Saturday, June 30, 2007

Housekeeping

There has been much knitting in these parts lately. I got the legs and most of the trunk done on Jennica's baby's bear, and am actually keeping track of what I am doing seeing as I might make this my first pattern!

Although, I realized while knitting on it yesterday at work, I didn't have enough yarn to finish...so I made a mental note to get myself to the yarn shop sometime today since they aren't open on Sundays and are closed by the time I get done work on Friday. Then, HNB got done work super early yesterday, and any plans for yarn procurement were placed on the back burner.

What, you may ask, do a wacky knitter and a super smarty trousers HNB do on a Friday night? Well, the wacky knitter decides she wants to go out on the motorcycle, and the HNB obliges with a giant grin on his face as he realizes he has turned her into someone who actually enjoys riding on a motorcycle instead of being someone who is deathly afraid of them and opposed to the whole concept.

We met at his apartment, and, seeing as I understand that when we go there, there is usually some sort of distraction going on which keeps us there longer than I had planned on, and while I do enjoy watching his roommates play video game baseball or play Guitar Hero, I decided to bring knitting with me to occupy myself and my hands (and quiet the nervous butterflies in my belly since even though my mind wants to go on the bike, my belly still gets nervous until we are actually pulling out of the driveway). Nothing big, just a stockinette stitch project - moron knitting.

Well, I had my giant bag-o-crap with me like I usually do, although it was a bit more full than usual because I had to bring a long sleeve shirt and sneakers/socks to go out on the bike with (can't wear Crocs on a motorcycle!) and also had my knitting. HNB kinda looked at the bag with a slightly raised eyebrow, and gave me that "You are crazy, you have so much stuff with you" look, so I defended myself by saying I brought knitting with me, and he looked at me honestly and said "Babe, you can't knit on the bike."

I think dude seriously thought I was going to try and knit on the motorcycle.

Anyway, we took a trip up to Thatcher Park just after sunset, and the moon was almost full. We could see a fireworks show somewhere kind of far away, but neither of us could figure out where they were being shot off from. We sat on the little wall and looked at the view and the moon, and it was really, really nice. On the way home, HNB was almost attacked by a vicious bat, but in the end it all worked out okay, until we pulled into the driveway of my friendly lawyer and her MB's house.

I got my first motorcycle related injury (besides a sore arse). I skinned the crap out of my finger while closing the visor on my helmet as I was taking it off. There was blood involved, but no tears. It is now covered by a band aid and I feel much better, BUT I am not looking forward to having to put the Nu-Skin liquid bandage stuff on it tomorrow while I have clients. That will not feel nice, but a massage therapist has to do what a massage therapist has to do!

Cut to today, HNB and I had a lovely day. He put a new car on the road this week (its a convertible!), so we took that out for a spin. Guess where we ended up - the yarn shop!!!! I just got a few quick skeins for the teddy bear project (luckily the had the same dye lot for the brown color I am using even though I bought it three months ago!). He came in, met some of the ladies and seemed totally comfortable, even impressed by how quick I was able to get in and get out. It was a quick trip - I didn't even look at the sock yarn. Don't think HNB wanted to spend the whole day there, and I didn't want to let him see me in the throes of a yarn fume induced stupor.

So then we went home, he went to work and I took a nap. He's at a party tonight out in the 'Burgh, and I am spending the rest of the night on the couch with my dog and my knitting. I have a client tomorrow, and am pretty tired (not to mention the apartment is not the cleanest and the laundry pile is almost as tall as me), so I wasn't in the mood for an all night drink fest. But, when I am done with the client tomorrow, I am hopping in my car and driving out there because, I am meeting his parents tomorrow.

Wish me luck - I haven't met someone's parents that I have been dating in almost ten years - yeah, true story. I mean, his mom knits and has friends who spin, so she has to be cool, right? And besides, I am fabulous and cute and wonderful (if I do say so myself), how could they not like me??

Somebody pass the yarn - I need to knit the butterflies out of my belly..details to follow!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Baby Hats

I have a confession to make.

