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.

Earworm

I have an earworm this morning. My head resounds with "Take a Letter, Maria." No clue whatsoever what has put it there. Very strange. At least it isn't a song I despise, such as "Send in the Clowns."

Ended up not going to archery yesterday, which was a bit of a disappointment. We did get the car smogged, hooray hooray. We are such horrid procrastinators--we've had the car registration renewal notice for about two months, and still didn't manage to get the car smogged & the fees paid on time. Only four days late (only, she says) but that means paying the late fee; and while that's only an extra $11 it's the principle of the thing.

Lots of fires around right now, the closest being in the Corona/Yorba Linda area. Far enough away that we are not in any danger, but close enough that we had ashfall yesterday & rather smoky air. We may not go to Knott's today due to the poor air quality, which would be another disappointment to me. However,I completely understand and realize that not going to an amusement park is LESS THAN NOTHING compared to losing your home in a fire & I am going to focus on how lucky I actually am.

We did have a nice visit with GH & BH yesterday. They are still not sure if they are going to move in with us or not; they are hoping that the apartment works out. I hope it does too--it's a much better proposition for them as it will put a bit of money in their pockets & they won't have to worry about whether or not our dogs will get along with their cats. We will know in a couple of weeks.

Got an old picture for today. We took this shot of an orange bishop at the Madrone Marsh back in August. I *may* have already used this one, in which case just consider it a blast from the past, ha ha :-)

And I am *this close* to having finished spinning up the glacier green merino/silk. I'm pretty sure I won't have enough for a decent length shawl; I haven't actually measured it and am estimating about 600 yards total & I really need about 800 or so. Still, I have other rovings & who says you can't make a two-color shawl, right?

Speaking of roving, yesterday I was thinking of a fiber store I once visited in New Mexico. They had a wheel I was interested in purchasing, and of course I wanted to give it a test spin before plunking down my $800+ for it. The clerks were surly & unhelpful and after finally getting the wheel set up so it could be used (it had been tangled in fibers, drive band was off, no orifice hook to bring the yarn through, etc.) I asked if I could have a bit of roving so I could oh, you know, actually SPIN SOMETHING. The one clerk huffed and glared and yanked off about six feet of Shetland (why I remember that it was Shetland I don't know). Now for those amongst the Teeming Millions who don't spin (inconceivable!), let me tell you that six feet is a ludicrous amount of fiber to hand someone who just wants to test out a wheel. Four inches would have been more than enough.

Anyway, I was thinking of that yesterday when I got to the last two feet of the glacier green. I thought to myself, if I had predrafted that six feet of roving, how long would it have been? So I measured my fiber after predrafting (which I almost always do twice) and discovered it had stretched to thirty-six feet; eighteen times its original length. Wowzers! So that surly clerk had basically handed over one hundred and eight feet of Shetland wool so I could test the wheel. Guess she thought I was planning on making a sweater for her in gratitude for her grudging assistance. And no, I did not buy the wheel. Even if I had loved it, I wouldn't have bought it from those grumps.

Busy weekend ahead

Boring picture for the Teeming Millions today. It's a shot I took of the full moon at sunset a few days ago. Obviously I do not have the proper photography equipment for such an endeavor.

Going to be busy this weekend. Archery for Ralph (and spinning for me) tomorrow, plus cleaning the house for guests. Need to grocery shop & do laundry too, plus get the Saturn smogged so I can get the registration renewed. Monday is the deadline for open enrollment at work, which means going over all the options to decide which plan to opt for (if any; we may just stick with Ralph's insurance). Plus we plan on going to Knott's Berry Farm on Sunday (special promotion; we get in free with Ralph's VA ID card). Whew!

Found a couple pictures on the internet that I liked. One was of a cake shaped like a pink ball of yarn with a small cat sprawled across the top. It would make a really cute ornament, I think. The other was of a pair of awesome blue-flame socks. Pity it was a pair for sale, not a pattern.

Today at work there was a great egret hunting lizards in the field next to the parking lot. We had a great view; could even see him swallowing his prey. You will notice that there are no photos of it posted. I'm sure the Teeming Millions can easily decipher the reason for that.

