Why did I do that?

I made a big mistake. I've been eating junk food this week, and now I'm paying for it. Big time. I've been in the bathroom approximately eight hundred thirty-two times today, and as soon as I'm done posting this it'll be back to the throne room. I just hope things settle down in time for me to drive to the beach Friday night. Crohn's bites big wang.

fortune telling yarn and other stuff

I've been knitting bibs and burp cloths for a friend who's due in October. As you may have seen in a previous post, I have a boatload of Peaches n Creme yarn. Many, many colors. And yet, I couldn't make myself knit anything in girlie colors. Every time I pulled a skein out of a bag, it was blue or green or some combination of the two. I told a mutual friend, "I know it's too early to know for sure, but I think she's having a boy." I just got an email today- I was right! She's having a boy. My reputation for woo woo is secure.

I've finally settled on my knitting projects for the beach this weekend. I'm going to take the sock that I'm currently Magic Looping (My first! It doesn't look so great, but since this is my first pair in fingering weight yarn I'm trying to accept that it's a learning experience.) and yarn to start another. I'm most of the way through the leg at this point, so it's entirely possible that I will finish this sock and want to start another. I just need to pick which of the nine skeins of sock yarn I want to work next. (Did I mention I accidentally bought more sock yarn last weekend? Whoopsie!)

I'm almost settled on the reading material, too. Definitely the new Harry Dresden. Probably the Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm waffling on The Host by Stephenie Meyer. It's a big book, and my hands have been hurting lately. Also, it's likely to get beat up, spilled on, ashed on, and generally abused, and I hate to do that to a new, pretty hardback. That I paid money for myself. Also, I'm trying to keep the personal entertainment down to one tote bag, and that sucker is big. So probably the Meyer will wait 'til later.

Speaking of Lois McMaster Bujold, I've been listening to the Vorkosigan series on audiobook again. I'm on my second listening of Cetaganda, and I plan to download the next book in time to listen to it on my drive down. Let me just say, I love Miles Vorkosigan. I would so totally marry him if he weren't already married. (And if he were real instead of a fictional character, of course.) I heard Bujold is working on another book in the series for release in 2009. Yippie! This world is so real, it seems like there are infinite possibilities for the author. I'd love to see Ivan's POV- what was it like growing up with Miles? I don't think Ivan is nearly as dumb as he pretends to be. As much as Miles feels overshadowed by the tall, handsome Ivan, I'm sure Ivan's felt just as overshadowed by cunning Miles, who grew up with two doting parents. In fact, I've wondered how Gregor felt, too, boy Emperor and foster brother to such an overwhelming personality. Alys Vorpatril has hidden depths, and her insider's view of Barrayar and a woman's place in the society and power structure would be interesting. And Byerly Vorrutyer was intriguing in A Civil Campaign, although I'm not sure I'm ready to read a whole book about him. Ellie Quinn or Bel Thorne would be interesting POV characters, too. Not that I wouldn't be perfectly happy with more Miles! (And I bet his kids will give him a run for his money someday soon, too!)

mano a mano

This past weekend, for no particular reason, I left the TV off and read. That hasn't happened in quite a while. I guess I've just been so caught up in knitting that I haven't wanted to put the needles down and read. So last weekend, while the Tivo recorded NCIS and SVU marathons, I snuggled in bed with the cat and a few books.

Again, it wasn't any particular plan, but what I ended up reading was m/m romance. I'd never read one before. Well, that's not true. I've read Force of Nature and All Through the Night, Suzanne Brockmann's novels featuring Jules and Robin. But the bedroom door is firmly closed in those books. In the books I read this weekend the bedroom door was wide open.

The first one was My Fair Captain by J.L. Langley. It's an interesting concept. Although space fairing, a couple planets have chosen to base their societies on Regency England. One has a completely male dominated aristocracy. And they're all gay. The young men must guard their virtue until marriage or until they come of age at 25. The reasoning behind the all male aristocracy was weak. But if you're willing to not think about it too hard and just be entertained, the rest of the world works. The writing could have used more polishing, too, but other than that I enjoyed it.

The second book was Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander by Ann Herendeen. This one I have more mixed feelings about. It's a bisexual Regency. Andrew is a "sodomite" who has decided it's time to marry and produce an heir. A friend introduces him to Phyllida as a woman who might be willing to marry him and still allow him to continue his lifestyle. Of course, they are immediately attracted to each other. After they marry, Andrew meets Matthew and they fall in love as well. My main problem with this book was that there was just too much going on. Andrew acts like an insensitive jerk and a whole series of unnecessary misunderstandings ensue, leaving Andrew and Phyllida estranged for a good chunk of the book. There's a whole espionage subplot that doesn't make much sense until a minor character explains the whole thing at the end. Andrew and Matthew have what seemed to me to be a pointless fist fight right before resolving their romantic conflict. At 532 pages, this book was at least 150 pages too long. For all that, I didn't dislike the book. I guess I'd heard so many good things about it online, my expectations were too high. I wish the love triangle among Phyllida, Andrew, and Matthew was more even. It seems to me that the only one who got everything s/he wanted/needed out of the deal was Andrew.

Then last night, I read Fairyville by Emma Holly. Let me just say, Emma Holly is hot. She can write a steaming sex scene, and this book was no different. I haven't read all of her stuff, but this was the first book of hers I've read that featured a m/m couple who ended up in a more or less committed relationship. Zoe, a professional medium, lives in Fairyville, Arizona, a city known for its strange goings on. Magnus is a fairy living in the human world and hiding from his mother, the fairy queen. Alex is Zoe's lost love, and although he doesn't know it at first, a changeling. Bryan is Alex's business partner who has been in love with him since college. And then they all get it on. A lot. I didn't quite buy Magnus' reason for hiding his nature from Zoe, and I wasn't 100% on the Zoe/Alex relationship. But other than that, I enjoyed this book quite a lot. Holly has a gift for writing very hot sex scenes that also illuminate the charcters and advance the plot, all at the same time. Not an easy thing to do. I checked out her website and discovered that she has a writing workshop posted there. Believe me, I will be reading that.

After stepping back and considering all three, I've realized that they all have one thing in common- D/s themes. Is this because these books are already considered edgy because of the m/m content, so it's OK to go there? Is it because women are writing these books, and the idealized romantic hero is an aggressive alpha male, and that's being expressed through domination? Did I just get lucky and end up with three kinky heroes? More research is required. I did notice that both Andrew and Nate (in Captain) called their lovers "sluts." Is this also a m/m thing, or just a coincidence? Is this something that women want to hear but is socially unacceptable, even in our erotica, so we put it in a m/m relationship? Who are we supposed to be relating to, the dominant or the dominated?

A lot to think about. And this is just the tiniest tip of the genre-iceberg. If anyone has any suggestions for further reading, I'd love to hear them.

Last Night I Had a Crazy Dream.....

I had an Ugly Betty dream last night. In it, I was dating Daniel and we were hanging out at Betty's apartment. (I know, she lives with her family, but in my dream she had an apartment.) Daniel and I were really schmoopy, which anyone who's known me for 5 minutes knows is totally not normal for me. Then his phone rang. His ring tone was Angel by Madonna. (I know that's dumb. It'll make more sense in minute.) So he answers the phone, and I can tell he doesn't want to talk to whoever it is in front of me. So Betty and I go into the kitchen to hang out and talk. I suspect he's talking to another woman, and I'm trying not to get jealous. Even though he answered the phone, the music is still playing and Betty and I start dancing in the kitchen and then go into the dining room/sun room where there's more room to dance. And then an old woman with bad teeth appears and starts dancing with us. Just at the end of the song Daniel comes in and catches us busting a move. And then we get schmoopy again, although I can tell he's worried about something. And then I woke up and realized that it was 6:30 and my alarm clock was playing my Like a Virgin CD- hence the Madonna song. Weird, huh? No clue what it means, except maybe I've been watching too much TV. I've been bopping along humming Madonna songs all day. Good thing it was a high energy song, 'cause it's been a zoo around here.

My annual beach pilgrimage is coming up in a couple of weeks. I can't take the whole week. I don't want to use up that much time, just in case something happens later this year. Also, I don't think I have the stamina to spend that much time staying up late and eating unusual food. I don't want to kick off another flare. So I'll be there for 4 days. I have a couple of books picked out- The Host by Stephenie Meyer, Small Favors by Jim Butcher, The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. But I haven't settled on what knitting I want to bring. It has to be something that I won't mind getting smoky. (I can't smoke anymore, but a lot of my friends do.) So anything for Project Linus or family Christmas gifts are out. It also needs to be something that doesn't require a lot of counting or pattern checking. We're a rowdy bunch, and there's no way I'll be able to keep up with anything fancy. I was thinking maybe the No Purl Monkeys (one of the June Thrifty Sock Knitters patterns) and maybe some face cloths for myself out of the Cotton Tots I broke down and bought before Mother's Day. I'm thinking the faux-Noro scarf is a bad idea- from what I hear SWS felts easily, and there's a high probability of spilled beer and general abuse. Perhaps Square Cake from Knitty out of some red tweed Wool Ease. I don't know. I'll probably change my mind eight times between now and then. Any suggestions?

