-20 lbs, making exercise a daily habit, eating healthier, drinking more water (and less diet soda), meditating, keeping an eye on my posture, and generally taking better care of myself. I’d like to run a few 5ks this year too.

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. ~ Albert Schweitzer

3. I’ve bought many knitting books over the last two years, and while I bought most of them for the patterns they contain, I have several that are absolutely indispensable and must be read and absorbed. My goal is to read as many of my technique books as possible and incorporate more mastery into my knitting. I’m going to start with EZ’s Knitting without Tears, and Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks. I’d like to get better at making socks, venture into fair isle, work on developing prettier cast on and bind off methods, learn to like seaming, and maybe try my hand at a lace shawl.

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. ~ Pearl S. Buck

I'm getting started on numbers 1&2 by joining up with Rachael and many others in this:




Here's wishing everyone a productive and plentiful New Year!!

wrap-up

Wow. You guys are so awesome!! I was having a gloomy Christmas (not for any particular reason, just not in the spirit), and next thing I know everyone is calling, sending texts, and emailing. I hope everyone had a great holiday...you sure made mine.

Our move has been great, minus the king size mattress and washer/dryer mishaps. Turns out those things don't really like a tight stairwell. Nothing is broken (that we can tell), but the banister and walls sure got a few scars. Sadly, the builder didn't have cable lines run when the power and water were done, so it's going to be a while before I have TV or internet service. This means I can only blog from work (ugh) and I can't go randomly look up all the things that I think of at night. Very frustrating. Oh, and my digital camera is somewhere in a box with lots of good pics on it. I'll get to those....eventually. And will someone Tivo Heros, Gray's, The Office, Earl, Buffy, and Mythbusters for me? I'm gonna be soooo bored.



I've been thinking a lot about this year and the direction(s) I led myself in and what sort of things I accomplished (or didn't). So I looked back at my goals from earlier this year to see how I did.

1 & 2: I chose not to compete after all. It was a lot more stress and work than I was willing to handle. I still have some exercise goals, but being on stage isn't one of them any more.

3: I did reign in my yarn buying (ok, just in the last month), and now I only buy for specific projects instead of being tempted by gorgeous stuff just for the hell of it. I also have focused my attention on learning and perfecting some new skills, including Fair Isle, and mastering socks.

4: I did not set up a meditation ritual, but I have a plan for that in the new house.

5: We moved, got new jobs and bought a house. And grad school awaits in just two (!!) weeks. Mission accomplished.

Overall, this was a year of change, which is exactly what I was after. Some changes were very hard but necessary (giving up gaming), and some were easy (getting jobs and moving back home).

I'm going to spend the next few days outlining a list of goals for 2007, including knitting plans, running routes, school insanity, and job hunting.

truthiness

so i am incommunicato for 4 whole days and i come back to the very condensed version of some very old events courtesy of stacy, who was just supposed to say hi ya'll, etc.

this is what i get for granting creative license.

since stace gave the short-and-dirty version of events (all true), allow me to elaborate.

i did graduate high school with a 4.2 gpa. this is due mostly to taking all AP classes my senior year, followed by failing all the exams that would have let me exempt those classes in college. smart when required, not so good at the cumulative stuff. there is only so much room in my brain.

the ex-best friend story is all true, though i did try in vain to make amends. sometimes i say i'm sorry when it's not my fault, and i shouldn't have bothered, but we had been friends all through hs and at the time it seemed right. now i realize we had a very one-way friendship and i lost absolutely nothing except the cost of a dress. hands washed clean.

all the nicknames are right but she did miss one (or probably several). i earned 'hoover' my junior year of high school. there was more myth behind it than truth, and it actually came about during an acting class, but it kinda stuck among a certain crowd of guys. (don't they wish.)

and yes, i did 'dance' for about a year. i ran out of scholarship money the last semester of my senior year of college, and my dad encouraged me to go wait tables at a local club. that lasted all of about one shift and smart me realized that keeping the clothes on was not the fastest way to pay my very due bills. i talked to some of the girls, had a drink (or five), and went for it. the first club i worked at was one of the most fun times of my life. i made a metric shit ton of money, met a lot of fun (if slightly insane) people, indulged in my most favorite pasttimes (flirting with reckless abandon), and discovered that i could be really comfortable with my body and my sexuality while on display for drooling men who dig the girl next door. i worked at a few clubs after that while looking for a 'real job' once i graduated. my dad knew the whole time, but i only told my mom after i stopped dancing. she only had a minor coronary.

maybe someday i'll post a big long story about my experience. god knows there a lot to tell! drugs, wrongful attacks of fake boobs and the nipples trying to escape them, crazy clients, indecent proposals (ya'll know), etc.

i'm not sure what the pinata bashing incident is about, but i was probably drunk. i did get married on my lunch hour, to my current husband. we had a civil marriage at the court house a month before our wedding. it was a 'just us' sort of thing since weddings are really for everyone else.

p.s. we're almost totally moved in, and we LOVE the house. pics and final xmas knitting coming soon!

We interrupt this blog for a hostile takeover.

