Got Ewe in Stitches

Moving day

2006-01-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

I've been a naughty little blogger. While you've been seeing a couple of pathetic posts (OK, maybe not pathetic. I mean, the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl and I've bought a spinning wheel), I've actually been setting up a shiny new blog. While I'm going to miss this blog, I knew it was time to move on when I got my Xmas gift from my hubby. Remember when I mentioned revealing one of my gifts? Well, you'll finally get to see what it is.

So, without further ado, let's commence moving day! Here's my new forwarding address:

www.goteweinstitches.com

Stop by and let me know what you think. And be sure to say hi to Gus when you do!

Pssst...

2006-01-29T15:05:00.000-08:00

wanna see what I just ordered?

Awwww yeah!

2006-01-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl bay-bee!

Black box warning

2006-01-21T14:23:00.000-08:00

Good news! My shoulder is back to normal. I saw my doctor on Wednesday for a physical and she said that it sounds like I hyperextended my rotator cuff. Most likely from too much use. So if I want to continue using a drop spindle, I'll need to do some exercises that strengthen my shoulder muscles. I think I'm the only person that has ever injured themselves spinning yarn. ha,ha!

I also asked my doctor about some ecsema "issues" that I have. She suggested I try something called Elid*l (in case you're wondering, the asterisk is in place of an 'e'). Has anyone heard of this stuff? Apparently, it works by suppressing your immune system. I discovered the hard way that this means it can cause headaches and flu like "symptoms." After being knocked on my ass for two days, I'm finally feeling better. Coincidentally, the FDA made an announcement yesterday (at least, I think it was yesterday) that this particular medicine has to have a black box warning on it. This is because a suppressed immune system also increases one's risk of cancer. Feeling like crap and an increased risk of cancer! All because I want to get rid of some itchy and annoying patches of skin. Sadly, I want it gone badly enough that I'm trying it again today. I'm a smart one, I tell ya!

There's not much else to report. I'm planning to take part in the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics, although I haven't decided what to make yet. I'm thinking something that uses lace or color work, but it's gotta be small enough that I can reasonably finish it in 16 days.

As exciting as I've been lately, I'm thinking of putting a black box warning on my blog. It would say something like "Read at the risk of boring yourself to death!" (hee,hee! I crack myself up sometimes!)

I am my mother's daughter

2006-01-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

My mom has a tendency to hurt herself in extreme ways while doing mundane tasks. For example, while getting out of the car at the gas station she broke her ankle. This happened years and years ago (back when I was in grade school), but you get the idea, right? Well, last night, at 3:30am, as I was rolling over in bed, I felt blinding pain in my right shoulder. It felt like I dislocated the joint, but I'm not sure if that's actually what happened or if it just really, really, really hurt like hell. I sat up and eventually was able to get some movement back, but I continued to have severe pain and I had an ache spread up into my neck and down my arm. After icing it for a bit, and taking some Aleve, I was able to eventually fall back to sleep. When I woke up this morning, the severe pain had turned into moderate pain and the radiating ache is now gone. My hubby and I think that using the drop spindle a lot and learning how to card fiber this week may have fatigued my shoulder muscles, making it so weak it couldn't support the joint when I put pressure on it. So, since I can't use my arm without pain, I have to lay off the knitting and spinning for a little while. sniff...

There is some good news at least. My hubby got to fly solo yesterday for the first time. I went along and videotaped the event, so once he gets a video clip made I'll post it for everyone to see. It was especially great that he got to solo yesterday, because it's his birthday weekend. Of course, the poor guy has to make his own cake today. Thankfully he's a good sport!

Iwannaspinningwheel!

2006-01-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

We got to learn how to use spinning wheels last night and now I want one sooooo badly! For anyone who is attempting to learn how to spin and has only used a drop spindle so far... well, I gotta tell you... don't give up until you've tried a wheel. I was amazed at how my fingers all of a sudden "got it." I don't know that I'll be able to afford one, but I'll definitely be doing some wheel shopping at Stitches next month.

As I warned my hubby when I got home last night, I'm going to be a bit of a pain for a while due to my one track mind of...

IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel
IwannaspinningwheelIwannaspinningwheel

I think you get the picture.

:-)

The aroma of wet sheep

2006-01-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

My homework assignment from my spinning class is to clean some fleece and have it ready for prepping at our next class on Thursday. I washed my fleece yesterday. Wow! Wet sheep fleece sure does stink! And the lovely scent clung to my skin for the rest of the day. I just wish that I had thought to take a before and after picture of the fleece. I was amazed at how much gunk came out of the fleece in just the first soaking. The water was literally dark brown right after I submerged the fleece. I did remember to take a picture of the fleece right after a laid it out on a screen to dry and then took another one today of the dry fleece. Unfortunately... I accidentally deleted the picture of the wet fleece (I forgot that the only copy I had was still on my flash card and deleted it thinking that I had a copy on my hard drive. If you think this was a d'oh moment, I worked for a company that used software called SourceSafe that virtually guaranteed that files couldn't be deleted. Yet, I managed to delete almost an entire training program worth of files. All I can say is, thank god for nightly network backup tapes.).

So, without further ado, here's my dried fleece.