New Dreams

I had a half hour pilates session with my trainer last night. Have I mentioned that I love pilates? I think it's the breathing. It's more like moving meditation than exercise. The reformers at my gym are in a small, curtained off room that's surprisingly quiet considering there are whole rows of treadmills and elliptical machines just a few feet away.

I'm thinking that maybe I'd like to be a pilates instructor some day. That's how much I love it. I talked to my trainer about "graduating" from beginner to intermediate last night, and she said that I'll be moving to "essential" next. (I thought that essential was a more basic beginner's class.) Most people take a year to move up to intermediate. So I'm thinking that it's going to be quite a while before I'm ready to try an instructor program. Usually, I'm kind of impatient with this kind of idea. I want to do it NOW. But strangely, I don't mind waiting. I'm content to take my Monday night reformer class, and if I feel up to it I'll try the Wednesday night small equipment class next week. It's all good.

I opened an email from Lion Brand today and found a short essay and pattern for a "road scarf." The essay didn't amount to much, but the pattern has inspired me. I haven't worked on a scarf in quite a while. I have a couple different scarf ideas- I wouldn't go so far as to say patterns- that I'd like to try. There's something sort of zen about a scarf. It just keeps going until it's done. There's not a whole lot of need for scarves in Houston. In fact, there's not as much need for hand knits in general as I'd like around here. (Although a good cozy sweater comes in surprisingly handy during the summer. Houston office a/c can be brutal.) But I'm already trying to figure out how many scarves I can pack and bring with me for Christmas in Massachusetts.

Plans for the weekend:
work on the book
watch Buffy
get a massage
breathe
knit

Is it really only Tuesday?

I'm thinking that pilates last night wasn't such a good idea. Owie. Also, I feel like I could sleep for a week. Even though it's only Tuesday, the weekend can't come soon enough.

I finished project #4- the burp cloth- at lunch today. The ends need to be woven in, but the kid's not due until October, so I have time!

Now that I'm down to one active project- the diagonal baby blanket- I'm completely obsessed with the idea of making a felted bag. This is the one I've been ogling on Rav- http://yarnpirate.livejournal.com/14995.html. Isn't it beautiful? I followed the link to her design inspiration, a pillow in gorgeous colors. And suddenly I'm envisioning this bag in Noro Kureyon. Can you imagine? Or perhaps Patons SWS. (Cheaper, and I already have a boatload of the Stripes. I'd just need a coordinating solid.) I was thinking about experimenting with something smaller and using up the last of my Silk Garden, but I hear it doesn't really felt. So much for that idea. I have a few other design ideas percolating, too.

I feel a trip to the LYS coming on. Danger, Will Robinson!

Progress Report

I finished 3 of my 5 projects this weekend- including weaving in the ends! Yay! Here are the pictures:

I think the swiffer sweater is a little loose, but I'll have to try it out to be sure. The burp cloth/kitchen towel is about 3/4 finished. I didn't get anything done on the baby blanket at all. It was very hard not to cast on for something else. I really want to make another market bag. But not until the other two projects are done! I feel so virtuous.

The doctor cleared me to go off the Predinsone on Saturday, so I did. Oy. I took a 2 hour nap yesterday and an hour nap today. After sleeping in until 10am. I have a feeling that tomorrow isn't going to be pretty.

Finish It Up!

I have 5, count 'em, 5 projects OTN at the moment:

1. Granny's Favorite in Spring Meadows P&C
2. ballband dishcloth in black and Fiesta P&C
3. ballband swiffer cover in Peppercorn P&C
4. Baby Genius burp cloth in Shaded Denim P&C
5. diagonal baby blanket in white Caron

It wouldn't be so bad if I were making progress on any of them, but with the exception of the Granny's Favorite, I've been piddling around with them all for over a week now. I'll do a row of this and a row of that, and nothing is getting done. So I've declared this my first, official Finish It Up Weekend. At least 3 of these projects will be completed by the time I go back to work on Monday.

I've decided to work on this the same way you're supposed to pay off your credit cards- starting with the project with the least left to do and working your way up to the ones with the most left. That way, you feel like you're accomplishing something. Yes, if I really worked my butt off I might be able to finish the baby blanket this weekend. Maybe. But then I'd still have 4 projects OTN, and I'd be burned out to boot. I can easily finish the GF tonight, and probably make some decent progress on the ballband dishcloth. Tomorrow morning I have my RWA meeting, and I'm not sure what I'll take to that. Probably either the burp cloth or the blanket. They aren't next on the list, but I won't have to wrestle multiple balls of yarn like the dishcloth or measure to make sure I'm not going too far like on the swiffer cover. (I'm not 100% sure how many rows I want on that one. It's better if I keep the swiffer handy so that it fits.)

Saturday I'll finish the dishcloth and swiffer cover, and Sunday I'll work on the burp cloth. If I take the burp cloth with me on Saturday morning, I might have a fighting chance of finishing that on Sunday. So that will leave me with one project OTN. The diagonal baby blanket. If I work on that exclusively in the evenings next week, I might be able to finish it, too. Then I can cast on for a Jayne hat, or a meathead, or that baby hat from Creative Knitting that I've been wanting to make, or maybe the Rosie the Riveter.... can you tell I'm in a hat mood? But before I do all that, Must Finish the WIPs!

It's 2008 People!

My boss is a turd.

We had a temp come in for training today and to cover for me tomorrow while I'm out for my Remicade treatment. This morning, when I told him that the temp would be a guy, he said "Oh, shit." I kid you not. And then he muttered around about how we always get "the dregs." And then he came out of his office and said something to the effect of "Not to be sexist or anything, but I want a woman answering the phone. If I wanted a guy answering the phone I'd do it myself." Then there was more muttering, and "If he's gay, I don't want him in here!"

The things he was saying were really shitty, but I have to admit I totally enjoyed how upset he got, in a passive aggressive way. What a dickhead. By the way, does anyone know on what planet boobs are required to answer the phone? It's not like I answer it with my hoo-ha.

Fortunately, the guy was very nice. Just out of college and temping while he looks for a job in his field. And apparently he was "non-gay" enough for the boss to allow him in the office. I don't know how he expected to get rid of him if he was gay. I've ditched temps for him before when they were legitimately not qualified. (I have to admit, we have had a few "dregs" before. It's the New Millennium. Computer skills, people!) But I was absolutely not going to call a temp agency and ditch a temp because Mr. Big Shot didn't like their sex or sexual orientation. If this guy was qualified and he wanted him out anyway, he was going to have to make that call himself.

If it weren't for the amazingly awesome insurance at this place, I'd be so gone. The sexism, the racism, the homophobia-- it's all wearing me out. How can insurance be worth all that hassle, you ask? It's simple. My insurance covers everything-- at least everything I've come across so far-- at 100%. Remember that Remicade treatment I mentioned earlier? That's a $10,000 treatment. I shit you not. I get that treatment every 8 weeks. If I had 80/20 insurance (which I've had before) I would pay $2,000 a treatment. x6=$12,000 a year. Do you have $12,000 laying around for routine medical expenses? I sure don't. The base price for my 2 weeks in the hospital last year was $50,000. That doesn't include all the tests-- the colonoscopy, the upper GI and small bowel follow through, the MRI. (Actually, I think I had 2 MRIs. It's all a little fuzzy.) I could have owed $10,000 just for the stay. That's probably not my last hospital stay either, although I'd be perfectly happy if it was.

So how do you stand on principle when it could mean health crisis and bankruptcy? I'm going to have to either find another job with the same level of insurance or win the lottery. These days, I'm not sure which is a longer shot. Wish me luck.

Writing

I spent about an hour tonight working on the book. I went through the 5 pages I presented to my critique group last time (or critique partner I guess I should say, since only one other person was able to come last time) and edited out a half dozen justs. (Apparently I use it a lot. A forgivable sin, considering this was a NaNo novel. As long as they're ruthlessly edited out.) And then I added another 3 pages. I want to add a couple more pages and then do my own editing before handing it over to the group again later this week. I think we're all going to be there this time!

The next bit is basically Daisy and Robert sitting in his office and talking. Again. I've taken the chain saw to the previous blah, blah, blah scenes and I'm sure this one will need the same. But this is still the beginning of the book. Daisy has just been dropped into a world she knows nothing about. Someone has to explain to her (and the reader) what the heck is going on. I just (there goes that word again) don't want to over do it. So we'll see.

Whoopsie! And also, Hooray!

