A quiet end to the year

Had a nice, quiet day today. I went to the bookstore & bought a paperback with my 30% off coupon, plus two 50% off calendars for work (a wall calendar, and a desk calendar). Ralph had to work; the Roomies were not yet up when I left and went out for the day about 30 minutes after I returned home, so I had some blessed, blessed solitude. Knit for a bit, read a lot, played with the dogs, rubbed the cat's ears until he purred like mad, and played a couple computer games. Very restful, and a satisfactory way to spend New Year's Eve to my mind.

Last day of work for 2008

Nothing exciting going on I'm afraid. I'm posting mainly so the Teeming Millions don't feel forgotten, ha ha.

No work for the next few days, hooray! I plan to get some knitting done tomorrow, maybe finish up the fish hat I'm working on. I'd like to do some spinning too. I don't think I've done any at all since November if you can believe that. There's some red that needs to be finished up and then some brown to do, because that Christmas Robin pattern is starting to noodge at me & demand to be knit up.

And sadly, that's about it. Think I'll go eat the last butter tart that Sis made for part of the Christmas dinner.

More yarn photos

Not much going on today. Last night Ralph got a call from work; one of his co-workers passed away. Quite a shock, really--we saw him at a party a few weeks ago and he was happy & chipper. It appears to have been a heart attack. He was only in his early 50's. I feel very sorry for his family; Ralph said that the mom passed away last Monday, so that's two deaths in one week, and right at Christmas, too.


As for me, I have spent the day knitting & doing laundry. I am making the "Dead or Alive Fish Hat" from the Winter 2008 issue of Knitty (www.knitty.com, click patterns & scroll down a bit). It calls for size 7 needles, but I was waaay off gauge with those so I went up a needle size. Still not getting stitch gauge although I hit the row gauge pretty solidly, however it fits Ralph so I'm not too worried about it. I'll go back to the 7s when I make one for myself. I also see this pattern as 2009 Christmas gifts, if I don't get tired of knitting them.

Oh, and I think I'm getting a cold, just in time for our anniversary/mini-vacation. Figures--first time I've had a cold in about 8 years. Sigh.

Boxing Day 2008

Had a very nice Christmas yesterday. Woke up early, and by early I mean around 1:00 am. Ralph woke up around then too, & went into the living room to wrap my gifts (talk about waiting until the last minute). I turned on the light & worked a Sudoku puzzle until he came back in about 10 minutes later. He said, "You aren't supposed to be awake. You're supposed to be sleeping so that Santa will come." I replied, "I thought Santa might want to know where the tape, scissors, and wrapping paper are." He sheepishly admitted that yes, Santa did need to know these things. In all fairness, I had moved them when I wrapped his gifts on Christmas eve.

After he finished with the gift wrapping, we both went back to sleep for a few hours. He had made a pot of coffee earlier, so all I had to do was warm it in the microwave. We opened our gifts--stocking stuffers, really--and I think we were both please with what we received. I gave him a hand-knit hat (see picture), hand-knit socks, four flashlights (he LOVES flashlights, go figure), a book he has been wanting, candy, smoked sausage (which he requested), chicken jerky (ditto), hair bands, hair detangler, and one of those "drinking" birds.
I received candy, clothes de-linter thingies, poo-bags for when I walk the dogs, camera batteries, hand sanitizer, and heat rub & wraps for my achy joints. Oh, and $$$cashola$$$ for a yarn spree (he said he wanted to buy me yarn, but didn't want to get me stuff I wouldn't use or like). After gifts I fixed us a very low-fat breakfast of bacon, cinnamon rolls, toast, fried eggs & milk.


Later that day we went to The Boy's and The Girl's house for a family get-together. Sis was there when we arrived; Dad & JB arrived shortly thereafter. Everyone else--and I do mean everyone--was late. However, we all had a very nice time & dinner was delicious. The Boy & The Girl gave us dead flamingos. Not real ones, of course, but the lawn ornament type, only instead of being pink they are black with glow-in-the-dark skeletons painted on them. I'll have to get some pictures once we've got them up in the yard. They also re-gifted a picnic basket that The Boy had received from work; they figured we were more likely to use it then either themselves or anyone else in their families. We gave them hand-knit wristwarmers for The Girl (see pic) and for The Boy a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy towel that had been on his thinkgeek.com wishlist. They seemed to like them. The Girl's Uncle T was very interested in the towel. We didn't exchange with anyone else.


Today I took Sadie back to the vet for her follow-up. He gave her more antibiotics plus some ointment for her eyes. He wants us to bring her back in two weeks; if we feel that she does need another visit, we're going to take her to the vet we use for our other dogs. We only took her to this one originally because that was the vet Neighbor D used for her, but Ralph & I both got the impression that they are more interested in making money than in taking care of the dog.

Later, I went to the bookstore; only got one book, and I used my Borderbucks for that so it only cost me $2. Not as awesome as The Boy's gas fill-up, which due to his Vons gas "coupon" cost him a penny a gallon. No joke; he had the photo of the gas pump to prove it. 27 gallons for 27 cents. Bet he wished he'd had a couple gas cans to fill up, too. After that I hit the yarn store & bought about 9 skeins, two of which are posted here. I already have projects planned for most of it. I'm also starting to plan next year's Christmas gifts. I really waited too long this year before getting started on the holiday knitting.

