New socks!

Is there anything better? Nope! I love them. Jen is right, though, Cascade Fixation is rough to walk on, especially on hard floors. Carpet, good, tile, bad. To my dismay, the two socks don't look exactly the same. All the 'counts', stitches, rows, etc, are all the same, so it was probably my tension. The second one is a little stretched, so yeah, I was in a hurry. You can't do that with Fixation, it has way too much give. Still, they're a gift to me, not anyone else, so I can live with the accidental goof.






My sock cuffs always get stretched while I wear them, but once washed, they snap back into place. I slept in them last night to see if the one would loosen like the other had, but so far, not as much.

Next up in the queue is a Sirdar Snowflake/Lion Brand Polarspun small blanket. Which, of course, Fry has already tried to claim. She'll probably get it, she's already snuggled it. It and the circular needle it's on. Silly kid.

Hi Kate! Yeah, beets are good. Who knew? ;)

Picture Time Again!

Just pictures today!
This grab bag of yarn will be a lion scarf for Fry. While posting to the Sit, Sip, and Knit group, I had the idea to freeform a small lion with bead eyes into the scarf. Fry will love it!


This is the first Koigu yarn I've ever bought. Can you believe it? I'm thinking of ways to combine these into a pair of socks. Not good now, but you'll see. It'll be great, or interesting at least.


Here is a bunch of scrumbles (swatches in various sizes) sewn together. There's a few more out there for me to assemble.


And a lot more to knit up.


If I run out of what I bought or brought to the retreat, there's a whole bunch more waiting downstairs.


A whole lot more.


Here's the yarn, or some of it, I'm using in Jane Thornley's current knitalong. Yes, I had to get a grab bag of yarn at the retreat. You know, just in case.


So here's the current work in progress. The sun came out and flooded the item with a bit too much light for the camera to handle.


I also had to pick up what was left of the Indian yarn from Himalaya. No one wanted these, so I had to take them home. Fry loves the colors already, which is good, because I'm making a sweater or vest for her out of this.


Here's a group photo of the yarns I brought back.


On my to-do list, I still have the stained glass socks in Cascade Fixation to finish, my purple cardigan, a Sirdar Snowflake blanket or sweater (it's a do-over), the grey sweater do-over, Goopa's legwarmers, Knit Your Cabin Cove project, the final entrelac sock, finish swatch of sweater for my Dad, Claude's bed, and a list of other projects planned but not started. I have the yarn and patterns, but can't knit fast enough. :)

Way before Friday Fun:

Your Blog Should Be Yellow

You're a cheerful, upbeat blogger who tends to make everyone laugh. You are a great storyteller, and the first to post the latest funny link. You're also friendly and welcoming to everyone who comments on your blog.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

The Knitting Retreat

Wow! We had a blast! Four of us from the knitting group went to The Elms for a Retreat sponsored by The Studio knit shop. I took a Freeform class with everyone else in the group of me (duh), Carol, Chelle, and Carolyn, who is Chelle's mom. Check out the links for more information. Chelle and Carol both have pictures of me. Ug. At least my family loves me. For the record, I'm wearing a size large shirt and size 12 pants. The camera added at least 30lbs. Seriously.

I woke up this morning with a headache, about a week early. Oh joy. It affected my learning ability in class today, but once I came home, had a Relpax and a nap, all is much better. Everyone at home loved their surprises, I had a great time both being in class and teaching a class, and we really do have THE best knitting group. They snuck off to the Old Mill Stitchery while I taught at the library. I think they felt a bit guilty but didn't need to. It's the yarn shop a block away from my mechanic, Bill. I'm there every time the oil needs changing, which is why my husband tries to run over there himself. Ha! That and he's been friends with Bill for ages.

When I got home, one of my Raytown students had called with a question. I remembered her and thought, "Kim? But, she's GOOD." She took a beginner class and already knew the basics. Once the headache died down, I woke up from the nap, I called and could help her. Yay! I think she's going to come over to the group some Sunday, since that's the best day for her.

The "kids" had a great time at Science City, the movies, and taking Sunday off a little bit. When I got back, the house was spotless! I told them I need to run away a lot more often, they're better housekeepers than I am. :D

After Law and Order:SVU on USA, I'm going to bed. This was a great, all knit all the time weekend and I had a blast. Monday afternoon, I'm posting pictures.