I had a little bit of Cotton Tots left over from making face cloths for my parents for Mother's Day and Father's Day, so I decided to make a mitered square face cloth based on the pattern in Mason Dixon Knitting.



As you can see, it may be mitered, but it sure ain't square. I wonder how that happened? The pattern is for a stockinette square, but I did it all in garter stitch instead. I've done this pattern once before with no problems. Except of course for the fact that stockinette rolls like mad, so it needs blocking to lay flat. I don't see the point in that for a face cloth. Also, I think the nubby texture of garter stitch is better for a face cloth than stockinette. I guess as long as no one minds a kite-shaped face cloth, we're OK. It's... supposed to be like that. Yeah! Why is everyone so hung up on the square? It's time for a little creativity around here!

Is it getting a little deep in here? Moving on....

I forgot to mention it, but the last post was my 50th. Hooray for me! I've been entertaining myself and boring my readers (all two of you) for just over seven months now. If only I were this dedicated to exercise!

I watched The Golden Compass over the weekend. I feel a little eh about it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because that's the way I felt about the book.

This is where I wrote a rambling digression about Christianity that probably would have gotten me flamed, so I'm just going to say that the whole "this movie was anti-Christian" was a tempest in a teapot and move on, OK?

The movie ended a chapter or two before the book did, which I heard some complaints about from hard core fans. But for once, I think the movie makers were smart in deviating from the book. The ending was logical- Lyra saved her friend and all the other kids- and the set up for the next movie is obvious- she has to save her father from her mother and the evil Magisterium. Much better than the book's ending, which didn't work for me at all. I haven't read book two yet, but I've got the audio book on reserve at the library. Considering my reaction to book one, I don't have high hopes, but hey. It's something to listen to while driving.

Hooray for May!

The mounted patrol was back in my neighborhood last night, and I didn't get pulled over. I told you! It's all April's fault! TGIM.

In the comments, Carat asked about the Can't Stop the Serenity event I mention in the last post. (Hi, Carat!) Houston's event was just announced for July 6th. That's Sunday of the July 4th weekend. For those who've never heard of it, CStS is a screening of the movie Serenity, often with associated auctions or raffles, to benefit Equality Now. Details at: http://cantstoptheserenity.com/ There are many of these events around the country, and even around the world, all year long, so don't feel left out if 4th of July in Houston (HOT) isn't your thing.

I'm so happy that Ugly Betty is back! I had pilates last night, so I wasn't able to watch it live and have my usual post-Betty dish with my mom. We'll have to do that tonight. Anyone else watch it? I felt bad for Daniel at the end. He doesn't want Betty, but he wants loving relationships like she has, and someone who is good to him like she is to everyone. (To skip back a week, I thought it was so sweet that he gave her birthday present to her father weeks in advance, knowing that he would forget when the day came.) There was a moment last season, when Betty and Daniel were on a bridge, talking after a long night, and there was a real moment of chemistry between them. I was afraid that they were going to try to put the two of them together, and was glad they didn't go there. Maybe it was just a moment of chemistry between the two actors? (Although I read recently that Eric Mabius's wife just had a baby, so I don't know what to think of it.) Anyway, I like how far Daniel has come in the last season and a half. He was a real butthead in the first episode or two- mainly I think because he was rich and handsome and no one had ever called him on his crap before, not because he didn't have a good heart in there somewhere.

Christian Siriano and his "hot trannie mess" cracked me up. And Amanda adding herself to the fashion show.

I'm waiting to see how they resolve the Henry/Gio situation, too. At this point, I think Gio is much better for Betty than Henry. She's going to get her heart broken there, big time.

Chilling Out

As you can tell by my previous posts, the last few days haven't been so great for me. I've made a conscious decision to Chill Out. It's just April. I know this by now. April doesn't love me, and I'm not too fond of her, either. (Previous April disasters- lost a job, totaled a car, had surgery that led to a major health crisis. If it happens to me, and it's life-alteringly bad, it happens in April.)

The apartment is dry, at least for the moment. Hopefully for good. It still smells like Juicy Fruit, now with an overlay of floral yuck (maintenance was in again yesterday afternoon), but it's dry. And the cat has calmed down and started demanding food again. So I'm going to try to let it go. Tomorrow is May! Whoopie!

I'm part of a stash busting group on Ravelry (which you can see from previous posts I really need), and the May challenge is to knit with cotton. Being me, I spent all of April in an obsessive compulsive cotton dishcloth frenzy, so I'm ready to move on to something else. Instead, I have decided to declare May Acrylic Month. That's right, I'm going to take a crack at knitting up the piles and piles of Caron (and a little bit of Red Heart, I'm ashamed to say) that I've acquired in the last year or so. I have a blanket for Project Linus on the needles, which I plan to finish. I have a head scarf for a friend that I want to make. I promised a couple of Jayne hats for auction at the Houston Can't Stop the Serenity event in July. (I further promise to follow an actual pattern and not try to invent it on the fly as I did last time. Whoops!) I also want to make a few hats either for local homeless shelters or to send up to my parents' church in Boston for their program. Houston may not get as cold as New England, but I'm sure there are still plenty of people who could use a warm hat in January. I'm also knocking around the idea of making a Pretty Punk blanket (http://www.therunningyarn.com/2008/04/pretty-punk-blanket-free-pattern.html) in non-pretty, macho-manly colors for a friend who dearly loves all things skeleton and death metal related. The good news is that I may very well have all the yarn I need for that blanket already in my stash! I'd also like to make a baby hat from the December (?) issue of Creative Knitting.

And I'm recommitting myself to No Yarn Purchases for the month of May. Everybody's got to have a goal.

Let's see... that's at least seven projects, maybe more, and two of them are blankets. It won't all get finished, but I should burn through a few skeins in the stash. Woo hoo!

A little rant to brighten your day

I have had it. HAD IT.

I came home for lunch today to discover that maintenance had been in the apartment. How do I know maintenance was in the apartment? They certainly didn't leave any kind of note, as their supposed to. No. It was the amazing, unbelievable STENCH. Someone came in a sprayed something that smells like the bastard stepchild of paint thinner and Juicy Fruit gum. Swear to god. I almost gagged when I walked in. So I opened all the windows and called the main office to complain. No one came by to do anything about it or even check it out. I ended up missing the whole afternoon of work because I live on the first floor and couldn't leave the windows open while I'm gone. And there was no way I could close them up. It's 9:30 at night and it still stinks to high heaven.

So I decided to make a grocery run at 8:30 this evening. It was dark out, and time to close the windows, and anyway I wanted cake. So I close everything up and go out to my car. And what do I find? Someone from this bastard apartment complex has STICKERED MY CAR. Apparently while I was STUCK AT HOME MISSING WORK AND AIRING OUT MY SMELLY ASS APARTMENT they decided to brighten my day with a permanent orange warning sticker. Bastards. It's not bad enough that my apartment floods twice in what? A month? Six weeks? And I miss work because they've sprayed toxic levels of god knows what in here without informing me about it. Now they've got to put a giant ass orange sticker on my car, threatening to tow it? Rat bastards. I'm going in tomorrow to talk to the manager. If anyone so much as LOOKS FUNNY at my car, they're going to wish they'd never been born.

I'm a pretty even tempered person. I'd even go so far as to say that I'm easy to push around. I don't like confrontation. But I strongly suggest that no one FUCK WITH ME for the next few days. Even I have a limit.

The Great Flood of '08

Living in a first floor apartment has many benefits. You don't have to haul your groceries up a dozen flights of stairs. You stay cooler in the summer. It generally costs less to move. But there is one great disadvantage. Anytime one of your upstairs neighbors has a water leak, you get flooded out. Yesterday, around 5 o'clock, my upstairs neighbor's water heater sprung a leak. This was the result.

It flooded the hallway, the linen closet, the bathroom, and the kitchen. The water also crept into the bedroom and the dining room. Every towel in the house was used to sop up the mess, and it still wasn't enough.

It started off just pouring down through the ceiling of the water heater/ac closet. I called maintenance, and 45 minutes later someone showed up. He went upstairs and got the water shut off, which stopped it, sort of. Then he used a shop vac to suck up some of the water, and told me someone else would be by in another 45 minutes to take up the carpet and padding, since they were both completely soaked.

I took the opportunity to grab some dinner, since it was now after 7pm. About five minutes after I finished eating there was a popping noise, and water was gushing out under the closet door again. I opened the door, expecting to see part of the ceiling collapsed or something, but a pipe had blown out, and steaming water was rushing everywhere. I called maintenance and the same guy came back again. Apparently, the upstairs water heater was at it again. This pipe was supposed to handle the condensation from the upstairs ac units. I'm guessing the temperature of the water (not to mention the quantity) was more than it could handle, and that's why it blew.