Pretty exciting, huh? It really would have helped to have taken a before and after shot. Oh well. While I was sweating out in the hot January sun, I took a picture of the yarn I've spun so far.

I took off the yarn that I initially spun in class the other night. Although the outer edge of yarn doesn't look bad, the stuff underneath isn't usable, so I didn't bother winding into a ball. That's why it looks like a purple cocoon.

I started fresh with some roving that the instructor gave us, and I was excited to see that I'm getting more consistent in my yarn weight.

When I was first learning a couple of years ago, I did the common thick/thin that most people do when they're first learning. I then went into my bag of spinning supplies from last year and dug out some merino/cashmere blend roving that I had started spinning. I was shocked to see that I was actually pretty consistent back then as well, it's just a much finer weight of yarn.

I had thought that this was bad at the time, but now I'm realizing that because the fiber itself is much finer, the yarn will come out finer as well. I'm becoming much more confident now, which makes me that much more excited about trying a wheel. I just might be shopping around for a wheel at Stitches. Whee!

The Goods
My hubby came back home on Friday and brought a gift my mom-in-law got me for Xmas... Sally Melville's Color book. One of my goals this year, along with learning how to spin on a wheel, is to try my hand at color knitting. I've decided that I need to get over this weird intimidation I have and face it head on. So this book will be a great guide.

I also got these bunny slippers from my mom.

My one cat, Penny, is absolutely terrified of these. Which, of course, makes these even more fun to wear around the house. hee,hee!

I'm dizzy!

2006-01-05T21:05:00.000-08:00

Eva* and I took our first spinning class tonight over at Fiber Factory. This is actually my third attempt at learning, but it's my first real class. The drop spindle came back to me pretty quickly, but it's the wheel that I really want to learn. We're also going to learn how to clean and prep fleece for spinning. I hadn't expected this to be included in the class, so I'm pretty psyched about that. I can't picture me going out and buying an entire fleece like some do, but it'll be nice to know the entire process.

By the way, remember how I mentioned in my last post about how all I've finished in 2005 were the two preemie hats? Uh, hello? How could I forget my Nothin' But a T-shirt? And it's not like I finished it in January. Or that I used crappola yarn for it. Nope. I finished it right before Thanksgiving and I used Rowan Calmer. Good grief! Am I that forgetful? Is this a sign that senility is going to be setting in soon? I was so afraid that I had forgotten about other projects that I had completed that I went back through my archives for the year. It's pretty pathetic. Oh, and I haven't completed anything else. But I mean it's pretty pathetic at how the amount of times I post each month keeps dwindling down. I used to be pretty chatty, but now... not so much. At least I realize why certain members of my family (and you all know who you are) are such pains in my ass about updating. I'll try to do better. I promise!

In the meantime, my hubby comes home tomorrow morning! (His mom tried to renew her loan, but I just couldn't do it. I just miss him too much. Sorry mom!) Before he gets here, I have to vacuum, clean the dishes (or at the very least, get them into the dishwasher), trim the cats nails, wrap my hubby's b-day present (or at the very least, hide it), clean the bathrooms, and take the trash out. Whew! I'm exhausted just writing it all out!

*Eva is having a Save the Boobs raffle over at her blog. All it takes to enter is a minimum $5 donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Just think, you could feel warm and fuzzy and maybe win something warm and fuzzy!

Walla!*

2006-01-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

* Today's title is dedicated to Eva and her recent post. :-)

I was getting comfy on the couch last night with a couple of chick flicks and as I pulled out my knitting I realized that while I'm in the process of starting about three or four new projects, I still had Klaralund sitting in pieces. The poor thing has been waiting for some love and seaming. So... I pulled out the pieces and started to seam her up. I got most of it done it last night, and then after two more seams today, walla! she's done!

From the front...

...and from the back.

I can't tell you how many attempts it took to get the back shot. I took pictures of the back of my head, my butt, and the shower door before I eventually got my back in the picture and somewhat centered. (Ok, it wasn't centered, but that's the beauty of cropping.)

I'm a little worried about finishing Klaralund when I did. I have a track record of finishing one measly project a year. I start about a hundred, but between my knitting ADD and the fact that I hate to seam, I just never seem to finish anything. Therefore, since I finished this on the second day of 2006, I'm wondering if that's it for the year. Or, maybe since I finished two preemie hats in 2005, maybe I'm allowed two projects in 2006?

Edited to add: I finish projects so rarely, that I always forget to give specs. In this case I used Rowan All Seasons Cotton instead of Noro Silk Garden as the pattern calls for. Ummm... is there anything else I should tell you?

Anyhoo, New Year's Day was all about movies. I not only rented two chick flicks for last night, but I went and saw the Legend of Zorro with my parents at the supper theater yesterday afternoon. I brought my camera to show you what the place looks like. Unfortunately, I was so paranoid about getting in trouble for taking pictures (I don't know exactly why they would get mad, but there was no convincing me otherwise), that I only got these two quick shots.

Here's where we were sitting.

In relation to the screen.