Beets-R-Us

Beets are GOOD! Who knew?

"What?" you say, "Beets?"
"Yes!" I say, "Beets!
We had beets last night. Did you know you can get a kid to eat beets if you tell them they'll pee purple? They may not eat a lot, but they will try a few. :D
Remember that Gordon Ramsay cookbook I bought a few weeks ago? I was in a gourmet mood last night, had some porkchops laying around (doesn't everyone?) and goofed around with his Braised Pork in a Rich Glaze recipe. It's supposed to be a pork loin you roll up and tie, so there had to be a few changes to fit it to a chop. So here's what I did:

Shopping list
3 tablespoons olive oil
medium cut pork chops
2 kinds of shredded or sliced vegetables, the more colorful, the better
Green onions
3-4 cloves of garlic
.5 cup of white wine or white wine vinegar
Fresh spinach or other dark green leafy salad greens

I heated a frying/sautee pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil (good for your heart)
Before it was too hot, I placed the three chops in the pan (more chops if there's more in your group)
Brown the chops, then remove to a plate on the back of the stove.
In the same pan, add a couple of shredded carrots and a vegetable you need to get rid of. Ramsay used asparagus, but mine was frozen and I had a yellow squash that needed eating, so I sliced that up longways and threw it in. I also minced a shallot (something like a garlicy onion) while the recipe calls for garlic cloves minced. Use at least 3 for this. I also cut up a bunch (rubber banded) green onions.Add a half cup of cooking white wine or white wine vinegar. Put the chops back in the pan, dribble a bit of soy sauce on each chop, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the chops and serve the vegetables on a bed of leafy greens (fresh spinach is good).

I dislike recipes with a long list of ingredients, thus the beet recipe was right up my alley.

Shopping list:
1lb baby beets (I used three grown up beets for us)
Rock or table salt
2-3 tablespoons thyme
2-3 tablespoons butter
3-4 tablespoons basalmic vinegar

Heat the oven to 350F. Coat the bottom of a sheet of tin foil with rock salt (I used table salt, lots of it, and it worked fine.)
Wash the beets, trimming the tops only, and place on the salt bed.
Sprinkle beets with thyme.
Wrap and seal the beet package, placing it in the oven and cooking until the beets are tender. For 1lb of baby beets, it 15-20 minutes. For three big beets, it was more like 45 minutes.
Remove once tender, letting cool slightly. WEARING A PAIR OF RUBBER GLOVES, peel and then slice the beets. (Seriously, because you don't want purple hands)
Heat 2-3 tablespoons in a small pan, heating until the butter becomes foamy. Put in the beets and cook until coated in butter and glossy. Add the basalmic vinegar, 3-4 tablepoons, cook until butter and vinegar mix is syrupy.

My recommendation is to start the beets first, because the chops won't take long at all.

My next entry will be Sunday or Monday, due to the Knitting Retreat this weekend. Woo hoo! I'm totally excited and need to run off for groceries. The natives can't starve while I'm gone, you know. ;)

Rant-o-rama

Hello! I was over at www.sparkpeople.com hanging out, reading, updating the food and exercise journals, all that. You get points for reading community stuff and I'm thinking it's not worth the points. After reading a list of posts about what peeves people, I wrote this in my blog over there. I don't post there much, because I have this blog and it's my fave.

rant on

I've soaked up the negative energy from a community thread on what peeves people. I can be a real emotional sponge at times, and I don't like that. Plus, I didn't get to post my own peeves because I'm not in the group. I have 20-50lbs to lose, not 50+. At least, not yet.

Getting them out in the open, a major peeve of mine, and why I usually don't join diet websites, is that a lot of people can't understand there's a difference between lose and loose. You lose weight so your pants will fit loose. It's not you loose weight so your pants will fit lose. Every time someone types "I want to loose weight," I imaging their fat orbiting them like Saturn's rings. They've not lost it, merely loosened it.

Misuse of apostrophies drive me nuts, too. It's "Its papers are in order," is correct. Its "It's papers are in order," is not correct. Like with your and you're. You're taking your car to the mall, not your taking you're car to the mall. If you're equals you are, and your means you own it, you don't own taking and "taking you are car" sounds stupid.