He put the pipe back together and went back upstairs to turn off the water again. It blew again. He came back and tried to put it together, this time with glue. It blew again. Then the second maintenance guy showed up to deal with the carpeting, and had a fit because there was still water gushing everywhere. (If you think this all sounds like "The Three Stooges Do Home Repair," you are correct.) He hauled in the super-duper water sucking hose and went to work. That's when we discovered that the kitchen pantry had flooded, too. Then the first guy came back and replaced the pipe that kept busting and left. The second guy yanked up about half my carpeting and removed all the carpet padding, which was completely sopping by this point. Then he said he'd be back in a few days to replace the padding and clean the carpet, and to try not to flood anything else. A comedian. Ha.

My apartment finally cleared of all carpet padding and maintenance guys around 9pm- four hours after the water first started coming through the ceiling. It was another two hours before I could coax the cat out from under the covers on the bed. He was, and still is, completely wigged out. He keeps doing this weird hyperventilating thing, and he hasn't eaten anything since it happened. He kept me up all night by walking across my pillow and stepping on my head, when he wasn't hiding under the covers with me. He won't settle anywhere, and keeps meowing and doing the butt-down slink all over the apartment, like he expects maintenance guys and evil super vacuum cleaners to pop up again at any moment. He's making me nuts.

And the apartment is a wreck, too.

Oh, hell.

I got pulled over on the way home from work today. By a cop on a horse. How humiliating is that? The ticket was inexpensive, as tickets go, but I also have to pay to correct the problem so I won't get another ticket. Crap.

To do penance, and replace the money I'll be spending on the ticket and car stuff, I'm now grounded from spending money on eating out or entertainment. (Yarn and all related products included.) I checked my bank statement, and it took me 37 days to spend an amount equal to what I now owe on fun stuff. So from now until May 31 I'm stuck with the books I already own, the yarn I already have, food I've cooked for myself, and cable. (I was already on yarn restriction, but I was getting close to cracking. How sad is that? But it was for a Mother's Day gift, honest....)

I had big plans for today's blog, but now I'm not in the mood. Maybe this weekend.

Buried in Stash

I got a wild hair tonight and decided to inventory my stash. Eep! I have 26,058 yards of yarn. That's almost 15 miles! No wonder it's taken over my living room.

Pardon me, I feel a headache coming on. I think I'll go take a Tylenol and a sleeping pill and go to bed.

Lovely Weekend

Day three of my three day weekend was very relaxing. Not long enough, but no weekend ever is. I made pancakes and turkey sausage for breakfast (yum!), and have a bunch left over for breakfast this week. For dinner I made a lasagna and homemade bread (again, yum!), which I hadn't done in ages.

I did make one short trip out of the house today for gas. The car was running on fumes, and I didn't want to have to deal with it tomorrow. Ouch! This was my first ever over $50 fill up. If I drove some massive gas guzzler I wouldn't be surprised, but I don't. I drive a Camry! Fortunately, I live close to work. If I don't run around too much, which I'm trying not to do since I'm trying to save money and limit unnecessary spending, this tank of gas should last me 3-4 weeks. But still. Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, I went to my pilates class on Saturday. It was seriously tough, especially since I started my period yesterday morning. I was already cramping, and the pilates didn't help any. But I don't feel too bad today. Maybe I'm getting better at it!

Spike TV has been playing the Star Wars movies, and my Tivo caught them for me. Today I finally finished watching the last one- Return of the Jedi. (Well, I suppose it depends on your definition of "last," but whatever.) I saw the remastered Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back in the theater a few years back, but somehow missed RotJ, so I hadn't seen the new effects and music. They ditched the "Yub, Yub!" song at the end! That's just criminal. (Funny story: when I saw Empire the whole audience was obviously familiar with the series. When Leia kissed Luke, the entire audience went "eeew!" Some wit yelled, "incest is best, put your sister to the test.")

I actually got a few pages ready for my critique group tonight. I need to get more on the ball about that. We meet tomorrow! I think I dodged the whole transition problem by just cutting it all out. Amazingly, that seems to be the solution to a lot of my dilemmas with this story. Have a problem? Cut it out! I'll see what the group says, but I think the less-is-more approach really helps with the Bethany character. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about her. I'm still not 100% sure, but what I've got now is more subtle than the club to the head it started out as. I like the fact that Daisy just doesn't fit in with the humans in her life. Some of the supernaturals are real pieces of work, too, but she finds a family for herself in that crowd, too. I realized about half way through NaNo that I was exploring racism in my story- humans vs. supernaturals, the more "magical" supes vs. the more "physical" ones. There are a lot of assumptions, a lot of erroneous beliefs floating around. The more aware I became of what was going on, the more heavy handed it all seemed. Some of it may not be as "frying pan to the skull" as I think it is. But it definitely needs a lighter touch.

Didn't come anywhere near finishing my fingerless mitts this weekend. I did finish another (!) Granny's favorite since I last blogged, though. It's a sickness, I swear.

Trouble says hello.

The Jayne Cobb Disaster

This week I tried to break the OCD-like hold that the Granny's favorite dishcloth seems to have on me by knitting a Jayne Cobb hat for a friend. I looked at a few patterns online, but I was feeling grumpy and uncooperative this week, and not in the mood to follow a pattern. (Pattern? We don't need no stinkin' pattern!) (This attitude is a kissing cousin to "Gauge swatch? Never heard of it.") After all, it's only a damn hat. So I cast on. This was a mistake. As you can see, the hat is way too big and also looks like a meathead hat, only not as cute. http://www.flickr.com/groups/meatheads06/pool/

I suppose that's only fair, considering Jayne is a bit of a meathead himself. (The character, not the actor, of course.) But still. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to frog the damn thing and start over or keep it around as a reminder not to do that again. (Because, trust me, internet posterity or not, I will forget.) (Also, I love commas.)

I've done 14 dishcloths in the last two weeks. Eleven of them have been Granny's favorites. I told you. Scary. But my pile-o-Christmas presents is getting taller by the minute. If you know me, you're getting a dishcloth for Christmas. (Sorry to kill the suspense.) In fact, there's a reasonable chance that you'll be getting one if you don't know me, too. Kind of like living in the midwest in zucchini season- don't leave your car windows down unless you want a little surprise when you come back!

(I've really got to find a new pattern to obsess over.) (I also love parenthesis!)

(And before anyone asks- yes, I know that a Jayne Cobb should have rust/orange ear flaps. The damn thing was already so ridiculously wrong, I couldn't stand the idea of spending the time to add the ear flaps. When and if I get around to trying again, there will be ear flaps.)

(Damn Blogger won't put the spaces between my paragraphs. I hate that!) (Gah!)

Good Behavior

Bless me, for I haven't sinned. Yet. It's been two weeks since I last bought yarn. I honestly thought it had been longer than that. It certainly seems longer than two weeks. But, no. I have resisted temptation several times, including last night when I made a Walmart run. (They sell Peaches & Crack there. It doesn't matter that I have 2 large shopping bags bulging with balls of P&C, and 4 half-used 1 lbs cones. I still want more.)

I was so tired last night. I was supposed to go to a pilates class last night, and I just couldn't do it. The only reason I managed to go out at all last night was that there was no more food in the house. (Which probably doesn't matter that much, because there are no clean dishes in the house, either.) Also, my old headphones gave up the ghost this week, and the only thing that gets me through my work day is my mp3 player. I just couldn't live another day without headphones.

I discovered a diet trick while deliriously wandering the Walmart aisles, though. I was in the frozen foods section and came across a display of Goldfish crackers. (???) They were the giant boxes, and it was the extra flavor (read: extra fat and sodium) variety. My first thought was "oooh!" (Crunch, salty things are my particular weakness.) Then I glanced at the price- $6.46- which stopped me in my tracks. Not because it was a particularly high or low price, but because the Peaches & Creme cones I'd just looked at are $6.64. (There's a blue and cream colored cone that I've been eyeing for months now, but I've managed to resist because buying another cone when I already have so much is just silly.) I thought about it for a minute. For approximately the same price, I could have a giant box of Goldfish or a cone of yarn. The yarn would last longer and give me more pleasure. I seriously considered staggering back to the craft section and buying that cone. But sanity prevailed, and I bought neither.

I did, however, manage to buy 2 Smart Ones frozen dinners by mistake. I meant to buy the frozen dinners, I just got the wrong varieties. One was a Spicy Szechuan something-or-other, which I'm afraid might have nuts or otherwise cause problems, and the other was a quesadilla with corn and beans which will definitely cause problems. I guess I could return them, but that seems like a lot of effort. Maybe I can pawn them off on my best friend? She likes to take this kind of stuff for lunch.

Monday Monday

I talked to my boss this morning, and he's going to let me have Friday off. Hooray! A three day weekend! I've decided to drop again on the Pred on Thursday and then sleep all weekend. Wish me luck!

