Guess I should update the ol' blog

Had a good time with Sis on Saturday. Went to Corky's for breakfast, where we both had chicken fried steak, hash browns, and eggs with toast. As usual the food was delicious & the servings waaay too big. Afterwards, just before we got back to the car, I was looking for my glasses & couldn't find them. Told Sis I must have left them in the restaurant & headed back. I was almost to the door when I realized duuuuh. . . . I was *wearing* my glasses. The only thing that kept me from feeling like a total dorkus was the fact that Sis hadn't noticed either.

We did *lots* of knitting; I got about 8" done on the latest fish hat, and Sis did most of an "Armando" hat. We also snacked on highly nutritious chips, dip, cookies, and peanut M & M's.

When I got home, Ralph was feeling a bit "housebound" so we went to see Race to Witch Mountain. I thought it was pretty good, and liked the fact that the original kids (Iake Eisenmann & Kim Richards) both had small roles in the film. Lots of action, good effects, entertaining storyline.

Yesterday the Roomies told Ralph they needed us to leave the gate unlocked on Friday so they could move some things from the backyard. Unfortunately part of our agreed remediation with animal control was to keep the gate & garage locked any time we are not at home to directly supervise the dogs, so that just is not an option. We'll be home all weekend so they can move things then, or if they have to have it sooner I can unlock it after work & lock it up again at bedtime. Kind of a pain for all concerned but better than the dogs getting out again.

Forgot to mention yesterday

We took Hali with us to the pet supply place yesterday. While we were in line, a man came in with a large curly-coated retriever. He was looking at some items that were on an end display by the registers, and Hali was wagging her tail & prancing a bit at the sight of the retriever (of course). I said to her, "Yes, I know, it's very exciting, isn't it? You've never seen another dog before in your entire life!" The woman in the next line turned to me and said, "Excuse me?" I said, "Oh, I was talking to her (pointed at Hali)." In a very huffy voice she said, "I am NOT another dog." I tried to explain that no, I was referring to the retriever just around the corner of the counter--and of course by that point the man had moved a bit so there was no way she could have seen the dog from where she was standing. I don't think I was able to convince her that there really was a dog over there. Couldn't decide if the encounter was funny or embarrassing. . .

Now that explains it.

I have figured out why my shawl is coming out so darn short. First off, it's a really short pattern--the one in the book doesn't quite come to the model's elbows. However, it uses 2 skeins of Alpaca Lace at 215 yards per skein, and I have more than three times that amount (742 yards) of handspun. Should be plenty long enough, right? Well, I re-read the requirements today; it takes *three* skeins, not two, which means I'm only about 100 yards over what is called for, not 300. Sigh. I'm really hoping it stretches a lot in the blocking; I'd like it to come at least a bit past the elbow.

And for those of you dying to know--yes, we got cat litter today & have changed out the box. Whew!! Afterwards we went to archery where Ralph shot for at least 2-1/2 hours & I spun up more of my tricolor Romney. I'm torn with what to do with the yarn when it's done; do I two-ply it for another shawl, or Navaho-ply it for socks? I'll have to decide soon, since I'll have to divide the roving pretty evenly for a two-ply to keep the color stretches from overlapping too much; if I Navaho-ply it I can just keep going until the bobbin is full. Socks were my original plan, and now I'm thinking it's too pretty to hide in shoes & under slacks.

When archery is over we went to a little Mexican place with some of Ralph's buddies. The food was tasty, even if my tostada did have too much lettuce. Came home, brainsucked & sudoku-ed & read & knit. Feeling sleepy now & may go to bed soon. Headed to Sis's place tomorrow since Ralph is having a game.

The Cat Box (kinda TMI)

Yes, that bright green spot in the photo is a little tree frog :-)


Our cat box is icky at the moment. It really needed to be changed out last week, but with one thing & another we didn't get to the pet shop to buy litter. (We don't use clay-based litters as they are not healthy for the cats, and the cats don't like the pellet-type litters; the ONLY brand the cats & I both agree on is a corn-based one that is available at ONE pet supply store in our area. The shop closes at six so there's no way for me to get there after work.) Ralph topped off the box with some leftover newspaper-based litter we had tried once & had relegated to using it in the bird's cage. The cats don't like it because it's pellet-shaped and I don't like it because it doesn't clump so there's no way to get urine-soaked litter out of the box, plus it has no odor control. Even though I've been cleaning it out, it is, frankly, stinky.