I have become slightly obsessed with knitting baby hats. We all know about the one where I decided not to give it away, well I finished that one and then cast on for a new hat so I could give it away to the mom to be. Of course, I forgot to wrap it up once I got home from work the other day or to make a card for it. When I saw her at work the yesterday, Amy said "Oh, look...she's still here! Did you wrap the hat?" And then I said some expletives inside my head, and the outloud I said "No."

I started looking around my desk for something to wrap it in, and tried to wrap it in the pretty paper from the potted plant I got for my birthday, which was pretty and bright and pink and yellow, but it was still covered with little specks of dirt that wouldn't come off.

In the end, I very unceremoniously took the hat up to her, unwrapped, explained the situation (she is so tiny, even though she is due next week that I thought I had more time - I mentioned nothing of my unwillingness to give up the hat that was originally meant for her baby), and wished her well and told her I hope I don't see her again for a couple months. Because that is something you can say to someone who is about to go on maternity leave. Its a good thing.

So what did I do when I got back to my desk you ask??? Cast on for another freakin' baby hat. My size 7 DPNs and cotton warshrag yarn have me entranced in a baby hat knitting coma. Baby hats in natural cotton, baby hats in white/sage/blue/lavender stripes, who knows where the shenanigans will end!!!!

And speaking of babies, I am doing my first commissioned knitting for my lawyer friend. I feel kind of like a "professional" because of it. All I know is, at some point, a package will be delivered to me of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, I will not have to pay for it, and then I will get to knit a pattern I adore and make something cute for someone cute...good times! Speaking of which, I still have to finish the sweater for my Jennica's baby (Just have to kitchener up the armpits, procure/sew on some buttons and block that puppy).

Ooh!!! I said puppy, and that made me think! I just officially derailed the baby hat in cotton train and hopped on the express train to teddy bear land. I bought yarn to make a teddy bear for Jennica when I got the yarn for the baby sweater, and it has been resting in the yarn box for quite some time. I do believe I shall take it out and show it a good time at my office cube today. Because I mean yarn loves to go on field trips - it lives for that kind of thing!

Also, it has been brought to my attention that this blog has turned slightly away from being so much about knitting, and has started to focus a little too much on HNB. This was brought up in his presence, and he blushed a little (which was very cute). Just want to throw it out there that I will be making a more concerted effort to keep things on track over here, this is, after all, a knitting blog. I think HNB and I have found a good groove to be in, and we are moving gracefully out of that spending all the free time on the couch together thing (partially because the futon is gone - good story to follow!), and now that I can knit while he is here, there will once again be knitting content to share. Maybe even with pictures!

And with that, I leave you for this lovely Thursday and will now go hop in the shower and be grateful that I am not the smartee who got super sunburned yesterday - you know who you are and I have two words for you: 1) sunscreen 2) melanoma!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Changed my Mind

After kvetching about how annoyed I was with HNB for "messing with my computer," I am now going to take at least some of it back because Fire Fox actually remembers my password and log on information for the blog where as Internet Explorer always claimed that it would, but likewise always fell through for me. Lies. Deceit. Betrayal.

So take that honey if you are reading this, and add "fixing my computer" to the list of things that make you awesome!

Okay, lots of responses to the recipe from yesterday, none in the actual comments but thats okay - email is just as good. They are wonderful yumminess, and I promise they will be my new signature desert/you invited me to your house for something there fore I must bring something treat.

This weeks' WWWdotWEDNESDAYdotCOM is brought to you by my cheapness. I am linking to my local library, the William K. Sanford Library in sunny Colonie, NY. Granted, this will not help you much if you don't live near me, but the idea is to get you to your own local library and check out all the wonderfulness they have there waiting for you. Pointing out the obvious here, but they have books, books on tape, DVDs and CDs that you can borrow. There are also magazines and computers you can use, and at least at my local library, they have classes you can take and groups you can join...oh how I miss knitting on Fridays with the ladies, sigh...(damn grown-up job!). And of course, they have wonderful librarians who can help you find what you need and in general tend to be really cool people. And the kicker people, the books, the help, the computers...FREE!!! Get your stuff in on time, and you pay nothing. Zero. Nada. Again, me with the Captain Obvious, but it is a point worth repeating.