My Tivo only recorded the first 15 min or so of Dexter again, so I got on Netflix to watch it. No go. I don't know what's wrong exactly, but my dinosaur desk top doesn't meet "system requirements." Boo! I guess I'll be adding Dexter back to my Q.

I cast on for my 8 bajillionth Granny's favorite at lunch today. It's getting to be a sickness. This one is in Peppercorn. I bought a cone of the stuff back in January, and there's still a ton left. I think I'll cast on again for the Jayne Cobb tonight, too. I've got last night's Eli Stone on the Tivo, and that would be good ES knitting. Crap. At least I hope I have it. I'll be very disappointed if that one got screwed up, too.

I called my company's accountant in the home office this afternoon for help filling out a property tax form. (Actually, I just found out recently that he's not an accountant. I'm not entirely sure what his qualifications are, but it's his butt on the line if something gets screwed up, not mine. That's good enough for me.) The form is due tomorrow. Whoops! It turns out that we have an accounting firm that's supposed to fill out these forms. Did I mention it's due tomorrow? And tomorrow is also income tax day, too, so they're up to their eyeballs in tax forms. I filed for an extension online and mailed it to them. They'll handle it next week, when things aren't quite so hectic.

Even if I didn't know the date, I'd know it was tax time. Either that or Christmas. My office is across the street from a post office. This is a small semi-residential street. And there was a traffic jam at lunch. Cars backed up on both sides of the street, trying to get into the completely full post office parking lot. Thank god I filed my taxes online weeks ago. I already have the money back! (It went into savings to replace some of the money I had to pull out for car repairs.) Now all I need is the extra $600 our illustrious President promised me to stave off the recession that he claims we aren't having. Whatever. I'll take the money.

Progress

Well, I made a little bit of progress this weekend. I made it to my reformer class, and now I hurt everywhere. The apartment is still a mess, but it's not quite as much of a mess as it was on Friday. I'll just keep plugging away there.

I finished the MD washcloth. I made it through a few rows on the yellow and orange ballband dishcloth. I finished a red, white, and blue Granny's favorite and started on another with a scrap of Spring Meadows. I lost a stitch somewhere on the patterned dishcloth and ended up frogging. Started on the Jayne Cobb, decided it was a little too small, and frogged that, too. I got all the ends woven in on the baby gifts. I still need to finish the icord ties and sew on the velcro.

I'm so tired. I don't even want to think about going back to work tomorrow. If it weren't for the fact that property taxes and the March closing are both due on Tuesday, I'd consider calling in sick. But they have to be done, so I'll have to struggle through. Maybe if I get to bed really early tonight I'll feel better tomorrow.

Finally watched the DVDs I got from Netflix two weeks ago. Disc one, season one of Dexter and Atonement. There was only one episode of Dexter that I hadn't seen, and I got bored with Atonement and gave up about half way through. It was probably my attitude more than the movie, but I just couldn't take it. I ended up watching an episode of Firefly and Phantom Menace instead. PM was pretty much as bad as I remembered it being, but at least it wasn't depressing. Overall, this round of Netflix movies was a waste of time.

It's only 5:30pm and I'm already ready for bed. I don't have high hopes for this week. Must keep after the boss for a vacation day in the next couple of weeks.

Weekend Goals

I got on the scale this morning: 277 lbs. That's 45 lbs up from my lowest weight out of the hospital last summer. I'm still on steroids, so losing weight won't be easy, but I have to do something. My first step is to clean the apartment.

Seriously, that's where I need to start. Losing weight means working out and eating right. I can't work out at home if there's no room to put down the deck on the treadmill or follow along with an exercise video. I can't eat right if I don't have clean dishes or clear kitchen counters. So, step one- cleaning. I also want to make it to my reformer class on Saturday morning. Please, guts, let me go.

My other goal is to get all the finishing done on the baby gifts for my cousin. I need to weave in ends on three sets of bibs and burp cloths and two hats. I also need to make icord to make ties for one of the hats. I'll take pictures before wrapping them up and shipping them off.

I started on a yellow and orange ballband dishcloth- one of my 19 projects from last weekend- and I'd like to finish it this weekend, as well as another patterned dishcloth that I started. If I'm really lucky I'll make some progress on the Mason Dixon washcloth I started last weekend, too.

I think that's enough for one weekend. I'll check in on Sunday to let you know how I did.

Book of the Year

The Smart Bitches announced the winner of their March Madness-style book of the year tournament- The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason. http://tinyurl.com/5vcfzf

I read The Rest Falls Away last year and enjoyed it. But it didn't get my vote for book of the year. My first choice (out of the options in the tournament) was Agnes and the Hitman by Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer. When they were knocked out in the first round by the eventual second place finisher- Nora Roberts- I picked Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs which was knocked out by, I believe, Gleason in round three. I preferred Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. Wilson as well, but that was knocked out by Gleason in the first round. It's sequel, Lady of Light and Shadows, was also excellent, although it didn't make the list.

There were a couple other books that didn't make the tournament list that I enjoyed more:

Garden Spells, Sarah Addison Allen
Jinx, Meg Cabot
White Knight, Jim Butcher
An Ice Cold Grave, Charlaine Harris

This all sounds like I'm dissing Gleason and The Rest Falls Away. I'm not. It was a very entertaining book, with a unique take on vampires. (I do love the supernatural beasties.) It just wasn't, in my opinion, the best book of 2007. Did it belong in the top 64? I think so. I only read 9 of the books on the list. All but one were quite good. TRFA fit comfortably in the middle of that pack.

At one time I read romance almost exclusively. Eight or nine years ago I probably would have read closer to half of the books on the list, maybe more. I wandered off into mysteries, which lead me into scifi/fantasy, which lead me back around to romance. The funny thing is that just among the titles I'm familiar with, 3 of them aren't shelved in romance at all. They're sold with scifi/fantasy. (I'm not counting the YA titles, which are obviously shelved with YA.) A few years ago they never would have been included in a romance contest. I wonder how much the fact that the authors are women causes readers to associate them with romance anyway?

Well, my sleeping pill is really starting to kick in, and I'm getting (more) rambly, so I guess I'll go now. Have you read any good books lately? I hope so!

Letting My Geek Flag Fly

I absolutely have to learn how to crochet. This is the coolest thing evah! http://geekcentralstation.blogspot.com/2008/03/star-wars-amigurumi.html

I'm so making these for my brother for Christmas. (Yes, I'm thinking about Christmas crafting already.) And then I'm making a set for myself, too.

The first time I saw Star Wars I was about five. It was my friend's birthday, and her parents took us to a drive-in movie. We had a choice of Star Wars or The Muppet Movie. Being very grown-up five-year-olds, we of course chose Star Wars. And then spent most of the movie watching the Muppets through the back windshield. A year or two later and I was absolutely obsessed with Star Wars. I had figures, cards, the whole nine. I always played Han Solo. (As you might have guessed, I was a bit of a tom boy, and princesses were yucky.) It was a few more years before the benefits of being Leia dawned on me! ;) I still love Harrison Ford, although I do my best to pretend the whole earring thing never happened.

On the knitting front, I am a fool for the Granny's Favorite dishcloth. http://www.jimsyldesign.com/dishbout/kpatterns/grfavorite.html Since last I blogged, I've completed two of them, and I'm 2/3 of the way through a third. Unfortunately, they are all from scraps left over from other projects, so I can't really say I've reduced my stash any. But, hey! I'm making progress on the Christmas knitting!

I started on the Mason Dixon washcloth, and somehow put the bobbles on the wrong side. Whoopsie! I put out a desperate cry for help on Ravelry, and learned that just happens sometimes. Even though you follow the pattern, the bobbles end up on the back. Several people responded saying that all you have to do is poke them through to the front and you'll be fine. I'll mess with it tomorrow and see what I get.

After my picture and project fest this weekend, I remembered six more projects that I have yarn and patterns for. Oy. That brings the total to 25 projects purchased and sitting around in my living room. Not good. I've challenged myself to knit only from stash from now until my birthday. (November) With 25 projects, ranging from dishcloths to socks to blankets, I should have more than enough to keep me busy. That's not even counting this little cutie, who will be perfect for my best friend for Christmas. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTpasha.html And I have all the yarn!

Projects & Pictures

I spent a lot of Friday and Saturday trying to convince myself that I don't need any more yarn. After making a couple of lists and taking pictures of just the stash I have plans for, I think I've succeeded. Here's what I have at the moment:



This is part of my Peaches & Creme collection. The yellow and orange balls will be 2 ballband dishcloths- one yellow with an orange background and one orange with a yellow background. The blue and Winterberry will be a ballband or maybe a ballband variation (it forms diamond shapes instead of evenly stacked brinks) and I also want to do a blue ballband with a white background. The Fiesta and Pink Lemonade colors may be Granny's Favorites. I've got 2 more balls of each, which may become Baby Genius burp cloths, which I'll use as kitchen towels since I don't have any kids to burp. Either the yellow and white, Peppercorn, or Spring Meadows in the back will be made into a Mason Dixon dishcloth- I've been wanting to try that pattern for a while- and possible more BG kitchen towels. And of course there are the monthly dishcloths and other patterns that I've picked up from the internet that I want to try. So that's at least seven dishcloths. (And let me remind you, this is just part of my cotton stash. There's a lot more.)