One amusing thing, though. Mr. Boss Man's Boss and SW were going back & forth using big words at each other. I stopped them both by announcing, "Personally, I endeavor to eschew obfuscation." I was immediately declared the winner, although I'm not entirely sure what the contest was. . .

Bleah

Headache. Eyes ache. Tired. . . and that about sums it up I'm afraid.

Meeting at work

Had our quarterly division meeting yesterday. Not bad; the usual state of affairs speeches followed by an awards ceremony. The one surprise is that I actually won an award--first time in the going on nine years I've worked for the company. It was for Associate of the Quarter (one of six given out; three for each of our two regions, in the areas of purchasing, land acquisition, and administrative/support). A pleasant shock to say the least.

Afterwards they held a health fair (or as it was posted on the directional sign, a "health fare") which was OK. One of the vendors didn't even show up, and at most of the others the reps just sat at the tables handing out stickers to show you had gone to their booth (seven stickers on your card allowed you to enter the raffle). Some of them were a little more active, and I think the best one was the local vet. The rep from there was standing in front of her booth rather than sitting behind it, actively promoting the vet & handing out informative brochures. The stickers were obviously secondary to her, which is how it should be.

Of course, spending 3-1/2 hours away from the office made the rest of the day pass more quickly.

We have some friends, GH & BH, who have been down on their luck for a while. They may be coming to stay with us for a few months. They're going to come out sometime on Saturday to see if there is enough room for this to work out for them. It'll take a lot of clearing out stuff, but I think it will work.

The best laid plans. . .

. . . gang aft agly. I did get to that yarn store near work during lunch, bought two skeins of yarn & needles to go with them and intended to get started on Ralph's Christmas present when I got home. What I *hadn't* planned on was him being home early! Guess I'll have to work on it tomorrow instead. I'll take some pictures of the yarn tomorrow too; don't dare do it now with him in the room (and I sure hope he doesn't suddenly decide to read my blog. . .hmmmmmm).

IT'S A GIRL!!

Just got a call from Ralph: his sister-in-law, AL, had her baby this morning. Seven pounds, 2 ounces. They have named her Sapphire Ruth Ellen.

Mockingbird, yogurt & yarn

Actually remembered to bring the camera today, not that there was anything really worth photographing. I did take nine shots of a mockingbird, and have posted my two favorites here. The tail shot is more evidence that the birds do in fact poke fun at me.




You know how sometimes when you are channel surfing, either with the TV or radio, and the line from one station melds with the line from another? Today while doing that I got "Get a total body makeover--and keep the change!" The other day I got a cross between Stevie Wonder's Superstition and some sort of commercial, resulting in "13-month old sandwich." What can I say, I am easily amused.

Ralph wants a new hat for Christmas. Of course I do not have a single yarn or fiber in an appropriate color, which means I need to go yarn shopping. I found a place near work & drove out there at lunchtime. You would *think* that by now I would be clever enough to call ahead and make sure a shop with which I am unfamiliar is open on Mondays. Sigh. Guess I'll be headed there again tomorrow.

Speaking of yarn, CE wants me to teach her how to knit. I showed her how to do a knit stitch today & let her try her hand at a few with my current project. She was really worried about messing up my project even though I told her that I planned to rip out the stitches she was doing anyway since it wasn't the right pattern. However, despite her worries, and the fact that my current project is a pair of socks on size 2 DPNs (not the best way to learn!) she did manage a few stitches. It's a pity my stash is so low; I don't have anything suitable for teaching a beginner, either, except the remaining almost-a-full-skein of Manos & that is too nice to donate.

Tried an interesting yogurt today, which we bought last night at Bristol Farms. It's made by a company called "Greek Gods" and is (duh) a Greek-style yogurt. Very thick and creamy, similar in texture to sour cream with a flavor that reminded me of marscapone only not so sweet. We bought the honey flavor, but it also comes in plain, vanilla, pomegranate, and fig. It wasn't bad, certainly better than the sickly-sweet stuff you get in the average grocery store. We're going to try the pomegranate next time we are at Bristol Farms.