The Goods
In continuing my report on the Xmas goods, I did, of course, get some knitterly items. From my friend Anna I got the Knitting calendar and a sheepie measuring tape. And from my sister, I got the Knit Bits calendar and the book Mother of Purl. There's actually another knitting-related goodie that I got from my hubby, but that will be receiving a separate unveiling.

Calling all Northern California knitters
My sister and I are heading to San Jose in February for Stitches! I can't wait to see everyone!

Three. glorious. days. off.

2005-12-31T08:08:00.000-08:00

I have learned one vital difference between working in an academic library and a public library. In an academic library, there are no patrons during the holidays. Literally. Even though I would work during the couple of weeks around Xmas and New Years, since there weren't any classes, the library itself was closed. In a public library, especially a public law library, the holidays bring in people who are their "best." This past week was especially tiring, because one my co-workers was out for a couple of days with strep so it was just me and my boss, who is the most intelligent, funniest, and down to earth woman that I know (Why yes, she does read my blog. Why do you ask?). I feel like I have survived a hazing of sorts this past week, since my six month probation finally comes to a finish next week. Woo Hoo!

I have been meaning to write a nice, long post about my Xmas weekend. But, frankly, I'm out of the mood to write a nice, long post, which would also require a nice, long photo shoot of all the goodies I got. So instead, you're going to get things in drips and drabs (or whatever that expression is).

First, I have to tell you about the sugar cookie house. A couple of years ago, my hubby and I got married in early November. Because weddings cost a small fortune and use up all of your vacation time at work (and in my case, thanks to gallbladder surgery two weeks before the wedding, all of my sick time as well), we decided that it would be best to stay home for the holidays rather than travel to family. So we decorated more than normal (because it never seems worth the effort to decorate and then be out of town for two weeks, just so the cats can enjoy a tree and some lights) and made a cookie house. I had never made one before, because I don't like gingerbread, but my hubby enlightened me to the fact that we could make one using sugar cookie dough. It was lots of fun and pretty yummy.

Anyhoo, long story short (sort of), since we weren't going out of town for Xmas this year, we decided to make another cookie house. We baked the pieces on Thursday night, but waited until Saturday night (Xmas Eve) to actually assemble the house. Because we were going to use colored m&ms for different things (a pool, landscaping, etc.), we spent some time sorting out the different colors among bowls. I felt like quite the rock star roadie! Then we spread frosting along the bottom of our house base. And, finally, it was time to take the house pieces off the cookie sheets and assemble! Note to selves: it's best to remove the house pieces from the cookie sheets immediately upon cooling. Otherwise they stick to the cookie sheet and break into tiny pieces when attempting to remove. Here is a picture of our final house from that night...

Oh well! We've decided to attempt this again after my hubby gets back in town and make it a birthday cookie house, since his birthday is on the 16th.

At least our tree decorating looked a little bit better than our cookie house. We never have finished unpacking from the move, since we're going to begin house shopping and hopefully moving again quite soon. But we did put up our little table top tree on top of our tv.

Do you like the snowscape scene along the bottom? And check out my black and white sheepie ornaments sitting in the "snow" next to the snowman!

The Goods
One of the many gifts that I got from my hubby was the Deluxe Librarian Action Figure set (with shushing action!). I already have the Librarian Action figure (with shushing action!).* But this one comes with a library backdrop, a desk, computer, book cart and stacks of books! (Yes, I am a dork)

I love the fact that the deluxe version comes with action figure dressed in red, while the non-deluxe has her dressed in blue. One of these days I'll have to find the box where I packed my other action figure and put them into the set together.

I also love the fact that the books have real book spines and titles on the covers.

*When I bought my Librarian Action Figure, I bought a second one to keep in the cardboard box, just in case I had the opportunity to meet Nancy Pearl**, the librarian depicted as the action figure. And, as luck would have it, I came this close to meeting her! While I was in my last year of school, I was the Secretary of our student chapter of the American Library Association. The chapter is responsible for bringing in speakers throughout the year and Nancy Pearl agreed to be one of our speakers. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts kept coming up between us and so she never did get to come to our school. Darnit!

** I'm aware that my name is the same as the action figure's real life model.

Quality time

2005-12-26T13:49:00.000-08:00

My hubby and I had a fun Xmas. Lots of great gifts, tons of food, hanging out with my family. I plan to tell you all the details, however... my hubby is leaving tomorrow to see his family over the next couple of weeks. So I'm actually choosing to spend some quality time with him today, rather than spend a couple of hours writing out a long blog post (that will inevitably be eaten by blogger). I promise a real post is coming soon!

By the way, I have a question for Typepad users. I'm thinking about switching over, and have been looking at the different levels that are offered. If I go with the middle level (aka "Plus), how much control do I have over my blog and posts? It says there is a template builder, but I'm not sure what that means. And, can I update the html within my posts like I can with blogger? Is it a big deal if I can't? I'm used to doing it with blogger, because I don't like how it inserts images and stuff, so I usually insert the code myself. But Typepad might be more user-friendly. I can't decide what to do. Help!

Taking the easy way out

2005-12-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

I had a stressful week at work last week and right now I have hot pizza waiting for me. So I've decided to post some knitting insights that my brother-in-law Brad sent to me recently. (Sorry SAMIL! I think you'll enjoy this though!)

