still alive

This damn song has been stuck in my head since Saturday. It's a newish song in Rock Band and we played the hell out of it while on vacation and ever since it is stuck. in. my. head. Not that I don't love it, but omg get out already. There's only so much room in my brain for these kinds of things.

I hope you all had a nice long weekend! I hate that vacations are never really long enough and the drive home always sucks, but otherwise it was a pleasant weekend for us and I'm only slightly sunburned (dear god I'm so white that I burn in one hour even with a shit ton of sunscreen on. bah.). I only did minimal knitting, but I finished the Lelah Top and worked hard on a pair of toe up socks. I was too busy enjoying the nothingness to actually take pictures, but I'll have some soon!

So while I wasn't knitting, I was reading. And I've come across a new obsession. Y'all already know that I'm a big old nerd. It should never be a surprise when I reveal the further depths of my nerdiness. And yet.

The first time I talked to someone reading a Harry Potter novel (the 3rd one, POA), I scoffed. In their face. About reading a children's book. Surely my literary tastes were greater and omg how old are you that you're reading a book for 12 year olds?!?! Ahem. She laughed at me and said "just wait." The next day she brought me her copy of Sorcerer's Stone and it was off to the races for me. Of course I had to apologize as I took it back to her the next week and went out and got books 2 and 3 for myself. Open mouth, insert foot, chew vigorously. Never again, I swore, would I take "young adult" literature for granted. Not that the first book was stellarly written, but I was certainly interested enough in the world to continue.

This weekend Carrie introduced me to Twilight. Again, my first thought was "but it's in the YA section...bleh." Wrong again. I ripped through that sucker on Saturday, then bought the second and third books the very next day. I'm started the third one last night and I'm halfway through today. You might say I'm a sucker for decent vampire fiction. Not shitty romance type fiction even though it IS a love story, but it has just enough of the gothic novel elements to keep me hooked. Damn it. I had sort of enjoyed having a life.

I could totally gush about the empathy I have for the main characters, but it's not pretty. I'll simply say that when I was 14 I totally would have been open to a sexy vampire stealing me away from my life and pledging his undying devotion FOREVER. I might have been a dark and melodramatic teenager. Shut up. (p.s. to the possible sexy vamps out there - i'm much older, less cute, and taken. forget about it.) Ahem.

OH! Back to my real life - the yarn from Louet for the second sock club shipment is shipping to me TOMORROW! Woo! I'm finishing up my wholesale orders this week and shipping those out this weekend so I can completely devote myself to the club without any procrastination guilt.

Also, thanks for all the podcast suggestions! I can't listen to "food" podcasts while I'm exercising because I'm weak and I'll just stop and go find something to eat, but I will listen while dyeing yarn (though the effect may be much the same).

Have a great week, y'all!

Keeping up with The List

My 101 Things in 1001 Days list is feeling a bit daunting to me lately. I've set myself a LOT of long term goals, which would be out there anyway, but seeing them mocking me on the sidebar is a little disconcerting.

I've made some progress though and I'm really enjoying the process. Here's a bit of a run down:

Things I'm enjoying making progress on:
Reading - I'm a bit of a book nerd anyway, so this is a lot of fun. I have about 20 books going right now so I'll be able to finish this goal with no problem. Also, I've decided that once I'm finished with the last Harry Potter book (I'm 9/10ths of the way thru #7 for the 3rd time), there will be NO MORE reading them until I have kids old enough to give a shit. After book 6 I cursed Jo and swore 'never again' and I mean it. This time.

Trying something new every month - I'm really enjoying this. Even if it just means I buy weird shaped fruit at the grocery store. If it's new to me it counts.

Trying new recipes - We have sooooooo many cookbooks that this one is easy. Right now I'm kind of hooked on The Sneaky Chef. Reading cookbooks should totally count, but I'm not claiming them.

Things scaring me:
Everything to do with money - paying off credit cards, all the stuff I want to do for our house - it's all freaking me out right now cause my money will only go so far these days.

Things I need to find substitutes for:
Visit England - Again with the money. If the dollar weren't tanking so hard this might still be a possibility, but until further notice we're on the lookout for somewhere affordable to visit for our 5th anniversary next May. I'm thinking maybe a cruise to Mexico and Jamaica. A European cruise would ROCK, but I doubt it's in the budget. (p.s. there is no budget, which is probably why i have difficulty with that pesky credit card debt)

Things I have to start over:
Exercise and mediation. Boo. Weight loss and inches goals. Double boo. Part of this problem is that being on the treadmill can be sooo boring. I would drive somewhere to run but that doesn't seem efficient and I'm bored with my neighborhood or I'd just go outside. I think I need new podcasts. I really enjoy Pottercast (stfu), Lime & Violet and sometimes Stash and Burn. I really don't want any more knitting podcasts, but I can't think of anything else I'd want to listen to. If you have suggestions I'd LOVE to hear them!