Ready for St. Nick

The shopping is done, the gifts are wrapped, the stocking is stuffed. All that's left is to make the corn casserole, but I won't do that until the morning. I am officially ready for Christmas!

For some of our friends, we got gift certificates to (where else?) Johnny Reb's. I love how they do it--see that jar of peanuts? Well, it also contains the gift certificate and a menu for the restaurant. I thought that was pretty unique, and certainly more fun than just an envelope. Hope the friends like it.

Christmas Eve Eve

Nothing much to write about this morning. Shipped the gifts to Ralph's family yesterday, then realized I never put the eyes on the pterodactyls. Oh, well, the recipient is only four; I doubt he will care. If he does then I will sew some on the next time we go out to visit.

Doesn't feel like it's almost Christmas, but here it is Christmas Eve Eve. We didn't really decorate this year, no gifts under the tree (heck, no tree except the one on the deck which has been up since Halloween), didn't watch any Christmas specials. . . just not Christmassy at all. I will have to do something about that. Maybe I'll watch my DVD of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" after work tonight.

Done again!

And with the last seam sewn on the second pterodactyl, my Christmas knitting is officially finis. Good thing, too, since The Big Day is less than a week away. Now I can knit things for myself without feeling guilty about it. So. Should I work on the lace socks that are already started, or cast on a new shawl???

Actually, what I'm going to be doing today is running errands, wrapping gifts & washing laundry. Oh, well. . . .

Saturday, in the park

Went to archery with Ralph yesterday. Although he had been looking forward to the class, once he got there he only stayed with them for a few shots. Then he got distracted by some kids who had set a hula-hoop flat on the grass & were using it as a distance target. Since this was a new type of shooting for him (aiming at something flat on the ground at a distance rather than at a vertical target much closer) he of course headed over & joined them instead. He was the first one in the group to have his arrow land in the hula-hoop! Since most of these kids have been doing archery for years & Ralph has only had a few weeks at it, he was very pleased with himself.

It was rather cold (somewhere in the low 50's), therefore I chose to knit instead of spin since I can do that while wearing my wristwarmers. Spinning is more awkward as the fiber wants to cling to the knitted fabric. I cast on for a second pterodactyl using worsted weight & US 6 needles as opposed to the sock weight & US 3s that I used for the first one. It's such a fun, quick project--I already have all the pieces knit & stuffed. All that's left is to sew them together.

Afterwards we finished up the Christmas shopping for his family. Today I am going to go out & get the last few things for our friends, and also for Ralph's stocking. We decided not to exchange gifts with my family other than Cris & Paige, and even with each other we are only doing stockings, not big gifts. Makes for kind of a sad Christmas, really, but economically it makes sense.

And the last picture for today is PC's new shawl. Didn't it come out wonderfully well? She is very happy with it, and who can blame her? It is indeed a thing of beauty.

Food day.

My goodness, today was totally a food-oriented day. First off was the work breakfast. I had a piece of toast with two strips of bacon, with the toast folded over to make a sandwich, then a second piece of toast with sausage & eggs with hot sauce, also sandwich style. I was pretty full by then, but wanted something sweet after the hot sauce so went over to DW's office. I know she always has chocolates on her desk, and I thought one little piece would do the trick. Well, she was an evil, evil girl and offered my a homemade peppermint brownie. Soooooo good. . . .

Ate lunch around 11:45; I wanted to have some nutritious food on board before the dessert potluck so I wouldn't go overboard on all the sweets. Had some leftover grilled chicken & sweet potato from dinner the other night. Then at 2:00 was the potluck. There was a lot more than just sweets, although there were plenty of those too. I had a bit of nachos, some of my chocolate cherry cobbler, some bbq beef that was so good I was tempted to steal the crock-pot, and I think that was it. There were many other things: brownies, cookies, pizza, seven-layer-dip with tortilla chips, cheesecake, pie, mini-muffins, cake, just all kinds of stuff. And with the exception of the sliced apples, none of it was good for you.

After that there was a song parody contest. Only three songs were entered, two of them by the same department. This was followed by a holiday gift grab bag, the kind where you can steal someone else's gift. I didn't participate in this as I never cared for that type of exchange. However, DW's gift was a chili making kit complete with cornbread mix, and her husband can't eat that kind of stuff due to dietary restrictions so she said I could have it which I thought was very nice of her. I'm going to treat her for lunch whether she likes it or not :-)

Came home to find that BH (one of our Roomies) had done some housecleaning for us: mopped the kitchen, swept & vacuumed the living room, and wiped down the bathroom counters. She has also been brushing the dogs every day. I feel very spoiled!! I did, of course, tell her that I appreciated it.

Need to do some Christmas shopping this weekend. I've got some gifts knitted, but not enough for everyone plus of course not everyone wants a knitted gift. I find that hard to comprehend but accept that it is true.

