Abandonment

So this half hour every other day to play with yarn is only serving to make me want more. Urg! So frustrating, and since my projects usually are long and drawn out, I get nothing done in this timeframe, so I had a brilliant spark come to me last night.

Monday's Knitting Calendar pattern was for a little bitty sweater Christmas ornament, made with size 10 thread and size 1 needles (I know, I know - crack... must be in the koolaid). So, I cast on, and this is made top down starting with the turtle neck, then doing some specially placed increases to make the shoulders, putting stitches aside for the arms to work later, then continuing on down the body. It really is too cute, and I figured something that small I could have something finished pretty soon. Yesterday I was able to get to the increase part. Maybe tomorrow I'll get done with the shoulder increases? We'll see.

So starting this new project has left the following abandoned:

firstsock out of Tofutsee yarn (South West Trading Company, made in a natural fiber yarn that has some sort of stuff made from the shells of shrimp & crab which makes it naturally antibacterial - pretyt groovy!). I am on the round and round bit of the foot and have about half the foot left to go.

chenille blanket - I was about 6 inches in on this one when the doc said to stop. I was only doing it for convention since I had started to hate the angora shawl, so I have zero emotional investment in this piece. I may cut off what I've done and sell the BigHugeCone of chenille on ebay which is where I got it from.

sweater for me - You thought I forgot about this didnt you? Its in my bedroom, staring at me every night from my dresser. I am about 1/3 up the front, that's it. It is so easy peasy stockingnette, but the yarn is kinda fiddly - it's 2 strands of a very light, easily pulled apart acrylic/mohair blend - so that adds a level of difficulty. I love what it is looking like, and I may yet finish it. We'll see. For now it will live on the dresser.

angora shawl - this will not get finished. It sheads so much. I would frog it but the angora doesnt frog well, and there isnt soo much left becides what i've used. I'm not sure what the fate will be of this, we'll see.

That's it, maybe? I have the yarn to make my mom's Christmas sweater, and yarn to make me a sweater like I made Stacy last year... and thats really it on the list.

Boy is that depressing.

Blah blah blah

There is zero to talk about. No knitting, no crocheting, not even a cute picture of a child/cat/weird car to show you.

It's sad really.

One week from today I leave for convention, and I am pretty sure that I'm ready. Well, ish. I've made my packing list, and I've gone over our agend eleventy thousand and 2 times and I think we're going to have another convention meeting later in the week. Again. Our office is stacked with all manner of boxes and such. I have lists of each box and it's contents inside my trusty computer. We're highly organized over here.

Oh, wait, there is news... my mom's puppy was born, along with its 4 siblings... so if anyone wants a Maltese in about 2 months lemme know, k? I'm sure that I'll have pics of that soon MOM! And I'll let ya'll see. She called me after #1, then again after #3, and then I went to bed. they ended up with 5. That's a bunch for such a little dog! Jake is pretty astounded by "Nana had puppies?", so that was funny.

Back to blah blah convention blah. Since I'm in the no-yarn phase of this finger crap, I had to rumage around my craft fair stash to come up with something for the Silent Auction. I decided on this (actually this is the pic from the book, I donated the done afghan):

It's pretty, and hopefully it will raise some money.

Hopefully I'll have more interesting things to talk about tomorrow.

Dada and sleep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVt15CqFNE

This is Sean saying his first "word". He does finally say it toward the end of the video, so be patient. Yep, Dadadada. It was funny, Jake tells Sean "Say Mama" and of course Sean says "Dada". Too cute. He started saying it last weekend.
Guess what else he he started dong last weekend... sleeping through the night! Yay!

No real crocheting or knitting lately, and nothing new from the doctor, I will go in 2 weeks to get an answer so thats a good thing. I hope they will have something that I can take to make the fingers stop hurting!

Thats really it now. Sorry it's not much!

no big deal

It was just the battery. It was under warranty, so we swapped it out but paid a little more for a better one. All better now.

Work is crazy, and I am about to start arts & crafts day here at the office... should be interesting, and a little bit messy. Wish me luck.