I'm enjoying a DVD I bought and my running, but I definitely have a hard time doing it every single day. Though I've decided to train for a 10k next month so I guess I have to make it priority. Does a 10k count as two 5ks? I think it should.

**********

This weekend is our knitting/beach trip so I marked it off The List. I have to buy a bikini today and then clean my house. I do not want to do either. Bah. I'll have fun pictures when we get back though!

constantly contrary

yarn, cops and berries...aka a competely random post

Holy life suckage, batman.

I don't mean that my life sucks, I mean it has completely sucked me in, covered me in yarn and has finally spit me out again. I feel a little fuzzy in the brain and noodley in the appendages.

(forgive me, i was feeling prolific when I started this post, then I went to lunch and my motivation decided to stay downtown and window shop)

The first shipment of the Punk Rock Sock Club is out! I hope you guys like it! I'm dyeing a couple of wholesale orders while waiting for the rest of my sock club yarn to be delivered and then I'll be working on some new colorways for the etsy store. This weekend I'll mark down everything in the etsy store by 20%. The yarn is terribly bored just sitting in a box in my dining room and is begging to be knit into something gorgeous.

********

The cops are heavily patrolling my neighborhood for the next week or so. Nate's coworker who lives 5 doors down from us got BOTH their cars broken into on Monday night. Our dog woke us up at 3 a.m. that morning barking so loud and fierce I was sure he was going to jump through the window. I never did see whatever he saw, but I have a good idea that it might have been some hoodlums. Can I tell you how weird it is to have a cop car shining bright lights into my house at 1 a.m.? Yeah, I was still awake, but that doesn't make it less strange.

*********

Last weekend a few friends and I went to Washington Farms and picked strawberries. I managed to get quite a haul.



And then I made a cobbler, which tastes oddly like a sweetened strawberry jam sandwich.

But we ate it anyway. We also had strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream and fresh smoothies. I'll definitely be going back to the farm for more berries. In June and July they'll have blueberries and blackberries. Nom nom nom.

workin' for the weekend*

Sometimes I just go completely off the deep end about something and must act on my impulses immediately. I think most southern folks call it a 'wild hair'. I can't call it that. My brain does crazy things with that imagery.

My front yard drives me completely insane. Usually it's a mild form of insanity, a sort of 'oh bother, stupid yard' and then I let it go. Not Friday. A bit of backstory: when we bought this house in December of 2006, we were concerned about erosion, since the house sits on a built up hill of red clay, which can often get really dry and simply wash away if you're not paying attention. So we amended our contract to include a shored up bed in front of the living room windows and a retaining wall. They did it without too much of a struggle. But they filled it full of red clay and rocks. Big ones. Bigger than my head. Sigh.

(if you've never seen red clay, this is it. it's red. it's clay. and not to say that my head is tiny. the rocks you see here are the little ones. the big ones got thrown into the woods, where all good rocks go to die. or get bigger, whatever they do.)

Well the escapade on Friday all began when I took out the dog after work. I took note that my two forlorn tulips (in another flower bed) that never bloomed were dying. Great. Two of the ten that I planted got leaves, then died. Not a bloom in site. This pissed me off, so I went to prune the first dying one and um...out came the bulb. Oops. So I dug around a bit and realized there were three bulbs in the ground and that my lonely little tulip had multiplied. I went over and somewhat gently pulled up the other lonely tulip and it had multiplied too! Whee!

I dug them all up and repotted them so they could grow and mingle and be friends. You can only see the tops of four of them, but there are about 6 more that were just bulbs.

I dug around the rest of the bed and the other tulip bulbs had all disintegrated. Boo. I still got ten for ten, but not in a way I had intended. Still, now I have a right mess in that particular bed. I'll deal with it next weekend.

Then I decided that I was tired of that icky flower bed under the living room windows. So I put on icky gardening clothes (not very different from my icky workout clothes from the day before) and made Nate go to Lowe's with me to get real dirt, fertilizer, a hoe, and some bushes. (Cause a girl needs her ho and bushes. Ahem.)