Here is the yarn that I bought to make a Jayne Cobb for a friend. She's the one who turned me on to Firefly, and one of the first things she said to me when she learned that I was knitting again was, "Hey, you could make a Jayne Hat!" So I'm making one for her. And probably one for me- there should be enough yarn, I think.



Here's my faux-Noro scarf, and a sampling of the yarn I bought to make it. This will be one seriously long scarf. Aren't the color combos cool? I thought I would hate the 1x1 ribbing, but watching the colors change is so fun that the constant switching doesn't bother me. I'm working on plastic needles right now, but I may switch to bamboo. This yarn is slippery, and combined with the plastic needles it's kind of a pain. Bamboo is much "stickier", so it should make the yarn much more manageable.









Socks! I have yarn to make myself seven pairs of socks. I have one sock knit from the pink/yellow/orange combo in the middle, I just need to do the second one. I didn't really care for the first sock- it seemed to bag a lot at the ankle- so I've been playing around, trying to pick a different pattern to finish the pair. Who said socks have to match? My sister-in-law, who works at a Hallmark in Indiana, said that mis-matched socks are one of their biggest sellers. It's very fashionable right now. Of course, that's Indiana. And who cares about fashion anyway? But it's a good excuse, right?

It's a little hard to see, but the purple Jelly Beans on the far right will be a pair of slipper socks. My first pair of socks were slipper socks out of Jelly Beans in blue, so I decided to go for another pair. They're really cozy, and my favorite foot warmers when it's cold. It's rarely cold in Texas, but they're still fun to knit.


I bought this to make a Rasta Hat for my best friend, but after the disaster of my Fugly Hat I decided to do something else with it. I finally settled on the Rosie the Riveter pattern, since she loves to wear head scarves. She's one of those strange people who loves to clean, and she always wears a scarf to get in the mood. She also wears them when she runs, and since she's a marathoner she should get a lot of use out of it. I'm still planning to make one for myself out of the Red Heart camo that I bought a month or two ago. (Yes, the cursed yarn.) I just didn't take a picture of it. So that's two more projects.



And here is a sample of the yarn I bought to make my log cabin blanket. I'm still thinking about doing it in a spiral pattern, but that may change as I work. We'll see.

If I counted correctly, that's 19 projects that I have patterns and yarn for. Really, that's enough for anyone, don't you think?

Good News/Bad News

It was a good news/bad news kind of day.

Bad news: my car broke down on the way to the dealership
Good news: several people stopped to make sure I was OK and see if I needed help

Bad news: my water pump basically blew up and took the timing belt with it
Good news: I replaced the timing belt in January, and it was still under warranty, so they replaced it for free

Bad news: they quoted me $1200, plus towing charges, for the repair
Good news: it only cost me $700, including tow

Bad news: the tow cost $95
Good news: my car insurance covers $80 for towing

Bad news: my car was in the shop all day
Good news: it wasn't me getting worked on for a change!

Bad news: I had to pull money out of savings to pay the bill
Good news: I had the money set aside and didn't have to put it on a credit card

It wasn't the best day ever, but really, it wasn't too bad. And I made more progress on the latest burp cloth. My dad was teasing me on the phone tonight about getting water-cooled knitting needles. Just call me Lightning!

Welcome to the world, Baby Girl!

My cousin had her baby this morning! A 6lbs 9oz baby girl. As far as I know, mother and baby are just fine. Welcome to the world, little girl!

The Lumpy

I tried to make a smoothie for breakfast this morning, but I burned out the motor on my blender, so I had a lumpy instead. Lumpy was not as unappetizing as he looks. In fact, he was pretty tasty. I made a version of Crazy Aunt Purl's smoothie recipe. http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2008/03/bliss_with_blue.php

My recipe was:

about 1/2 cup kefir

1 packet vanilla whey protein powder

1 large banana

1/2 package frozen strawberries

I left out the flax oil because, ew! I know it's good for you , but I don't want oil in my smoothies, thanks. And I skipped the psyllium husks because my poor intestines had enough fiber in the banana and strawberries, they didn't need anything else to contend with. (Crohn's is great if you have the taste buds of a 5 year old. If you have a slightly more complicated palate it's a bit of a drag.)

I'd never had kefir before, and that was interesting. Do you know what kefir is? Fermented goat's milk! Sounds delish, huh? I did some research, and kefir can also be made from cow's milk. I'll have to take a look at the bottle and see if it says what kind of milk it is. I was surprised at how thick it is- it basically looked like a slightly runny yogurt. Between the protein powder and the banana, which was mashed up by the blender before it crapped out, I couldn't really tell what the kefir tastes like. Maybe I'll try a little bit by itself, just to see.

It was a pretty good breakfast- tasty and quick to make. But I was starving by eleven, so next time I'll be sure to bring a snack.

In the mean time, does anyone have a recommendation for a really good blender?

Sunday blah, blah, blah

I tried to watch last week's episode of Dexter on my Tivo this morning and discovered a problem. Apparently, something earlier in the evening ran long, which delayed the show before it, which means that I only got the first 10 minutes or so of the episode. Boo! This is the second time something has gone wrong with recording Dexter. I think my Tivo just doesn't like it. So I went to my Netflix account to put season 1 in my Q, and discovered it's available to play instantly on my computer. Yay! It takes so little to make me happy.

They weren't kidding when they said that grocery prices were going up. Have you seen the price of a can of Campbell's soup lately? $1.50 a can at the Kroger down the street! Geeze Louise. I picked up a couple of cans of store brand chicken noodle at HEB for $.54 instead. I was complaining about it to my mom last night, and she said that she gets Campbell's anyway, because the chicken in the store brand stuff is low-quality and there's not much of it. Can I tell you a secret? I don't like the chicken chunks in canned chicken soup anyway.

I finally filed my taxes this afternoon. Yay! I'm not getting much back, but it will just about pay for a new chair. I want to ditch the hand-me-down couch I've been dragging around for five or six years now and get one of those "butt and a half" size chairs with a giant ottoman. And then I want to put a couple of bookshelves in the extra space that used to be taken up by the couch. I need the storage space. The current bookshelf in the living room is going to collapse any minute under the overload, and I need someplace to put my knitting patterns, projects, and some of the yarn. I spotted a chair and ottoman for cheap at Big Lots yesterday, but I wasn't sold on that particular chair. So I'm going to wait until the refund comes and keep looking.

Speaking of Big Lots, I'd heard that they had yarn, so I went looking. Most of it was "muppet" yarn. They had some Lion Brand Magic Stripes, but I didn't like the colorway, and it looked like there were some problems with the dying- blotches and such- so I passed. They had 1 skein of something by Caron that looked interesting, but one was not enough to do anything with, so again I passed. Bummer.

Dinner tonight? Canned chicken soup and homemade bread. Yum!

I wasn't particularly hungry this afternoon, so I decided to skip lunch. And then I remembered I have to eat to take my meds. Otherwise, they'll make me sick. Can I tell you another secret? Sometimes I really hate Crohn's.

Happy Things

Today I'm making a list of things that make me happy, because lists are the topic of the month at NaBlPoMo and I've hardly used them. Also, because I could use the cheering up. So here are some things that make me happy, in no particular order:

• Patons Shetland Chunky yarn
• the Caldwell Banker commercials with the talking portraits
• Trouble the Wonder Cat
• new posts from Crazy Aunt Purl http://crazyauntpurl.com/
• new posts from Jenny Crusie http://www.arghink.com/
• homemade bread
• pilates class
• blogging
• long weekends- only 8 more weeks until the next one!
• quiet weekends at the beach- only 10 more weeks until the next one!
• finishing a project
• tempura roll and Philadelphia roll
• talking to Mom
• comments- I'm really quite silly about these
• a clean apartment- because it's so rare
• cooking in my crock pot
• working in the office by myself- no one to hassle me! lots of surfing opportunities!
• Ravelry- more free patterns than I could ever hope to knit. But I'll certainly try!
• making my critique partners laugh
• how excited my friends and family get when I give them something I've knitted
• Cynthia and Dr. Madriz- it's nice to have medical professionals that I actually like
• plants (3!) that I haven't managed to kill (yet)
• watching my savings account balance grow
• being 2 months away from paying off my car loan
• having so many things to be happy about

Well, I feel better now! How about you?

"If I had a million dollars"

"I'd buy you a monkey.
Haven't you always wanted a monkey?"