Oh, the irony

I had no time today to post about nothing because we leave in 2 weeks for convention and hi! that's just around the corner. But, as I left to go get Sean and go home my car decided to be a bad car and not start.

So, now I'm waiting for Travis and Jake to get here - my Father in Law went to get Sean... Love him! - and now I have a few minutes to say hello to you.

My whole office minus 1 (Damarys had left via the front door when the car decided to pull its antics) decided that I do not have a alternator problem, or an electric problem, and that the issue is probably somewhere between the gas tank (yes I have gas) and the whatever it is that makes the engine start... fuel pump maybe? No clue. Wish us luck. Best case is that its all better with some cheap tada and off we go. Next, but REALLY close runner up, is that I need to get my new car early - but this is still something thats coming soon anyway. We were waiting on my bonus season to kick in to get a new one. Hrm. I'll letcha know tomorrow what the verdict is.

Drive By

My desk is a disaster. Wait, let me show you...

Obviously I have some work to do... so, here's the skinny.

Saturday we went to my Grandparents place and hung out for a while. Here is Cliff and Jake modeling their matching pirate skull caps. Cliff looks like a thug. Or the unibomber!

Sunday we took Jake and Sean for their pictures and they came out so cute, and Jake is such a ham, and we will get them on Labor Day.

Today, Jake started 1st grade. Here's what he looked like about 20 minutes before we had to leave:

I took a picture of him and his teacher, Mrs Ashmore, but it was backlit and came out horrible, so I will spare you.

Sean is so close to crawling, I took some video on Saturday of it, but I dont have time to upload it, but here is a nice picture... pretend he's moving: Never mind, I only took video. Whoops!

How about a nice picture of Gigi the Tripod dog sleeping under Grandma's feet... with her but on Grandma's scooter. Pretty funny I thought.

That's it. More tomorrow... hopefully!

yarn longing

So, hanging out with the fiberfriends was kinda sad, but I did get the sweater finished - mostly frogging, then the smallest of 3 round borders on the arm holes... hardly crocheting at all! I felt it more when I got home and had to clean, then while I was doing it. Hrm. Becides that I have not touched a hook or a stick. I'll need to dig in my craft fair stash to see if I have something appropriate to donate since I wont be able to finish what I've started. Oh well, what can you do.

It's been really strange, this not crocheting thing. I have paid more attention and actually LOOKED at the tv while watching it. Usually I just listen to the tv. The diet has helped, and I've been good with not snacking when I'm not supposed to. Last night I did have a little falling down, when my flounder wasnt defrosted and it was already 7:30 and Jake was at his Mamaw's, so when Travis suggested going out I said ok. We went to Estellas and I had a #11 - a taco, a buritto and an enchilada. Oh, and a coke and a side of sour cream. I did not have a 4th meal (or the night before either), but I know that may have derailed the plan. We'll see in the next couple days - today is day 4 and I am at the same -3 that I was yesterday. And Damarys said today is a skinny day for me, so that's good, right?



Last night was open house at Jake's school. He got the teacher he wanted - Mrs. Ashmore, and she seemed really nice. There are 2 other Jacob's in his class - plus a bunch of his other friends so he's pleased. We took home a few books that need to be covered, and went over some of the agenda he will have. I'll put together a sample schedule soon so you can see, but he will be learning Spanish and computers and poetry along with his beloved math and dreaded penmenship. Oh, and it will be in cursive. Poor kid. School starts Monday, I'll be sure to take a First day of First Grade pic for you. Have a great weekend.


I didnt take any kid pics yesterday, but I did take a picture of the cloud factory:

You want me to what?