I find at this time, I need to comment on two strange and overpowering impedimenta I have observed amongst the knitting community. Tearing out, and cozies.

The tearing out had me baffled for a time, as I watched my loving wife industriously work on her knitted kitchen cloth. She started with this ball of yarn, and over the day it would decrease in size, which I took as a good sign of progression, only to come home and find the ball of yarn had grown in size. At first, I thought she had been cranking out a drawer full of kitchen rags, and fully expected to find it difficult to close said drawer. But on closer inspection, found no new rags present. I observed the same activity with a sweater she has been busily working on, proudly showing me the front panels, back panels, side panels, access panels for maintenance, all sorts of panels, only to see the panels suddenly disappear, and the balls of yarn to reappear again. I figured she must be mass producing panels for future assembly, probably in some plant in Mexico or something. But on further inspection, once again, no crate of sweater panels was evident for future assembly. On questioning this phenomenon, I was informed she had “torn out” the offending panels, and was redoing them. On asking why she had “torn out” the panels, I was told she had dropped a stitch, or something along those lines. I offered to help her find it, but was summarily rebuked.

To further confound me (something all women do naturally), I was told that she was casting on with a twenty four inch abby turbo.

“Turbo?” I asked, perking up at a familiar word.

“Not the truck dear.” She replied.

“Twenty-four inch rod for casting?” I asked, thinking I had deciphered another meaning.

“Not fishing dear, the knitting needles.” She replied, as she busily tore out another wash cloth she had been working on. “I commented to N.... the other day how I had to tear out this wash cloth over seven times before I was able to get it right.”

“So...... you made it, then tore it out again, because something was wrong?” I asked.

“Yes! I showed it to you! Don’t you remember?” She asked.

“Well.... Of course I remember!” I said, thinking back to a wash cloth she had shown me, pointing to something on it’s surface and complaining loudly about something having to do with a missed something or other.

Then it hit me! Like a revelation directly from heaven! You gals are totally missing the boat here! We guys have it down to a science, but you gals are just skirting the edges! You want to know what it is? BRAGGING RIGHTS! We go out fishing, and come back telling all our guy friends about the “One That Got Away!”

“Oh yeah! I had that sucker running hard! He was pulling the boat across the lake! It was all I could do to hold on, when that mother broke the surface like a nuclear submarine coming up! He snapped that fifty pound test like a wet noodle, then spit the hook back at me! Almost took out my eye!” We might understate.

“Really?” Another would ask, almost impressed.

“Yeah, no s..t!” The first would reply.

“Hey!” Another would interject. “I was using minnows like him for stinkin’ BAIT! Let me tell you about a REALLY BIG ONE that got away!”

And so it would go. So I would like to humbly suggest at this time, you begin referring to your tear outs, not as tear outs, which is rightfully reserved for muscle cars, but as “Shadow Knitting!”

Now, whenever you get together to subtly intimate you have knitted twelve sweaters, thirty two wash cloths, a dozen gloves, and untold baby caps, you can simply say...

“I cranked out twelve shadow sweaters, thirty two shadow wash cloths, a dozen shadow gloves, and untold shadow baby caps! Top that!”

So there it is, you heard it here first: “Shadow Knitting!”

I would include pictures, but Shadow Knitting (tm) doesn’t allow such things.

Right! Now I would like to talk about the second item that has been vexing my sensibilities lately. Soap Sacks! For the life of me, I can’t fathom a soap sack. Once you put a perfectly good bar of soap into one of these things, you have instantly rendered the soap entirely useless. Company might show up, and wanting to use some soap, won’t touch the soap in the sack, because it might be a simple bathroom decorative item, so they leave it alone. If you know its supposed to be used, you won’t, because once you use the soap, its all wet, and you won’t put it back in the sack, cause that would ruin it.

So one of the big questions I have is, do you take the soap out to use it? Leave it in and use it like one of those luffa things you females are famous for using, or just let it sit there as a decorative device, gathering dust.

Now, I gotta admit, I could see the real value for something like a hammer sack, but a soap sack? Sorry, that one just eludes me. Maybe you could make up for the whole thing and at least use a bar of LAVA pumice soap.

By the way, I could really get behind a “sack-o-hammers”, but a “sack-o-soap”? Sorry, it just doesn’t make it for me.

P.S. All references to “kitchen rag” have been changed to “wash cloth” per instruction.

Poor guy. I just don't have the heart to tell him that there's already a technique known as shadow knitting.

Secret Pal revealed

2005-12-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

I got to officially find out who my secret pal was! It was Michelle, who I think has the best blog name. To reveal herself, she sent me a final gift. Wanna see what she sent me?

It's Noro Big Kureyon for a kitty pi bed and yummy chocolates (I've had these before and they are GOOD)! I'm wondering if I can get the kitty bed done by Xmas and then I can give it to them as one of their presents. (Yes, I get my cats Xmas gifts). Penny in particular loves kitty beds.

(That's her catnip banana, in case you're wondering) Anyhoo, I'm thinking the gift will be for her.