So I grabbed my ipod and dug and sang at the top of my lungs until it got dark. I'm quite sure this confirmed my neighbor's thoughts about my wackiness. But I'm a wimp and I didn't get very far. Wet clay is very heavy.

Saturday morning we got up and did the rest. We had to dig out two feet by two feet of red freaking clay, mix it up with dirt and fertilizer then put it back in. The rest of the clay will get mixed with more dirt and fertilizer to fill up the bed the tulips came out of. I might replant them or just get something else.

We now have three tiny knockout rose bushes, all of which have brand new blooms today. I hear they grow fast and furious, so I hope they'll just cover that whole area quickly. I hate all the ugly black waterproofing stuff and the shoddy concrete work. Just eww.

Later this week I'll go buy some edging stones to give it a border and make it really pretty.


The only downfall is that after this mania my back is completely out of whack. It was already hurting on Friday and my mild scoliosis was twinging something awful. It's a weak spot, but not in any detrimental way.

On Sunday I enjoyed Lucy Neatby's class at my LYS with my mother-in-law and her sister. We learned a few new toe and heel tricks and giggled a lot. I might also have said 'shit' a few too many times in polite company. But Lucy was wonderful and fascinating. She totally makes me want pink and purple hair.

*i know that song is not about working ON the weekend, but now it's stuck in my head. enjoy.

Friday is a free peach cobbler

Monday, take note. This is how a day is supposed to behave. Gorgeous weather, good friends, free dessert.

Cheryl, Courtney and I had a delicious lunch today and half way through our meal the waiter brought over a FREE peach cobbler. Apparently someone else had ordered and then decided against it and he had overheard us talking about how yummy it would be. So he gave it to us. Sweet!

I may have done more than my fair share of cobbler gobbling.


And on a completely unrelated note...ow, my scoliosis.

holy crap there's knitting!

For the record, the GRE did not slay me, I'm still here. Though I did sort of physically melt when I saw my score and realized that I do NOT have to retake it. WHEW. Thanks so much for all the encouragement!! I got an 1130, if you're curious, and I'm kinda kicking myself for not studying for the verbal section cause I could have rocked it a lot harder, but whatever, it's over.

My boss (who totally rules, btw) gave me the rest of the day off, so I had some Ben & Jerry's to celebrate and then took a lovely nap. Tonight I'm dyeing yarn and dancing around my kitchen while Nate plays GTA4.

So, how about some knitting? Remember the Aleita Shell? I totally love it, but my row gauge is different from the pattern, and it now requires math to work the proper number of decreases. I'm a over math for a little while, you know? I'll get back to this one later.

This is as far as I've gotten:

The separation for the bust V section:


I've also cast on for the Fern Fitted Shell with the Ella Rae Bamboo Silk (LOVE IT). Thanks, Nada, for the errata info! It's slow going but I blame the GRE, not the pattern.

And I cast on and have almost finished my Rowan Calmer Lelah too. I'm doing a racer back top rather than the tube top in the pattern, like this one. I hope it doesn't stretch too much. That would be counter productive. For me anyway.

I've also been working on some of my 101 things. I've found a great exercise/stretch/meditate routine that is refreshing and makes working out really rewarding. Now I need to get back to eating better to make all my hard work worth it!

Ok, back to dyeing! Have a great week!

Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day, y'all!

Earth Day is one of my favorite days of the year and I think it should be a national holiday with a full day off to work in our communities, plant trees, and ride our bikes instead of driving.

This Earth Day I'll be turning off the television and my computers for the evening. I'm going to knit and study my GRE book. I'm also researching composting, since my current method is a little too backwoods to be called composting. It's called throw-the-scraps-in-the-woods-for-the-deer-to-eat, or redneck recycling. At least I'm not chucking my banana peels into the trash. I'm hoping for a banana tree some day. Seriously though, the only soil we have is red clay and it is incredibly NOT conducive to growing anything. I can't even make grass grow. Or tulips, though I hear they're difficult - doesn't leave me less than disappointed.

I know I've listed out all the things we do to stay green before, so I won't do it again but I'll add that we're considering biking to work thanks to $3.50/gallon gas prices. It literally goes up every single day. I'm not looking forward to 5 mile rides, but if we did it even one day a week we'd save gas and money. We're also considering planting a small garden and growing some of our own vegetables. Yum.

Are you doing anything special for Earth Day?

