Thursday, November 29, 2007

Last night I had the house to myself, so...

I drank this:






















Played with this:

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Cast on this:



















And cuddled some sick kitties. All in all, a productive night.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

How I know I'm having a bad day...

10. I want to buy wool. Any wool. Even heinously colored, horrendously overpriced, itchy wool.

9. I want to buy shoes. Even if I will never wear them more than once, shoes will sooth my savage soul.

8. I spend more time IMing friends than working.

7. I actually bother to confront my boss about my job.

6. Web Sudoku seems like a good use of time.

5. I have lustful thoughts about men who are not my husband. (Seeing a theme here?)

4. I begin to think that Scott Adams is spying on my office.

3. Running away is seriously considered. Maybe here.

2. I actually want my mother. You'd understand if you knew her.

1. Dropping hundreds of dollars at the Loopy Ewe seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Cheaper than therapy, right?

Yesterday's good news: found stockings for the garter belt. Only $8.50 a pop.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Three things

Eep! Been a while. Just proof of what my life is like lately.

Three things I learned about my dog in the last week:
1. He loves big piles of leaves.
2. He thinks he likes snow.
3. He loves the taste of Vanilla Spice body butter.


Three things I don't want to do this weekend:
1. Clean
2. Shop for Thanksgiving
3. Clean

Three things I'm going to do this weekend:
1. Clean
2. Shop for Thanksgiving
3. Clean

Three things on the needles:
1. Fishy socks (original)
2. Ty's stocking (original)
3. Swallowtail shawl (Interweave Knits)

Three places to see before I die:
1. Trobriand Islands 9I want to see the Cricket)
2. Machu Pichu
3. India. All of it.

Maybe I can keep the next post to less than 4 months.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Two fun things

1) Molly the Metalsmith has agreed to a handcraft trade with me! I actually emailed her just hours before she put up the post on her website. In exchange for a lovely hand-knit pair of Hedera socks in a yarn TBD, I will receive a beautiful pair of hand-wrought bronze DPNs. How fun is that! I'm very excited. So excited in fact that I visited no less than four yarn stores on Saturday looking for the right yarn, and plan to visit one more tomorrow. (BTW, could somebody please explain this recent overlap in knitting and quilting stores?)

Needless to say, I came home with a bunch of stuff that was NOT the yarn I was looking for, but pretty never the less.

2) Shelly Kang is hosting a contest! Go there, leave her a message and enter to win! Just tell her you stopped here first!

No pics for today. Sorry.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Locked Out

Wow, this week gets better and better.

I got to work an hour late this morning because: (drum roll please)

I locked myself out of the house, without my car keys.

See this?

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It's a locked door.


So after trying to call several people who have spare keys, I called Hubby, who is at work, to ask if he hid an extra key somewhere. Turns out he didn't. So he left work, and drove home to let me into the house. Know what I did in the meantime?

That's right, I knit
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on my doorstep because
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it's raining. A lot.

Better and better.

But, on the bright side, my next door gay loves my shoes. And I love him.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The Zoo closes at 4:30

Know how I know that? Take a guess. Go on. I'll wait.

So our anniversary was this weekend. Hubby and I had originally planned to go to Camp for the weekend, but he came down with a sinus infection on Wednesday, then threw his back out on Thursday. This was all really fun. For both of us. Let's just say that Manly Man there doesn't make the best patient. In fact, he kind of turns into a five year-old.

So anyway, between hubby being a mess, and the cat still needing antibiotics, we decided to stay home for the weekend and do some fun stuff around here. I had Friday off of work already, so we slept late, and went to the zoo in the afternoon. It was actually a lot of fun. All the pics are on the other computer, so I will try and amend this post later.

The Luzon Bleeding-Heart Pigeons ran across my path.

I got to watch the penguins for a while.

We saw the lions (sleepy) and the wolves (antsy) and the naked mole-rat (weird).

We also got to see the snow leopard (who acted a lot like Knitty Kitty) and the Amur Tiger who lay in his pool in front of us for a while. This was about 4:30.

Now, we heard something from the speakers at this point, but they were so far away, that we couldn't tell what they were saying, so we figured that it wasn't that important. So we spent the next hour looking at the rest of the animals on the Wildlife Trail. By the time we got to the elephant exhibit, we noticed that it was very, very quiet. Then we noticed that all of the umbrellas on the patio table were closed. Then we noticed that all of the doors to the main building (and the exit) were locked. Huh.

What time does the zoo close again?

We finally found one door, between the Social Animals and Adaptations to enter. We navigated back through the Diversity of Birds and past the U.S.S. Antiquities. Finally, the exit!

Now, keep in mind, this entire time I'm looking for the hours of the zoo posted anywhere, including the map I've been carrying around for the last four hours. We get outside and find two employees watering the gardens in front of the building.

