So mad!

My friend told me about this story she read on sfgate.com.

Basically, an 18-year old college bound guy, decided that he couldn't take care of his pet rabbit anymore. Did he look into shelters? No. He taped a firecracker to the rabbit's body and then threw it into a lake. When the firecrackers didn't go off, the guy decides he had better save the rabbit before it drowns (but only after watching him float for a little while). So, let me get this straight... you can't stand by and watch the rabbit drown, but you have no qualms watching it blow up?! The story gets better. The guy and his buddy took pictures of the event and then posted them on their blog. Thankfully, someone posted the info of this up on Craigslist and ultimately The House Rabbit Society found out about it. Currently, the most these two... I can't even come up with a name that adequately describes them... will face are misdemeanor charges. argh!!!! Oh, and did I mention that the college bound guy is planning to major in BIOLOGY!!!

If you're as outraged as I am, The House Rabbit Society has posted the contact info for the Hayward DA (scroll down to the bottom of the page) so that you can contact him and ask that they prosecute these guys to the fullest extent of the law. Although the original Craigslist postings have been removed, one person mentioned that they had written to UC Santa Barbara (the school the guy is planning to attend), making sure they are aware of the type of student they are accepting into their program. Just a thought...

Sorry about the raging post, but I just can't believe these guys are going to get off so easily. Thankfully the rabbit is ok!

On a lighter note

My husband created two video clips from Sunday's BAWDies fiber-fest. One is from the alpaca ranch, of course, and the other is from the ferry ride. They're both Windows Media files. If you have audio, you can hear the noises that the alpacas make. Enjoy!

Is it Friday yet?

It's not?  Darn!  Even though I work on Saturdays, I still get excited when Friday rolls around. 

I talked to my niece this morning.  Her shoulder surgery took three hours, but they decided to let her go home that day instead of staying in the  hospital overnight.  She said that her entire arm hurts, but overall she sounded pretty good on the phone.  Of course, that might be because they put a pain medication pump in her arm.   :-)

So, has everyone had their fill of alpaca pictures?  I didn't think so!  Here are a couple that I thought you might like...

This little guy was only about 24 hours old when we saw him on Sunday.  I got to pet him at one point, and he was incredibly soft!

When alpacas eat, they really eat!  It's hard to see it in this picture, but these guys had their entire heads submerged in the alfalfa.  Apparantly, breathing is a lower priority to eating.

Pictures not enough?  Well, coming soon to a blog near you: video clips from our visit!

In knitting news, I'm just about finished with my tank top.  I've sewn the pieces together and just have to weave in all those pesky little ends.  This is the tank top that I attempted to design myself.  The good news is that the tank does indeed fit over my head (I wasn't actually sure that it would).  The bad news is that the pieces blocked out a bit larger than I was expecting, and my calculations were a bit off.  So, the waist shaping looks a bit wonky, and there's too much skin showing around the armholes.  Nothing racy, but I'm just not happy with it.  Pictures will be coming sometime this weekend.  I'm just waiting for my photographer to become available.

Happy Knitting!

Better late than never

I finally managed to sort through the 91 pictures I took at Alpacas by the Sea and decided which were posting-worthy.  My absolute favorite picture is this one...

I love this face!!  This is Jolie, post-shearing.  Speaking of, we got to watch some alpacas get sheared.

The alpacas get sheared once a year, usually starting when they're 6 months old.  Many of them (like the one in the picture) are used to it and are good sports about it, but some put up quite a fight. 

In addition to watching the alpacas get sheared, we were able to get up close and personal with some of them.  Remember Jolie?

This is Stacy petting Jolie (with Joanna taking a picture in the background).  Most of the alpacas didn't tolerate anyone petting them, but Jolie was pretty patient with us.

Of course, visiting the alpaca ranch wasn't the only adventure in our day.  We also went on a ferry ride across the bay!

I won't bore you with too many knitting-on-the-ferry pictures, but in case you were worried, I thought you might like proof that Larkspur is a nuclear weapon free zone.

Although I didn't post them all here, there are some more pictures.  Check 'em out!

******

On a non-knitting related side note, my niece Shauna is going in for shoulder surgery today.  This is actually her second time under the knife.  The first one was outpatient, and unfortunately didn't do what it needed to do.  So, she's going in for more intensive surgery and will be in the hospital overnight.  Then she has many weeks of recovery to look forward to, in which her arm has to be immobile.  Please send good thoughts Shauna's way today.

A great day!

Yesterday was lots of fun!  My Yahoo! group, the BAWDies (aka Bay Area Wool Divas), spent the morning at an alpaca ranch and then going on a ferry ride across the bay.

I took tons of pictures, which I've finally downloaded.  But I still have to sort through and resize a bunch of them.  So, you'll have to hold onto your, er, alpacas, because I have to take one of my kitties in for her annual vet visit.  Look for pictures a little later!