Oh--and I finished the pterodactyl this morning :-)

Pictures

Close up view of the mountains as seen from my window at work today. The freeway through the Cajon Pass (which goes through these) was closed several times during the past few days due to snow. It's amazing how something so pretty can cause such trouble.





Another view of the mountains as seen from the window at work.










Aren't these lovely? Some of "my" salespeople bought them for me as a Christmas gift. They're live plants, too, although with my not-so-green thumb they may only last as long as cut flowers anyway.





And lastly, some of the yummy cookies & treats that HB brought in yesterday.

No clever title for today

Making good progress on the gull wing lace socks. Mind you, they are *supposed* to have been hibernating while I worked on Christmas knitting, however I found myself doing a row here and a pattern repeat there, and as you can see they are now officially a WIP. I like how they are turning out.

Had a real treat yesterday at work. HB brought in a lovely assortment of homemade cookies & candies to share with the office. There were cupcakes, cyclops cookies (peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's kiss pressed into the middle), peppermint bark, fudge, oatmeal cookies--eleven different treats in all. I ate twice as much as I should have, but only half as much as I wanted. She said it took her two days to make it all. I took some pictures of all the treat but duh, left the camera at work so you will just have to wait for the next post to see them.

Took two hours to drive home last night. Californians just don't know how to drive in the rain. Still, I'd rather be in slow traffic than an accident so I shouldn't complain, right? Watched "Meet the Robinsons" with Ralph & the Roomies. Well, they watched the whole thing; I went to bed about 2/3 of the way through. I did stay up to watch my favorite scene (the dinosaur: "I have a big head, and little arms. I'm not sure how well this plan was thought through").

Been a pretty quiet week, really. I did go to lunch with Mr. Boss Man yesterday. We went to a sammidge place that I hadn't been to before; can't remember the name, something like Godolpho's. It was very good--I got a small "yonkers" which is turkey, swiss, lettuce, tomato, mayo, butter, oil & vinegar on a French roll, served hot. I had them leave off the lettuce & butter. Lots of meat & cheese on it, very filling even though I got the small one. I had packed a lunch, but I just put it in the fridge and now I don't need to pack one today.

Didn't really have any time to work on the pterodactyl yesterday. I was hoping to have it finished but I still need to sew on the arms & one leg. Maybe today. . .

Just a brief post. . .

. . . because not much is going on. The Survivor: Gabon finale was terrific, but as Sis has a rather thorough accounting of it on her blog I'll not repeat it all here. For those among the Teeming Masses who don't know it, Sis's blog (Knit and Pearl) is linked over on the left there. Got home pretty late (well, late for me anyway) and was so tired yesterday that I dozed off a bit at lunchtime. Good thing it was a cold day rather than a warm one, or I would have fallen completely asleep & been late getting back to work.

Speaking of being late for work, I was supposed to be in by 7:30 yesterday. Despite having left the house around 6:20, I didn't get there until 8:00. "Why?" I hear you ask. "Why did it take you so bloody long to drive 50 miles?" Well, I'll tell you--it's because Californians have *no clue* about how to drive in the rain. There was an accident on the 91, so the 710 was backed up from where I got on until I passed the 91. Then there was another accident on the ramp to the 60, bad enough that the ramp was closed, so all the traffic that normally would have been headed east on that freeway had to stay on the 710. Then on the 10 I passed a pick-up truck that had somehow managed to perch on the k-rail. Most of the truck was on the other side of the freeway, with one back wheel hanging over on our side. Crazy, crazy drivers.

Heard a commercial for Duracell batteries yesterday which I think could have been a little better written. It was talking about how a certain children's hospital uses toys to help the children's healing process, and how they use Duracell batteries to power the toys. However, the examples they gave were Barbies, Hot Wheels, and Polly Pockets--none of which use batteries. Duuuuuuuuuhhhhh. . . .

Almost done with the pterodactyl/pteranodon. Just have to sew/stuff the legs, then sew the pieces together. Should be able to finish it today.

Teeny tiny pterodactyl

. . . although one of the people on Ravelry says the pattern is actually a pteranodon. No matter. Whatever it is, I am using sock yarn instead of the worsted weight called for in the pattern, and he is coming out way small! Smaller than I anticipated, that's for sure. It was supposed to be for Quartz's Christmas present, but compared to the bear I made Onyx it just seems so insignificant. Fortunately it doesn't take much yarn--I've used about 50 yards so far--so I should have enough of the Cascade remaining from the bear to do another one in a larger size. It's a very quick knit; I started it oh, I'd say around 3:00 this afternoon, and had all that you see in the photo finished before 6:00. I still have to do the arms, legs, and head piece plus stuffing and a wee bit of sewing. I suspect another 90 minutes or so will finish it. I'll probably save that for tomorrow though, as my joints are feeling a bit achy & I should give the knitting a rest for now.

Today was the first full day with the Roomies. So far, so good I think, although the dogs did get into the storage area & shredded a sheepskin belonging to the Roomies. I hadn't really thought about it previously, but we do buy them toys made out of fleece so they must have thought they found the ultimate toy.