Sorry to disappoint Mel's meager little readership, but she's currently indisposed and won't be writing any time soon. She's asked me to check in and do some updating for her, and I've gained creative license to blab all her dirty little secrets, or whatever I might decide to make up. Oh, and hi! I'm Stacy, longtime friend and chief secret-keeper.

I've also posted all the yarn she wanted to sell over at the Destash blog. If you like yarn, and I bet most of you do, go take a peek. The girl is not halting her knitting processes, but she is now on the verge of broke, what with the house buying and all, and wants to buy more yarn so she's selling stash that she won't be using. There's a lot up for sale. I think she might have some sort of yarn-buying disorder. Ya'll should make sure she's not sick or something. She's also real bad about making everyone around her learn to knit. She tried to teach me in March when we went to NYC, but it didn't really stick.

So, I bet you guys would just love some little secrets about our dear Mel. Let's see. In high school our girl was a bit of an overachiever. I think she graduated with a 4.2 or something close if I remember right. But she wasn't valedictorian. That prize went to her insanely bitchy ex-friend Melissa, who was not near as smart but she definitely worked hard I guess. Melissa showed her true colors when Mel got married the first time. Melissa was the maid-of-honor and threw an all out temper tantrum when Mel wanted to have actual living, breathing fun for her bachelorette party. She quit the wedding and I don't think they ever spoke again. In the meantime, I took her to an awesome male revue and we drooled over penises all night. Can I say penises here? Oh well.

In college, Mel's nicknames ran the gamut from Daley to Habib and Blueberry Muffin. One of her roommates gave her the Habib name when they were at a bar and she danced on a table to some song. Not long after that Mel did a little exotic dancing for real. I think her drinking had finally made her broke. She worked at the college during the day between classes and danced at night. And I'm not a lesbian or anything, but damn she could work it! And she has no shame whatsoever. All her roommates and everyone from her day job would come to see her. Ok I'm going to shut up about all that. Sorry Mel, don't kill me!

Oh yeah! The real reason I'm blogging for her is because she's moving into her house this week. It's really cute! But I'm pretty sure after this I won't be invited into the house or even to blog for her again. I'm sure she says hi to all you imaginary people. If you have her number, don't call or she might drop heavy furniture to answer. She's crazy like that.

Ok, now to find a way to dig myself out of this hole I've just created. Hey Mel, at least I didn't tell them about the pinata bashing, and that time you got married on your lunch hour!

Bye!!

S

i think i smell brains....

Wow so many things are happening at once right now that I can barely focus on any of it. I'm just head down, powering through and hoping there's some light when I look up again.

1. We close on the house tomorrow. I'm nervous, and giddy, and ready for it to be over already. Yes, the painters hate me. No, I don't care because they know I'm right. Yard work is done. Only some minor things remain (aside from the driveway) so we're closing anyway and holding money in escrow for those things.

2. I'm being advised next week for my first classes in grad school, and then I have to apply for loans. It's so bizarre because buying a house makes me feel all grown up, and going back to school makes me feel like a teenager again. I haven't done homework in eight years. I might hurt my cranium or something. Also, being this much in debt makes me feel like I might suffocate. Welcome to the American Dream.

3. Work is trying to dominate me in ways I'm not appreciating. Never really got into that whole S&M thing. But I can put on a good show. Ahem.

4. Knitting is my savior, my sanity, my freedom. I'm finishing the last hat tonight, along with finally finishing the first sleeve of the SKB. I just got so sick of that sweater and the sleeve's lace panels almost broke me, so I put it down for a while. Now I just want it off my needles. I've also started on Wendy's Drive Thru pattern as an 'extra' Christmas gift for my niece. She's tiny and the sweater is fast. I'm using KP's Swish, and it is so super soft that I don't even want to pick up anything else. There's definitely a sweater for myself in the works out of this stuff soon.

5. In my need to occasionally divert my thoughts (read: avoid some responsibility) I've found this game. I ditched gaming cold turkey about 6 months ago and I'm all the better for it (other than some wonderful people I miss). But, as a recovering addict, I know that the itch I feel to start spelling new words out of any text I'm given is just a thin layer of vaseline down that slippery slope. It's shocking that defeating an opponent with 'exacerbate' provides such a rush!! I'm a big fat nerd, and I'm ok. (And no, I'm not going back to any other kinds of gaming.)

Whew. Ok, I'm done. You may now return to your regularly scheduled life.

p.s. i'm a picky picky bitch

the builder asked us last week to go in and mark all the places that need paint touch ups or sanding down/repainting.

here's all i have to say about that.




don't send a perfectionist to stare at the walls for a few hours, mkay?

we have a knitter down

i repeat, we have a knitter down.

it was a torturous struggle, lasting several miserable hours. lunch and dinner were witnesses, as well as a few beers, a lousy football game, and lots of curse words in front of little children. oh, the horror.

the lace panels on the skb's sleeves have sealed a decisive victory. a mandate, you might even say. i have conceded to their uberness and my total lack of knitting prowess.

i appear to have suffered a repetitive stress injury and i can not knit. thank you, oh fair cursed lace panel. the intense physical pain of knitting the lace has made me not even WANT to knit. (this is the real tragedy, of course).

