Wowwwwww.

Ok, as soon as I get the tile backsplash replaced and the walls painted, I'm posting a picture of the results.

The counters are better than I thought they'd be. Much better. Holy moly. Gorgeous. Click on the picture to see the countertops installed in a home. Not ours, not until I get the pictures developed. The sink, garbage disposal, and dishwasher are all in place, and WORK! Yay! No leaks, everything has a shut off valve for the water, and it's nice and clean under there.

My husband and I made a great team. I'd start the nuts and bolts, and he'd tighten up everything. The kitchen sink is the hardest, next up are the guest, master, and Fry's bathroom counters. There are three vanity counters and four sinks to do. Nothing has a shutoff valve, so that's going to be fun. Plus, three of the faucets are soldered to the copper tubing. Oh boy.

The secret to any good plumbing job is plumber's tape. Don't leave home without it. Putty is ok, and good for sealing that ring around the drain, but it's the tape that does the trick.







On to the good stuff! Finally, a shawl good enough for my cousin. I'm using three skeins of Lion's Brand Trendsetter's Dune knockoff mixed with an eyelash yarn. Not a fun furry yarn, but a true 'lashy' yarn.








Whenever I go to www.virtualyarns.com, this sweater always makes me yearn for its pattern. I love it. There are some other patterns I adore, but the Medieval draws me in every time. Blue or red? Whichever, I love them both. While I'm not fond of blue, (a nice way to put it) in this, it's ok.






Finally, I broke down and bought me a pre-Christmas present. This came in the mail today. You have to have the book to do any of the patterns, the prices are without book, so... I wanted to see if Virtual Yarn's yarns were as good as they looked. This picture does NOT do them justice.










Pebble beach is much prettier in real life. A lot more blue, too. But then there's flashes of red and yellow. Very lovely. It's 100% superwash wool, three ply.



Then, because I also needed to see what the two ply is like, here we have Mara. A very royal blue. A bit heathered, too.

I ordered the Pebble beach because I wanted to see what the color looked like, and the Mara because I'm leaning towards the Medieval in blue. The blue contrasts much more with the yellowish (more like wheat) than the red. www.elann.com 's Peruvian wool and Jaimeson & Smith's DK compare in the color and heft of the yarn. I happen to have a lot of the Peruvian in the stash already... Maybe I should mix and match? Maybe get started knitting TODAY? LOL! I'll knit a few more inches on my father's Christmas, a few more on my cousin's, THEN get busy reading the Medieval pattern. It's so cold out, I NEED a new sweater, right?

I'm going to ignore the purple cardigan and grey sweater for about 10 minutes, then set them out. I'll have to knock out a few rows, just to keep them from 'feeling' neglected. :)

Flowers and plumbing

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard.


I stole this from Susan at Red Dirt Knitter! It's lovely to see what flower a person is, don't you think? C'mon, Mom, take the test. You know you want to. ;)

Quick update, then I must go to bed.

Last night, we put in shut off valves here in the kitchen. There's no leaks, no one had their feelings hurt, and no one threw a fit. (To family who know me too well: I know! Weird, huh?) Skin was broken, though. It's not a true DIY if no blood is shed.

My hands hurt from the removal of the kitchen sink. Hubs and I traded off on the wrenching of the wrench. Plus, that old sink is made of lead. Good NESS! We couldn't get a grip to pull it from the countertop. Then, remembering all the 350lb leg presses I used to do, I pushed up the sink from the bottom and voila! Everything is ready for the new countertops tomorrow morning. Yay!

How about a do-over on question 8?

Just sayin'.

You are The Devil

Materiality. Material Force. Material temptation; sometimes obsession

The Devil is often a great card for business success; hard work and ambition.

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major arcana, the Devil is not really "Satan" at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate or messy or wild - or ambitious. This, too, is a form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is hard to resist. The important thing is to remember that any chain is freely worn. In most cases, you are enslaved only because you allow it.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Ok, if we back it up and change #8 from "In a world ruled by me" to "In a world where people are nicer, we get this. Whew!

You are the World

Completion, Good Reward.

The World is the final card of the Major Arcana, and as such represents saturnian energies, time, and completion.