Why am I such a nit about all this? Well, after a while of reading mistakes, the mistakes start to look correct and I start making them. I hate that! After all, a girl can't criticize about other's goofs if she makes them, too. (Note that it's TOO, not to.) Another bad thing is that the media is starting to allow these grammar errors slip, too. Why is that bad? These people went to school in communications, took writing classes, and still let goofs go. They're professionals, they're supposed to set the standards for everyone else and they're sloppy.

Obviously, I need breakfast. I always get pissy when I've not eaten in a while. :D

Just this weekend in the Kansas City Star, there was a huge wedding announcement with florid language describing the wedding of what had to be socialites. At the very bottom, they used it's instead of its. If I were that couple hoping to clip the announcement for a scrapbook, I'd be royally pissed. The announcement had damn well be free or heads would roll. The newspaper is supposed to employ journalists. One would assume journalists would have down cold the basics of grammar. Are they allowed to make mistakes? Of course, but not for the mass consumption. That's why there's such a thing as proofreading.

/rant off

Bleh.

I'm pooped! I had a class in Lee's Summit to teach, Knit a Scarf, and it was a more than packed house. The limit is 15, there were at least 18. Not bad if everyone knows a little something, terribly taxing if no one knows how to cast on. Helping new knitters is a bit of a personal thing for me. I want them to have fun, learn a new skill, and find themselves a part of a large, yarn-addicted community. The funnest students are the perfectionists who wonder why their stitches aren't even. They think they're awful when their first few stitches aren't great.

I laugh at them, not in a bad way, but because I recognize myself in them. Hubs and I were talking on the way home from Home Depot last night. I told him, I've never really ever done anything difficult more than once. Usually, I'll hack at something, and it may be tough to do, but I'll do it if I don't have to practice. If it can't be done close to right the first time, forget it. On to the next thing to try.

For my students who share my oddity, I give lots of encouragement and tell them they're better than they think. Which is completely true.

Can't wait until this weekend! It's the great Studio Knitting Retreat at the Elms in Excelsior Springs. All knits, all the time. Carol is meeting me there early to hang out and knit. Spa, yarn, and cash bar. Does it get any better? Add cabana boys and maybe so. Still, even without the boys, it's pretty sweet. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Fry and Hubs are going to Science City at Union Station. What will be cool is they're taking the bus Hubs takes to work. Oooo, cool, huh? It is if you're eleven.

I'll have to take photos of the current works in progress, wool-wise, tomorrow when there's sunlight. Such is the joy of a $20 digital camera. In the meantime, I'm still doing my Jane Thornley knit a long, cranking out scrumbles for this weekend's freeform class at the Elms, working on my Cascade Fixation stained glass sock, and re-doing the grey sweater yoke. I've signed on for the Shut Up and Knit Your Cabin Cove, which is a knit-a-long of knitting yarn dyed by Dave. I have a couple of skeins, both different, and I'm not sure what pattern to do just yet. We'll see...

Something I've learned this week. If a gal eats nearly an entire ice cream cake AND watches tv while knitting and playing computer games, she gains weight! Gosh! Who knew? Obviously, not me. Today was a turnaround. Back on the healthy stuff, jumped rope for nearly 5 minutes, drank more water than diet soda, and have left the potato chips alone so fat. Uh, far. If I keep this up for five more months, I'll have lost a pound.

Cabin Fever and Where'd All the Teens Go?

Classes have been really odd lately. One library cancels due to no one signed up, then today, the two that did register were no-shows. What did the classes have in common? They were knitting for teens. Little boogers. Ah well. I'd be all upset, crying, rolling around on the floor, but yesterday's class, Knit Your Own Hat, was nearly a packed house. Lots of great students, too.

More knitterly things... I've been swatching like crazy, getting ready for the Freeform class a week from today! So are Chelle and Carol, so there's solidarity going on here. Not only am I doing that, but I'm also in on the knitalong at Jane Thornley's. I love her work and hope my stuff comes out as well.

Speaking of coming out well... Thanks for the compliments on the house. I'm hoping Hubs and I can put in a bathroom countertop tomorrow evening sometime. Each new one we put in goes faster than the one before, so that's very good.

Hee hee! I keep falling off the diet wagon and forget to hang out at www.sparkpeople.com. I still watch what I eat, but have been bad at the 8 hours of sleep and eating breakfast goals. Exercise has been a bust. It's so slippery out and I'm wanting to walk or jog. That's no excuse for not exersizing at all, so that's something to add to the list next week.