So, the moral of this post is...go to the library. Get books. Read them. Bring them back, and be smarter for it!

And on a knitting note, did you know if you are running spell check, and have typed in the word "Cashmerino" as in Debbie Bliss Cashmnerino yarn, spell check tried to correct it to "cash." Coincidence? I think not.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Quickie!

I haven't downloaded the picture, but I do have a recipe to post for you. When I was supposed to go up to Middleburgh this weekend, I put a whole tank of gas in my car and made s'mores squares. Knowing the level of intoxication that was most likely to be present at the gathering, I figured it may be safer to make a rice crispy square style s'mores treat than have drunk boys trying to roast marshmallows. Here is the recipe:

1/4 cup margarine
1 bag marshmallows
1 bag chocolate chips
1 box Golden Grahams

Microwave margarine until it is melted, or just leave it on the counter in the summer - either way works. Dump the marshmallows in the bowl, toss to coat with melted margarine, microwave for 45 seconds then stir. Dump half the chocolate chips in, microwave for another 45 seconds, stir. Dump the rest of the chocolate chips in, microwave 20 seconds, stir.

Dump in the whole box of Golden Grahams in the bowl and stir until its all mixed together. Then, pour the mixture into a 13"x9" pan that has been lined with buttered tinfoil, butter your hands and use them to pat the mixture into as even a layer as possible. Wait 15 minutes, and then dig in! Supper tasty treats!

I am sure I am not the first person to come up with this recipe, but I mean you no copy write infringement if you are the one who has copyrighted it, it was just a clever idea I spontaneously had while shopping at le Tar-jay. Pictures of how fantastic and tasty this looks will be posted as soon as I download pictures onto the laptop again. Knitting content to follow also!

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Whew!

What a weekend!!!

Friday, we had a massage school reunion (CNW Class as Fall'04!), and I got to see a lot of my old friends that I don't get the chance to see very often. I also got to introduce HNB to some of my friends for the first time. It went well - here is some photographic proof.


Me and my friend Alicia, the soon to be Chiropractor. She is much taller than me, and wore heels. I wore flat flips. Lets just say we were eyes to boobs, good times.Theses are my knitting girls, Kiva and Jeanne. We haven't gotten together to knit in quite some time, but plans were made to resume our Sunday evening ritual in the fall.Group shot!

It was wonderful seeing everyone, and I really enjoyed myself. Afterwards, HNB and I came home, and I let him read the blog! We were talking about it while we were out, and it just kind of came up. I let him read the last post, and I do believe he got a little chuckle out of it. As well he should have, because frankly, that was one funny post. He also apologized for telling me the computer had crabs. He's such a good HNB. He also found this picture as wonderful as I did. Two peas in a pod I tell 'ya what!



Saturday, I had a new massage client - you all know how happy that makes me. I was supposed to go up to Middleburgh for a little pool party with my Lawyer friend and her MB, but I was super pooped, and decided to just stay home and wait for HNB to get done work. He ended up coming over after work and I made him dinner (Stop laughing, it was pizza. It was good. Nobody was seriously injured.).

While waiting for HNB to get done work- brace yourself for actual knitting content! - I cast on for a baby hat. One of the girls at work is mucho preggers. I thought that even though we aren't that close, I would make her a little hat and bootie set, just to, you know, be knitterly. I wasn't even halfway through the cast on, and the phone rang. It was my best friend Erika, calling to tell me that after over ten years, and a lot of crap, her boyfriend had finally proposed!!!! (Happy Dance that my BFF is getting married - FINALLY!!! - and that she is leaning towards a destination wedding. Did somebody say vacation???). So I continued knitting the hat thinking what nice mojo to be putting into a baby hat.