So the annoying stiffness in the fingers and general feeling of fogginess in the brain sent me to the doctor yesterday. And after helping a very nice, but scared lady with a bee sting on her face get into the ambulance safely, he came to visit with me. Doc Parks is very nice, although I think this is the first time I've met him, even though his name is on the door - usually I see a NP. So I thought that was cool. He and I hold hands for a bit, and his general line of thinking is artritis - not the growing older one, but the specific area one (yeah, he told me... but, um, I dont remember which is which). Then we chatted about the other stuff going on, and he mentioned that sometimes hypothryoid will give you the focus problems I've been dealing - then went on to tell me the story of a patient who is a math teacher that came to him unable to do her math problems. Well, I've never been good at math... but anywho. He ordered bloodtests and x-rays and sent me on my way with orders to come see him in 3 - 4 weeks.

This morning I went to the vampires who stole 6 vials of blood from me, then to the x-ray people who took 3 x-rays. Now I wait.

The advice from the doctor while I wait - Take some advil or alieve if you need it and lay off the crochet.

huh?

So, I go to see my fiberfriends tonight and I can watch them and drink my $5 iced tea and smile, and remind myself that it's not that bad. Right? Ugh.

I will leave you with a picture of the oft-neglected cat.

And speaking of pictures, the boys go Sunday at 12:20. Wish us luck.

PS: Day 2 on crazydiet is going well - a pear for breakfast, orange and grapes for lunch, sandwich for dinner and strawberries for dessert.

Convention is kicking my butt, and other diet news

Yes, there will be yarn-related news in here... I promise!

I leave for Convention in 3 weeks.

(as an aside, my speakers have just gone wonky and now my music is actually annoying me. How crazy is that? Urg. Anyway, sorry.)

I leave for Convention in 3 weeks and not everything is done. A lot has been done, quite a bit actually, but I do still have a lot to do.

I bought my Saturday night dress (at a consignment shop for $21... that was 1/2 off after I discovered some rhinestones missing which I need to go to Michaels or Joanns to get replacements for... not bad I though). It's black with thinnish shoulder straps and it goes to the floor in a flowy split skirt thing. It's nice, but a little bit too big. I'll take it in some up top, the rest can stay as is.

I shall be Cinderella for the Friday night costume party. I have rented my dress (to buy it would be $995. No I'm not kidding. To rent it was $85. Thank goodness the job is picking up THAT tab!) but I need to buy opera legnth white gloves (the ones I have only go to below my elbow) and some "glass slippers". That has proven difficult... I will not pay $60 for 1 night's worth of shoes... which is what the costume place wanted. I've checked Walmart, and the consignment shop I bought my dress at with no luck. I've got to try payless and Goodwill... maybe somebody else bought them for a 1 night thing then donated them. Fingers crossed.

This dress weighs probably 30-40 pounds. HEAVY! And, although it zipped up (with help), I didnt try to sit down in it. Should prove interesting. Diet starts today!

Still on my to-do list... deal with Hotel ownership changes, make sure the crap I've ordered (give-aways, convention bags, awards, etc) get here in time and are right. I am still not quite sure how childcare is going to work out - Travis will still be on mandatory OT, so it will pretty much be up to the in-laws. I feel bad about having to rely on them so much, but I don't really have an alternative. Urg.

I have given up on the shawl. I managed 1 row during our 9,082 hours in the car last week, and I hated doing it. So, because I have no shame and have never been one to be a 'one-project person', I have started something new. Using the black chenille I have a ton of and my Brittney J hook, I am making an afghan. Simple alternating shell design. It's easy, and would go quicker if it were a) not my Brittney J hook but I cant find my Boye and b) not the black chenille. But, I think a lacy black chenille throw would be appropriate for the "Hollywood" theme, dont you? I'll take a pic at lunch to show you.

Today is day 1 of crazy diet 2.1. I will be able to do 1 11-day stint, 3 days off, then another 8 days of the diet before we leave for convention. Wish me luck... I dont want to NEED help zipping up Cinderella.

Here's a picture to tide you over:

And finally, I am starting to need a new cel-phone. My battery cant hold a charge for more than a day - and that's without talking on it! We have Verizon, but I doubt that really matters on phone model. Any suggestions?

Have a nice Tuesday.

Stuff and all

This is a little jumbled... sorry.

I started taking some St Johns Wort and Echinacea for the ppd, and thus far it has only given me a headache. I will give it a week and if nothing, I'll go back to the doc for another option. I wont be able to function at Convention like this, so I've got to do something! Wish me luck!