Sunday--and I'm up at 5:00 am because. . . WHY?

Had a good day yesterday. I blocked the scarf on a beach towel. Hard to believe that it stretched 10" in the blocking! I'm glad I made it a bit short because now it is just the right length.

Ralph went to archery where he had a lot of fun & got some good advice about technique. I went with him & got some spinning done; finished off the one bobbin and did about 1/4 of another. After we got home I read for quite a while which was nice. Then off to Dad's for his birthday dinner. Cannot beLIEVE that I forgot to buy him a birthday card! Good thing I remembered to call him on his actual birthday.

The dinner was very good: roast pork, two kinds of po-tay-to, carrots, corn on the cob, and for dessert Sis brought a chogglit cake with strawberry jam in the middle (traditional birthday cake in our family, and Dad's favorite). Afterwards J pulled out some letters that Mom had written to one of my aunts back in the mid-60's. It was interesting & fun to read them, and a little weird too. I mean, to read in a November 1963 letter that she was pregnant, and know that it was with ME. . . . plus it was amazing how little some of us have changed (in fundamental ways, I mean) since we were 3 or 4 years old. For example she said in one letter that Sis(who was probably about 10 based on the date) had received an "A" in reading & that she read all the time, which is still true today.

Had a good lesson in how rumors get started. At the archery range, a squirrel climbed onto the arm of an unattended lawn chair and began to drink from the water glass that was in the cupholder. Someone lured it with a piece of brownie; the squirrel took it and ran up a tree with it. A young boy (about 8 or 9 I would guess) saw the squirrel eating "a donut" and I told him how it had been drinking from the cup earlier & that someone gave it a piece of brownie (even though he shouldn't have, because it's not good for them). He thought this very funny. Later I heard him tell his dad how the squirrel had been "drinking from someone's water bottle and took his donut." A while after that I heard the father saying that the "squirrels have started stealing people's food."

Gosh, I know there was more I wanted to post. . . .oh well, I'm sure it will come to me when I am away from home or otherwise unable to get to the computer.

Made it!

Well, the new phone list came out today at work, and I am still on it. This is a good thing. I did notice several names missing, which is sad because it means they were laid off. I am glad that I was not one of them, sorry to see them go, and somewhat heartened to see that there were only a few names missing rather than a massive layoff.

Today's knitting pattern on my pattern-a-day calendar is called the "Far Out Argyle Blanket and Fuzzy Dice Ottomans." I think they should have named it "Menagerie" based on the yarns used; Bernat Boa in Raven, Dove, and Silver Fox. I rather liked the blanket but didn't care for the ottomans.

Passed some condos on the way to work, with a banner across it which read "Elvis will not be leaving this building." Struck me as rather amusing.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. (Hmmm--I think those were gunshots I just heard, and fairly close by--wonder if the liquor store was just robbed?? Dogs are now all anxious. . . ) Sorry, where was I? Right, tomorrow. Need to tidy the house for Ralph's D & D game on Sunday, then in the afternoon headed to Dad's for a late birthday celebration. Feel like I should bring something to the dinner, even though J said she had all they need. I'm hoping there is time for Ralph to go to archery, which means I have an excuse to go with him & sit outside with my spinning wheel for an hour or so.

Speaking of spinning, I managed to squeeze in about 20 minutes worth at lunch today. Got very little done (only had to move to a new hook once) but enjoyed myself nonetheless. Getting a little tired of this green, and am determined to finish spinning it off by the end of the weekend if at all possible so I can move on to another color. Maybe I will bring the wheel on Sunday when I go knitting with Sis.

Yesterday

Yesterday was an uneventful day. I did remember to call Dad & wish him happy birthday. Finished the scarf except for the blocking, which I will do tonight. Watched Survivor. That's about it. . . Oh! Except I was telling CE & VG about my yarn spree, and CE asked, "So what does yarn cost? Like, a dollar?" I think I might bring my Bearfoot juniper (pictured) to show her. It was only $26.50 after all.

Middle of the week

Nothing much to say today. Quiet but productive day at work. Couple more layoffs, which is a bit depressing to say the least. Hate to see people go, plus it's a reminder that no job is secure.