Then, HNB came over and I made dinner, and while it was cooking I sat with him on the couch and worked on the hat (This was deadline knitting seeing as the hat really needed to be done by Monday). I realized that was the first time I knitted while he was here, more good mojo to put in the hat.

Today, we had a wonderful day. The dog let us sleep in late (almost till 9am!!), then, seeing as I had cooked the night before, and I have a quota of cooking no more than once a week I need to maintain, we went out to breakfast and had a lovely time. While at the diner, I smoked some really good crack and decided that I would go for a motorcycle ride with him. See kids, I am terrified of motorcycles, and the first thing I said after finding out he has one was that I was never going to get on it, so he shouldn't even ask.

And kind of in the same way I like to teach people to knit, you let someone be around the yarn, see how much fun you have with it, don't give them any pressure, and 99.87654% of the time, they will come to you and ask for you to teach them. Such was the way with the HNB and his motorcycle. We drove around Albany, through Washington Park and up the highway a little. I must admit, it was much funner than I though it would be, and I felt very safe with him. As soon as we pulled out of his driveway, I released my death grip on him, and realized that I really just needed to hold onto him with my knees and very lightly with my hands. It was super fun, except when we got off the bike and my arse felt like my arse has never felt before - it was difficult to describe, but slightly painful to experience. HNB laughed at me a little, seeing as we "weren't out for that long." I was so distracted by my tingling arse that I didn't even take a picture, but I assure you, it was good times and the back of my boyfriend's helmet is super sexy, lol!

The fun times continued well into the afternoon, when, for the first time, he invited me to go watch him play flag football. His team was in the championships and they had a late afternoon game instead of an early morning one. So I took the baby hat out into public and sat behind the end posts (not my most brilliant move because every time they had to kick a field goal, I had to get up out of my chair and pray they didn't swerve right with the kick). Then, it occurred to me.

This baby hat I was making for some girl I barely knew and never really talk to has a lot of wonderful personal mojo in it, and I don't want to give it away to her. It was started while my best friend talked about getting engaged, worked on as the first piece of knitting I did while HNB was over, and it was part of what may be to date the most wonderful day I had with HNB. Its not like I used some crazy expensive yarn (Peaches-n-Cream, baby!) or some insanely difficult pattern, but I realized sitting there watching HNB play football and thinking about the grand scheme of things, that my knitterly generosity had met its match.

This has never happened before. People talk about being a result oriented or process centered knitter, and I am definitely the former. I don't tend to get tied up in the outcome of my knitting; if I am making something for someone, when the item is finished it goes to them.

But not this time. Nope. Not so much.

This tiny little hat, made with dishrag cotton and about five hours of my time over what amounted to one of the best weekends I've had in quite a while is too special to just give away to some girl I barely even know. No, this little hat is going someplace safe, not necessarily for me to keep (because what do I need a baby hat for?? -- and trust me, the gauge is a little big and I tried it on, it doesn't fit me), but at least until I find someone more deserving of the mojo, with a head that it will fit.


Even though it doesn't fit my head, it looks pretty cool as modeled by my knee , right?? And with that being said, I am off to sleepy time - I'll polish up the spelling and post this bad boy tomorrow so my Lawyer Friend has something to read while she's at work tomorrow instead of, um, you know, lawyering ; )



Have a great week everyone, and I promise not to wait until Friday to post again!.






Friday, June 22, 2007

Crabs

This post is PG-13....if for some strange reason you are younger than that and are reading my blog, I don't know whats wrong with you - go outside and play already or something! And my dear goodness, why are your parents letting you read knitting blogs???

So, Captain Obvious is going to tell you something astute blog readers will already know:

#5 got crossed off the list

It isn't my intention to draw attention to this fact, nor for all of you single people out there am I trying to rub your nose in it and make you feel bad (I always used to feel that way about things of this nature when I was single, and I was single for a looooong time!). I bring this fact up so that we may have a discussion about the fact that while I feel perfectly safe and comfortable enough with HNB to consummate our relationship (in a safe and latex protected manner of course), I had a trifle of a meltdown over the fact that he "did some stuff" to my computer.