Here are some assorted pics from vacay...

In the 4 minutes that I saw my siblings, I managed to get 1 picture. Just pretend that you see lovely pics of my sister and big little brother.

My little little brother and Sean:

What I did most of the car trip. And they got done by the time we got to Rere's house, they made a nice birthday gift, and they fit her! :

Sean on Nanny & Pop's carpet (I have video, maybe I'll get that up tomorrow):

Jake after a Silly String attack:

Yarn Porn:

The baby robin living in Aunt Rere's front porch wreath:

The reflecting pool at Luray Caverns:

Ok, off to do some work. More tomorrow.

We are here...

25 hours later, and 3 hours later of a start... we are here. I saw my siblings for the sum total of 4 minutes which was not enough. I did manage to get a picture of Sean with my little little brother, but was unable to capture the sister opening her birthday socks, or the big little brother on film. Sneaky, those two!

I am on the round and round bit of the secondsock. We have a 6 hour drive ahead of us, and it MUST be done at the end. No wrapping... heck, I even forgot the cards on my desk at work! Whoops! But, even if it's not done (MUST), I have given a sock before... with the other one to follow, so I may do that again. We'll have to see how the 6 hour drive goes.

Maybe more later....

Sean goes to the doctor

Head circumfrence - 17"

Height - 28" ... 90% for his age

Weight - 17.3 lbs ... 50% for his age

Add to that 4 shots, and you have our morning. He was fine as soon as I picked him up which was good. Poor baby was asleep by the time we drove the 8 min to Roxanne's house! Overall he's doing just fine, and it looks like all that bouncing is helping him avoide the tire-thighs!

That's it for now. More from NY.

An entry entirely about yarn and yarn items

I finished up the blue sock at lunch.

It was tried on the foot analog for the receivee of the other pair, and I think these will be a better fit. And the done ones can go to my sister. Assuming, of course, that I can create a whole sock in 40 hours. Are we to start taking bets?

And the sock yarn.... I wanted to make Gryffendor socks out of my new Harry Potter knitting book, but was unable to find solid yarn at the yarn shop I visited. So, I ordered some online www.simplysockyarn.com and it came super quick, and was pretty inexpensive as well.

Anyway, that's it.

EEEeeeeee!

Sorry, a little excitement escaped!

Only a day and a half until we leave........ :). If you would like to live vicariously through me at Homecoming, go here http://www.waddingtonny.us/ and look at the calendar of events for it on the left side. Also a trip to the alpaca farm is planned, which I'm pretty excited about too. Lots of fun to be had! Anyway, back to this weekend: Saturday we went to Jasyline's birthday party, lots of fun, and it was a really pleasant day to be outside. Here's a couple pics of that:

Sunday I finished up the 2nd sock, and they are now wrapped and on my dresser ready to go to their new home. And, if the recipient doesnt like them, Damarys says she will take them off her hands. Please notice the matchiness... I was so proud of that!

After finishing these, I did a few rows on the shawl and a few rounds on the other blue sock. This morning I started on the toe of it. That should be done today, and I'll start on second sock while working on the shawl. I will see how productive I am, and if they get done in time, they will go to my Sister for her birthday. I'll see her Wednesday night. Can I make a sock in 2 days? Dont know, but I will give it the ole college try!

And, I have cropped the Sean Clown nose pic for your enjoyment. This is my new desktop theme and makes me laugh everytime I see it. It also makes my co-workers laugh when they visit. So. Funny.

Anyway, I will try to blog tomorrow, and from the chilly north. Cheers.

Pics, video, Blog Updates

First off.... Sock 1 is donedonedone! Also, one of my co-workers is the same footsize as the intended reciepent of the socks and we have a Perfect Fit! :)

At lunch I will start Sock 2. 5 days and counting.

Yesterday when Jake and Travis went to see the Cirque people they were giving out giftees. Popcorn and clown noses. Here is a clown being modeled by our favorite 6 month old. (note to self... work on them eyebrows!)