:-)

A (blogger) lesson learned

I have to admit that I'm not a patient person.  So, when I was trying to preview some template changes I made, and the screen would simply not refresh, I said "To hell with it, I'm sure it's fine. I'll just save the new template."  Well, blogger erased my entire template code, except for a handful of style sheets, and then proceeded to save my "new" template.  sigh...

I've finally managed to salvage everything.  I think next time I'll just exit without saving and try again.

I wanna be a kid again

I was walking back to work from the post office (yes, I actually remembered the blankets this morning!) and I passed a woman and her son.  The kid was about 7 or 8 and wearing a complete Superman costume - it even had a cape!  Wouldn't it be fun to put on a costume for absolutely no reason?  I can imagine the stares I would get if I was wearing a Wonder Woman costume.  Of course, I work in San Francisco, so I may not get that many stares.  :-)

Doh!

All last night I told myself to remember the Critter Knitter blankets this morning so I could mail them.  All morning, while getting ready for work, I told myself to remember the Critter Knitter blankets so I could mail them.  When pulling out my knitting this morning on the Bart on my way to work I realized... I forgot the Critter Knitter blankets.  Lucky for me the post office near work is open on Saturday.  For once, I'm glad I work on Saturdays.

(Note to self: remember the Critter Knitter blankets tomorrow morning so I can mail them).

Pictures!

Don't get too excited.  I was rushing to take the pics before I left for work AND I was working with crappy lighting.  So... know that I've built up your excitement... I present Critter Knitter blanket #2!

You can't tell in this photo, but the stripes alternate between navy and maroon.  Also, this blanket is a tad larger than my log cabin blanket, coming in at 36"x34".  Here's a photo for comparison.

Now I just have to get my butt over to the post office tomorrow and cross my fingers that the blankies make it to Liz by the 31st!!

While I was rushing around, I also got a quick shot of the front side of my tank.  (You'll have to excuse the wrinkles.)

I promise to provide nicer pics of the tank top when I have more time.  (Hopefully, when that time comes, it'll be done!).

Must... knit... faster...

I had hoped to have a finished Critter Knitter blanket to show today, but I'm not... quite... done... yet.  So close, though!  I need to get these into the mail soon, so I've kicked into high gear.
In other knitting news, I'm also working on a tank top (my own design).  The front is done and I'm about halfway through the back.  I've got my fingers crossed that my calculations are working out and that this is going to fit me (hell, I'd settle for getting the thing on over my head).  For some reason, I decided that my first self-designed top should be close fitting.  I wasn't what you would call a math whiz in school, so the ending result could be quite interesting.  I'll try to get pictures up tomorrow of both the tank top and the blankie.  I'm just a bit lazy when it comes to taking the pictures, downloading them, yadda yadda yadda.

This upcoming Sunday will be quite the fiber-fest!  My Yahoo! knitting group, BAWDies (aka the Bay Area Wool Divas), will be heading over to an Alpaca Ranch on the peninsula.  We'll get to watch the last shearing of the season.  THEN, one of our BAWDies has free passes for a ferry ride across the bay.  So, we're going to head over for a quick bite to eat and then knitting as we cruise around the bay.  Can't wait!  (I'll be sure to bring my camera so I can share pictures with everyone!).

My knitting circle widens

Let's see... my sister (whom I taught to knit a couple of years ago) just taught her daughter (my lovely niece) to knit this past weekend. And my friend Anna, who learned to knit a while back, has just picked it up again a couple of weeks ago. More people to obsess with! yay!

A log cabin for the critters

I (finally) finished a blanket for the Critter Knitter knit-a-thon.  The original plan was to make a large (36"x36") blanket using the log cabin method that Kay over at Mason Dixon Knitting does so well.  Unfortunately, I wasn't knitting at the blinding speed I had pictured, and have barely made it to the small 18"x18" size in time for the July 31st due date.  oops! 
 
Anyhoo, here's the log cabin blanket in all its glory...



And here are all of the lovely ends I had to weave in...


 
I'm planning to make a log cabin blanket for myself (bigger than 18"x18" I hope).  I'm gonna have to force myself to weave in all of the lovely ends as I work rather than wait until the knitting is done.  ugh!

Excuse me?

Someone just told me that I resemble Austin Powers.
 
Anyone know the name of a good plastic surgeon?
 
 

So...

I decided to start a blog.  Mostly to talk about my knitting, but I'm sure I'll ramble about lots of things.
 
Right at the moment I have that feeling I get when I'm at a wedding and someone whips out their video camera and says "Say something to the happy couple!"  And I just stand there, smiling, stuttering out a pitiful congratulations to the happy couple. 
 
So... I'll try to come up with something better for my next post.
 
Hasta!