On a completely unrelated note... I know that several knitters wanted to know what pattern and yarn I used for the preemie hats (Which just barely fit the babies, by the way. We've requested modeling photos, but we're thinking that the new parents might have their hands full right now.). In any case, I used the Spiral Preemie Cap pattern and I used Debbie Bliss cotton cashmere. And in case you're wondering, I just weighed the yarn that I had leftover from one of the hats and it looks like the hat uses about 16 grams of the 50 gram ball, so you could probably get 3 hats from one ball.

XXX

2005-12-09T21:58:00.000-08:00

Saw this on Nathania's blog and had to create my own...

Bondage Nan!

My mom must be so proud.

When the MIL speaks...

2005-12-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

the DIL listens. My mom-in-law made a subtle request to my hubby today that I update my blog. (Knowing my mom-in-law, I'm guessing the request wasn't actually subtle.) (And to my mom-in-law, you know full well that I married into a family full of smartasses. ha,ha!)

By the way, I don't actually have anything in particular to blog about tonight. I've had several migraines over the last week, so while I had stuff I wanted to blog about, I haven't wanted to be on my computer. So be prepared for a rambling post.

As you know, the Secret Pal exchange has come to an end (and if you didn't know, or don't know what I'm talking about, well... pretend like you do). I haven't actually revealed myself yet to the people I had yet (I was an "angel" for one person). I just sent off one of my reveal packages today and the other one will go out soon. I'm a little behind schedule, can you tell? The nice thing is that I'm not the only one. My personal Secret Pal was planning to send out a package to me with her info in it this week, I believe. Something tells me that we're not unique. :-)

Speaking of packages I sent out, I sent my brother-in-law two caps that I knit for his new preemie twin girls (No, you haven't missed anything, I haven't blogged about the babies yet. So, guess what? My brother-in-law had two preemie twin girls born last month!). Here's a picture of the two hats.

Wanna see a picture of an orange wearing one of the hats?

I don't know why, but this amuses me immensely.

And speaking of packages I haven't sent out... I still haven't done the drawing for the raffle prizes for the 3 Day Walk. Sadly, there's only 4 prizes, and they're nowhere as nice as the prizes that bloggers like the Yarn Harlot give out for charity fundraising, so this whole thing is going to be very anticlmactic for whomever finally wins one of these items.

In addition to two finished objects (they might be tiny little hats, but they're done!), I finally got gauge on my hubby's sweater! Now I just need to find my Vogue Knitting issue that tells me how to do the German Knitted Cast On that I want to use, and I'm ready to start it (I realize that there's an online "tutorial" for this cast on, but I prefer VK's version of explaining it). I know my magazines are packed away in a couple of boxes, so it shouldn't be too hard to find, so hopefully I can get started this weekend. And, since Karen asked a while back, here's a picture of the sweater.

The pattern is the Echo Lake Cardigan in the Summer 2003 issue of Interweave Knits.

Speaking of comments (there are lots of "speaking of's" tonight, aren't there?), thank you for all of the compliments on my Nothin' But a T-shirt! In case you're wondering, I did make it out of the Rowan Calmer that the pattern called for. It's truly the yummiest yarn! I'm even thinking of making Tempting 2 in the latest Knitty, because it calls for Calmer. I also like the pattern for Tubey in this Knitty, which is made in my other favorite yarn, Cashmerino.

Ok, I think I'm all rambled out. My next post may or may not be more structured. I can't make any promises.

Let me explain

2005-12-01T19:38:00.000-08:00

I'm a smartass. I come from a family full of smartasses. (And, as luck would have it, I've married into a family that is also full of smartasses. Dinner with us can be a lot of fun.) As a result of my smartassness (don't give me that look - it really is a word), I tend to assume that others are the same as me. So, when I posted the picture of my mom's "finished" sweater, I figured that folks would say, that Nancy is such a smartass, it's gotta be joke. And when I started getting comments about my mom's amazing sweater, I thought, hey, people are playing along. How fun! But then, I started thinking, hmmmm... what if some people don't think it's a joke. And when Ashley posted her comment asking if she was the only who got the joke, I figured maybe I better set things straight. So, the truth is... that my mom really did knit that sweater!

See, I told you I was a smartass. Ok, ok. No, she didn't knit the sweater. When she saw it at the store and it matched the color of yarn she was learning with, she couldn't resist. (Kind of a long story, but my hubby told my mom that she wouldn't have to fly in a glider with him if she manages to finish knitting a sweater before he gets his license. So, the joke was, see I finished a sweater before you got your license, so now I don't have to fly with you.) . As my hubby said, if you've gotta explain the joke, it's not funny.

Speaking of my hubby's glider license, here's a picture from his first lesson back in October (finally, huh?).

He should be ready to solo in January. Yikes!

Happy Spastic Turkey Day!

2005-11-24T17:06:00.000-08:00

As planned, I debuted Nothin' but a T-shirt at our Thanksgiving feast today. We were at my brother's house and I decided that his backyard was a good place for a photo shoot. So, without further ado, here's my finished object!

And here's my pathetic attempt at the Rachael:

For all of those who are freezing to death back East, you'll notice the lack of snow. In fact, it was so warm outside that we had to head back inside after the photo shoot.