Lazy

When things get really busy or stressful or overwhelming, I tend to get lazy about everything not involved in the stressful stuff. Like blogging. Knitting. Reading other folks' blogs. Replying to comments. Sorry, y'all, it's not you, it's me.

So to say that the GRE studying is stressing me out would be an understatement. If I hadn't already paid for the damn thing I'd just say fuck this and start breathing again. I'm sure in the end it's all going to be fine and the Kaplan Crash Course is helping me tremendously, but I'm so ready for this to be over.

I'm also dyeing yarn for the sock club and waiting (not so patiently) for the rest of the yarn to come. I'm not in any danger of not having enough yarn for May, but I want the rest of it right now, thankyouverymuch. With stress also comes a lack of patience and I don't have much of that to dole out as it is.

Moving on, I bought some wonderful yarn last week, and while I'm too lazy to take a picture, I need to share my knitting conquests, so tolerate it, mkay? I got some blue Linen Isle (0009) from Webs and I'm going to start a proper Aleita Shell with the suggested yarn just because I can. And I like blue. I also got some Ella Rae Bamboo Silk in the grass green colorway. I opened the package and realized that it wouldn't have mattered if I had gotten some hideous, nasty color, I would have loved it anyway. Soft, smooshy, and luxurious. I'm totally making some gorgeous tank out of it. I think it might be this one.

Ok. Sorry I'm totally phoning this one in. No stone throwing, mkay? (unless they are very yummy chocolaty stones, and in that case, gimme all you got.)

Sexy Clap

Today was so gorgeous - it was one of those days you wish would last forever. Nate and I cleaned the house and took some pictures of my complete (mini) Clapotis!

This yarn is just so gorgeous, if I do say so myself. It's soft, warm, luxurious, and requires a little bit of dressing up just so you won't be completely outdone. It's hard to wear a yarn that really wears you.

Forgive the blur. Clearly I'm not the one taking that photo...

Dorky grin #1.

Dorky grin #2. What? This Clap makes a girl feel very rawr.

In other news, I crossed off an important list item yesterday. I got five new bras. I suddenly realized on Friday that all I was wearing were sports bras and not for good reasons. So I took some measurements then plugged those numbers into an online lingerie site, discovered I'm a 38C these days and went shopping. Technically I should be a D, but y'all, those are so huge on me. I don't even come close to filling them up. I think maybe I'm really a B+ or a C-. I tried the 36C, since I had always been a 36B (or so I thought) and those just don't work for me anymore. The 38 is much more comfortable, but it will take some getting used to.

I also finished a book and started three more. We watched the first few episodes of The Wire (my something new this month) and worked our asses off to find deductions to bring down our tax bill (it's not good). I dyed some Sock Club yarn (yay!) and we played WoW when we got bored (did I mention I'm gaming again? it's under control though).

Hope you'll had a great weekend! Watch out for falling objects on Monday.

Surreality

Dear Monday, Thank you for getting your abuse out of the way first thing this morning. My would-have-been-yummy banana/peach breakfast smoothie looks lovely splattered all over me and the elevator floor. Let's go ahead and call it a day, shall we? Smoochies - Me


Now that that's out of the way...


Yesterday was glorious. I started the day headed to Knitch and the Harlot book signing with this:



A little heart in my mocha. It really put the whipped cream topping on my giddiness for the morning. Figures I'd get a smoothie smackdown the next day just to keep things "fair and balanced." Snerk.

Alison and I got to town late so we didn't do any other shopping and were really lucky to get seats somewhat near the stage. (Thanks KateyJ for taking better pics than I was getting!!) Katey and her clan sat right behind us and we all giggled through the entire talk. She even won some super expensive yarn, gave it a name and tucked it in her bra for safe keeping. That's my kinda gal.

Stephanie, doing her "Knitters, with sock" artwork.


I worked on my Clap, which is now long enough to start the decrease rows. Love. It. You still can't see the super bling factor here, but it's astonishingly shiny. I don't think I've ever gotten as many "oooh!"s as I did when I pulled this out of my bag. Then again, I usually knit alone and I can only do so much to entertain myself.

During the knit-in I got to meet some folks I've been talking to for a while, including Mary, Cate and Chickengoddess. Alma - your shawl was stunning. I still have no words. I ran into almost everyone I chatted with the last time Stephanie was around and met some lovely new faces too.

After the knit-in, we got to meet with Stephanie at last. Stephanie remembered me and my yarn, which totally shocked me. I might have gotten a tad giddy and inappropriately hugged her. Ahem. Sorry. I could blame the caffeine, but it's really the nerdiness.