My computer is my baby. I love it. I spend a lot of time with it; granted it is a lot less time since HNB came onto the scene (Super Sorry Lawyer friend for the lack of blogging, but damn it if that boy hasn't totally screwed up my schedule. Tell your MB [short for Middleburgh Boy] to take mine out sometime and then maybe we can go to dinner, AND I can write a blog post for you!). Tangent. Back on track.

I have used this computer to start a business, write a novel, and meet more people on Internet dating sites than any person should have a right to. My email is here (all 5 accounts that I have). I have used this computer to build a website, a blog and find overwhelming quantities of knitting patterns I want to make (all of which are saved into my favorites). My pictures are here. This 7 pounds of wire and electronic and plastic tomfoolery is my home and my friend.

I may have mentioned, or then again maybe not because not so much with the blogging lately, but HNB = Super Smart Boy. Like freaky smart to the point where I feel a little less smart because he is so freakin' intelligent. For those of you who know me, I do pride myself on being a little bit of a smartypants, but this guy is like a smarty trousers. With a nice cuff and well pressed crease...point being, the boy is a nerd.

He started complaining recently that my computer is slow. I will admit that it is not the fastest thing going, but it is two years old and I got it for only $449 and there is an entire season of The Shield saved to my hard drive. All I expect is that my baby starts up in the morning, connects to my LAN, gives me my email and takes me to the magical tubes of the Internet. I don't care if I need to wait five minutes for it to warm up and get started - I turn it on, plug it in and take the dog for a walk, the system works as soon as you get on board with it. Trust me.

Well, after listening to him whine for two weeks about how slow my computer is and how annoyed he is getting with it, I gave in and told him he could fiddle faddle with it to see what he could do. I'm telling you that man's eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning - he got that "Man get to fix thing, man LIKE fix thing" look in his eyes, a sparkly little twinkle that said he was soooo looking forward to this.

Then, I, the computer's mommy, got a little knot in my stomach. Dude was totally going to screw up my computer! I was sure of it.

I yanked it (lovingly) away from him and told him I needed to check something. I pulled up one of my email accounts to make sure the latest version of the novel is there, safe and sound. And then I let him proceed. I sat there, wishing that I could drink a martini or twelve, and watched as his eyes got big and excited and his fingers trickled over my keyboard - then it hit me.

I was totally willing to let this guy have sex with me, but was completely unwilling to let him monkey around with my computer. What kind of sense does that make?

Worse thing that could happen with the computer is that I lose all of the information I have saved. Worse case scenario with the sex - lets not go there.

In the end, I sat there and just watched him, thinking in my head that I was a complete whack job and that this would all make a lovely blog post. As soon as he finished destroying my computer and I went any bought another one so that I could blog again. I must admit I feel like I am channeling Carrie Bradshaw with this one, and that kind of makes me want to vomit a little.

When all was said and done, he did find a virus (or three) on my computer, and he looked up at me with an evil smile and said "Babe, you have crabs." Because that is a statement that a girl wants to hear from her boyfriend. All the time. Seriously. Even if he is just referring to her computer.

I swear that I can tell no difference in the way the computer is working or how fast it starts up, because I still turn it on in the morning before I take Kendall out and it is ready to go when I come back in. I now have Mozilla Fire Fox instead of Internet Explorer, even though I don't know why, and the only difference I see is there is no "Refresh" button on my browser now and all of my favorites (which HNB so kindly imported for me) are all now called "bookmarks" and are listed alphabetically.

I guess that I am happy he "fixed" it for me, although, by his own account, it still isn't fast enough for him and is still pissing him off. I for one am just happy that neither my computer nor I have crabs. Seriously, who says that?! If there are any boys reading the blog, take note and put that on the list of things you will never say to a girl, for ANY reason - trust me, she doesn't want to hear it. Even if she is standing in the shallow water of Chesapeake Bay, with an actual crab (The kind you would eat) attached to her skin somewhere via those nasty crab claws - Girlfriend doesn't want to hear it. Seriously.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

...Well its My Birthday Too!