So last night Roomie B announced to me, "You need to get cat litter. The box is rather odiferous." I replied, "Yes, cat litter is a priority on Saturday; I don't really like the litter that's in there but we used what we had." Later it kind of pissed me off--perhaps if I hadn't been distracted by things like oh, I don't know, getting the dogs out of the pound and figuring out how to squeeze $544 out of our budget to pay the fines, I might have been able to get to the pet shop. I fumed about it for quite some time. This morning, however, I realized that this is typical of their behavior. They don't try to solve a problem themselves (two solutions they could have done that come to mind are a) offer to lend us some of their cat litter to change the box and b) offer to pick up a bag of litter for us since they are home most of the day anyway), but rather cry about the problem to someone else until that person solves the problem for them. That realization diffused my anger quite a bit and strengthened my resolve to stick with the 4/18 move-out deadline.

Friday today. Hope it goes by fast; I am really ready for the weekend!

A few thoughts on a Wednesday

Ralph is cooking dinner: grilled steak, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, garlic bread, and cinnamon apples. Yet another good reason to hang onto this guy :-)

Haven't posted on this yet, but last week we gave our houseguests their 30 day notice to leave. We've come to realize that we are not helping them by having them stay here, but rather are enabling them. As long as people keep bailing them out with money, a place to stay, etc. etc. they are not going to do what they need to do in order to get back on their feet. Some of the things they have mentioned to me (such as "thinking about" applying for a particular job but not being sure because it "only" pays $13 an hour, or sending a nasty-gram to a company after receiving a "sorry, we hired someone else" letter--then arguing with the HR rep who called to follow up) tells me that they are not as serious about looking for work as they ought to be. If someone truly wants a job, they will find one, even if it's flipping burgers or stocking shelves at the local Target. (I asked the clerk at the fast food place I went to today what he gets paid; he said $8/hour which is a heck of a lot better than $0/day!) Heck, after I left the grocery industry I signed with a temp agency & went to whatever job they offered: stuffed envelopes, collated papers, handed out fliers at a Wal-Mart, helped close out a video store, and surprisingly I learned something new at virtually every job I did.

Survivor on tonight; too bad it's just a recap episode. I don't normally watch those and probably won't watch tonight. Especially since Ralph is home.

You say tomato, I say where'd that come from?

Ralph was doing yard work on his day off yesterday, and discovered this tomato plant growing next to the fig tree. Not 100% certain how it got there; the best I can figure is a tomato from last year's garden must have rolled under the walkway unseen, and with the recent alternating warm weather & rain, the seeds have sprouted. We had two types of tomatoes so it will be fun to see if this is from the red-fruited plant or the yellow-fruited one. I'm hoping it's yellow as I thought they were tastier than the red ones. Ralph put the masonry blocks around it to keep the dogs from trampling it.


I'm a bit worried about the quantity of yarn I have for the shawl I am working on. I've already used up half of it, and the shawl doesn't even reach my elbow yet. This picture was taken a couple days ago, so imagine it about 2" longer & you'll have a good idea of its current size. Granted it will stretch in the blocking, but I suspect it will probably only go to mid-forearm when it's done. I really prefer to have it come all the way to my wrist. I suppose I *could* frog it and knit a less yarn-intensive pattern. Yeah, like that'll happen :-) Even if it's short, the pattern is (to my eye) rather pretty and anyway I can always wear wristwarmers with it.

They're home!

Hooray! We have our dogs back!!! We spent about an hour this morning canvassing the backyard, looking for possible escape routes and closing them off, as well as clearing out some of the clutter from the patio. The inspector took a brief look at the yard, asked us what remediation we had done, and that was it. It took longer for us to get the dogs than it did for the yard to be inspected.

The girls were soooooo excited to see us! At first they were mopey, then when they saw us you could see the light dawning on their little faces as they realized MOMMY AND DADDY ARE HERE AT LAST!!!!!!! They barked their fool heads off, wagging tails and jumping on the bars. And of course we were just as happy to see them. They were pretty stinky, which is to be expected after being in a small kennel for almost four days, so much to their dismay they got baths when we got home. They are now clean & napping :-)