I gave her a skein of the Aura (silvery) Bloodflowers and she had to stash it quickly so no one could steal it from her.

What? Where do you hide your stash?

I have no idea what I'm looking at in this pic. Der. Anyway, that's me, Stephanie, Alison and Mary! Alison and I got to have a nice chat with Mary over nachos and wine across the street, where Mary informed me that she has a degree in applied math. M - expect your phone to ring if I fail these practice GREs, mkay? (Speaking of the GRE: I'm scheduled to take it April 29th. Major fucking EEEEK over here.)

You can't see it in this pic, but I had on a pair of these earrings all day and wow did they get a lot of compliments. It made me giggle all day to be able to say "lick my sticks" repeatedly. Pam is working up a batch of earrings, so get them while you can!

I gotta say, it was a smidge weird to be somewhat famous for a day. I was really unprepared for so many people to know who I was and/or to have knit with my yarn. Even the ladies behind us in line to meet the Harlot were knitting socks in Fascination Street! So surreal.

I'm a wallflower at heart, so dealing with attention makes me a little awkward. And huggy. If I hugged anyone too much or too hard...sorry. At least I didn't stab you with my earrings.

Harlot weekend!

I'm so excited about seeing the Harlot again this weekend!

Alison and I are driving in around 11, but we have super important yarn errands to run so we'll get to the Knitch area by 1. We plan to attend the Knit In, listen to the lovely Stephanie, then have a snack and some wine while waiting for the second signing. (which sounds a lot like the Second Coming to me, and I guess it sort of is - though not in any spiritual way.)

If any of you in the Atlanta area will be at the Harlot event on Sunday, shoot me a message and we'll hook up!

I'll be sure to take my camera, lots of knitting (including a possible FO - don't faint, y'all), and maybe a special yarn for le Harlot.

I'm really hoping to finish the Clapotis this weekend. I started a second ball of yarn, but it's really close to being finished I think.



I hope I can get a picture of this in some better light. It's truly gorgeous when it sparkles!

Closed!

Just an FYI:

The sock club is closed! Thanks everyone, for participating! I'll be dyeing for the club starting this week. So. Excited.

Also, have y'all heard of Foxboro Hot Tubs? It's Green Day's "side project" and I might love them a little bit. You can hear the first song here (youtube) and it looks like you can download the song for free from their site if you click on the album.

This song is totally making my Monday bearable.

p.s. the GRE sucks ass. math makes me cry.

Saturday? Already?

God, where did this week go? I haven't read blogs or knit (ok a little), or even managed to do laundry. Oh yeah, I'm studying for the GRE. And suffering from Pokemon addiction. I can't do math, but I can beat the shit out of some pokemons. Shouldn't that count for something?

I'm scheduling my GRE exam as soon as I get paid for April so that I can just get it over with. But y'all. I'm *worried*. I seriously haven't had any math since high school and when reviewing the "Basic Math" in my GRE study guide my brain shuts off, I become zombiesque (it's a word), and it just doesn't click with me. Solve for A? Fuck A. Somebody get me a drink! Granted, I don't have to do a phenomenal job to meet the program's requirements, but I'd like to not have to take it again.

I'm also working on The List (see the left sidebar) and I'm accomplishing a few things this weekend including:

- Recycling old cell phones
- Replacing the rest of our plain light bulbs with the CFC kind (the ones I can reach anyway)
- Cleaning out our filing cabinet, shredding old stuff and filing stuff that's hanging around
- Running my first 5k in 8 years. DONE!
- Recycling old comforters, etc, by giving to Goodwill

Did I mention that I love lists? And since Nate will be out of town this weekend I'll be able to get soooo much done. He's definitely a laziness enabler. And when he's gone he doesn't have to deal with my "must. clean. everything. right. now." mania and I don't have to feel like a bitch for making him help.

As it turns out though, some work crap yesterday has kept Nate at home (thanks so much Nigerian spammers, he's enjoying the fuck out of his weekend...'preciate it!) and he's just going to have to tolerate my craziness. Right after this nap.

Just to prove I did it, here's a pic from before the race this morning:


Oh hi. It's 7 a.m. and I bet you're all sleeping soundly while I'm about to run my ass off for 3 miles. Bitches. (p.s. it was a mental STRUGGLE to get my ass out of bed this morning. the freaking sun wasn't even up yet.)


