Saturday, April 28, 2007

I am a boneless chicken.

Mostly.

It's been the wonderful week of migraines, so I've either been sleepy or cranky. Loads of fun, hm? While being elderly isn't an attraction, menopause is.

What's happened since the last blog? A fractured wrist, on Frygirl, a dental appointment, both me and Fry, a bit of yarn shopping where I totally resisted the Summer Tweed, and pond cleaning.

I'll have to break out the digital camera tomorrow, to show off the Not-a-poncho, plus the one leg warmer for Little Goopa done so far. There's about three inches on the second. I'll also have to firm up the list for Stitches Midwest. It'll have to be projects to show off my intense knitting skills.

::snickers::

Thursday, April 19, 2007

I am a cheap date, mostly.

Seriously, I am. While on the phone with Hubs, I managed to get MSN on the new computer. Of course they have to be compatible with Vista, duh, right? The bad thing is, AT&T's Yahoo browser isn't, just yet. The Internet Explorer does have a Yahoo toolbar with all my Yahoo favorites. The happy thing is, MSN had all my millions of Favorites. After MSN popped up just fine, I had to cheer at the ease of it. I'd tried to install the AT&T, first, and wasn't too optimistic about MSN. If MSN hadn't worked, I'd have had to cut and paste, or import/export the Favorites files. Hideously tedious.

Yes, very exciting. I think tomorrow, I'll post pictures of drying paint.

Does anyone else every want to say to others, "I'm honestly not an idiot." Last night in fair isle class, I knit up three color rows. They looked lovely, but the first row, about halfway through, had a glitch. I knit one lavendar instead of two and kept going in the pattern. They were all off for the rest of the row. Everything I did that evening, I had to undo. Makes me feel rather dumb, but oh well. I've not only undone, I've redone and gone beyond.

Chelle, no UTI, but a speedy computer. I'm VERY glad the bathroom is close to the computer. Ha! The weight loss suppliment is called "Triple-Action Weight Control". I've found it at Hyvee and K-mart in the diet pills section. After I take one, in 30 minutes, I'm not as hungry, and that's it. Dexatrim made me feel crazy, and everything else doesn't knock the hungries.

Susan, yes, I love birthday weeks. The computer is a combo Mother's Day/Birthday splurge. It's not for me, per se, but I've been the one hogging it all the time. I log out around 4:30pm when Fry hits the door, unless she wants the older computer. It still has all her Club Penguin kid stuff on it, so she's indifferent to the new machine. Both of them, Fry and Hubs, aren't keen on change, and they prefer the old. Works for me!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

I can't pee!

Whaaa? you ask. It's true. Saturday, I went out and bought a computer. Fry argued with me, but I prevailed. It's an emachines with a 19 inch flat panel monitor. Gorgeous. With Windows Vista, 512mg RAM is slow, slower than XP Pro with the same amount. So, I ran off to the store and bought another gig of memory. It's in and working great.

Why can't I pee? The new computer is so fast, I don't have time for bathroom breaks. On the old computer, I could start the Sims 2, go potty or get a drink, then come back and click a neighborhood to play. Then, do what I didn't get done, and pick a family to play. After that, I'd pick a knitting project or something else to do while sitting. Paying bills, reading magazines, the above knitting project, all those plus laundry, dishes, all those could be done while the game loaded. Sad, isn't it? The monitor is gorgeous, it's really speedy, and has tons of hard drive space. The old computer, which I still have to blog, email, and check my list of blogs to read from, is connected to the new with a wireless network. I've not figured out how to ftp files between them just yet. Also something bad, the reason why we can't print or run AT&T and MSN browsers is they're not up on the Vista platform yet.

I need to work on my not a poncho, now that my class homework is done(fair isle knitting on Wednesday).

Today is my Mom's birthday! She's a wonderful person who's made the world a better place just by being in it. She would disagree, because she's modest to a fault, but anyone who's ever spent time around her knows I don't exaggerate. Mom will send me a picture of her Ruffled Roses scarf, since I may have exaggerated on how tough Chelle was. Also how mad she was at me and how she'd beat me up if I didn't get a picture of the finished scarf.

I did promise to say how'd I'd lost weight on Easter vacation, didn't I. Ok, here's the deal, and it does seem I have issues with food. Who doesn't, right?

I've always had a healthy appetite, even as a very small fry. After reading Gone With The Wind at an impressionable age, I was/am embarrassed by how much I can put away. As a kid, I was very lucky to have a fast metabolism. Also, I didn't know how much portion sizes and computers could affect a waistline. Never mind how aging impacts weight, in the last 20 years, food sizes have increased and so has sedentary activities.

I hate being hungry, not because of the physical discomfort, but because I'm usually the only one who is so. My 'mantra' is if I'm hungry within three hours of eating a meal, then I can't be really hungry. With a family holiday looming, I didn't want to be the only one scrounging for second helpings at every meal, so I cheated. Was it sneak eating? Nope! It's called Triple-Action Weight Control. It has hoodia, green tea and magnolia extracts. The gelcaps also has energizing B vitamins. What I like about this weight control supplement is that I'm not jittery or odd feeling after taking one. The dosage is one to two caps before meals, I usually take one before breakfast and one before lunch. No one in our family tends to snack after dinner, which is another reason why I lost. I'm good on self-control until 10pm. Once the clock strikes, this mouse goes for the cheese. There may have to be one before dinner, too.