The World card pictures a dancer in a Yoni (sometimes made of laurel leaves). The Yoni symbolizes the great Mother, the cervix through which everything is born, and also the doorway to the next life after death. It is indicative of a complete circle. Everything is finally coming together, successfully and at last. You will get that Ph.D. you've been working for years to complete, graduate at long last, marry after a long engagement, or finish that huge project. This card is not for little ends, but for big ones, important ones, ones that come with well earned cheers and acknowledgements. Your hard work, knowledge, wisdom, patience, etc, will absolutely pay-off; you've done everything right.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

No one wants to end up like this:

Happy Thanksgiving '06!

Oh my gosh! I've been negligent.

Ok, have I mentioned Chuck? The knitting group on Sundays have heard of him. It seems Mom and Dad's cat Audine had a kitten she didn't want and didn't take care of. Mom called Little Goopa, the cat expert, who helped them nurse the kitten to health. He is named Chuck, and loves my Dad. My father is not a cat in the house person, but Chuck has managed to 'cute' his way inside. One night, while I was talking my Mom's ear off, Chuck fell asleep on Dad's Spongebob socks. Clearly, Chuck needs a Kitty Pi Bed. And now, he has one. It's a more masculine version, black to match him, and no foo foo eyelash yarn. Right now, it's drying after being felted to death.

Everyone's Christmas is done, excluding my Dad's. Once I decide on a yarn, I change my mind. Can I get a pair of socks knitted before December 1st? Maybe, probably, I'm sure as long as they're not knitted on 0US needles. :D

The cold is getting better, hugs to anyone who was concerned. I'm sure Nyquil's stock will go back down to normal. I still have coughs when I laugh, but not bad.

The bathroom counters are at Home Depot, waiting for me to pick up. The kitchen countertops will be installed on Tuesday. Am I excited? Oh yeah! Doing the plumbing myself isn't going to be the best, but everything will look nice before being flooded. (Kidding)

I'm going to HAVE to get a digital camera that can handle being dropped. Seriously.

The NaNoWriMo, while no longer an option, has spawned another goal. I'd like to finish the novel by the end of the year. It might be pushed to the end of January, maybe.

Dumb and Dumber is on. Fry and I are laughing, of course. It's not a Thanksgiving movie, but there IS snow in it. Just right for the Christmas mood.

House of Cough and Fog

Sick. Tired. Sick and tired. Tired of sick and tired.

This is the one cold/flu I get during the year. Right during 'that' time, too, such fun. Whatever scrap of motivation to do anything has been fevered right outta me. Because I'm sick so rarely, of course I think I'm at death's door. Keeping the dishes done, the trash bagged, and the laundry somewhat caught up are major accomplishments. You'd think I'd revel in the computer game and knitting time, but I'm not even up for that.

Countertops are being made, the guy at Carpet Corner needs to get back to me about the floor's cost, and the roof guys dropped off the shingles and things today. Which means I need to find a place to park tomorrow, somewhere quieter than the constant hammering on the roof. Sadly, I won't be able to leave until they put up the plywood, since the stuff is blocking me in.

Fry gets to stay with her Aunt Toppa this weekend, and both girls are excited. They're both a lot alike, which is fun. Little sister, round two.

More later, maybe when the various 'Quils I've taken wear off. :) I think I need another nap.

Running Amok

I have spoken: Enough of the dead animals already. Was it Claude, our sweet cat? Was it Pinky, our male Betta fish? Or was it the frog who'd taken up residence in the pond skimmer?

It was the frog. Our pump was really noisy. Yeah, you already know where I'm going with this. Gagarama. Let's just say the pump, although clean, is still noisy. The pond is cleaner, but not clean. I dunno. I want to dump it all out and have a do-over. It's pretty big and it's pretty cold out there. Something to do on a lovely spring day, don't you think?

Last night was a Knit a Scarf class, today was Beginning Knitting. Not only that, but Fry had a singing program, I had to return some floor samples, and had to stop by Walmart for class supplies, since the students had cleaned me out the night before. I get a little red "How to Knit" book there, since it's a dollar cheaper than anywhere else. Plus, I also like to supply gift bags for the kits. I'd not been to Wal-mart in so long, they'd moved things around. Ordinarily, I'd be fine with it, but I woke up with a headache and didn't want to think.