And this is after. Awake and exhausted, but feeling really proud of myself. You can't see my running number here, but it was 385. Just for the record. I made the 3.2 miles in 40 minutes, which is not bad at all considering I totally forgot to factor the hilliness of Athens into my training. I ran most of it, but the three biggest hills kicked my ass and I had to walk them.

When I got home, my boy kitties were completely and utterly unphased by my return. Usually I get a greeting at the door, a third degree sniff, and some meows. Instead, they were obsessed with something else.


A squirrel had made its way onto our back porch and found the seeds that the birds drop from our feeder.



He's totally just staring at my kitties and eating a seed, like 'oh hi, stupid kittehs, you can't get me! muahahahha!' Fully aware that there is glass between himself and the big kitties and that he's totally safe. Mocking them. He could not be any closer to these poor tortured kitties. Then he starts to bathe his face and nibble at his fleas, all right in front of my boys. Once he realized that 'oh shit, there's a big human,' he took off and my kitties decided napping was more interesting.

Have a great weekend; I'm off to find a napping spot of my own.

New Extreme Sport: Nerdiness

As y'all know, I'm all kinds of nerdy. I have lists. And those lists have lists and there are sublists to those lists. Below is the ultimate of all my lists. I'm using it to keep with with things I have to do anyway (like take the GRE) and help spur me into action on things I really want to do. I'll probably set up a separate blog for this, or I'll add it to my sidebar. I've found that so much can be learned about a person by reading their list: who they are now, what they want from life and from themselves, and ultimately who they hope to be in the next few years. It's a lovely concept.

And so, from Day One:

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.


101 Goals in 1001 Days
Take a photography class
Take the GRE (by April 15th)
Apply to Masters program (by July 1)
Get a Masters degree
Visit England/France (March 09)
Visit Seattle (August 08)
Visit DC (hopefully Obama’s inauguration)
Paint bedrooms and bathrooms (0/4)
Run 5 5ks (0/5)
Limit soda to one per day for a month (0/30)
Cut all soda for one month (0/30)
Lose 15 lbs (0/15)
Meet inches goals by May 23 2008
Decorate my office space
Pay off my car (Aug 08)
Pay off my credit cards (0/4)
Install bamboo floors
Buy new living room furniture
Open an untouchable savings account
Arrange to transfer $100 to that account every month for a year (0/12)
Donate $2000 to my IRA (0/2000)
Organize my pictures on my computer
Put photos in frames and hang them
Fix master bathroom walls
Buy nothing for one week (0/7)
Bring lunch and breakfast to work for one month (0/30)
Audition for a musical
Exercise every day for a month (0/30)
Donate boxes of books
Sand and repaint the dresser
Buy new bedroom furniture
Audition for Knit Girl
Organize family tree info from Dad
Knit a sweater for Nate
Plant 2-3 bushes in my front yard
Make our mailbox area pretty (pavers, dirt, flowers/vine)
Meditate every day for 30 days (0/30)
Create a website from scratch
Knit a sweater I love (or 2)
Buy fresh produce from a local farmers market 5 times (0/5)
Go to Rhinebeck
Write our wills
Set up and fund an emergency account
Bring credit rating back up to the old number
Organize filing cabinets, file and shred irrelevant stuff
Landscape side and back yard
Pay off my student loan
Go to an opera
Practice voice 20 minutes every day for a month (0/30)
Sell sewing/embroidery machine
Find a good doctor who will listen to me
Read 50 books (0/50)
Knit only from stash for 2 months (0/2)
Try something new once a month (1/33)
Try 10 new recipes (2/10)
Plant two trees
Go to a gaming convention (August 08)
Finish rereading Harry Potter series
Make a photo album
Go to the eye doctor
Knit a shawl for my mom
Knit 10 pairs of socks (0/10)
Buy a pair of great comfortable heels
Get back in touch with 3 old friends
Do something nice for my mom just because
Learn to use Dreamweaver well
Learn to use Flash
Learn to use Fireworks
Learn to use Photoshop better
Buy 5 new bras (0/5)
Volunteer at a soup kitchen
Volunteer with the Athens Literacy Council
Do one thing each month from We Are What We Do (0/33)
Follow 10 suggestions from apartmenttherapy.com (0/10)
Follow 10 suggestions from unclutterer.com (0/10)
Do an action/adventure activity with Nate every weekend for 2 months (0/8)
Subscribe to Real Simple magazine
Eat locally for 2 weeks (0/14)
Visit 3 state parks in GA (0/3)
Eat all meals in for a month (0/30)
Switch from coffee to tea for one month (0/30)
Go to 2 visiting speaker lectures (0/2)
Give blood twice (0/2)
Get a passport
Make 10 vegan recipes (0/10)
Nix fast food for a month (0/30)
Get another tattoo
Clean and cover the gutters
Donate 3 knit items to charity (0/3)
Attend an IT/Tech convention (other than PAX)
Use only my reusable shopping bags at the grocery store for a month (0/30)
Organize the attic space
Teach someone to knit
Finish and send Pete’s hat
Go on a weekend spa retreat alone
Host a knitting retreat
Donate to Child's Play charity
Learn to crochet
Ride bikes 20 times for more than 5 miles each trip (0/20)
Dye and ship for the sock club (0/3)
Get pregnant
Celebrate!