And the birthday madness continues!

First, a moment of silence for the FinePix....

Thank you. It was a good camera and it served me well for over four years. I picked this little pretty up on Friday





Easier to take a picture of the camera box rather than the actual camera itself. I am rather happy with it, it takes wonderful pictures and is moron simple to use. Plus, it doesn't weigh eleventy five hundred pounds and is not the size of a Zack Morris cell phone. The very helpful sales boy at Staples asked me if I would need a new memory card to go with my new camera, and I told him that I already have one. He asked how big it was, and I said 64MB. He then proceeded to laugh at me in a slightly sarcastic tone. He then sold me a 1GB SD card and welcomed me into the 2000's...

Back to the birthday shenanigans. Here is a photo of all of my birthday cards.






Cute doggie cards - gotta love them! I wonder if I could get Kendall to hold a piece of watermelon in his mouth like that, hmm.....

Cute close up of my gift card to JoAnn's..how g-darn cute is this??

And it came with stickers!!!!



We have birthday sock yarn and new book,




This was one of the most wonderful birthdays I have ever had. HNB went to the kayak shop to get me "some accessory" for the kayak that I didn't have for my birthday, and quickly realized that when I go shopping, I get it all ; ) So, he got me this book, and told me that if he can't get a kayak this summer, he will see about borrowing his brother's canoe.

Then he proceeded to point out all the paddling spots that were close to his parent's house, his camp and where he grew up. Amy thought he was going to get me yarn, and for the last month has been reciting the following mantra "He is sooo getting you yarn for your birthday," but I think this -gasp!- made me even happier than if he did get me yarn. Lots of though went into this, and my oh my, I don't call him Handsome New Boy for nothing!

Oh, and this came for free with my new camera!


Yeah, it was a good week. And now, for what you have all been waiting for...pictures from the wedding. Sorry to disappoint you, but I am the type of person who always brings her camera with her, but never takes it out of her bag. HNB is also apparently the same way. I felt weird taking pictures at the wedding seeing as I met the bride and groom for the first time at the reception, and so, the new camera stayed safely tucked in my purse until we got home. You may notice I look a little sleepy, it was waaaaaay past my bedtime. But doesn't the shawl look lovely and the boy handsome? It was a wonderful night, a great end to a fantastic week.


And here I am making a valiant attempt to make it look like it is 3pm and not 3am as I make my poor drunk boyfriend take a picture of me so ya'll can see the shawl.



He did a pretty good job, seeing as I told him he could only take a picture from the waist up because it was 3am and I was not going to put my shoes back on. Speaking of putting shoes on, I have to go stuff my piggies in some Crocs and get myself to work! Yeah for Mondays! Peace out kiddies!

Friday, June 15, 2007

You Say It's Your Birthday...

This is what I walked into on Wednesday, big thanks to Amy, Lee, Michelle and Kristin for their cube decorating skills...




Little overwhelming, no?

This is a good picture of me, wearing my headset that is festooned with curly ribbon streamers and what amounts to a plastic ribbon sea anemone looking think on the side of my head which was meant to invoke the feel of an island flower. You can partially see how cute the new bangs look, and I am realizing that this may be the first time I have posted a picture of myself on here where you can actually see my face, so for those of you who don't know me, here I am!


This, while not a good picture of me, does show me sitting at my desk where you can (clearly) almost see the picture of Edward Norton that Amy cut out of a celebrity smut magazine and taped to my cube wall while I was on a particularly difficult phone call. My supervisor came over the other day and said, "Who is the guy on the surfboard? Is that your new boyfriend?" I could only stammer in my head, Hell yeah that's my new boyfriend, in my dreams!!!! because alas, while I may love me some Edward Norton, he may not, in fact, reciprocate those feelings, even if I do have a picture of him hanging at my desk. Sigh....