You may have noticed that there is no photo of the wisteria blossom as mentioned in yesterday's post. The reason for this is that someone knocked almost the entire cluster right off the vine; I found it lying in the dirt this morning. So out of a thick cluster of maybe 30 or 40 buds, we only have four little flowers still on the plant. Since this was the first time this plant has bloomed in the five years we've had it, you can imagine how disappointed I am that the cluster was knocked off before the buds even had a chance to open. I can only hope that it will have more flowers as spring progresses.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Good news at last! Since I haven't mentioned it on the blog, the vast majority of the Teeming Millions are unaware that all three of our dogs have been at the pound since Wednesday. Long story short, we didn't know that our garage door had been left unlocked and unlatched. It's a lightweight door which the dogs were able to push open. They got out & were picked up by animal control. Allegedly they "acted aggressively" (um, hello, they're being chased by a stranger with a big noose on a pole!) so they were held there while an investigation was done to see if they are "vicious." Anyone who knows these dogs will tell you they are big softies. You can see in the photo how aggressive Hali is--NOT! Anyway, after three days of not being given any other information, they finally told us that pending a yard inspection (to make sure it is dog-safe & escape-proof) in the morning, we can pick up the dogs tomorrow afternoon. There's a fine involved of course but we're willing to pay it to get our girls back.

And another bit of cheer: for the first time in the oh, I think it's been five years that we've owned this thing, our wisteria actually has a cluster of flowers on it. I'll try to get a good picture of it tomorrow.

Horrible, horrible week so far

This has not been a good week at all. I don't even want to talk about it, but I know if I don't post I'll get heckled about it by Sis since that's what I would do to her. So now I've posted and y'all can go back to your own exciting lives :-)

Yesterday and today

Today SUCKED. Car problems, knitting problems, computer problems, phone problems. Gah! So, I will focus on yesterday which was a wonderful day indeed.



We started our day by heading out to Madrona Marsh. As the Teeming Millions may recall, this is a vernal marsh that we unwittingly visited last August. Needless to say it was much prettier and wetter in March than in was in mid-summer. We saw dozens of Pacific tree frogs, which are tiny little critters about an inch long. I hadn't realized it before, but they come in a variety of colors from bright green to reddish brown to almost black. Didn't see too many birds, mostly mallards, although there were a few redwinged blackbirds, a couple hummingbirds, and a hawk or two. The weather was beautiful too.



Afterward, we drove around for a bit enjoying our time together, and came across a botanical garden that we hadn't even known about. Of course we had to stop and take a look. There was a small admission fee, not too bad. The garden was divided into different "climates" so there really was a large variety of plants to see: poppies in the Mediterranean garden, Moreton Bay fig trees in the banyan garden, conifers in the pine forest, and a large rose-garden-in-process. There was also a "lake" or at least that's what they called it; however, even in the middle it was so shallow that we saw a duck walking across it. Yes, walking, not swimming, although there were a few sections near the edge that were deep enough for them to swim (barely).

One interesting thing, there was a male Gadwall duck there, the only one among a large group of mallards. He spent most of his time chasing the other ducks away from the food that some visitors had put out for them; all except for one female mallard. It was obvious that they were a pair, but I thought it interesting that he had chosen a female of another species as his mate. I included a picture of the two of them in this posting.



The only blight was a rather annoying child that we came across twice in the botanical garden. Ralph thinks I was "too harsh" to him, but I disagree. We first came across him at the koi pond; he had climbed into the exhibit and was walking around in the plants. I finally asked him, "What are you doing in there where you don't belong?" He just grinned at me. I said, "Where are your parents?" "Over there" (points off into the distance). I told him, "I think you should go join them." He then ran off. We came across him later at the duck pond, again with parents nowhere in sight. They eventually came by, told him to come along, and walked off--leaving him still chasing ducks. They called him a few times but he just ignored them. After about 10 minutes or so, he went after one of the ducks joust-style with a large stick. I said in a firm voice, "OK, now that's unacceptable. You need to go with your parents now." Surprisingly he listened to me and ran after the people who SHOULD have been making him behave.



When we got home, I *finally* cast on for my Bigfoot Shawl that I have been planning on starting since October. I did mess up a bit; I did row 10 where I should have done row 8. Fortunately, they are virtually identical, merely offset by a stitch, so I did row 8 where row 10 should have gone and I don't think anyone will be able to tell by looking at it. However, don't even ask me about the goof I did this morning. Suffice it to say that I need to tink about 190 stitches to fix it. Sigh.

What an awesome house!!

In our travels yesterday, Ralph & I came across this magnificent house. Isn't it amazing? It had gargoyles, and crenelated walls, and that gorgeous lion statue, and the walls had the faces of lions, Green Man, and gargoyles embedded in it. It was on a corner lot & the crenelated walls went right along the side, too. There was an arched doorway off the driveway with a big wooden gate. I sooooooo want this house. We would have loved to have seen inside.