Here is Travis, Jake and Sean playing gameboy yesterday:

And finally, Sean trying to crawl, or swim... whichever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J9izv5b2dA

Enjoy your Thursday. Say, is 5th grader on tonight?

Pictures?

Travis took Jake to his office to meet the Cirque performers, and to the nature preserve out back to eat a sandwich. Here are pics of both:

On stuff in general...

On sock progress... I have about 2 inches to go before I start the toe. I am hoping that will be done tonight and I can start #2 tomorrow.

On othersock progress... remember, the blue one? Yeah, I've been ignoring it. I'll go back to it after this pair and the pink shawl are done.

On pink shawl progress - there hasn't been any in a while. Once this pair is done... that will be next to accomplish. I am a little worried about the lace edge, but it will be a nice test of my Mad Skilz. lol.

On postpartum depression - I should have been a little closer on the lookout since my cousin (and life-twin) had this after her second child, but I wasn't. It certainly explains a lot, but since the meds make me sick I'll keep dealing without them. At least now I know.

On the upcoming Vacay... I am so excited to see my family, it's been entirely too long! I am looking forward to the following, almost as much as seeing my fam:
fresh sweet corn
visiting the alpaca farm, and giftshop
48ish hours of car-knitting time
watching my children play with my cousin's children on Nanny's lawn the way we did
seeing Jake go in the water of the St Lawrence and freeze but love it... the way I did
watching the talent show, fireworks and rubber duck race
buying stuff at the craft/crap sale (both craft sale & yard sale)

Updates...
Jovanny is doing well, is home and eating and growing and crying (a lot apparently).
Deanna is doing very well, Doc said no need for chemo or radiation, and all looks good.

Blogger is wigging out, so pics later.

Houston, we have a problem

I am a sock addict. Remember when I had the little falling down at the yarn shop last week? That's kinda what started it. Then I remembered that I have a b-day coming up that I need to have a giftee for.... and what better giftee than socks, right? And then July 18th's pattern in the Knit Pattern a day calendar was the cutest sock... (Sockotta color 6670)

Look closer at the pattern... see the V's?

Cute, huh? Yeah. And pretty easy. This is from starting on Friday evening and included reading about 500 pages of Potter.

And I have now fallen in LOVE with the Crystal Palace bamboo sock needles. I was worried because I didn't like the Clover ones - too, um, sticky and not slidey enough (If you knit you understand, sorry to those that don't). I have a week to finish, wish me speedy needles!

Oh, and remember how I said that Sean was resourceful when it comes to the foot in mouth thing?

And since I promised a pic of the new curls, here you go. It's not the greatest picture, sorry!

Over the weekend, lets see, Saturday I went to Borders to get Potter and Office Depot for school stuff for Jake (I'm about 90% done). The rest of Saturday was spent going through Sean clothes that are too small, going to the in-laws, knitting on the sock and reading. Sunday was more reading, I made breakfast, went to the in-laws, went with Butch and Sean to my Grandparents place to get the "on top of the truck storage thing", and knitted there and back. More reading, until Next Food Network Star then I switched to knitting. I cant read and watch at the same time, or read and knit... but I CAN watch and knit, so we multi-task where we can, right?

That's really about it. Have a nice Monday.

filing and overtime.

I dont know if I've mentioned here that I really REALLY hate to file. My "to be filed" box overfloweth, and it was time to bite bullet. I hate filing. I'm half done with getting the renewals and cancellations in alpha order, so when I go into the FileCabinetOfDoom that it's not as bad as it could be. Blah blah.

Travis is stuck with mandatory OT again for the whole month of August. Boy will that be fun! He had to send an email letting him know that we will be out of town on his days off in the beginning so they dont schedule him. Hopefully that wont be a fight. I guess I wouldnt be so upset about it if they would hire more people for his area. They have hired 6 or 7 new classes since they started his area OT, but NONE of those new classes are for there, but for the other areas that are getting sent home early every day. Perhaps this makes sense to them, but, um, hello?