As we walked into the kitchen we discovered this:

Thinking the smoke was coming from one of the items on the stove top, my brother turned all of the burners off, the smoke kept poring out. Then we realized that we could see flames inside the oven.

There wasn't a fire extingisher in the house, so my brother got out a tub of flour and started throwing it on top of the flames.

Eventually the flames were put out, but the mashed potatoes and fresh cranberries had pretty much turned into charcoal.

You'll notice that while my brother's oven is on fire, his concerned sister was busy taking pictures for her blog (I'm so glad I thought to bring my camera!).

Once the action was over, my dad and I drove over to the grocery store that was still open for another 45 minutes to get pre-made mashed potatoes and cans of cranberry sauce. When we got back we found out that while the flames had been put out by the flour, the fire itself was still trying to kick in because of the gas line. So my brother and hubby had pulled the oven away from the wall and turned off the local gas line, and my brother-in-law showed my brother where the main gas line was in order to turn that off.

Since my hubby had butter or oil or something all over his clothes from crawling around behind the oven, we ran home so he could change clothes and put stain spray on everything. Unfortunately, we realized after getting home that we had thrown out the spray when we moved and hadn't bought any since. So, with only ten minutes to spare before closing, I went back to the grocery store and bought stain spray. Eventually we made it back to my brother's house and had a normal Thanksgiving feast for the remainder of the day. Well, almost normal. My brother and sister-in-law got lucky that their neighbor is out of town and had a key to their house... and as result their oven. Because, you know, their oven is now out of commission. It was pretty funny, though, to watch them running across the street with various pans and trays.

Anyhoo, after stuffing ourselves silly, my mom showed off her knitting to everyone. Remember how she began learning to knit a few weeks ago? Well, she's improved tremendously over such a short time! Here's the first swatch she made...

And here's the first item she's finished.

Amazing, isn't it? I mean, she can't even purl yet, but she's managed ribbing and cables. Simply amazing if you ask me. (By the way, if you happen to shop at Kmart and see a sweater that looks very similar to this one, it's just a coincidence!)

Well, now that Thanksgiving is coming to an end, I can officially begin celebrating the Xmas holiday... by eating Peeps Snowmen!!

Happy Holidays!

E's gotta job for you

2005-11-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

I was driving to work today and passed the chicken place where someone was looking for spicy thigs. Apparently, the thigs craving has been satisfied, because the sign has changed to:

E ARE HIRING

I don't know who this E person is, and I don't know what position he/she is hiring for, but I sure hope the job duties include sign updates, because E isn't doing too well at it. (Is it just me, or is that a really long sentence?)

I had a pretty good weekend. My hubby and I met up with Heather and her hubby and Eva and her beau for dinner Saturday night. We managed to keep the fiber discussions to a minimum, although they did slip through from time to time. Sorry guys!

Then, on Sunday, my hubby and I decided to catch a movie. We hadn't yet managed to see the latest Wallace and Gromit movie that came out a while back, but we were able to track down a movie theater that still had it playing. It was at a place I had never heard of before called Farelli's Supper Cinema. I was initially curious about the name, but it wasn't until we got there that we realized it truly is a "supper cinema," similar to a dinner theatre. Instead of rows of chairs where your knees are crammed up around your ears, there are round tables with regular chairs and a full menu. It was really cool! They only play movies that have been around for ages, but since we don't like to deal with crowds at the movies, we don't generally get around to seeing a movie until it's been out for quite a while. So this works out great for us. We'll definitely be going to see movies there again.

Last, but certainly not least, I managed to sew up my Nothin' But a T-shirt sweater. Finally. I had sewn one sleeve on months ago and then put it aside out of frustration (because I lost track of the number of times it took me to sew in the set-in sleeve). Well, after another frustrating round of sewing the second sleeve in on Saturday, I was able to sew up the sides yesterday and discovered... that it fits! I still need to weave in the many ends, but it should be ready for an outing this upcoming weekend (maybe even Thanksgiving Day!) and a photo shoot. Yay!

As good as my weekend was, my Monday started off pretty crappy because I have a cold. I hate colds. Yuck.

Stepping into the confessional

2005-11-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

Samantha pointed out that I "lost" another week. Well, I have a confession to make. Let me just take a quick look around to make sure that no one else is around to hear.... Ok, we're alone. I'm a bit ashamed to admit this, but I haven't blogged (I haven't done much of anything, really), because I've been... knitting. And I don't mean 30-minutes-on-the-bus-commuting-knitting. I mean honest-to-goodness sitting-on-the-couch-for-long-periods-of-time-when-I-should-be-doing-laundry-knitting. I know, it's scandalous. It's all my mom's fault, really. She's learning to knit and there's something about a new knitter that motivates a knitter who had forgotten her priorities. To-do list be damed! I'm knittin!

I've been knitting so much, that I've almost got my second Klaralund sleeve done. Woo Hoo! And I've started swatching for my hubby's sweater. Re-swatching is really what I should be calling it, since I had swatched for the sweater months and months ago, but didn't write down any information about needle size or anything. So I'm really just swatching to figure out what I had originally done in, I don't know, May? Of course, this is my second attempt at the sweater, so this might be considered re-re-swatching. My first attempt at this pattern was before we had gotten married, and I discovered that the boyfriend curse works both ways. The relationship worked out, but the sweater had a horrible death (it ended with my cat peeing on the back and discovering, upon "blocking" the piece after washing it, that the silk blend in 2x2 rib stretched out of shape by a good 200%). Anyway, I've got new yarn and my boyfriend is now my hubby, so I'm quite positive that it'll all work out this time.