Picture Time!

While I don't have the camera of my dreams, I still have the $20 digital camera. it works, as long as there is a fresh battery in it. Thus, I present first, the kitchen:

For a very long time, the ceiling was a half and half. While painting the foyer up and down stairs, the dining, bath, and laundry rooms, I'd use the bit left over in the paint tray to paint the kitchen ceiling. This has bugged me for a long time, but not enough to do anything about it, obviously. If a girl is to wait until the kitchen is clean to paint, she'll have a long wait. One day, I slathered plastic over everything and whipped out the paint roller. Voila'. What I'm most happy about is the lack of a demarcation in the year old paint and the fresh.


We're lucky enough to have a bay-ish sort of window(s) in here. Lots of light and they look out over the pond in the back yard and the creek beyond. The blinds are new. I can't find any more drapes in this pattern and color at Target, sadly. The nice thing is, they're wide enough to cut in thirds to make six. With tiebacks, they'll look perfect. A bonus is, we won't be able to pull them to, blocking out even more light like the husband would like.

Due to the fact that I don't have my new camera yet, you can't see the wonderful texture here. I painted with the sandy stuff, using a spatula to make those lovely streaky things, then painted over that when dry. I love texturing and have to make myself NOT do every wall in that Italian parchment style.

Ahhh. Let's gaze upon the nearly clean beauty of the window and sparkly kitchen table. The chairs need recovering in a bad way. I'd love to get the drapery material and use that, but... I'll have to check another Target before giving up hope.

The above picture is much nicer than this, don't you think? Above is the done, below is the to-do. All it really is, is a load of dishes, paying bills and mailing a red scarf, and putting up my knitting books. Thirty minutes of work and the kitchen island is cleared. In fact, by the time anyone reads this, it's probably been cleared off, wiped down, and messed up again.


Look what Hubs and I did last night! Such fun! He cut the copper pipes from the hot and cold, I put on the shut-off valves, and he tightened them. We dismantled the faucet, pulled off the vanity top, put the new top in, and hooked up the faucet. Today, I want to touch up the wall and glue down the side backsplash.

Here's another view, with the caulking and instructions right there. If the guy who measures floors hadn't come by, I'd have started on this by now. I can't wait until we do the two sets of sinks upstairs! The faucets are plastic and there are no shut off valves there, either.

I'll have to post yarn p*rn next, to show off my new sock and one fourth. Plus, I think I have a solution for the grey sweater's yoke. Notice in the below picture how there's an emerald ring weasling its way into the viewfinder. :D



I stole this from Susan, who stole it from Ann, who stole it from Paul, I think. Just for fun.

You Are 27 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

The ONLY reason why I'm scoring this way on this quiz is I'm in my Anti-Procrastination Day mode. If I don't want to do something, it's getting done today.

Slow and Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment. They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How Do People See You?

Dreamy dreams.

I heard a comic say, listing to what someone dreamed last night is boring, otherwise the dreamer would be awake when they had them. He said it more eloquently, of course, since that IS his job. Let's just say that Mary obviously influenced my dreams this morning. She's hired a decorator to help her which must have been on my mind. How else to explain William Shatner hiring me to redecorate his home? The nice thing is, he liked all my ideas, the not so nice thing was he wore drag the entire time. No one should ever wear that much blue eyeshadow. Before that, I had the chance to chat with Paul McCartney. Makes that whole waking up thing a bitch, huh?

What do I dream about when I'm awake? A Pentax K110D Digital camera, of course.

(After looking at both the K110D and the K100D, I want the 100D due to the image stabilization. There are times when the pulse in your hands jiggle the camera too much in lowlight situations, and that stabilization would come in handy.)

Why Pentax? Because our analog (film based) camera is Pentax and I want to use my current lenses. Also, I have a detachable flash, shutter control thingy (shutter release for nighttime shots), plus, I'm attached to my lenses. They're the ones I've used for forever and provide the most versatility. One is a 28-70mm and the other is a 80-210mm, for those who are curious. Sometimes, I want a 250-600mm, but there's really not a use for it unless I go into the paparazzi arena. It's a dud here in Kansas City.