All in all a fairly quiet day, if you ignore the parade that was held one block over. Our street is the "exit" for the groups after they have finished the parade, so we sort of get to see it without leaving the house. We tend to just ignore it, really, except for making sure our cars are off the street so we don't get towed.

Ralph had a new tire & brakes put on his motorcycle. The bike really wasn't safe to ride and it needed to be done. We went to lunch while it was being worked on. I think we go to that restaurant too often--we were greeted *by name* by one waiter, the waiter for our table brought our drinks without us ordering them, plus the manager, two busboys, and the lady that makes the tortillas all recognized us. Obviously the food there is good :-)

A fairly good day

Actually, the past few days have been fairly good. Got this lovely shot of a Northern Mockingbird at work yesterday. It was very flirty, but of course had its tail end towards me most of the time.

Survivor last night was intense, too. I shan't detail it--those who follow the show already know what happened, and in any case Sis usually posts a synopsis. All I can say is this--Sugar is the most Underestimated. Survivor. Ever.

DG & EG at work have turned their cubicle area into a "gingerbread" house for the holiday, with the space between their desks serving as a "fireplace" with a decorative screen, "icing" trim around the walls, and even a gingerbread-scented room freshener. Very creative, I thought.
AND!! My new wristwarmers are done. I love how they turned out, and they used hardly any yarn really: about 1/2 an ounce of the Manos (multi-colored) and a little more than that of the Cascade (black). Maybe 50, 55 yards of each. Plus they are a quick project, about 4-5 hours total. Best of all, the colors will look good with just about every other article of clothing I own.

Went to lunch at Souplantation with Mr. Boss Man and PC. PC went through the line first and surprised us by paying for our lunches which I thought was very nice of her. She must be in a good mood because she will be getting her shawl on Monday ;-) The food was good, too; they have a seasonal salad with spinach, turkey, cranberries and a honey-mustard dressing which I really enjoyed, and a creamy turkey soup, with stuffing to add to it. I also had some pomegranate tea which I'd never had before. It was slightly sweet, slightly tangy. Very tasty.

*Always* bring the camera :-)

Because you never know when a hawk is going to perch outside of CL's window. There's a bit of reflection on the glass; still, I think these are OK shots. And it gave me something to post about, because other than that it's been a pretty dull couple of days.

GH & BH (the Roomies) have brought over the first load of shtuff. They have to be out of their place by Friday so they will be packing pretty frantically the next couple of days.

Going to be "trapped" in the house on Saturday. The local "Christmas Tree Lane" is the street behind ours, and this weekend is the big parade & other holiday events. This means there is NO street parking for several blocks, including our entire street. If I leave in the morning, I will not be able to return home until Sunday (unless, of course, I manage to find a parking space three or four blocks away & hike in. I don't know where we'll put all the vehicles: my car, Ralph's car, the Roomies' van, their cargo trailer, our truck, our trailer, Ralph's motorcycle. . . yikes!

Then on Sunday we've got the Survivor finale to attend, woo hoo!!! We'll be meeting for lunch around 2:30, then will be at the studio by 4:00. I don't remember the name of the restaurant where we are meeting, but it is within walking distance of the studio so we'll park at CBS & head on over. Gonna be fun!!

Almost forgot, Ralph took Sadie to the vet today. Her skin is really sensitive to the touch & her eyes are weepy, plus she's scratched two raw spots into her head. Turns out she has a bacterial infection which is causing the scratching, allergies which are causing the sensitivity & weepy eyes, and a real shock--she has a big lump on her tail which is painful to the touch. We didn't even know about that; it was completely hidden by her fur. They aspirated that & sent a sample to the lab. If it's cancerous, she might have to have her tail docked. Hope it's not serious. . .

Stuff from my notes

Christmas decorations abound at work! This is a shot of VT's office; as you can see, he has too much time on his hands. I mean, he has been very busy and creative.




Had cake at the office today, too, in celebration of some recent birthdays, including Mr. Boss Man's Boss. It was rather tasty, and I liked the little snowflake sprinkles on it.


Remembered to bring home my notes this time. Gosh, they really aren't all that exciting, but here's what I've got for the Teeming Millions:

CK didn't do as good a job as we all thought washing off the Halloween blood from the windows. Several sections of the "snow" on the windows are rather pink-tinged from the fake blood showing through. The snowman on VT's window is particularly pink.

Next year, I need to start my holiday knitting much earlier. Like maybe on Boxing Day this year. There are still quite a few things I want to make as gifts, and there is not nearly enough time to finish even half of them. Which reminds me, we better start shopping, too. . .

Speaking of gift knitting, I'm working on a gift for A Person. Halfway through I weighed the project, then the remaining yarn, and discovered I am going to be short by 1/5 of an ounce. Sigh. The LYS by my house doesn't carry the yarn I need, and the store that does have it is closed on Sunday & Monday. I'll have to pick it up tomorrow. Of course, it comes in a 3.5 ounce skein, so I'll have lots left over.

Also on the subject of knitting, I need to start coordinating the warm woolies I knit for myself. Individually everything looks nice (if I do say so myself), but my orange shawl really doesn't go with anything else I own except for black skirts, and when I pair it up with my white-and-green wristwarmers it looks rather strange. Throw in a pair of red socks and I am a fashion nightmare. More than usual, I mean. Of course, the current WIP on the needles for myself is a pair of variegated purple socks. Those will look stunning with the orange shawl, I am sure.