My recent foray back into constant knitting has also allowed me to reflect on the 3 Day Walk. I told Eva the other day that I understand how people decide to walk the 3 Day more than once. I know now what I should have done for the walk to be more enjoyable (what to eat, when to sweep, etc.). So now I want to apply what I've learned. Thankfully Eva is able to keep her sanity and simply says "no" whenever I bring this up. Instead of walking, I'm just going to donate money to other walkers. And maybe pass on some tips that I picked up. By the way, I never did tell you (or maybe I did?) that there were 1700 walkers that raised 4.7 million dollars. How cool is that! Also, I haven't forgotten about the raffle prizes that I'll be giving away to my sponsors. I wanna do the raffle drawing right (I don't honestly know what I mean by that other than that I want to give it more than 5 seconds of my attention), so I'll probably do the drawing over Thanksgiving weekend.

There was probably more stuff I wanted to tell you, but with my spasticly short attention span I can't think of what it was. Plus, I have ice cream calling my name. Since I've been providing a public service by telling you about Warm Delights and 6 free Krispy Kreme donuts for your birthday, I gotta tell you about my favorite ice cream in the whole wide world! It's Dreyers Light Fudge Tracks. It's vanilla ice cream with fudge swirls and these little mini peanut butter cups. I wish that they would start selling the little mini peanut butter cups on their own, because I would put them on everything! Mmmm...

I think I've misplaced something... like a week

2005-11-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

How can it possibly be Sunday again? It's not like even done anything exciting. Just the usual, boring, not-much-to-blog about stuff. I thought I'd be able to show a picture of a finished Klaralund sleeve. But it appears to be the sleeve that won't be done, because I've had to rip it back a dozen times. Ok, ok, it's only been about 3 or 4 times, but it feels like a dozen. With any luck I'll actually finish it this time around. And then I get to do it all over again. sigh...

I also watched my hubby start glider pilot lessons. In case you're not aware, a glider (also known as a sailplane) is a plane without an engine. I only feel slightly better knowing that we recently got life insurance policies. (just kidding dear - you know I support you!). I took some pictures, which I'll post later this week.

Sorry this is such a short post. Hopefully this next week won't disappear, ya know?

Another year wiser?

2005-10-30T19:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I am more of smart ass.

I celebrated the big 3-4 today and am about ready to slip into a food coma. Before I do, though, I had to share some pics.

My hubby surprised me at work on Friday with flowers.

I told him that giving me flowers twice in one week (he had given me flowers at the end of the 3 Day Walk as well), that I was going to start expecting them every week. hee,hee!

We started the day be going to Krispy Kreme and getting birthday doughnuts (they give you 6 doughnuts for free on your birthday!)

Look, free doughnuts!

Mmmmm....

Better hurry, only 4 left!

After indulging in sugary goodness, I decorated my birthday cake.

My hubby helped by drawing a skeleton.

In case you're wondering, having a birthday right before Halloween meant that the birthday cakes I had growing up always had some sort of a Halloween theme instead of the typical clown/princess/balloon theme that most kids had. I grumbled about this growing up, but wouldn't you know that as an adult I love it!

We ended the day by having dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Steak in butter is yum, yum, yummy! It doesn't compare to House of Prime Rib (no restaurant can), but I sure managed to eat myself silly.

Ok, I'm gonna go lay on the couch and watch my new Family Guy DVD. Hmmmm... I think I need a slice of cake, too.

Day 3 (aka Just. A. Little. Farther. To. Go.): A Retrospective

2005-10-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

After a pretty deep sleep (well, as deep as you can get in a sea of tents in the middle of a community college campus), we woke up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. Yes, that's a lie. Maybe Eva woke up feeling this way, but I was ready to go home and take a real shower and then a nap. Instead, we got up and prepared to tackle our last day of walking. We decided that we should document this hurdle in a picture:

I discovered that morning that my heat rash was so painful that it hurt to walk. Thankfully, this discomfort passed after walking a couple of miles. But it was slow going at first and we didn't arrive at the first pit stop until it was closing.

Now, I had been told by previous 3 Day Walkers that adrenalin is what carries you through the third day. I have to admit that I was pretty pumped up that day. I was also extremely emotional and could break into tears at any moment. But what I think happens by the third day, at least for first time walkers, is that you've learned a lot of lessons from the previous two days, which makes for a much more enjoyable third. For example, I was eating pretty much anything they put in front of me at the various pit stops on the first day. Chips, peanuts, bagels, bananas, anything. I'd also eat at every single pit stop. I realized by the second day that this probably added to my dehydration and naseau woes that first night. On the second day I experimented at the various pit stops and finally figured out for the third day to just stick with bagels and banana with peanut butter. By the third day I also learned that if you're leaving a pit stop when it's closing, you're pretty much screwed for time the rest of the day.