Made some more progress on the scarf. I am really glad that I bought a second skein of yarn; I thought the sample they had at the yarn shop was a bit short & sure enough mine is at about 33" right now with enough yarn for maybe another 2-3". I like scarves to be at least 40-45". I prefer them even longer really; that's my minimum. Still, I won't need the entire second skein, so maybe I'll make a pair of wristwarmers from the leftovers.

Almost time for dinner: mushroom risotto and pork chops. Wonder if I should heat up some soup to go with that?

UPDATE 11/7: Just realized I used the same picture twice, so I changed it :-)

Election day

Finally, election day is here & pretty much over. I am *so tired* of all the ads.

On the other hand, it was rather exciting to be part of what will be a history-making election, no matter who wins: If it's McCain, we'll have the first woman vice president. If it's Obama, we'll have the first black (OK, mixed race since he is white on his mother's side & black on his father's side) president. If both lose, we'll have the first minor-party president (unlikely, but wouldn't that be something????) And no, I won't say for whom I voted; we've got a secret ballot for a reason.

CK at work today asked how long it would take me to knit old-fashioned Christmas stockings for everyone in the office. I felt bad telling her there was no way they would be done in time for Christmas. I guess she saw how quickly my super-easy, eight rows to the inch scarf is coming along & didn't realize how much more time-consuming the stockings would be. Even if I used super-chunky yarn in plain stockinette I can't imagine getting 18 or more done in time to be used as office decorations. I did offer to let her borrow the stocking I knit when I went to Virginia a couple years ago.

Not much else going on today, so I'm going to go to bed I guess. G'night all!

Back to the old grind

I am so glad that fiscal year end madness is over. Unfortunately, it does mean that the work load is a lot lower, and someone I really like has been laid off as a result. I won't say who as a blog is a very public place & I don't think it's up to me to announce it to the world, but I will miss this person.

Making some progress on the new scarf; I've got a dozen pattern repeats finished already (that's 96 rows plus the four foundation rows for a total of 100 rows [and 2600 stitches!]) I'm thinking this just might make a nice Christmas gift for someone, but again I won't say who in case he/she is reading this blog (which I doubt, but you never know!). Plus it's early enough this evening that I should be able to get another couple of repeats in before it's time to fix dinner.

Yarn!

Had a good day yesterday. Went to a local yarn store; didn't buy anything (frankly, I wasn't impressed with the selection) but it was fun to look around. From there I headed to Alamitos Bay Yarn Company. It was packed, as they were having their "Holiday Sparkle" event. Not a sale, but rather they had almost 40 quick projects on display, and when you bought the yarn you got the pattern for it. I had lots of fun & bought several skeins (posted on flickr). I've already started a scarf with one of the skeins.

On the way out, I saw a pelican on a street lamp & got a few pictures.

From there I headed out to Heritage Park. My, it has changed so much since I was a kid. For the most part, I like the changes they have made. They've added a statue of Paul Revere & some plaques telling about his famous ride (including the fact that he was caught & didn't actually finish the ride). They put in lots of drinking
fountains which weren't there before, some decorative cannons & a fake rowboat. The only one I didn't care for was that they took out the really long concrete slide. Safety reasons no doubt, however that was one of my favorite things there when I was a kid & I'm sorry that it's gone. Still, they replaced it with lots of new climby things and smaller slides & the kids that I saw there were really enjoying all of them. There were lots & lots of ducks, and I even saw a praying mantis.

Ralph & I went to Chee's for dinner. He had his favorite: wor wonton soup (no noodles). I had a combo plate with fried rice, egg foo young and two fried shrimp. Ralph had to help me finish it off.

And today. .. sigh, today it's back to work.