The current SLR we have is ok, but tends to overexpose the pictures. Yeah, I could manually override and bracket my shots, but sometimes, I want the fact it's automatic to be freakin automatic. I also like the idea of instantly seeing the shot on a little screen. The only thing that has me being a snob about it all is my film bias. Like knitters have a natural fiber bias, I have a film bias. Being a computer geek in a former life, I poo poo the idea of clicking to modify a photo to enhance it. Way too easy. Where's the fun in crawling through the mud before daybreak to get a shot of migrating fowl and waiting for juuuust the right light? Click the picture, take it to the computer and enhance the colors to simulate the sunrise? The only skill in that is moving the mouse.

Showing my age, aren't I? I'm sure writers were disdaining the use of word processors versus typewriters, the abacus users were snotty to the calculator carriers, and the washboard women shook their heads over the women who used electric clothes washers as lacking skill. Even Ansel Adams manipulated his images in the darkroom, so what's the difference in using darkroom techniques versus using pixels?

Maybe it's 'unnatural' nature photography. Is anyone else disappointed when seeing cool images from NASA, thinking wow!, then finding out they've been enhanced? Nice, but what does it REALLY look like?

At any rate, I could take a decent picture with the manual Canon SLR I had borrowed years ago. Can you imagine the damage I could do with a souped up little Pentax?

Now I'm in the mood for either a nap or a photographic expedition. Our cat Claude votes nap because I make a warm cushion.

Thanks for the support on the the grey sweater. I think I'll fix it up and give it to whoever of my cousins' kids it fits best. It really is lovely, sad to say. After the Fixation socks, which are really turning out pretty, I'm tackling another sweater if only to beat one into submission. I will be a good yoked sweater knitter, no matter what.

Curse You, Evelyn Woods!

I'm not even going to post a picture of it. No.

I've always been a speed reader. In second grade, the other kids told me to slow down on the reading out loud thing, they couldn't keep up. Then, in high school, we all had to read a paragraph at a time, which was horrible. Only drive your Ferrari in school zones and you'll have some idea.

Where is this going? Well, when a person reads Bernat Softee stuff fluff bla bla bla, the important thing is to NOT SKIP OVER THE CHUNKY. It's Bernat Softee Chunky, not Bernat Softee that you can substitute some DK weight stuff.

The grey sweater, first knitted and fit the cat, after a do-over just barely fits Fry. She deems it itchy, so there's no way, even if it did fit her, that she'd ever wear it. The sweater itself is perfect, just miniature. I thought about felting the crap out of it and turning it into a purse. Tomorrow, when it's better light, I'll have to take a picture. I did a test swatch and everything. Sheesh.

Then, everyone will 'get' to see why I'm so sore today. I painted our kitchen! Yay! There's some touching up, mainly behind the leaden refrigerator, but the painting, she is done! I'll have to post before and after, it really made a difference.

My sweater fiasco has me really bummed. I've started a pair of socks in Cascade Fixation and am doing it in a fair isle of sort. Something fun and confidence building. After they're done, I'll have to do another sweater. Hopefully it'll be somewhere between fitting a Barbie and an elephant. :P

Nothing like a bit of chocolate to cheer up a girl.

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Hee hee! I can hear my Mom think, "Ohh, what have you done, now?" She might think that, but she always takes my side. :) Replace Mom with Dad, and she with he, same thing. My parents are my allies, as are my husband and child. Sisters? Yep, them too.

Back to what I did. First, a bit of background. When I grocery shop, I'm careful to keep the produce (fruits and veg, because the bagboy tonight did not know what 'produce' meant), AWAY FROM cans and other heavy objects. I put all the non-fragile items on first, together, so they're bagged and in the basket FIRST. Then, the produce. When Hubs or Fry are with me, they're in charge of seeing the veg put AWAY FROM milk, orange juice, and possible ice cream.

You know where this is going, right? Not only were the tomatoes UNDER the apples, the sack containing both were UNDER the sack of milk and orange juice. This, after I separated everything, and after is specifically said, "Put the produce on top, please." Was this the first time? Oh no no no. Last time I shopped there, I almost complained at customer service, but the line was six people deep and Fry was due home from school. Today, Hubs was picking her up from Catholic fun time, so I was determined to wait until I could screech at someone.

I was nice, you'd be proud, Mom. Once I had the attention of a customer service person, I said, "You need to see this." I picked up the sack of milk and OJ, saying, "This is milk and juice," and set it on the counter. From under that, I picked up a bag of produce and said, "Here are my vegetables, with the tomatoes under the apples. This is not good and I'm really angry about it. Usually, I have my husband with me to guard against this, but I can't bring him every time I shop." All said in a calm, congenial tone. Not at the top of my lungs, like usual when I'm mad.