Weird diet part 2 was supposed to start today, but it was storming last night and I wasnt able to make it to the store after dinner. Today I'll go, and tomorrow it will start. And Travis is starting with me, so that should be good.

Sean got to wear shoes yesterday for the 2nd time. He kept them on all day which was good. My MIL was concerned that with shoes on how could he put his feet in his mouth? Yeah, he's resourceful. I'm just glad they're clean.

I have got to find a way to reset Sean's internal alarm clock. I Do Not Love 6am. Or 4am for that matter. I do not love my baggy eye circles, I do not love my "did my hair in the dark because I can't make my eyes function with light" look (of course by "did" I mean pulled it back in the closed scrunchie I could find, and no I dont know what color it is). I am DREADing the fall time change... because then I will not love 5am. ugh. But, he's a happy baby, so it could be worse, right?

I did nothing on the shawl or the sock last night. I sat and watched Discovery channel and fed Sean until he fell asleep and the sat some more. I did get some done at lunch yesterday though, so that's progress, right? I've got what, 200 more rows to go before the lace? Yeah, Lord grant me swift needles.

I suppose I've put off filing long enough, and it's been staring at me so I better get back to it.

Something in my office smells like syrup. mmmm. syrup. Diet starts tomorrow.

Pics and videos of the kids... and yarn talk

Sorry I've been neglectful. Work has been a little, um, crazy. We just finished mailing out 750 bags of microwave popcorn. It was interesting. Anyway, Saturday we went to my grandparents house, and took some video and pictures. Here ya go.

This one is Sean enjoying the fan breeze.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cTKgHl5jYg

This is of Sean and Grandma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY_mu3FsAEA

And pics:

This is Jake playing his game boy. Under the table. In the dark (you cant really tell cause I used the flash, so just use your imagination).

And Sean and Grandma, the pic.

Then I saw this bumper sticker on a mobile X-ray thing, and was amused:

Sock update - I am about an inch away from starting the toe. I've ignored it the past couple days to work on the shawl.

The shawl is going well, I've got 8 inches done, and since it keeps getting smaller and smaller, it's going quicker and quicker. I have 123 stitches currently, and I decrease 2 every other row. I think I started with like 225 or something like that. Once I'm done with the triangle part, I will figure out how to adapt the lace edging to fit it. It only has a wing span of about 3.5 feet right now, and I'd like to add another 1.5 to it. I should be able to get a bunch done on it during our NY trip (which will be in 2 weeks)(2 weeks from RIGHT NOW I will be riding in the back seat of my in-laws van on my way to see my family)(Excited much? Yep!)(sorry for the parentheticals).

While I'm up there I plan to visit the http://www.angelknollalpacas.com/ alpaca farm. I'm pretty excited about that too. They have a gift shop. And NOTHING is better than a souviner of yarny goodness!

Speaking of yarny goodness... I had a little falling down when I was visiting my grandmother. She has the misfortune of living about a mile from a LYS. And just because I have sock yarn, does not mean that I dont need sock yarn! Becides... that's Christmas Presents! Of course $60 for 3 pairs of socks may be a little much. BUT I did also get a new crochet hook for crocheted socks (I have another pattern I want to try... wish me luck), and some Crystal Palace sock needles in a size I already have aluminium in(times 3 I think), but I want to try the good bamboo ones. The yarn was cool though - South East Trading Company Tofootsies - its got recycled crab and shrimp shells in it which makes it naturally antibacterial, which is really COOL. I got 2 of them at $17 a piece. Plus one of the normal brands I get in a white and red. No clue who they will be for, I'll let the sock tell me when it's done.

And speaking of Harry Potter. Oh, I wasnt? Hm. Anyway, I havent seen the movie yet, but we are looking forward to it. I just got a book called Charmed Knits - patterns based on Potter people. I've made Jake a Gryffindor bookmark, and once I find some solid color sock yarn I am SO making myself some Gryffindor socks! Because maroon and gold match everything? Cute patterns though. Sweaters, want cozies, robes, scarves, etc.

That's really it for now.