NaNoWriMo is going slooooow. Nothing yesterday, due to the lovely weather, and nothing today due to headache and not being home. Tomorrow, while the Husband is doing a Veteran's Day color guard, and Fry is busy with her room-Nintendo-Playstation-Television, I'll settle down for a write-a-thon. Sunday, I'm going to the SSK, since the group is now split into Saturday and Sunday meets. Which, is really cool, because some can go on Saturday and some can go on Sunday. It's good for everyone, especially us versatile ones who can pick a day and go. What I'll do is go on Saturday one week and Sunday the next.

Friday Fun:
Star Trek Personality Test Results: ENTJ

This test says you are an ENTJ (Extrovert, Intuitive, Thinker, Judger).* In Star Trek, you share a basic personality configuration with the characters of Q and Quark.



"If you can't stand a little bloody nose, maybe you should go back and hide under your bed." - Q

Qualities

People like you are generally creative with a global perspective, full of energy, larger than life, and ready to take charge. You're friendly, but strong-willed and driven to show your skills and expertise to others. You enjoy praise, but you're more interested in a direct and fair appraisal of your work. You admire others for their competence, consistency, and honesty. You are sometimes a little too outspoken in your opinions of others, but you return consideration for kindness.

You're very organized, quick, and productive. You're a confident strategic thinker and work best when you're full of purpose. If something is necessary to your goal, you will do it regardless of danger or disgust. This can lead to occasionally rash action on your part.

You can't stand wasting time with people who won't get to the point, but you respond instantly to creative thinking and logical explanations.

Goals

Your primary goal in life is demonstrating your competence and making important things happen. Your reward is being given large, important projects to plan and manage.

Work

Your position must involve the ability to control your work. You absolutely cannot stand being micro-managed. You're good at making plans, but unlike many others, you're also good at following through on those plans. You're also good at delegating responsibility, though your own resolution and determination may leave you unprepared when others flake out. You need to be careful not to make everything a "do or die."

Relationships

You are warm and giving and caring, and friends and lovers will enjoy the way you listen and learn from your relationships. You can scare people off when they are unfortunate enough to cross you, and you sometimes perceive a challenge where none exists. You may have sacrificed more than one relationship to accomplish something, even when such sacrifice wasn't actually required.

Your tendency to focus too much on achieving goals can destroy tenderness and intimacy. You need forgiving friends and a mate who can remind you of needs and goals outside the immediate task. Since you tend to think large, you can overlook basic, everyday necessities.

Jobs

Good careers for your type include being a chief executive officer, network integration specialist, all-being master of time/space/dimension, management consultant politician, real estate developer, marketing executive, bartender, and judge.

Is it naptime, yet?

When a mom has yet to take the first life-giving slurp of coffee, she does NOT want to hear, "Mom? What are these brown things on Squeeky? They look like bugs."

While I don't know what they were, I do know that Squeeky is on the back deck, waiting for burial. Oh joy.

After a shower and lunch, I'll take care of all the outdoors stuff. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be gorgeous days, perfect for planting bulbs and dead rodents. I'll also 'get' to clean out the pond. Makes raking leaves look good, don't you think?

Speaking of looking good, Chelle, who always looks good, has a birthday today! I didn't know about it until Monday, and she's recently moved, so sadly, there's no card for her. Instead, I'm giving her a birthday shout out on my blog. (Hilarious from a middle-aged chick, don'tcha think?) Chelle is a doll, a sweetheart of a person. She's high energy, charming, and always a blast to be around. I'm thrilled to call her a friend. I'm even more thrilled she calls ME a friend. :D If anyone gets a chance, run over to Hanging by a Thin Thread and wish her happy birthday.

Want to know a secret? I'm in the National Novel Written in a Month thing this year. I've spent the first 7 days racking my brain for a good story to write, but couldn't get this one out of my head. A novelist is SUPPOSED to start with a blank page, but... I want to finish this one. I'm sorry, but THIS is the story I want to write and I'm tired of ignoring it. If you click here, it should bring up my author's page, which gives my current word count and an excerpt. The nice thing is, the first four thousand words are better than I remembered.