Sorry for the tangent, HNB and I are going to the wedding tonight, so there may be an actual picture of him up and on my desk before long. The wedding wrap got blocked, and it looks good. The FinePix has officially stopped focusing (as the munchkins would say, "Its not only merely dead, its really most sincerely dead"), and I am on my way to new camera shop today after I leave work early for the wedding. (By the way, who gets married on a Friday night, that just doesn't seem right to me - its like people who get married on a holiday, kinda rude).
All of these pictures were taken with Amy's camera, sent via the magic tubes of the Internet to my lovely laptop, and then saved and posted here. Gotsta love the technology! Suffice it say, there are more pictures of fantastic things that I would love to post for you, but I am unable to steal Amy's camera to bring it home to take pictures of them. God willing and the creek don't rise, new camera today, new pictures tomorrow.
I leave you today with the obligatory pictures of the birthday cake.




What are those round pink, yellow and purple things on the cake that look like squiggles you ask?



BALLS OF YARN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amy, when ordering the cake had to argue quite profusely with the bakery to get them to do that, apparently the only decorations they feel should go on a birthday cake are balloons. Everyone I work with looked at me a little oddly as I said, "There's yarn on my cake!" in a happy voice. Think they thought there was actual yarn on my cake, which would not have been yummy to eat or good for the yarn. Too much fibre in your diet is a bad thing after all. Get it? Fibre/ Fiber....I crack me up!
All in all, it was a wonderful day, and thank you to all of you who were a part of it - you guys rock, and a girl couldn't ask for a better group of cube mates and friends!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

6AM

No matter what I do, Kendall wakes up and demands to be taken out at exactly 6am every morning when HNB has managed to, er, um, fall asleep on the sofa - yeah that's it! he sleeps on the sofa! The jig is up, I am Trampy McTrampants, he is completely snuggled with me in my fluffy down bed.

Any way, the dog is driving me insane. Today for example, although I do not have to be at work until 11:30, the dog got up a 6, HNB and I slept in a little longer, but were both awake, dressed and drinking tea on the futon by 7:20...that crap ain't right! Any suggestions besides shipping the dog off to his gandmama's house would be appreciated.

On a knitting note, the wedding shawl isn't finished, but I did buy a few skeins of sock yarn and a wonderful book yesterday. HNB came over after I got my haircut and we went to the grocery store and got stuff to make chickpea burgers with, and then he cooked for me (have I mentioned how freakin' wonderful he is??), it was hard to not start knitting and stay in the kitchen keeping him company and showing him where all of my obviously inferior cooking utensils are. At one point, he looked at me and said "Is that the pan you really want me to use?" which he then clarified to mean "That's the only pan you have, right? This one?"

I took the opportunity to advise him that yes, it was the only pan that I had, and that Hello, dude - I DON'T COOK!!!!

That seemed to clear up some confusion.

I am doing WWWdotWEDNESDAYdotCOM a day early because tomorrow is my birthday!! Last one I am having, as I will be turning 29, after this year, we will be celebrating anniversaries of my original 29th birthday. For example, I will not turn 30 next year, we will celebrate 29 the year, part II. Feel free to hop on my delusion train, there's plenty of room for you and your knitting!

Oh, yeah, this weeks post is a little bit of a cop out, BUT the new Knitty is up and I think that is noteworthy. I didn't get a chance to really look through all the patterns, but I am sure I'll find something I want to make!

Off to work, the accident with the kayak is getting fixed today and I need to find some clothes and pack a lunch and a bag of knitting tricks! You know how I roll...with a thirty pound bag filled with crap...just like my mom! Peace out peeps - pictures to follow of the new haircut and lace blocking as soon as the auto focus gets itself fixed on the camera (think happy FinePix thoughts today!).

Monday, June 11, 2007

Blah

Not so much in the mood for blogging today, but if I don't, it sets a dangerous precedent for the whole week, and next thing you know its Tuesday next week and I realize I haven't blog chicka blog blogged in almost two weeks (Amy, you know what song I'm singing that too, right???).