As mentioned on Friday, yesterday was our appointment with the tax people. It was supposed to be at 11:00, but the preparer called and asked if we could come at 9:00 instead. This was perfect, since it meant we were the first appointment of the day & while this place does a great job on the tax returns, they are horrible about estimating how long each appointment will take. They only allot 45 minutes for each appointment, and ours took twice that long. So, unless you are the first there is always a wait.



The appointment itself wasn't too dreadful though. We gave BJ all the paperwork, and while she sorted through it we went to Burger King & had a quick breakfast (she encouraged us to do this; I think our coffee-induced chatter was distracting her). When we got back, we went through all the detailed stuff. In the end we owed on State, although not as much as we expected, and got a refund on Federal, which we hadn't expected at all.


I also finished my blue socks, hooray! I wore them yesterday; they are very comfy, don't slide down, and fit my Daffy Duck feet quite nicely. And people wonder why I don't just buy socks (insert rolling eyes here). I also cast on another fish hat, this one in aqua and yellow. The lips & mouth shaping are in yellow, and it wasn't until I joined the aqua for the first section of the body that I realized the colors look like Flounder from Disney's The Little Mermaid. That was not at all intentional, but I like how it looks so I'm not changing it.

Speaking of knitting, I went to a yarn store I hadn't been to before. Sadly, I was not that impressed with it. Since I'm not going to be giving it a very good review, I shall refrain from giving the name of the shop or the city in which it is located. The yarns, while nice, just weren't really my style. Lots of cotton, and as the Teeming Millions are aware I prefer animal fibers over plant fibers. There were some wools, mostly in heavier weights and dark colors, and lots of synthetics & novelty yarns.

However, what bothered me the most was that at no time did either of the staff persons acknowledge my existence. Now, I'm not expecting people to fawn all over me in a shop--in fact, that would drive me nuts--but a simple "Hello, let me know if you need any help" is IMHO basic shop courtesy. Instead, the two of them chattered to each other in a language I did not understand pretty much the entire time I was in there. The only offer of assistance came from a customer, when I picked up a ball of rayon and said to myself, "This is pretty, but what would I make with it?" The customer overheard me, started to suggest a scarf and then interrupted herself to ask if I already knew how to knit or not. We talked a bit & I went on with my wanderings in the store. The only time the staff persons stopped their conversation was when a toddler started to fuss a bit. Not badly--she wanted her mother's purse, and the mother was steadfastly NOT letting go of it, and the child was making that "I'm not crying yet, but I'm seriously considering it" sort of whine, you know how toddlers do. Nothing really major. The older of the two staff members immediately rushed over to the child with a double-handful of candy, without even asking the mother if the child could have any. That really bothered me; first off reinforcing the fussing, and second not getting the parent's OK to do so. Not a shop I will be visiting again.



We also went to a reptile zoo/shop. It was pretty neat; they had a large pond set up inside with HUGE fish in it, and lots of red ear turtles. The north side of the shop was where all the reptiles for sale were kept, and the south side was a combination gift shop/party area. There was a party going on in one of the rooms while I was there. I would guesstimate maybe 30 kids, and it looked like three of the five adults in there were workers from the shop, which to me is a pretty good ratio of staff to children. They had lots of reptiles in aquariums in the room, and were showing the kids a huge tarantula (not a reptile, I know, but still pretty cool). One of the workers was giving a talk about the spider, and letting it crawl on some of the people there. The kids were really excited and you could tell they were having an absolute blast. Two of the other party rooms still had a bit of party debris in them (they were in the process of being cleaned, it wasn't just sitting there), so I would say the place is pretty popular.

Well, that was my Saturday. Going shopping today; need lunch shtuff & creamer, plus I want to get some corned beef while the prices are low.

Tax time, ugh!

We have an appointment tomorrow with the tax preparers. Ugh. It's always a hassle trying to remember all possible deductions, and where did we put those receipts, etc. etc. Every year we swear we'll be more organized, and every year it falls apart.

The Roomies are cooking corned beef & cabbage. It smells really good; I can't imagine wanting to eat the fish I'd planned on fixing for dinner with yummy corned beef scent in the air. Oh, well.

Totally messed up on my sock today. Had just finished round 13 of the pattern repeat when I realized I had done the pattern for row 14 on row 12, so I tinked back the two rows to fix it. Somehow managed to drop two stitches in the process, and have only found one of them so far. It's dropped down at least three rows. Sigh. I may just frog it down to row 7 or so, one of the knit-only rows that I know had the right number of stitches at the time. So close to being done, too; I have just enough yarn to finish these last pattern repeats, with maybe a little bit for a ribbed cuff. The pattern doesn't call for a cuff actually, but I think it will make the sock look more "complete."