She asked me who it was, I pointed out the kid, and added that this wasn't the first time. The last time it happened at this particular store, the guy was much older, old enough to know better.

The gal was totally sweet, replaced my tomatoes, and even stopped by to give me a small coconut creme pie on the house. Coolness, huh? Bad for the diet, but happily, the pie is Hub's favorite, so it's not still in there, mocking me with the other half.

The bad thing is about this, it's not isolated. This store and the two others in the area have horrible bagboy service. Half my stuff is ruined before I get to my car. You don't think it matters? I spend around $40 a week on produce. Once a week, take a $20 bill and throw it out. Put it in the trash, down the garbage disposal, or feed it to the resident rodent pet. It adds up to about a thousand dollars a year. I personally don't want to be out that much on a yearly basis just because a grocery store can't or won't train their personnel.

On the plus side, if this is the worst thing I have to worry about, I'm doing all right. :)

The Care and Feeding of a Domestic Diva

It all started with Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The promos on BBCAmerica led me to believe he's a horrible, foul-mouthed jerk who managed to get his own reality show. So, I never watched. Then one night, after sitting through Top Chef, I flipped to where Kitchen Nighmares was just starting. It was fun. In all the promos, the ranting and raving parts were outtakes from Ramsay trying to give his proteges a backbone. In one show, he has the chef make the specialty and subsequently gets poisoned by a bad scallop. Everyone who's had a sample, barfs, avoiding the food poisoning. Plus, a lot of those kitchens are filthy. Never in my life, not even when the mouse came over to visit, has our kitchen been as bad. "So?" you say? WE don't feed the general public, nor do we get inspected by the health department. I'm wondering how much the chefs have had to pay off the inspectors. Sheesh.

So anyway, when I was loitering about in Barnes and Noble a couple weeks ago, I found this:


Could I pass it up? Oh heck no! It has the pursuit of perfection on it, how could I? This is one of those books, like Tis and Angela's Ashes, that I want to totally focus on, with no TV or computer in the background. I'll have to set up a stack o' books in the living room near a window for a read-o-rama.

What WAS I looking for in the cookbook rack? This, actually:


It's sooo goood. The recipes are just hard enough to be challenging without being so exotic my family won't eat them. What else is wonderful is that it gives the reason to the rhyme. It's a keeper. Currently, I'm going through my cookbooks to see what stays and what goes. If I've never used a recipe from a book, out it goes. No mercy. On the endangered list is the Dean and Deluca, the Three Ingredient cookbook, and the Heart Healthy Recipes for all seasons. They're all good, but not something I use. If it's not useful to me and I need the counter space, out it goes.

In keeping with the You: On a Diet, I found:


The Ramsay's cookbook is great for the once a week treat, since there's no nutritional values given for anything. Otherwise, the Cooking the RealAge way is great for building a healthy menu for the week. For some strange reason, I enjoy cooking and am getting better at it all the time. Practice really does make perfect, who knew?

Funny Fry conversation:
Me, holding out my new emerald ring: Someday, when I croak, you can give this to your kids.
Fry, a mule-ish expression on her sweet little face: My kids ain't getting squat!

I think the little booger expects to keep every bit of jewelry I own for herself. Ha!

In fiber news, I've finished a sleeve for the grey sweater. Joy oh joy! I'm a third of the way on the second sleeve, planning to be done with that this afternoon sometime. Then, it's yoke city all the way. It'll be a lovely dance of light to dark greys to the neck. I really can't wait. After that, it's a harsh choice to make on what sock pair to knit up next.

I suppose sometime I'll have to publish 'The List'. All the projects I've planned that not only I have the pattern for, but I also have the yarn to complete them. The List is three pages long, so I'll probably type it up in Word, first.

Fry and I are having a Python-a-thon today. It's so nice, no commercials, and the box set is still on sale. There's hours of shows and if you work it up, it's totally worth the cost. Especially when Fry giggles over something funny.

There's not much about 'The Man' this post because he's at drill this weekend. We love it when he comes home. We girls love on him, make sure he has root beer to drink and comfy clothes, and he tells us about his Army adventures for the weekend. Lots of fun.