First, giant props to My Lawyer Friend Nicole for both her lovely comment from two posts ago and the rockin' party she threw on Friday night. Good times were had by all, especially by her boyfriend the birthday boy. HNB also had a really good time. In fact, he was still being reminded of what a good time he had on Friday night when we hung out on Saturday night. Poor baby. On the way home, we made friends with a little bunny we saw on the side of the road, but, on the off chance that he may ever read this blog someday, I will not go into details. Suffice it to say it brought up the differences between two people, one of whom is a vegetarian and one of whom is a hunter. Interesting conversation to have at 2am.


Moving on, the wedding shawl continues to grow at a slightly alarming pace. Should have it finished and blocking by this evening, tomorrow at the latest. NOT loving the Moonlight Mohair or my Balene knitting needles, they are a little difficult to work with together although I feel that separately they may be okay. I don't know. I'm working with size 15US needles, and they are a little big to grip comfortable and work with quickly. I have to keep an eye on the yarn and make sure that I am not splitting it and that both strands make it on and off of the needles.


Truthfully kids, I'm just a little grump today. No one's fault, and really, I shouldn't be taking it out and complaining about my yarn and needles...it is so not their fault that I'm a wee bit pissy today. At any rate, I am getting my hair cut tonight, big ups to my girl Courtney at Jean Paul, her cuts last me a minimum of four months, and now that I am growing it for Locks of Love, its closer to six months. Just getting a trim, maybe add some layers, take out some weight/bushiness and of course, I'm getting my baby bangs.


Before and after pictures tomorrow, along with the photos of my first attempts at blocking (wish me luck!). And now, my favorite way to end a post, random cute dog photo - ttfn!

Friday, June 8, 2007

Oopsy Poopsy

Sorry I disappeared all week. The elderly people at work have been a touch, well, disgruntled would be putting it mildly. I think someone spiked the prune juice.

At any rate, I didn't want you to worry that I cooked Monday and killed HNB with my cooking skills or burned down the apartment with my lack of cooking skills. We went out for dinner thankyouverymuch because I had promised the man food, I just preferred to pay to have someone else cook it for him.

To explain my absences, I will tell the story of the week in pictures.
I bought this on Saturday. There was a little accident getting it in the car, good story to follow in another post.

Look, here it is again:



See how sexy it looks sitting on the carpet in my apartment. It looked even sexier when I fell out of it and into the river after my paddling class Wednesday night. Good times.

This is the finished pink shawl from last post which demanded my attention all weekend, look at the pretty, pretty beads! FYI, getting glass beads on cotton 5 ply yarn, NOT the easiest thing to do.


As you can tell, it is unblocked. I finished it, promptly decided it doesn't really go with the dress intended for the evening,


And last night I took a trip to AC Moore, bought four skeins of Lion Brand Moonlight Madness, and began this ...


...and of course a picture of the new wrap in the sunshine. Once it is blocked out, twill be loverly!

But mostly the reason I haven't been blogging, is because the guy who left this ....


...on my obviously very dirty end table, makes me happy and I kinda just want to spend all the time with him I can. You can tell this by the empty knitting basket, the dirty glass on the end table and the fact that my legs are shaved.
I mean seriously, you guys understand, right?




Monday, June 4, 2007

It might not count...

...as an actual post, but I did update the 101 in 1001 list from the sidebar. Not doing too bad, percentages wise, I am right on track. Although, getting an MBA probably will take a little more time and effort than say, not eating candy for two weeks (that was damn difficult, so then again maybe it wont), I do feel like I am chugging away at an appropriate pace and stand a very good chance of not running out of time to get things done. I may run out of motivation or run into other stumbling blocks, but time does appear, for the moment, to be on my side.

Pictures of both my kayak (YIPPPEEE!!!) and the finished pink shawl from last post to follow later today. Or maybe tomorrow...HNB is coming over tonight, I might be - shudder, gasp, snort, chuckle - cooking him dinner! Hope he likes not real meat chicken ; )