I didn't have enough to do, with classes, Christmas knitting, remodeling, that I need to write a 50000 word novel. It's 'only' 200 pages, and as often and as long as I post, should be a piece of cake for me. There are daily word count goals, nothing too horrible. Currently, if I can type 2100 words a day, I'm good. 8 pages a day sound like and is a lot, but, the story has been in my brain for a couple of years, now. I just need to type it out.

Say it isn't so!

OMG! K-Fed and Brittney broke up?! Who would have ever thought it?!

Catty Alert: She's still not as trashy as her future ex-husband. Both her kids are legitimate AND have the same father. Brittney will never be as low as K-Fed on the trailer park yardstick. The yardstick goes from "Jerry Springer has you on speeddial" to "You're only slumming it for the kitch factor" level, by the way.


On to lovely politics. For my Missouri friends: Did y'all know about the minimum wage increase request? Plus, the yes or no to let non-profits and veterans organizations NOT pay property tax? No one thought to protest the new charge for fire safety inspections, those charges based on square footage? Stem cells and higher cigarettes stole the show. Of course the minimum wage needs increasing, but should we let churches and other organizations not pay their property tax? They already don't pay income taxes, and I think they get out of paying sales tax. The 'veterans' is there to throw voters. You can't vote against something with the word 'veterans' in it, that's anti-American! If an organization currently pays property tax, they shouldn't be allowed to weasle out of it. Next, the fire safety inspection money would go to the fire departments. Um, since when is public safety a profit center? Isn't this why we pay sales, city, and state tax? Never mind the unending calls from the associations of police, state troopers, firemen, and any other public servants, all calling with their hands out for our money.

Let's move away from politics and onto dead animals. When one is in a marriage, and one is the 'farm' person, that farm person is expected to deal with the dead things laying around. Not that dead animals lie scattered around our house. (It IS lie, isn't it? They lie there, but I didn't lay them there, right?) Squeeky III is in the laundry room, in, yes, a shoebox, waiting for services later. To be fair, Hubby was at an old fogey's meeting tonight and missed all the fun. If I were truly evil, I wouldn't have warned him of the dead rodent on the clothes washer. Something else that's good, Squeeky's grave will be easy to dig. With Squeeky I, the ground was frozen solid. Hubby, of course, didn't deal with the carcass, being 'on vacation' in Kuwait. The only bad thing is, the weather is way too warm to be happy about a corpse in the house. Squeeky I could have stayed in the garage until spring thaw, no such luck for Squeeky III.

Fry took this latest death hard, but not nearly as bad as Squeeky I or Herbie's passing. Squeeky II, in case anyone wonders, died within hours of bringing him home. Not much attachment there.

Yes, knitting has been done. Not a lot, what with voting, returning items at Home Depot, and tearing off tile in the kitchen. I'm working on... MOM'S Christmas gift! Whatever could it be? I can't tell, although I do know she'll like it. Why? Because she's my Mom! I'm her favorite kid, just like my other sisters. :D

The Yarn Stops Here

I think I might have to give the yarn buying a rest. Hubby came home from drill yesterday, and while we were at the Olive Garden celebrating his birthday, I mentioned the Knitcraft's great yarn sale. Since Fry was there, she gleefully told him how much I'd bought, earning me a wince from him. It wasn't THAT much. :P The boy needs a new pair of socks, just so he'll know I love him.

Nothing fits. Oh yeah, of course not my clothes, that's a given after all the pumpkin pie in the past month. No, I'm talking about light bulbs, 36 cabinet and drawer pulls, and our gorgeous new window blinds. Anyone who's see our kitchen bay windows, tell me, don't you think they're MORE than 29" long? Wouldn't any sane, rational human being know this? For some idiotic reason, I wrote 29" instead of 62" Was I thinking 59"? Surely not 92"? Was I under a migraine's influence? Who knows? At least with the recessed light bulbs, they look the same, just bigger. Plus, the cabinet handles, aren't they supposed to be a standard size? I wanted THOSE pulls and they totally don't fit. What crap.