Something fun for knitters.

Think you're good? So did I, so I took this knitting test. I only missed one, and it was the felting question, not technically a knitting question. So there. :D All that obsession has finally paid off, sort of.

Friday Fun

Sadly, today's Friday Fun won't interest you if you don't knit. Still, if you wear anything knitted, the historical garments can be interesting.

Fry is looking forward to the weekend. Saturday, lunch is 'free' at our Sit, Sip, and Knit. Free in cost? No, just free of diet concerns. Breakfast and dinner will be healthy, but lunch doesn't have to be. Nice, huh?

Yesterday was the day I should have fallen off the wagon. No change in weight since Monday. My thoughts are, if I'm starving (at 1200-1500 calories a day, ha ha ha!), and exercising, I should be losing water weight at least, right. Not an ounce. By the fourth day, I'm thinking to hell with it, I'm eating what I want when I want. But, this time was different. I do that wagon thing EVERY time. Except now. This time, I'm sticking it out. It's an experiment. How long must I stay on the health kick until weight loss occurs? A week? A month? A year? I'd like to get a physical this month to get the beginning stats, then see next year if this health stuff worked.

I'd like to report great progress on the grey sweater, just because I'm tired of grey. Alas, not much has happened, despite my crazed knitting when I do get the chance. I'm done with the body, and am now on a sleeve. One more, since most people in this house have two arms, and on to the yoke. Yay! Action, excitement, and adventure. Yes, the bar is set pretty low nowadays. ;)

It's a drive by resolution

I stole this from Susan:

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Dance randomly at work. Get your resolution here.

The second one told me to quit working the street corner. How well they know me.

Just kidding, Mom!

Evenually, I'll type up my 2007 project list. In the meantime, I've done tons of laundry, tons. Two loads of towels, three of comforters, and no more for about...a week, tops.

Wow. Totally dull. Maybe it's the diet and exercise stuff, it's cutting off the glucose to my brain. Life will be much more exciting once I eat an entire cheesecake. Until that happens, I'll just plug away on the grey sweater, send in my completed red scarf, and try to get a picture of my emerald ring.

Happy New Year 2007!

So. Those of us born before 1970, did you think we'd ever GET to 2000, never mind 2007. Fry is blase' about the year's number, while Hubs and I try not to think about it. I remember calculating how old I'd be on January 1st, 2000, and thinking gaw! Thirty five is so OLD! Yikes! Who LIVES that long? Thankfully, I did!

In the interest of living longer, I've clawed my way back on the bandwagon. All the measurements were taken this morning, while semi-clothed, and noted in the offline journal. When I'm vain and willing to forgo breathing, I'll wear a size 10 US. Otherwise, when I need the blood to go past my waist, my 12s are a happy size. If I were a planet, I'd be Jupiter. Fluffy on the outside, with a dense inner core. Even with every ounce of fat on me dieted away, I'd still weigh 115lbs, hardly anorexic. I'm not stressing over it. This month has been chock full of sweets, so a gain was expected. Starting today, I'm drinking more water than soda, eating more fresh foods than processed, and eating less refined carbs. Exercise would be nice, but I've slept through today's morning workout and will miss tomorrow's. Fry is at her Aunt Toppa's, so I'll be on the road before 9am to get her.

Is it lame to answer comments in the blog body? Probably, which is why I'm doing it anyway. :D As Steph said, gifts from the parents were fabulous. I love them. :) My parents bought themselves a big present, a new computer, which is great! Their old one was on its last leg. I'm glad they treated themselves. Cami, you should see MY Bunbun. Ratty, orange, missing an eye and an ear, Bun is in a drawer with all our other mementos. Fry took her Bun with her this weekend. Silly baby. Chelle, I can't wait until you see the ring, too. Because that means it'll be back on my finger. :P The jeweler can't fix it fast enough for me. Susan, the Yarn Barn is wonderful in person. All that yarn, it's hard to know what to look at first. I have to meander around and around to take it all in. Since Hubs doesn't do his Army drill there, I try to have a shopping list when I go. We used to be in Lawrence a lot more often, then.

I'm off to log in the food. I'm thinking about sneaking in a piece of fruit as a nighttime snack. We had the required black eyed peas for New Year's luck, with a sliced ham from Schwan's. Fry is going to be so jealous. We saved some for her, so tomorrow is ham sandwiches.