The bear, he is finished!

Not 100% happy with how he came out; still looks too much like a pig to my eye. The toes & nose-to-mouth line help though. Fortunately the intended recipient is only 2 and I doubt he'll complain.

Baby it's cold outside

. . . at least, cold for Southern California. It's currently 54 degrees with an expected high of 69. Brrr!

As you can see from the picture, I'm making good progress on the bear for Onyx. I need to sew on one leg & both ears, then embroider the finishing touches (eyes, ears, toes). The nose that is on there now is just to give me an idea of placement & is in no way intended to look good. I'm more pleased with it now than I was; it's starting to look a bit more like a bear and a bit less like a pig. I'm thinking of bending the snout a bit, the way the feet are, to shorten it & make it less porcine.

Gosh. I had all kinds of notes for the blog. . . too bad I left them on the desk at work.

The luncheon yesterday was good, although I do wish there had been a bit more pasta & that the pizza had been hot when the caterer delivered it. However, it was a free lunch and I do appreciate that. The third floor didn't *have* to invite us fourth floor folks, and I am glad that they did anyway. There was also a surprise e-mail around 3:00 announcing pie, cake, and so-called iced cream, but I had picked up a frap & scone at Starbucks & had just finished eating it (since the luncheon was an hour earlier than I normally eat, I knew I would be hungry before end of the day).

Did I mention that we have decided to go to San Juan Capistrano for our anniversary? It's about an hour's drive from here; far enough that we will feel like we've "gotten away from it all," close enough that we won't be sick of driving, and quite a few interesting things to do so we won't be bored. It will be a very nice three-day weekend for us, I am sure.

More bits & pieces

Pretty cool, eh? This is what my work window looks like right now, courtesy of RB (Jack Frost) and CK (Jack Frost's frosty breath). I think they did an awesome job.

Sis had a pleasant surprise at work today: a Christmas bonus check. I've never heard of a temp getting a bonus before. She must be good at her job or something. There is a chance that she will be hired permanently sometime after the New Year. Nothing has been promised, but there are rumors, and The Boss told her he was hoping to be able to hire her.

Having a small holiday, well, I guess celebration is the word to use, at work tomorrow. There will be fruit & pastries in the morning, then at noon there will be a catered lunch. I don't know what kind of food will be served, other than it's coming from Boston's Sports Grill. We've had sandwiches & pizza from there previously, and they were scrumptious. I'm really looking forward to it. Two weeks after that is our official Holiday Party from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Sis got tickets for the Survivor finale on the 14th. One of the people she had invited isn't able to make it, so there is an extra ticket. I can't believe how hard it has been trying to find someone to take it. Maybe Sis had better luck with that than I did.

Still not totally happy with the bear. I re-did one of the ears, and while it looks nicer than the first pair I did, it just isn't quite right. I think I will sew the rest of him together & get his eyes done and then worry about the ears.

This & that

I found this picture of Buster on my computer at work. Such a handsome guy!

Got an early Christmas gift yesterday; a darling pin from VG. It's in the shape of a cat's face, wearing a Santa hat. A little sparkly fish dangles from the collar like a charm. It was very sweet of her to give that to me, and good timing too since I had forgotten to wear a pin yesterday & was wishing I had.

Had to bite my tongue at Taco Bell the other day. As I was waiting for my nachos, a guy in line obviously recognized the cashier. After they greeted each other in friendly-guy fashion, the customer asked, "So--you working here now?" It was all I could do to not say something along the lines of, "No, he works for Carl's Jr; he's just here scoping out the competition today." I mean, I know he was just making conversation, but why ask a question to which the answer is so blatantly obvious?

In knitting news, PC's shawl is not yet done. Her mom got about half-way through & decided the pattern didn't show well enough with the yarn she was using, so started over with something new. PC says she will be here on 12/15 with the finished shawl. Can't wait to see it!

The bear I'm knitting is nearly done. All the pieces are knit, and it's mostly sewing at this point. I'm a bit worried as he *still* looks more like a pig than a bear, even with the tail sewn on & one ear pinned in place. I'm hoping that once I embroider the nose it will be more ursine. I also think I need to re-seam the ear, or possibly even re-knit them. I think they would look smoother around the edges if I knit them in the round & kitchener the top edge rather than knit them flat, fold & seam.

Happy news, and sad.

Which to tell first? Sad, I think, and get it over with. Yesterday, Sis had to have her dog Buster put to sleep. He was old and ill, but it is never easy. He was a good boy and I am sorry that he is gone. Sis is very upset about it all, of course. I wish I had a picture of him to post, but I do not.

On the happy side, I found out that my niece, KT, was pregnant. I say "was" because she gave birth to a boy last month. She only told my brother about it on Saturday--bet he was shocked! I know I certainly was.

Finished plying the Wensleydale today; would have finished it on Sunday but the drive band snapped on the wheel when I was in the middle of the second bobbin's worth. I may have mentioned that in a previous post.