Recently I've been reading a book about a woman who inherits fifty million dollars. I haven't finished it yet, but so far she's decided not to quit her two jobs or move out of her crappy apartment. That's not what I would do.

If I ever inherited fifty million dollars (which is unlikely, because if you added together all the assets of all of my relatives, we wouldn't come anywhere near fifty million) the first thing I'd do is quit my job. It's not a bad job, but do you know any one who wakes up in the morning, yearning to push paperwork? Yeah, didn't think so. I'd buy myself a house on a beach somewhere. Then I'd go on a long vacation at Disney World. And I'd stay in the special suite in Cinderella's castle.

What else would I do? I'd hire a personal trainer to come work out with me four or five days a week. And I'd hire someone to come clean my beach house. So that takes care of the unpleasant stuff.

I'd pick a room and fill it with all the yarn it could hold. And I'd spend my days knitting whatever I wanted. I'd keep a massage therapist on retainer to help treat the inevitable carpal tunnel syndrome. I already have a great massage therapist, so that part would be easy.

Until I win the lottery or some rich relative I've never met drops dead and leaves me all their money, I guess I'll just have to keep on keeping on. Knitting in the evenings and on the weekends. Cleaning my own place. (Or not, to be honest.) Getting up in the morning and dragging my sorry butt to work, whether I feel like it or not. I plan to sign up for a weekly pilates class tomorrow. That should help at least.

And don't worry. If I had a million dollars, I wouldn't really buy you a monkey.

I love my mom!

My mom is my best friend. This past year has been rough, medically and emotionally, and Mom's support is the reason I've gotten through. We talk pretty much every day, often twice a day. Yesterday I called her at lunch and then she called me back before bed. She had knee surgery about 6 weeks ago, and since then she's had some trouble sleeping. So when she called me last night, she'd already taken a Tylenol PM. I have never heard my mother so giggly! Before she called me she was watching a PBS production of Madame Butterfly, and you know how male opera singers are usually short and stocky? Well this one was really tall! And not stocky! And they had an interview with him during one of the breaks! And he was really tall! And looked nothing like the typical opera singer! Giggle, giggle! My mom cracks me up. Even when she's not looped on sleeping pills she's entertaining, but last night was funny.

I started on the Mary Jane Socks from the current Creative Knitting. They're coming together quickly, and look like they'll be cute when they're finished. Was anyone else pleasantly surprised by the number of patterns in this issue using Caron Simply Soft? Gotta love the affordable projects.

Recap

My lovely three day weekend is coming to a close. It was everything I could have hoped for, although longer is always nice!

Friday I had a small repair done on my car- I swear I was at the dealership for less than 5 minutes! It was practically a miracle. And then on to the LYS where I spent the gift certificate I got for my birthday 4 months ago (I know, I don't know how I managed to hold on to it that long either) and another $25 bucks besides. I got a couple of addi turbos, and I love them! They're so smooth to knit with. I started the Sweet Baby Cap http://grosblog.wordpress.com/2007/05/16/sweet-baby-cap/ on them last night, and I'm almost finished. It's turned out really cute. I'll take a picture when it's done.

I also finished Jackie's blanket, which was why I was able to start the hat. And I finished a Baby Bib O' Love from Mason Dixon Knitting in a cute pink and purple colorway. Then I started a matching Baby Genius burp cloth. It was a busy knitting weekend.

I watched Enchanted last night. It was cute, but too sugary-sweet for me. The problem could have been my expectations. Bringing cartoon characters into the "real" world, I expected something sharper, maybe more ironic. But really it was just a live action cartoon. Tonight is Dan in Real Life, which I better start soon or I'll be up past my bed time.

And just for fun, here's a picture of the love of my life.

Good News!

I just read an article on "the 10 deadliest FDA approved drugs." I'm on 2 of them. Faaaabulous. If I suddenly stop blogging, it's because I've dropped dead from my scary meds.

In other news, I started a really good book last night. It's called The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne. Really excellent. I poked around on the internet and discovered the sequel is scheduled for release in July. I know what I'll be doing that week.

I've now officially put on all the weight I lost last summer. That's hardly surprising, considering I lost that weight when my body stopped absorbing anything for about 6 weeks. It's a little depressing anyway. It was fun to fit into smaller sizes, and it was nice that my back didn't hurt, even when everything else did. I've been doing pilates with my trainer, and I really like it. It's hard, but it's also really relaxing. But working out once every two weeks isn't enough to do anything. Must work out tonight.

Itty Bitty Yarn

I have a sock problem. Specifically, I can't make them. At least, not out of sock yarn. I can swatch with the stuff, on the exact same needles that I later use to attempt socks. The swatch looks great. The socks look terrible. I can make slipper socks out of worsted weight yarn, and they look great. In fact, they're my favorite socks to wear around the house. But the faboo, stripey, sparkly, fiddly little sock yarn socks? Disaster. Maybe I should try them on 2 circs instead of dpns? We shall see.

In the mean time, I've come up with an idea for one of my forty-eleven balls of sock yarn- I'm making a baby hat. There's a pattern on Rav called the Sweet Baby Hat that is thoroughly adorable. And it looks like a quick knit, which is good because my cousin is going to be popping one out any day now and I keep frogging or getting bored with and discarding everything I try to make for her. I finished a cute little roll brimmed hat with a bow (from Last Minute Gifts), so maybe "hats" will be my theme. Aunt Linda (grandmother-to-be) made the family baby sweater, so I can't do that. My mom made a receiving blanket, so I can't do that. But I've already got the one hat made, and this one is adorable (and also I have the yarn), and there was another super cute winter hat in the December Creative Knitting which is currently buried under a ton and a half of tangled yarn on my couch (I think) so that gives me three hats. That's a good number. Maybe I'll crank out a couple of bibs or Baby Genius burp cloths from Mason-Dixon Knitting to round out the bizarre knitting grab bag that will be my baby gift to them. That works, right?

This is gonna be a mess. I can tell.

There goes the budget

I went yarn shopping yesterday- something I hadn't done in a while. And by "a while" I mean a week or two. But this wasn't a quick run into Walmart to pick up four skeins for a specific project. I went to a LYS I'd never been to before just to check it out. It was huge. At least four times the size of the shop I usually go to. As I was browsing, I picked up a really pretty hank of yarn and checked the price. $95. Honest to god. These hands have touched a $95 hank of yarn. I put it down quickly and moved on.

The problem with a shop that size is that if you don't go in looking for something specific it's really hard to make a decision. There's just too much to choose from. After about 45 minutes I picked three skeins of sock yarn and boogied. Then I went to 2 Michael's and a Hobby Lobby, looking for Patons. I came out of the first Michael's with three skeins of Vanna White's yarn to make a Jayne Cobb for a friend. (There's probably enough there to make one for me, too.) I didn't buy anything at the Hobby Lobby. The only Patons they had was something froofy- Be Mine maybe? Something I had no need of, and I managed to restrain myself from buying more yarn for Project Linus blankets. I've got a dozen skeins of Caron in a variety of shades. Plenty to keep me busy. Then I bought a half dozen skeins of SWS at the second Michael's. And when I came home, I hopped online and bought a boatload of Shetland Chunky on sale and JoAnn's for $4 a skein and a couple of SWS in Natural Garden because apparently, no one in Houston carries that colorway. Altogether, it was about $200 worth of yarn. So no more purchases for me for a while.

I'm nearing the half way point on the blanket for Jackie. I'm not loving it any more than I was before, but it's going quickly at least. And I've started a faux-Noro scarf for myself out of SWS. I had some bits and pieces, and a couple of stray non-matching skeins, left over from last year's Christmas scarves, and decided to try it. Then of course, I had to buy more. I want a narrow (I cast on 27 stitches) scarf that reaches to my knees, with a few wraps around the neck. I started with scraps of Natural Navy and Natural Geranium, and once the Geranium ran out I changed to Natural Pink. Normally, I hate ribbing- I don't like the constant switching between knit and purl- and this is 1x1. But the rows are short, so I'm switching yarns pretty quickly, and the stripes changing colors keeps it interesting. My only concern is that I'm doing it on #9 needles, and it doesn't seem to have much drape. I'm only 4-6 inches in though, so maybe that will change as it gets longer. I'll try to remember to take a picture and post it later.

I joined NaBloPoMo this morning. (National Blog Posting Month- a rip off of National Novel Writing Month) The idea is to post every day for a month. It won't stick, but whatever. Maybe I'll remember to post a little more often.

I started another blanket- this one for the lady who was my mother's roommate in the hospital. They both had their knee replacements on the same day, and Jackie isn't doing too good. If I really work on it I might finish by the end of next weekend. I'm not in love with the yarn. In fact, when I first started I almost frogged it and returned the unused skeins, it was that bad. But now that I'm most of a skein in, and can look at it from a bit of distance, instead of stitch by stitch, it's not too terrible. I'm probably a lot more critical of my own work that anyone else would be, anyway.