Two down, two to go. The two sisters' Christmas presents are done, now it's the parents that need theirs. When I make something, I'm always nervous. What if they don't like it? I always think happy thoughts about the giftee while knitting, plus, if it's something they wear, like a sweater, I give it a hug before wrapping it away for gifting.

I'll need to get a little further in the Christmas knitting before committing myself, but here's a couple of charities I'm wanting to cast on and support. First is Norma's Red Scarf Project. I did this last year and had fun with it. Even better? They DON'T want the scarves before January. Thus, this is a great project if you get tired of knitting the same thing. I usually have a big needle and a small needle project going at the same time, just to keep the hand cramps away. Small needle is my purple cardigan, big needle is the Christmas surprise. Even bigger will be a shawl for my cousin, since I'm sure she's bitter by now. She'd admired one I'd made my Mom, and I'd not made something cousin-worthy since. I'm also thinking I need to make her kids some mittens as well. Two of them are Fry's age, while the baby girl is younger. They're all girls, so it'll be fun to find yarns girlish without being girly.

Oh, the other charity project is Caps to the Capitol. While I don't think it'll change our President's mind about helping babies in third world countries, it'll help me to know I did something good. What would I rather have, all this scrap yarn in my stash, or sending my knitted up scraps to a tiny baby needing warmth? Easy choice, huh? It would be nice to commit to a cap a day. Sounds like a good time to sketch up a goal list, huh? ;)

Insert Cute Title Here

Or, "Too stupid to realize that they had been called stupid."

I like it that Keith Olberman has the intelligence and eloquence to say what needs saying. He does this without making fun of the physically ill, calling people traitors, or otherwise demeaning those who don't agree with his point of view.

Countdown with Keith Olberman.

Here's a non-video version.

Then Kerry added more to the frey on the Don Imus show. He makes a lot of sense, whatever party he calls his.

I've watched the video, read the transcript, and have an opinion. (Surprise, huh???) Our administration is focusing on the trivial, and yes, I call a botched joke trivial, when there's so much else to handle. Has no one else ever said something the wrong way? No one ever twisted their words or dangle a participle and had it come out horribly? I'd like to think that it's only the super-brilliant people who do, since I'm rather good at saying the wrong thing but totally meaning the right way. I'm forever calling my Mom and saying, "You know when I said X-Y-Z? I didn't mean x-Y-z, but X-y-z." She always knows what I meant, and I'm thinking our current administration knows what Kerry meant, too.

Here's a newsbit that my Mom (all-knowing and wise beyond all our years put together) had told me about long ago. It's where our President is using Christians as a way to further his own agenda. If I were a true Christian, I'd be highly insulted. Our President thinks that Christians will blindly follow anyone their preacher advocates. He uses religion as a way to manipulate and turns people's faith in his favor. He might actually believe the 'God stuff' he spouts, but then again, he might not. If he's a true believer, then great! I'm glad it works for him. If not, I think Shakespeare said it best, "The devil hath power to quote scripture to suit his own purpose." Does this mean our leader is the devil? No, it means even the most evil can find evil in what is supposed to be good.

Here's video of the worst of the worst of campaign ads. Do they work for the general masses? I know that if I see a nasty ad, I tend to vote for the other guy. Especially so if they don't stoop to the newly lowered level.

In other news, you never really know how messy your house is until a stranger comes over and takes digital pictures of it. Oh joy, huh? That's the negative. The positive is now the counter top measurements have been taken. Next step, installation in around three weeks. :D Just in time for Thanksgiving! Which reminds me, I have no idea what we're doing for Thanksgiving. It'll be something, but I don't know if there'll be driving involved (read: mass quantities of knitting time), or major housecleaning. Either way, I don't care. It's all good for me.

Speaking of knitting, I signed up for Blue Moon Fiber Art's sock club for 2007. It's really pricy, but I love their stuff. Plus, I'll have money from knitting classes to spend on it, too. In fact, I'm teaching a class tonight at Parkville, called Advanced Knitting. Should be fun. Usually is.