Oops, sounds like dinner is ready; Ralph made chili and corn bread. Guess I'd better go eat.

Whaddya mean, back to work?

My goodness, that four-day-weekend went by quickly. Good thing I have a couple more of them coming up or I'd really be unhappy.

Got some more spinning done yesterday; finished off the Wensleydale & plied a little more than half of it. I would have done it all except the drive band snapped & is too short to re-tie onto the wheel. I have a spare. . . somewhere. . . I'm going to stop at the store on the way home tonight & buy some plain cotton string. Not the best stuff for it, but it will do.

Dad called Saturday night, trying to talk us out of having our friends stay over; says we are getting ourselves into something we'll hate & not be able to get out of. He's probably right, and I won't say we haven't had misgivings of our own. However we are not going to go back on our offer now that they have accepted, especially since they really don't have anywhere else to go.

Making slow progress on the bear for Onyx. Didn't even knit one stitch on it yesterday. Funny, the first part went so fast & now I'm just poking along with it. The body is done including the seaming & stuffing; the tail is knit & sewn into position; I've knit both ears but still need to seam & attach them; and I've knit two legs including the side seams & stuffing. Still need to seam the top edge & attach them to the body. I want to finish all four legs before attaching though, so I can make sure the bear stands evenly & not be all lopsided or rocking.

Less than I thought

For being a 12-pound turkey, there didn't seem to be a lot of meat on it. Or maybe we just don't know how to carve a bird effectively. In any case, there was enough for dinner (two breast slices each), we've got some in the fridge for sammidges, and the rest I made into soup. There is a lot of soup, though, so I'm thinking we just don't know how to carve properly.

Put up the Christmas tree yesterday, if you can call it that. It's a little fake tree with fiber optic "lights" that we bought at a garage sale back in September. It's rather nice, despite being fake and about two feet tall. There are several drawbacks to it though: the on/off switch is on the bottom of the stand, making it necessary to pick the tree up to turn on the lights; if you leave the lights on for too long it starts to make an annoying hum; and it's so small that I think our ornaments would just overwhelm it, even if we only put on a few. I'll see if we can't find a remote or something we can plug into it so we can turn on the lights without lifting the tree.

Post-Thanksgiving Day

This is one of our neighbor's dogs. I took the picture this morning while we were taking Hali for a walk. Don't let that sweet face fool you; when we got closer he turned into a barking, snarling fury and tried to bite Hali. More worrisome to me was that the neighbor's other dog was also barking with hackles raised, and before they got this other dog he was very sweet-natured.

Have the turkey in the oven & it should be done in another 90 minutes or so. Smells really good. We've also got yummy rolls & dip that I bought off the breadman at work; corn; cranberry sauce; smashed taters & gravy; stuffing of course; and pumpkin pie with Cool-Whip for dessert. What I would like would be for a couple people to come & eat with us, then immediately leave so we don't have to do any entertaining before or after. Sounds terrible, I know--but with the prospect of roommates in a couple weeks I am treasuring the "alone-time" with Ralph while I still have it. The only person I can think of who would not be offended by an "eat & run" invitation is Sis, and I don't know if she'd want to drive all the way out here for a repeat of yesterday's dinner (although *I* do not intend to put egg nog in the potatoes; see Sis's blog for details on that). Besides, if I invite her I would have to invite Dad & J too, and I'm not up to having that many people over. Plus Dad & J would, I think, be insulted by "you've eaten, please go home now." :-)

I started a new knitting project yesterday, a bear for Onyx. It's knitting up pretty quickly. I've finished the body (including the seaming & stuffing), one leg, and I've knit the ears although they still need to be seamed. With any luck I should be able to finish it this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's one of the yarns I bought in my shopping spree at the beginning of the month. I had planned to make a little cat with it, but once I started to knit I realized it was far too nice for that particular pattern. So now I have this very nice yarn & no project for it. Not enough for a scarf, not really suitable for a hat. . . guess I'll have to think about it.

Speaking of yarn and what to do with it, I have a project I want to make. I have yarn that is perfect for it. BUT! I bought the yarn with the plan to make socks with it, and I don't want to use it for the other project because then it won't be available for socks. Crazy, I know. . . but I've heard of other knitters wanting to buy new yarn even when they have perfectly appropriate yarn in the stash so I guess this is normal.

Ralph has to work today, so we're going to have our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I feel like I should invite people over since we have so much food (the smallest turkey I could find was 12 pounds, yikes!) but who to ask? Everyone I know is having turkey today & probably won't want another turkey dinner tomorrow, plus I don't want to have to prep the house for a lot of guests since I have other things I will be working on today. Well, we have lots of storage containers & I can freeze leftovers for another day.

We have new neighbors now; Neighbor A & Neighbor K. They bought Neighbor D's house & moved in last weekend. She (K) is a teacher but I don't know what he does. Hmmm, maybe we should invite them to dinner tomorrow, get to know them. . . The house on the other side of theirs is now officially up for sale (foreclosure, very sad) so we'll have more new neighbors soon I imagine.