For me, this works because I'm not starving all the time. When I'm hungry, it's for a good reason and I feel fuller faster. The weight since I've been home has started to creep back up by a pound. It's the going to bed too late (blame the new computer), and eating at night (see prior blame). The supplement doesn't get me out of having to exercise or allows me to eat sweets all the time. Sadly, because of all that Easter chocolate on clearance. :D

Friday, April 13, 2007

Lucky 13

Friday the 13ths don't scare me. They're usually the days I get raises, win drawings, and get other good news. What's today's good news? Some loss in weight! Yay! I hang out at Sparkpeople.com where some of the members will whine about losing 'only' 10lbs that month. To them I say, "Bite me," while hoping to lose 10lbs in a year. (Actually, it takes my body about two months to realize we're not in a famine and that it's ok to let go of a couple of fat cells.)

But then, I'm sure there are those out there who'd say the same to me when I whine about how 'fat' I am. No matter who you are, there's someone thinner and someone thicker than you are.

I don't know if I've posted this story about body acceptance, but here it is. Once upon a time, I was at the gym, on a stair climber, working like a fiend to burn off not only the fat, but also the muscle. Why the muscle? Because I'm an apple and have frog legs. Let's pause and let my Mom stop scoffing/laughing at the imagery. Ok. Even when I was 115lbs (yes! I really was! Weird, huh? I even have pictures.), I had thick legs with not a bit of fat on them. Because I can't like what I have, my goal was to work off the muscle until my legs were nice and lean. Next to me, on another stairstepper, was a little ole gal with dancer's legs, working just as hard as I was. We got to chatting, because that's what I do, and lo and behold, she was trying to get MY legs. While I was working out and all the blood was going through the brain, I had an Epiphany. Instead of me kicking my own butt for thinner legs, and instead of her doing the same for muscular legs, why not each of us enhance and love what we have?

Except for that part around the middle. You know, the part that looks like a flotation device was put on BEFORE you put on the swimsuit.

In knitting news: UFOs include legwarmers for little Goopa, a purple cardigan for me, a primary color summer top for Fry, clogs for the clog-a-thon in our group, freeforming the brown yarns still, the Not-A-Poncho, and new this week's Alice Starmore Tam. Nothing lately has been done on the cardigan or summer top, the clogs only get worked on Saturdays at Java, and the Not-A-Poncho's front is DONE! Yay! Now the back, sew it up, then embellish. If the Tam doesn't kick my butt, I could have the whole back done by the time Jane returns.

For those of us more accustomed to cowboy hats than Tams, here's a photo from Knitting in Color:
In essence, it's a glorified beret without the extra floppiness.

Knitting In Color is a blog on my list of things to read, and Nanette is beyond great in her color knitting ability. Plus, who can resist a cute rabbit picture or two? This is also the only decent picture of a tam I could find. Once my own is done, I'm posting mine just so there's more than one. That, and my tam will have different colors.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Let's see YOU say no.

Seriously. Here is the Childsplay colorway for Lorna's Laces I bought in Shepherd Sport.


Then here is some of the lovely new Envy, which I now own in Shepherd Sock.


I know, I know. What about the yarn diet? No one can go to a sweetshop without stuffing a few cupcakes in their mouth.

Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, I went to Knit-wit for my Fair Isle class. Before I could pay out for the needles I needed, two skeins of each of the above colors just 'jumped' into my hands. What's an addict to do?

How was the class? I have homework. Yikes. Corrugated ribbing, which looks like this from Knitting in Color:





Otherwise, I'm working on the Not a Poncho. Jane is out of the loop for a couple of weeks, giving us all time to row madly towards shore. Which is a cute way of saying we're heading towards the neck on both front and back. Right now, I'm binding off stitches on each side of the front neck. Three more rows, and I start on the back. Yay!

Tomorrow evening is my last class to teach for this season. I've already received next season's schedule and it's looking good. There's a lot of beginner's classes. They're fun, although I feel somewhat guilty, leading others into knitting addiction. Buhwa ha ha ha haaaaaa!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

There is a happy cat over here.

Claude is thrilled we're home and that we're loving on him. Poor little snookie. He had no idea why he was banished to the basement since Wednesday. Right now, he's griping at me to go to bed already.

Since we did a road trip to see all the family we could, I knitted up the Ruffled Roses scarf for my mother's birthday, the Multidirectional scarf out of Berroco's Boho colors for fun, and started on some leg warmers for the little Goopa. Did I take pictures? Oh heck no! :P

I had migraines most of the time, but the miracle of modern science helped a LOT. Yay meds! Poor Hubs, he was fretting in the back of his mind over our e-filing taxes. For some stupid reason, the e-file was rejected. He's already looked at it, can't fix it easily, and is determined to not e-file again. If a former IRS agent is driven to curse over the e-file, it's not a great idea.

The cat is back, complaining again after having a snack before bedtime. Since I have to rouse Fry out of bed, I'd better listen to Claude. Ha ha ha!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Which came first, the migraine or the taxes?

I think it's a tie!

There could be pictures, but it'd just be more of the same. The progress is slow, due to visits and visiting. I've been running around, getting ready for Easter with the families. We're all totally excited.

On the plus side, too, is that Relpax works. I'm headache free at the moment. Not only that, but my taxes are done. Because of the teaching, I get to do a schedule C. It's not bad if I've kept my reciepts and statements straight. You know I don't. C'mon, that'd be too easy.

Actual conversation after I looked at all the LYS receipts:

Me, to husband: You must REALLY love me.
Hubs: I do.
Me: There's a lot of yarn receipts I can't write off. (personal expense, not business)
Hubs: At least you didn't lose it at the boats.

Isn't he sweet? I'll have to make the boy a sweater. I've only got tons of yarn set aside just for him. :D He's only received one sweater and one pair of socks in all this time. Poor baby! I'll have to start something very soon for him, of course as soon as the heat of summer hits.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race