Going to have a knitting/stitching day on 3/21. Between Sis & I we've invited at least 9 people, which means of course it'll be me, Sis, the Girl, the Roomie, and maybe Duh. Ralph has a D & D game on the 22nd--no rest for either of us that weekend. It should be fun, though, and I'm looking forward to it.

She got the hat :-)

I have confirmation from the winner that she received the hat, so I'm posting a picture in order to allow the Teeming Millions to see it. I used Plymouth Encore in yellow for the body, and Mountain Colors Twizzle in Gold Rush for the lips, fins & tail. She seemed quite excited & happy with it in the e-mail she sent. I also included a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn in Juniper (a deep, gorgeous green), and as an added bonus I made two catnip mice for her handsome tabby cat. She has pictures of him on her blog, playing with the mice (see yesterday's post for blog link). The yellow mouse is leftover yarn from the hat, and the grey/black/white mouse is made with some leftover handspun merino that I had hanging around.

Is it Friday yet?

OK, I'm not *really* ready for it to be Friday, but boy was today a busy day! Mondays always are, mind you, yet for some reason today was really crazy. I wish I could say I'll get caught up tomorrow; alas, I fear that is not to be. It will be my turn to cover phones while the receptionist takes her breaks & lunch, which means 90 minutes sliced out of my workday.

On a happy note, I sent off the fish hat to the Pay It Forward winner today. I haven't told her the color yet so I'll hold off posting a photo until I'm sure she has received it. She also started her Pay It Forward contest; if you are interested in entering check out her blog: www.slapthatpony.blogspot.com. You've only got a few days though! She's chosen some really nice prizes, too.

Today's photo is a close up of the sock I'm working on. I don't *think* I've posted this pic before; if I have I apologize for the duplication. As mentioned previously, it's the same pattern as the one I used for the Chaos Theory socks. With this "calmer" colorway I think it looks much nicer. The CT socks are comfy but to my eye look like something a clown would wear.

Bought the latest "Odelia Grey" mystery yesterday (Booby Trap), and am already more than halfway through it. I really enjoy this series a lot and this latest edition was no disappointment. I'm already looking forward to the next one. I wish Ms. Jafarian could write as quickly as I can read :-)

Show and tell

I had a really good time at the show & tell last night. It was great to be able to stare at people's sweaters & shawls without being thought strange! Lots of really nice projects, too. One woman had sort of a long cloak/cape made of ribbon yarn with a feathery trim down the front. I could never wear that sort of item (although I wish I could!). She really looked great in it, kind of an "aging movie star" sort of look. Think along the lines of Lovey Howell (and I mean that as a compliment).

At about 7:00 pm, there was a bit of a to-do when the restaurant next door had a kitchen fire. No injuries as far as I could tell, although there were many fire trucks and of course the restaurant had to be evacuated. A few of the diners wandered into the yarn store, and why not? The fire engines had the parking lot exits pretty well blocked and this was the only shop still open. Two of the women were really excited by all the projects & signed up to take knitting classes :-)

I actually worked a little bit on the orangutan. As you can see in the photo, he now has both legs sewn on instead of just one, and I made the foot finally. After I sewed on the leg I noticed that I made the left one about 1/2" longer than the other. I remember now that I only did 15 rows on the right leg, not 20 as the original pattern called for. I'm not too concerned about it, though; I'll just take a little "tuck" at the top seam where it won't show if it starts to bother me. Now I need to make the left hand & left ear. . . hope I have enough of the grey yarn left.

Busy week

Been veddy veddy busy at work this week. Had about 20 contracts, plus had to update completion dates on two communities through 2011, plus running summaries for Mr. Boss Man on all the March files, plus plus plus!!! Good to be busy again, that's for sure.

Had a pleasant surprise yesterday. Part of the reason I haven't been doing much spinning lately is that all my rovings are boring: brown, black, beige, way too much orange (orange, I tell you--I look horrible in orange, so why did I buy so much of it?), and a dark red that I also bought way too much of. Yesterday I opened a box that I *thought* held more black roving, and found 3.5 ounces of this lovely Romney:



The photo really doesn't do it justice. I can hardly wait to start spinning it up this weekend.

Going to a knitting "show and tell" tonight. I'm bringing the orangutan (who knows, I may even be inspired to finish it), my two mini-sheep, the Monterey shawl, a fish hat, and if I remember to bring it home the sheep hand-puppet I keep at work.

Ugh, 6:30; time to leave for work.