Went to Johnny Reb's for dinner last night at Ralph's suggestion, not that he had to talk me into it or anything. Had a fun, peppy waitress and the food was really good (as always). And, of course, there are leftovers for my breakfast & Ralph's lunch.

Well, that's about it; I suppose I should finish up my brain-sucking & get started on the day's projects: baking a pie & some cookies, cleaning out the fridge to make room for leftovers, spinning, knitting, packing up stuff to make room for GH & BH, etc. etc. Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it.

Well, that was weird

So I sign onto my Yahoo account, and discover that I have over 600 unread messages. Now, when I signed off yesterday I only had 4 unread messages so needless to say that seemed odd to me. I click on my inbox to discover that for some unfathomable reason, Yahoo decided that I hadn't really meant to delete three months worth of junk mail & read messages, and re-delivered it all to my inbox as new mail. This time I emptied both the spam and deleted mail folders after re-deleting the 650 or so "new" messages.

Looking forward to the holiday weekend. Other than that, nothing is going on today. Not even an exciting picture to offer the Teeming Millions, just an old picture of Hoover sleeping in my fiber basket.

Sunday before Thanksgiving

Like 'em? They are the latest & greatest in the wristwarmer collection. Actually, these ones are going to be a Christmas gift so I better not get too attached to them. They are a variation on the dragonscale wristwarmers (first pair that I made). Details are on flickr & Ravelry so I won't repeat it here. I have *almost* enough of the Manos left for one more pair. Maybe if I do the cuffs in a solid color . . .

The crafty fair yesterday was fun. LOTS of vendors, and lots of nice things for sale although there were a few that made me go "hmmmmmmmmmmmm. . . . " Got a laugh at one item, a soft sculpture snowman holding a box of white fluff. The box was in the snowman's lap, and was labeled "snowballs." Yes, I am immature enough to giggle my head off at that. Breakfast beforehand was good too (buffalo chicken sammidge) although right about the time our food was served a party of 20 showed up, at which point our waitress decided we no longer existed. I swear she was doing everything possible to NOT look in our direction, and if a manager type hadn't come by while we were waving frantically at the waitress we would probably still be sitting there waiting for our bill. In fact, even though the waitress did acknowledge us a split second after the manager did, it was the manager who brought our check.

Also went to the bookstore and bought two books: "A Knife to Remember" (the second in the "double feature" mysteries by Jeffrey Cohen) and "An Ice Cold Grave" (third in the "Grave Sight" series by Charlene Harris). I'm on chapter three of "Knife" and am already enjoying it thoroughly.

The Wensleydale I'm spinning is coming along well. I'd forgotten how easily Wensleydale spins up. Now if only I had a *clue* what I'm going to make with it. Maybe it will just sit in the yarn stash for a while once it's done.

GH & BH will definitely be staying with us. In fact, they are supposed to be here in about 45 minutes to go over some of the logistics & help out with re-organizing the garage & red room to make space. GH & Ralph will be building a storage unit (or "stuffery" as they call it) in the backyard using the wall panels from the haunted house. That will be a big help. I went through my closet today to make room for Ralph's clothes, and have two big garbage bags of outgrown but serviceable clothing to take to the Goodwill.

Well, I'm only supposed to be taking a 5-minute break from housework & so far it's been 20. Guess I'd better get back to work.

BWAAAHAAHAAASNORTHAAAHAA!!

Courtesy of failblog.org (linked to icanhascheezburger.com):


see more pwn and owned pictures

Pft.

SHE complains that I don't update my blog, and yet SHE didn't post anything yesterday. Some people :-)

Today's picture is from Halloween. This is VG in the R2-D2 costume she made. Pretty cool, eh?

Not much going on. Had pizza for dinner last night, and for some reason it tasted incredibly good. Pepperoni, black olives, mushrooms & I topped it with a little hot wing sauce. Also had chicken kickers with it. Ralph wasn't hungry so he missed out.

As you can see, I'm up early today, and have been up since 4:20. Meeting Sis for breakfast in about 4-1/2 hours; hope I'm not starving by then. I might have to cheat & have a slice of leftover pizza around 6:00. Afterwards she & I are going to a crafty fair and who knows? May even head out to a Starbucks or something & knit for a while.

Started spinning some Wensleydale this morning. I bought it over a year ago & it just called out to me recently, reminding me of its presence. It's black and gold; only four ounces so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it when it's finished. I'm spinning it thin in order to get the most bang for the buck as it were--about 40+ wpi which I will two-ply. Guess I'll wait until it's all spun before deciding what to make with it.

And that's about it for this morning.

Man, even with notes. . .

. . . I leave things out. In our Wellness Wednesday newsletter at work this week, there was a list of foods with "hidden" sodium. One of the items on the list was salted pretzels. Um, riiiiiiiiiight. "Hidden." Yup. Hidden right there in the very description.

Back by popular demand! :-)

Two days offline, and the Teeming Millions are clamoring for an update. Who am I to deny them?

Don't you love this pic of Zoe? I took it as she was licking her lips after getting a drink (notice the water droplets on her snoot). I think she looks quite humorous with her nose all twisted to one side.