(I'm 2 short since I noticed some duplicates, but y'all know me...I'll add them in due time.)

I've already started working on a few of these!

If you read through the list you can gather that Nate and I are going to a gaming convention in August. PAX to be exact. Seattle had better brace itself - the number of folks going to this convention almost doubles every year and I think they're expecting some 100k this year. I actually could care less about the gaming (ok a fraction of that is a lie), but I *really* want to see Seattle. If you have any Seattle travel tips, let me hear them! We'll be staying right next to the Convention Center and will have NO car, so I'd love to get some ideas on great places to eat and fun things we can walk to. Well, that *I* can walk to. I doubt I'll be able to drag Nate away from the gaming.

And to help me get my nerd on, Nate got me an early anniversary present:


The nerdiness knows no bounds.

happy freaking monday!

Hi y'all!!

I hope you guys had a great weekend! Thanks so much to all of you who signed up for the Sock Club! There are still a few spots left, but they're going pretty fast, so if you haven't signed up yet you better get on it!

Last week was our Spring Break so I got most of the week off, though I was answering emails and doing little things here and there. Mostly Nate and I laid around the house sick with whatever the hell is going around this time. I'm glad to know it's not just me. Nate never gets sick, so to be ill twice this year already says there's something really icky lingering about.

On Saturday I decided I'd had enough. I woke up, declared myself well and set about cleaning my house (well ok, only the main floor - I'm classy like that) for a gaming party. Oh yes. A Gaming Party. Consisting of six mostly sober adults playing Rock Band with much fervor, then Super Smash Bros. with much yelling and superfast button mashing. Great fun was had. There will be more to come. (also, we covered some pretty interesting topics like diva cups, breastfeeding, ravelry, sewn up coochies, saggy boobs, two girls one cup (DO NOT ASK, hell don't even google), and quilting.)

I'm a bad blogger and didn't even take any pictures. Duh.

I also started watching John Adams and I'm in LOVE. It really puts the events of 1775 in perspective and is well told and touching. I just watched "Independence" and they're reading the Declaration on the steps of Independence Hall and I can't stop the tears. For what those men accomplished for us, and for what it's all become. Bittersweet, I guess. If I were a better writer I'd get all mushy on you, but alas.

Anyway, I've made some progress on the mini Clapotis. It's about half done I'd say.


And I spoiled myself last week with a big honkin' bag.

Holy shit is it huge, y'all. It dwarfs me! This is my knitting side...


This is the business side...


And of course, the creamy lipstick center.

Have a great week! I'll be trying not to overload my bag and commit suicide by big ass purse.

Sign Ups Open!

Ok, the buttons are on the right!

You can sign up through April 15th, but I can't guarantee there will be spots left by then.

Thanks so much everyone, for making this so much fun for me, and for making it a reality. If you have questions or see a problem with the paypal buttons PLEASE let me know. This is my first time with this so be gentle.

:D

Punk Rock Sock Club!

Hi y'all! I just wanted to fill you in on the theme and ideas behind the very first sock club! The Punk Rock Sock Club! I’ll be creating a colorway each month around album art from one band from each decade: the 70s, 80s, and 90s! Clash, Social Distortion, Green Day...I'm looking at you. I'm super excited about dyeing these up because some of the album art is really out there (some of it's very gray/black/white too, but I'm doing the colorful albums only)!