so i'm saying fuck it. i ripped out what lace i had managed to endure, and we're going with plain sleeves. i'm happy, the sweater is relieved at not being completely ripped or worse, tossed into the Basket of Doom, never to be seen again. once i'm able to knit again, i will pick it back up and finish my hats too.

it's really a shame that i can still type and have zero pain at the keyboard. i'd kill for another day off.

sigh.

i might be kinda cool

cause i got into grad school, ya'll.

and my jaywalkers? yeah, they're going with scout to the knitty gritty filming in december. cool by proxy at least.

yesterday we walked through the house with the builder and detailed out all the nit-picky things that need to be finished before closing. we are thisclose and i couldn't be more excited. granted i may starve in january, but, (cue scarlett) i'll worry about that later. the last major thing to be done is the landscape junk - retaining walls, drainage, and driveway stuff. yay.

i'm really thankful for a few days away from work. i'm going to knock out the purple sweater and get some finished photos up next week.

after my turkey/sweet potato souffle/pecan pie coma.

have a warm and fuzzy turkey day, ya'll!

pictures tomorrow, i swear...

Edited to add: pictures!

I've been promising myself I'd post pictures of everything I'm working on. I wish I was a better photographer though. Funny thing about me and cameras. They hate me. Doesn't matter if I'm the shooter or shootee, it rarely turns out well. So I'm skipping that part for the moment. (Pay no attention to my laziness. Move along.)




Simple Knit Bodice. I swear I'm going to finish this. I've knit up to the lace panels on each sleeve, and I have to do the finishing on the neck, then wash, block and wear with pride. And a tank top. And probably a little smirk, cause it's really gorgeous.



Socks in Cherry Tree Hill's Supersock Merino in Old Rose. My feet are set on permafrost for most of the year, so I decided I need lots of warm snuggly handknit socks to keep them warm this winter. Since this yarn works up very quickly, I've finished this pair in a little under a week. Turns out the key for me is to finish the toe on sock #1 and IMMEDIATELY cast on for #2. Even if it's 3 a.m.



Christmas hats. Mad hattering over here so my big ass family will have warm heads on Christmas day. Six down, four to go. Two of those are for toddlers, so I'm ahead of the game. Maybe I should make extras or something. Yes that cream Shedir you see was for me, now it's for Grandma. She's real picky and wanted something complex. Doubt she'll ever wear it...such a tragedy.

Oh! Eunny's little Endpaper Mitts have caught my attention and I'm going to make myself a pair soon.

Central Park Hoodie is still on the menu, I'm just waiting for the yarn to arrive. I ordered some snuggly Araucania Nature Wool in a light brown color from Webs. Mmmmm I can't wait.
.......................

Enough knitting news.

All my paperwork is in to the grad school (thank you Karen!), we close on our house on the 30th (provided the builder type folks meet all our contingencies...p.s. hurry it up boys, this girl is impatient and you're stressing her out), and I have my resume out to several places, so I have some options. I asked for more money today, again (see previous posts on my intolerable lack of patience), but I'm not sure that I'll get it.

Add to that whole mess that I have an incredibly unpleasant co-worker who is about to get the very rude end of Melanie Being Pushed Too Far. I have loads of charm and southern politeness (not to mention an off-the-charts cute factor), and I normally go too far beyond all that in an effort to understand people, but when I go out of my way to engage in conversation with you FIVE whole times a day, you better fucking recognize and respond. I'm way too busy and stressed out to be bothered with somebody's bad attitude. She's stinking up the whole place and making an uncomfortable situation ten time worse than it has to be. The worst part is that it is her JOB to be outgoing and friendly. Ha. Maybe we should switch.

P.S. I take back what I said about the new MCR album. I didn't give it a fair listen, and frankly, I was in a bad mood. It's very cohesive and well done, and kinda reminds me of Green Day's American Idiot. Tight. Well played. An album, not just a bunch of songs thrown together. Me love it long time.

blahgity blahg

I'm in limbo. It is frustrating. I may become monosyllabic due to the melting of my brain in this time warp called 'everything in my life takes for-fucking-ever'. No wonder I've knit six hats in a week. I need action! Specifically in these areas:

1. Grad school. Still haven't heard about my application.

2. My job. Still don't know if I'm getting a raise at any time or in any dimension. However, work at this point completely fries my brain, so I'm not sure any amount of compensation is enough. The voices in my head want the pain to stop.

3. My house. Can I tell you guys how much I HATE to wait? I might be the most impatient person to ever live. Waiting to hear back from a finance person is just torture. I know I'm approved, now gimme my damn house key, beotch. I have decorating to do.

4. The Simple Knit Bodice. I only have the sleeves left to pick up and knit, and yet, I can't bring myself to do it. The thought of the lace panel on size ZERO needles makes me cringe. And yet if I just made it short-sleeved, I'd never wear it. Damn lace. And I really want to start on the Central Park Hoodie.

Blah.

it's about damn time

Not that I'm a raging Democrat (though I do scream in a liberal direction), but YAY!

Plus: woot.



And, thank you Britney. Take him for all he's worth.

...oh wait

...nevermind.