PC at work has been admiring my shawl, and recently asked what the pattern was. Long story short, she bought a copy of "Wrapped in Comfort" for her mother, who is now knitting the same shawl for PC only in white instead of orange. I can't wait to see it! Oooh--wonder if I should tell her that I added extra repeats so it would be longer?

Yesterday they had guys out washing the windows of our building. I was rather disappointed, really, as I was looking forward to seeing the traditional window-washing scaffolding & all. Instead, they used very long poles to reach the fourth floor. One, it was boring, and two since it was impossible for the cleaners to see whether or not the windows were actually getting *clean,* my windows still have the same old bird poo on them that was there prior to the work. Oh, well.

Yesterday was also "Album Sides Wednesday" on 100.3 FM The Sound. All day they played full sides of classic & contemporary albums--genuine vinyl with all the pops, hisses and clicks. I *loved* it!! They played darn good albums too, for the most part: Abbey Road, Genesis, Excitable Boy, Sgt. Pepper, Born to Run, Dark Side of the Moon. . . the only two I didn't really care for was an Elton John album from 1970 that I had never heard of (and didn't recognize a single tune on it) and one by Nirvana (not a big fan of Nirvana, but at least I recognized two of the songs). I hope they do this every Wednesday.

Today, KOLA 99.9 FM started playing Christmas music!!! Needless to say I didn't mind the traffic so much on the drive home today, and am looking forward to a whole month of Christmas (other than the CDs I play at work, that is). They played an interesting selection, too, ranging from Mannheim Steamroller doing "Deck the Halls," to Bruce Springsteen's version of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" and even Jimmy Durante (Jimmy Durante!!) doing "Frosty the Snowman." And all you Grinches (or is that GrinchSis?) can just hush.

In knitting news, I finished another pair of wristwarmers. These ones are for a Christmas gift, although I'm not certain who I am going to give them to (I can think of two possible recipients). I was hoping to have enough of that color for one more pair but it looks like I'll be a bit short; the finished pair weigh .9 ounces and I only have .6 ounces left. Perhaps I'll do the cuff & palm-band in a different color and that might make the other yarn last.

Today's knitting pattern was for a "tissue pocket." It was basically a little cozy for carrying those take-along packs of Kleenex. It was kinda cute, and I liked the stitch pattern they used, but frankly if I need to blow my schnozzola or feel a sneeze coming on, I don't want to have to unbutton a cozy & slide the pack out before I can even get a tissue.

Yesterday's pattern was for an MP3 cozy. Nothing notable, although it did refer to knitting in "stockingnet" stitch rather than "stockinette." I looked it up; dictionary.com had no listing for it, but a search on ask.com turned up several references in blogs so perhaps it's a regional thing.

Gosh, two days offline & that's all I've got? As my nephew's blog would say, "now with even more boring!" :-)

Bits & pieces

Nothing exciting today, just a few random-osities that I meant to post previously & didn't.

Did you know that one adult admission to Knott's Berry Farm is now $51.99? That is freakin' insane, and doesn't even include parking which is another $10 on top of that. Really glad we had the free admission or we would have ended up just turning around & heading home yesterday.

Speaking of Knott's, there were so many leftovers from my lunch that I was only able to eat half of them for dinner. I finished off the rest for breakfast. Wish I had more, it was so good!

On Saturday, while gathering some laundry, I noticed two long strings hanging from one of my hand-knit socks. I thought at first they were falling apart. Imagine my relief when I realized that no, I had just neglected to weave in the ends where I changed color at the cuff. What I would like to know is how I could go two years wearing & handwashing these socks and not notice this sooner. Good thing they are real wool as the ends had slightly felted together & I think that's what kept the stitches from loosening. I suppose I should try to weave them in now although it hardly seems worth the bother.

Today's picture is remarkable not for what is in it, but for what is not. This is a rare picture in that I didn't have to crop out any clutter--no shoes on the floor, no book on the arm of a chair, no dog toys scattered about (this last one is particularly miraculous, considering Zoe's tendency to pull out two or three toys before deciding on one that she likes). And yes--that is indeed one fat cat!

I just realized I never took any pictures of the yarn I bought last week. Oh well, it's rather plain & wouldn't make an exciting photo anyway (no comments about how none of my pictures are exciting, ha ha!)

And finally, the glacier green is spun, plied, and almost dry!!!

ONE ride???

Had a good day today. Went to Knott's Berry Farm after breakfast. Spent most of the time wandering the shops & people watching. We only went on one ride. One ride!! It was fun though. Stayed about 2 hours then went to Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant for lunch. Good timing on that--absolutely no wait for a table when we got there, but a rather long line to get in when we left. Lunch was good, and way too big. I brought home more of it than I ate, which means I have a yummy dinner in the fridge.

One thing I thought was neat were the birds. There was a huge flock roosting at the top of the Perilous Plunge, and when the boat came along the track all the birds would swoop up, around, and back onto the tracks. I took a short video that doesn't really do justice to how cool it was to watch but what the heck I'll try to post it anyway.

Dang. Didn't upload. Oh, well. You can look at the picture I took of ash on my car; part of yesterday's ashfall from the fires.