The NaBloPoMo topic of the month is lists. So, a list of things I can see out my office window:

1. another office building
2. a cemetery
3. a post office
4. a veterinary clinic
5. a restaurant that keeps closing and reopening under new management (Two years ago when I first started working here it was an Italian restaurant, and it had a Statue of Liberty on the roof and half a taxi cab coming out one of the walls. Then for a while it was a Mexican restaurant and it had a mural of a guy wearing a sombrero with his mouth wide open eating a burger. Seriously wide- you could see his tonsils. Also, burger? I never got that either. The most recent owners took off or painted over all the weird crap, but they didn't last any longer than any of the others.)

Cursed Yarn

My mother thinks that my camo print yarn in jinxed. I think she might be right. I decided to give up on the shrug idea for a while- there just wasn't enough time to make it for when I wanted to wear it. So I searched the patterns on Ravelry and found the Rosie the Riveter kerchief: http://amybsknitityourself.googlepages.com/rosietheriveterkerchief. Perfect! Cute, relatively small, shouldn't take long to knit. I was half way through the bobble row on the headband when I realized I WAS PUTTING THE BOBBLES ON THE WRONG SIDE. Crap.

So I finished my blanket for Project Linus this weekend instead. And then I started another one in a different yarn and pattern. The Red Heart camo is glaring malevolently at me from the couch. I'm going to have to hide it in the bottom of my stash bucket. Or maybe donate it somewhere. Donating should break the curse, right? I wouldn't want to pass it on, or have it rub off on the other yarn in my stash.

Once more with feeling

I frogged the camo shrug again last night. It wasn't working, and I decided that it just wasn't worth all this effort. No more camo for me. I'd use the yarn to make a blanket for Project Linus. This is Texas- lots of people like hunting, and someone would love a camo blanket. And then I woke up this morning with a new idea on how to make the shrug work. So, I'm going to try one more time. If this doesn't work, it's blankie time. Really. I mean it.

The yarn is winning

So, I'm going to a roller derby event? match? game? I don't know what you call them, but I'm going. The team I'm cheering for wears camo, and being a peacenik, I don't own any. So I thought, how hard can it be to knit up a little something? Famous last words. I bought a couple of skeins of Red Heart in a camo colorway. I found a shrug with a very open, cargo net looking stitch pattern. And I cast on. And frogged. And frogged. And frogged again.

You see, the original was made with a cashmere blend. Red Heart is no cashmere. I don't want it that close against my skin, thankyouverymuch. Also, the original was made by a skinny minnie, and I am no skinny minnie. So I've increased the size twice, and I think maybe I've finally got that right. I've also added a ribbed cuff. She started with a couple of rows of garter stitch, and I just don't like the look of garter stitch in variegated yarn, even for a couple of rows in a dark color where you're not really going to see it much anyway. I'm picky like that.

Then I managed to screw up the stitch pattern on the WS rows the first time I tried it. That's what I get for gabbing on the phone with my mother instead of paying attention to the knitting when I try something new. One of the times I frogged I switched from a 2x2 ribbing to 1x1, and I like that a lot better. The last time I frogged I managed to screw up the stitch pattern, ending up with the wrong number of stitches on my needle and dropping something in the vicinity of a yarn over. Riiiiiiip! This stitch pattern is particularly hard to unknit- at least I find it so- because it's all ssk, k2tog, or yo. I hope I don't make any noticeable mistakes once I get past the forearm (assuming I ever get that far), because going back to fix something will be a son of a bitch. At this early stage of the game it's easier just to start all over, especially with the kind of mistakes I've been making. Fortunately, the cabled headband is coming along much better.

But I still want that shrug!

Remember the fugly hat? Here's a picture.

And one of the back

Isn't it attractive?

I bought a digital camera. Then I went back to the store and bought rechargable batteries. Then I went back again and bought an SD card. And yet I still haven't managed to take pictures of my yarn masterpieces to post. Maybe later this week. All my FOs are piled on the dining room table, waiting. All my UFOs are on the couch in various states of completion. It's getting a little out of control around here.

I got my invite to Ravelry last week, and now I've got even more stuff going and planned. My current obsession is a market bag out of Peaches & Creme in peppercorn ombre. I'm sick of either stockpiling or throwing out grocery bags. I want to make a couple of my own in various colorways. This version is looking pretty good. I've managed to only screw up one row. I started one this weekned in Sugar 'n Cream Twist green, but I was paying too much attention to Flash Gordon and not enough to my YOs and K2togs, and ended up with a big ol' mess. It really wasn't that bad, I guess, but it wasn't right. And since that particular bag is destined for my cousin, I want it to be right. Ish. So he'll get version 2.o.

I'm also working on my first stuffed animal. He's a mini version of Troubbie the Wonder Cat for my mom. He's all knit up and about 3/4 sewn and stuffed. I got distracted and need to finish him tomorrow. The plan was to send him for a Valentine's present, but as usual he will be late. (I still haven't mailed the Christmas gifts that I knit for various Uncles, Aunts, and cousins. If I really get on the ball maybe they will get them for President's Day, although I make no promises.)

I found the coolest wrist warmers. I can't wait to make them. But I've put myself back on a yarn diet ('cause we all know how well that works with FOOD). I've got so many projects OTN right now that I just can't justify buying more yarn for more projects until I've finished up a few. I'm dying to make the coolest pirate socks, too, but the main color is on back order at the moment. I was planning to head to a different LYS this weekend to see if I could get something similar but then I was reality checked my the avalanche of yarn when I sat down on the couch at lunch. It will be hard, but I can wait until 4/25 when it's available again. After all, International Talk Like A Pirate Day isn't until Sept 19- that gives me plenty of time to prepare.

Oh, and you can all relax now. I found the Tivo remote.

Stop everything! I have an emergency! I can't find the Tivo remote. I had it this morning, but it's disappeared. Without that remote I can't watch anything stored on my Tivo or change the channel. I'm stuck on MTV! Help!

I met a future knitter today.

My car was way past due for an inspection and routine maintenance, so I drove over to the dealership this morning. They've remodeled their waiting area, which is good because it took 5 hours, and that would have been uncomfortable in the old chairs.

I knew it was going to take a while, so I brought the baby kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting that I started last night. As I worked, I noticed a little one- probably about two or so- walking back and forth in an arc in front of me, slowly getting closer. This is not unusual. I'm a kid magnet. After a few minutes she stopped right in front of me, watching fascinated as I worked. For a minute I thought she was going to climb right up into my lap. She wouldn't talk to me, but when I held up the knitting for her to look at she touched the needles and the yarn. Her father apologized and called her away, but she came back every time he turned away. The last time she came to see me she held the needles and moved the points against each other and then tried to wrap the yarn. Smart kid! I knew she was fascinated, but I didn't realize how closely she'd been watching until she tried to do it herself. I wonder how long she watched me before I noticed her?

I started and finished the mid-January dishcloth last night. It whipped up a lot faster than the football dishcloth. I'll break out the new digital camera and try to take some pictures tonight. I've got a boat load of other knitting project to photograph, too. Keep your fingers crossed that I can figure out how to post them!

Went to my RWA chapter meeting this morning, so I'm one step closer to meeting one of my goals for the year- attend every chapter meeting. It was a good one, too. I've come up with a few new ideas for my WIP. The one I want to finish by the end of the year.

I went to Michael's after the meeting and bought three skeins of yarn I've had my eye on- 50% off! Yay! Then I got it home and tried to knit with it. Not so yay. It's a chenille, and the yarn just doesn't slide well. It gets really tight on the needles. I'm still futzing around with it. Maybe I'll get the feel of it.

And I made grape jello.

That was my exciting day.

It's official. I've knit the world's ugliest hat. It's cold outside, so I'm wearing it anyway!

I met the new members of my critique group last night. Two guys. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic works in this group. The last group was all women. Except that we learned later that one of the members was transgendered. The interesting thing was that the transgendered person's critiques were generally different from everyone else's. More analytical. This person looked at very specific details, whereas the rest of us were more big picture oriented. Was this a "male brain" vs. "female brain" split, or just the general disposition of the individuals involved? To complicate matters, the transgendered individual has gone back to identifying as a man, but hasn't been active in the critique group since the change. Well, I guess that doesn't really complicate anything, but it does make it harder to draw conclusions about the root of the differences. The sample is too small to really draw conclusions anyway, but I do remember thinking "well that explains everything" when I was told.

I'm now working on The Family Baby Sweater for a friend's new baby. It seems to be coming along OK. It's not really obviously a sweater yet, but it doesn't NOT look like a sweater either, if that makes sense. Which it probably doesn't.

I think it's time to take my sleeping pill and go to bed.