November 2

Hard as it may be to believe, we got the entire teardown of the haunted house finished yesterday in only 3 hours. Moon came by around 10:00 am (bearing Krispy Kreme donuts, no less!) and was of invaluable assistance in getting the props & tarps taken down. Just as we got the last roof tarp down--and I am talking the exact second it hit the ground--it started to rain. Luckily it didn't last long; in fact, it stopped pretty much as soon as we had finished getting the props under cover. Sigh. Anyway nothing was damaged & better to have the rain during teardown than on Halloween night. (We were actually pretty lucky on that; it rained Halloween morning, yesterday afternoon, yesterday evening, and again this morning but was clear and rather warm during the trick-or-treat hours. I took the picture of this rainbow on the way to work Halloween morning. It was huge; I couldn't get the whole thing in the shot, but there is a mini-movie on my flickr site showing the full expanse for those interested in seeing it.)

About this time we were hot, tired, and bordering on cranky as we faced the prospect of taking down the 13 wall panels & hauling them to the backyard. The three of us got two panels down when The Boy arrived. Hurray!! He carried about 7 of them to the backyard by himself. I was rather impressed, as those things are HEAVY. Ralph & Moon were working together moving one at a time (with a dolly no less) and The Boy would just lift one onto his shoulder & carry it back. I am grateful to both The Boy and Moon; we couldn't have gotten it done without them, and never in just three hours!

Afterwards Ralph, The Boy & I headed to George's for lunch. Moon had already left before we thought of going out, otherwise we'd have invited him to join us. We shared a plate of halumi (grilled goat cheese & fresh tomato on pita triangles) for an appetizer. The Boy had the gyro plate (sliced meats & pita with veggies and rice) while Ralph & I had gyro sandwiches (sliced meats, tomatoes, cucumber, onion & tzatziki on pita) which were fabulous. We took home a dessert each as we were too full to eat one at the time. The guys had baklava (layers of phyllo with honey & nuts) and I had khataifi (shredded phyllo, nuts & cinnamon with chocolate sauce; it went very well with my morning coffee today).

Had some frustrations after that, though, and typical of my mood recently they were of course Dire Events rather than the stupid little annoyances they should have been. First the dress I had planned to wear for the Day After party did not fit, so scratch the Princess High & Mighty Told You So Boss of the World costume. Decided to go as a fortune teller--day after, predicting the future, that fits with the theme a bit. Took a not-so-restful nap secure in the knowledge that I had a costume. Woke up, got my green skirt, got my shawl, even found a scarf that would do for a head wrap. Could not find ONE Faire shirt that wasn't in need of washing. Sigh. Ended up wearing PJ's (for either the day after I retire or the day after I am committed). Decided to wind some sock yarn so that I would have a project to take along (knitters among the Teeming Millions will understand that need) & even with the swift & ball winder I managed to get a tangle in one of the skeins. Much bemoaning & flinging of yarn ensued, although I am pleased to say that I refrained from using profanity. (Ironically, the yarn is called "Happy Feet.") Decided to just take the ball that wound nicely, then remembered that I lost about half my needles when my needle bag dumped without me noticing it--thus, no size 2 DPN's for sockmaking. Sigh again. Took some size 5 straights thinking I might make a lacy scarf instead.

The party was nice, although we only stayed about an hour (Ralph's back was really hurting him). Didn't even take my project out of the bag after all that. Spent most of the hour chatting with MH2 and some people from SS's church. Very pleasant, which is why it seems so strange to me that I wasn't unhappy about leaving so early. Probably because I *was* tired & I was glad to be able to get to bed.

Today I plan on going to a local yarn store that I have never been to before. I would like to get some more size 2 DPNs for one thing, plus I haven't bought any new yarn since March or new fiber since April. I don't know if they carry fiber, but if they do I think I'll pick up just a wee bit. For some reason my fiber stash consists almost exclusively of beige, orange, and earthtones. My yarn stash consists of a bunch of handspun bits, too small for any real use on their own & too different in color/thickness to combine; the two balls I wound yesterday (and yes, I got the tangle out although I had to cut the yarn to do so) and two other skeins of sock yarn.

Halloween!!

The haunted house went very well. Not as many people as last year, maybe about 300 or so. The last two people through got LOTS of candy :-) Sis helped out this year & I think she had a good time. We also had The Boy (whose fireman-zombie outfit was a great hit), The Girl, Dad, J, MH2 & Moon. Poor Ralph's back is trash today though, and I'm not sure we're going to be able to tear down.