Gardener 1 says to us, "Oh, I'm sorry, but the zoo closed an hour ago!"
Me: "That's good to know, because we've been in there since 1:30."
Gardener 2: "They were doing a sweep. They didn't find you?"
Me: "No. No, we weren't even hard to find. Right on the main trail."
Gardener 1: "Oh, well, the zoo closes at 4:30."
Me: "Yes, we noticed. But I was looking for a sign somewhere, including the entrance that gives the zoo's hours."
Gardener 2: "There's no sign? Didn't you hear the announcement.?"
Me: "No, there's no sign. Feel free to check it out. And no, we didn't hear the announcement. We were over by the Tiger at 4:30."
Gardener 1: "Oh, well you can't hear the announcement over there. The local residents don't like it."

Why am I having this conversation?

Hubby was making noise about busting out of the zoo by jumping a fence. My thought: this is a zoo. Don't you think maybe you should know what's on the other side of the fence before you start climbing them? Didn't you see Jurassic Park?

Now, today's fun. I got this email from Dad yesterday:

Subject: M3 Issue

Hi-

I have to warn you about something I learned this weekend: if you put a cup in the cup holder, it does not rest on the bottom. There is some space under there, so if you put a cup of, say Super Peachy smoothie in the cup holder and then accidentally hit the straw with your elbow, it is capable of punching a quarter-sized hole in the bottom of the cup. What will happen then is that the cup holder will fill up with smoothie, until with your eyes firmly fixed on the road you reach down and pick up the cup. The viscosity of a smoothie will assure that as you raise the straw to your mouth a giant glooble of smoothie will be deposited on the console, your leg, stomach and chest. You will not realize this until the sensation of cold and wet penetrates your clothing. At this point, do not reach down with your right hand and scrape the smoothie off your shirt and fling it out the window shrieking curses. You will certainly need that hand to shift gears fairly soon, and it will be hard to find a clean spot on your shirt to wipe your hand. Just in case this ever happens to you, make sure you have a small ladle in your kitchen for emptying the cup holder as you begin the two hour cleaning process.

Dad

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Complete

The Great Office Move of 2007 is complete! (more or less)

I'm now crammed in the back corner of what was once my office in a teensy cube. Don't lean back, you'll smack your head.

I have become one of those knitters that takes a piece with me everywhere. I purchased a very cute bag that fits all my basics (wallet, meds, phone, keys) plus a paperback, a couple of files, and now a half-knit sock. It looks kind of like this but a little less hippie. Denim blues with brown leather straps. Absolutely perfect! And, of course, I got it at Marshall's. (It's not $70 worth of perfect.)

Anyway, the point is, that sock for Dad now gets whipped out everytime I have my hands free for a few seconds. Or when I need to take the edge off. Needless to say, it's coming along pretty quickly. I mean, c'mon, I don't have enough space in my cube to do yoga (I used to) and drinking at work is frowned upon. What else am I gonna do?

Now that the weather is cooling off a little, I may be able to work on the Gigantic Wool Sweater. Hubby has been asking if he will get to wear it this fall. I should probably let him see me do a few rounds on it. But really, who wants 15 pounds of wool on their lap on a 90+ day?

Ravelry: have you seen this? Must. Get. On. It even has a needle inventory. I want to reach through my computer screen and kiss these people. They are doing beta testing now, but you can sign up to get on the list of beta testers, and eventually the final product. Support this site. I'm not kidding. I hate Facebook and MySpace (though I do have accounts, mostly for business reasons). I think I've hated them because I've been waiting for Ravelry to come along.

Other stuff: I just finished (in, like, twelve hours) All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris. If you haven't read the Southern Vampire Mystery Series, you have to pick them up. Everytime I get to the end of one of these books, I can't believe it's finished. I want more. Give me more. So now I have to pine away for another year until the next one comes out. Sigh.

This post needs images. I need to track down my camera and start getting some knitting photos on the blog. Hmmm...

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Almost Computerless

Someone needs to come to the office and take a picture. I've hardly checked my work email in three days, because I haven't had a computer. Because everything I work from is packed up. Because in the merger, we need smaller furniture so we can squish more people into our witty-bitty-building.









Right now I have my 10 year old laptop set up on a card table, and I'm sitting on a chair we borrowed from another office. I still don't have access to my files, but at least I can check my email, and was able to do some web updates. Yesterday I didn't even have this. I spent the day working on the Wildfoote socks for Dad. Mindless. Toe-up in a 2x2 rib. Better than staring at the walls, though!



Fortunately I got out of work at 3 pm. Unfortunately, I had to reinstall a glass panel solid core door by myself. Unfortunately, I also had to leave so I could make it to the vet.

Turns out we are losing Princess. She has a nasal tumor (common in older cats; she's 14) that is causing the bone around it to deteriorate. The vet is willing to refer us to an oncologist to talk about treatment, but this kind of tumor is extremely malignant, and hard to treat. I've decided, for her sake, it is better to work on the infection, and try to make her comfortable. Putting her through chemo and radiation would be for me, not for her. I don't know how much time she's got left.

I love you sweet girl, I'll miss you.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I need a slogan

Talk of the Nation is doing a bit today on online dating. According to the expert they are interviewing today, we all need a slogan. What should it be? Maybe I'll think about it and try tomorrow.