Again, the sign ups will be on the blog, NOT on etsy and you’ll be able to pay through paypal either all at once for the 3 month subscription or be billed monthly. The sidebar reservation buttons will go up Friday morning (the 15th)! ****Ok, this should have read Saturday the 15th, but I'm on the Dayquil and can't read a calendar. Let's split the difference and make it Friday night/Saturday morning at midnight EST. HA! Take that Dayquil!****

You'll be able to sign up through April 15th (or until the club sells out, whichever comes first) and the first package will ship on or around May 15th. You'll get 3 monthly shipments of a skein of yummy sock yarn, a bit of info about the colorway and the inspiration behind it, and a couple of little goodies as well. I'm not doing any major swag in order to keep the price to $30/month (includes priority shipping).

Whee! I’m so excited about dyeing for this club! It’s gonna rock.

Feel free to steal the above button, but please save it to your own server!

Oh, bitches.

I'm so sorry. I've been reading WAY too much Project RunGay. I'm running around calling everyone "kittens" and "poodles" and "bitches". Told you I missed my gays.

Anyway, it's been one hella bad week. I'm so over being sick every two weeks. It's dumb. Now my allergies are joining in and I can barely keep my head from imploding. Makes me wish someone would create Dayquil you can inject directly into your veins. Bliss.

But I know no one really wants to hear about me feeling like warmed over shit all week. BORING. Excuse me while I go drain.

My highlight was last night's knitting with Courtney, Alison, Sarah, and Cheryl. We discussed knitted swiffer covers (awesome), politics, religion, the origin and assonance of the word 'asshat,' (which was so hilarious I had to leave the room to recover) and there might a been a little talk about Pandora and some boxes in there somewhere. Next time I'm taking a notebook and writing down all the quotable stuff. It was classic.

So, this is what the 'oh, bitches' is about:



The Cecilia Chemise from Stitch Diva. I think I might have to turn to the Dark Side for this top. I was unaware that crochet could be so cute and sexy...rawr.

Also, I finished my Entrelac Scarf in Noro Silk Garden! I think I like it best all wrapped and poofy around my neck.

Entrelac! Just look at all those cute little criss-crosses! Love.

I really adore the aqua color. I think I might sleep with this tonight...

Sock Club!

Hi! I hope you're having a great Saturday! Mine has been wonderful, but we'll get to that in a minute.

First, the news you've all been hoping for! I'm opening sign ups for my first sock club on March 15th! You'll be able to sign up through April 15th (or until the club sells out, whichever comes first) and the first package will ship on or around May 15th. You'll get 3 monthly shipments of a skein of yummy sock yarn, a bit of info about the colorway and the inspiration behind it, and a couple of little goodies as well. I'm not doing any major swag in order to keep the price to $30/month (includes shipping).

Reserving your spot will be super easy. On the right hand sidebar you'll soon see two Paypal buttons. One will get you the full 3 months subscription and you'll pay all at once. For those of you on a yarn budget (like me) the second button will also get you all 3 months, but you'll be billed once a month instead of all at once. There will be a limited number of total subscriptions, so first come first served!

I'll release more details as we get closer!



Ok, on to my Saturday. Thanks to Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Nate decided we needed some badass chocolate chip cookies. I usually make my own badass cc cookies, but we decided to try something new and found a recipe online. OMG yum. We did all the mixing by hand with NO mixer (ow, thank the gods for electricity) and the texture was perfect.

Mmm yummy dough.
We made the cookies super large, and they're about 3 inches in diameter. I can only eat one at a time without going into a sugar coma. Not that I usually stuff three at a time into my mouth or anything. Ahem.


Later I met Karen at the MAC counter for my fabulous makeover. Holy shit did I buy a lot of stuff. I'm convinced they put as much "product" on you as possible so you'll feel compelled to Buy It All.

I managed to get out of there with as much colored stuff and fewer primers and enhancers than they would have liked. But hey, there's always next month's paycheck.

Eyeshadow. I got Fig 1, Star Violet, and Gleam. They're so pretty all blended together and they make my eyes really pop. I tire of hearing the word "pop" but it works here perfectly. If my eyes ever actually "pop" we're going to have a serious problem.


The second most awesome thing I got is the powder foundation. It goes on super light and smooth and barely feels like I'm wearing anything. Yet I look amazazing. Love it.

I also got concealer, moisturizer, and another lipstick. And that effectively kills my yarn budget this month. Of course, looking fabulous is far more important than yarn. Holy god, someone stop me.

p.s. There was a super cute little gay guy running around the MAC area working on faces and he totally made me miss having gay guys in my life. I need some adorable guys around me to tell me how fierce and fabulous I am (regardless of how silly that might be, shut up). Oh Christian, come home to mama.