Boss is feeling "antsy" and "cranky" (her words) today. Guess how my day is going?

-I won't be traveling
-I'm losing my business credit card
-I am no longer supervising anyone
-I have to get stuff that is normally due in July done TOMORROW
-My to-do list has 107 items on it (I just checked)

I know this is supposed to be a promotion, but it really doesn't feel like it. At least I'll be making a whole extra $3000 per year for this.

I'd like to say tomorrow will be better, but tomorrow is packing day.

OK. Today's good news: the viciously hot weather broke last night (in a series of similarly vicious thunderstorms) and now it is absolutely beautiful out, so I'm taking Puppy and Hubby out for a long walk tonight.

Wait, this should make me feel better.

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Ahh! That helped.

Need. To. Knit.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

overwhlemed.

It is now 5:42. My office closed at 4:30 today. And yet, here I am.

There is great truth to the phrase "shit rolls downhill."

Currently, Boss feels overwhelmed. Which means I am overwhelmed. However, not too overwhelmed to read what the Harlot had to say today. Very nice commentary on public displays of venom. It almost makes me feel bad about what I wrote about Bear Grylls yesterday.

But, dudes, he drank water from elephant dung...I can't feel that bad.

Monday, June 18, 2007

randomness

This little quiz is a good time:

http://www.imagini.net/

It was offered up by a poster at Katie MacAlister's Blog. I'm not sure this represents me, but it's still pretty neat:





I'm not sure where the weekend went. There was some grocery shopping, and some walking in the park, but mostly it somehow got eaten by Man vs. Wild. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing he ever ate. Ya know, Bear Grylls (great name) would be pretty smokin'

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if it weren't for all the freaky stuff he eats

















I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the live frog he ate. Or the live snake. Or the live trout. I swear, this guy could give Ozzy a run for his money.

Friday, June 15, 2007

All alone! Yes!

Today's good news: I have the entire office to myself today, which means two things:
  1. I have gotten a Billy-Fucillo-HUGE amount of work done today; and
  2. I brought puppy with me to work.
He's actually been really great, spent most of the day lying on the floor chewing on his toys (the puppy, not Billy).


Helping me in the office


















Lunch in the park:


Yes, that nose is as wet as it looks



I'd write about knitting, but ever since that nose has appeared in my life, lace-weight mohair has gone away. He's great, but he doesn't respect the knitting like the Knitty Kitty.

Puppy demands more energetic hobbies that knitting.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

United 300

Because I'm inappropriately obsessed with Gerard Butler:



I know everyone's seen it already, but it cracks me up every time.

Today's good news: I held my temper through the search committee meeting. I mean, come on, out of 62 posts, only 13 were even worth using the paper to print out? What's that about?

Oh! More good news! I won a copy of Stray over at the lovely Gena Showalter's place!

In honor of the Yarn Harlot I've decided to take up the cause of the travelling sock! Picked up some Wildfoote from Brown Sheep in Woodstock. I think I'll try my first toe-ups, since I'm making this pair for men. Or maybe I'll buy yet another a skein for myself for travelling. Hmmm...generous or selfish? What to do?

"Then tonight we dine in CLEVELAND!!!!"

Sorry, had to put that one in there. Hi, Dad!

Monday, June 11, 2007

75 emails!

First day back at work.

Mind you, I only missed 3 days. During the summer. I came in this morning, to 75 new emails! only ten of them were junk! And I wonder why I get nothing done during the day. I still haven't gotten anything done today.

Hubby took me out shooting for the first time while we were at Camp. I'm still not thrilled with having the gun in the house, but he's a cop, so it's here. Since I don't get a vote on this one, I decided that if it's going to be here, I need to understand everything about it. So...we went shooting.

Hubby is supposed to be going to armorer and firearms instructor school soon, so I think he was using me as a guinea pig. I'm still not sure how I feel about the experience, but it turns out I'm kinda good at it. Who knew?

Hey, how about that Sopranos ending, huh? Paired with the Frug's Pasta Bolognese and the Colossi Rosso I bought in Woodstock. Going to have to look for that one in Syracuse.

Today's good news: I ate lunch in the Rose Garden.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Two things...

...that shouldn't mix. And yet, I keep trying. It turns out OK if I keep my expectations low.

Currently on the needles:

1) Plain vanilla garter rib pullover in worsted wool, denim color. Size: too large to think about knitting in the middle of summer.

2) Mohair blend lace shawl. It's supposed to be a break from the oh-so-boring wool sweater. Unfortunately, with the arrival of Puppy, not much happening on this either. I tried to work on it one night while hubby was entertaining puppy, but that only lasted for two rows before puppy decided it was his turn to knit. Of course, without opposable thumbs, that doesn't work so well.

Puppy is on a post-lunch break at the moment, but the timer is going off, which means that, instead of taking that precious hour to knit, I just spent it setting up a blog no one is ever going to read. Brilliant with the prioritizing.

BTW, all characters will be referred to in generic terms until I can decide if I can keep this thing both positive and clean.

We'll see.