What I'm trying to say in that really, really long-winded explanation is that when we got to the pit stop at closing, we knew to just take the bus to lunch and enjoy ourselves. I can't even begin to say how glad I am that we made this decision. It sucked to pass over an entire 4 miles, but I really wanted to be coherent at the closing ceremonies that evening and the only way I could do it was to avoid pushing myself too far. At lunch we ate a fairly decent turkey sandwich (especially compared to our previous two lunches), but my favorite food by far were the grapes. Eva managed to grab a bunch of them and they were juicy, cool, and oh-so-freakin'-delicious! I don't think I'll ever have a grape that tastes that good again in my lifetime, they were just that good. Anyway, after lunch we grabbed a seat in a baseball dugout and tended to our poor, achy feet. Here's Eva, still smiling away even while she's all bandaged up.

And I couldn't resist taking a picture of my lovely foot. (I apologize to anyone who might be eating while reading this!)

Even though I was still sore and tired after lunch, I was in a great mood as we continued on. I was even in a great mood as the route they had us on included hot, open desert with no shade.

Our next pit stop had a Halloween theme. On the previous two days I was generally so tired that I hadn't really stopped to look around, but the crew apparently had some fun setting this pit stop up. Here's Eva getting a free mammogram

and a faux dog letting us know where the p.p. were.

As we left the pit stop, we could see the a line of walkers coming upon it with the desert in the background. I tried to get a picture of it, because it was a great sight in person, but it's kinda hard to see in the photo, unfortunately.

So, the rest of the day had us walking through desert. More hot desert. Going uphill. Yep, uphill in the hot desert. The adrenalin everyone told me about helped, and we got a little giddy at some points of the day. We would start giggling over goofy things, like a bunch of women yelling "Hole" when we came across a big hole in the ground. Stuff that wouldn't normally seem funny, but seemed pretty hilarious when you're delirious with heat.

For me, my day took on a goofy twist around the last few miles. We had just left our last pit stop and had a little over 4 miles left to go. When we had gotten to the pit stop, I simply didn't have to pee. In fact, I hadn't had to do so in the last several miles. When you're walking in the heat and chugging water, this is a bad indicator. Very bad. And I was getting nervous. Well, after we had left our last pit stop I finally had to go pee. Not too bad, but I was really looking forward to the water stop we had coming up in a couple of miles. Then I found out that the water stop was just that. Water, but no porta potties. That's when my body decided it had to go BAD. Eva suggested a bush, but I declined. I started looking for a shopping center, because while we were in the desert, we were also in the middle of suburbia in the desert. But this is pretty much all we were seeing.

At long last we saw a shopping center and it looked like we were going to pass a sidewalk that led to it. Instead, the sidewalk was an underpass of sorts that went below the driveway going into the shopping center. I knew at this point that I simply couldn't wait any longer. I found a spot somewhat below the driveway that was sort of hidden and, um, well... you know. Eva was watching out for me on the other side, but I was in plain view of anyone who might come by from the other direction. Thankfully that didn't happen. Once I had finished my business, I found out there was someone else waiting to do exactly the same thing and there were lots of other folks doing the same thing amongst other bushes along the path.

By the time we got to the water stop, which was still a couple of miles from the end, I was getting really tired and hot, and I had to go pee... again. As much as I didn't want to, I knew I had to take a sweep van. As I told Eva when she asked what my instinct was telling me about this, I had decided to walk the last couple of miles on Friday and Saturday and came to regret the decision. I didn't think my instincts should be telling me what to do. So... I swept. When I met up with my hubby (who brought me 3 pink roses, one for each day) and mom at the closing ceremony location, I cried. I know there's no shame in being swept, but I had really wanted to walk those last couple of miles.

Anyway, the closing ceremonies were as emotional as the opening ceremonies and I, of course, cried.

I couldn't (still can't, really) quite believe it was over. Eva and I got a picture together and while we both look a little more tired than the before picture on Friday, I think we both still look pretty good!

Day 2 (aka OK, Maybe It Can Get Worse): A Retrospective

2005-10-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

After getting up to pee 5 times during the middle of the night (which is a pain in the butt, by the way, when you're having to crawl out of a tent that has a half-filled air mattress and feels like the equivalent of quicksand), I woke up sufficiently rehydrated. My feet were pretty sore, but I didn't seem to have any major blisters and the heat rash on my legs was bearable.

Eva and I got up at 4:45am with the intention of leaving the camp and walking by 6:30am. By the time we ate breakfast, packed, unpacked, and repacked our gear bags and figured out how to break down our tent, we didn't leave until 7:30am. Oops. (To give you an idea of just how tired everyone in camp was, including both walkers and crew, I asked one of the crew members to help me open up my travel sized bottle of Aleve after struggling with it. Well, after he struggled with it for a bit, he finally read the cap which said "Push down, then turn." We weren't exactly the most coherent group that day.)

Other than leaving later than planned, and having the added annoyance that they had run out of our route schedules for the day, we were in pretty good moods. The route they had us start on in the morning took us through Kiwanis Park and some nice neighborhoods. While there were official cheering stations that we would pass throughout the day, a lot of people gathered in front of their houses to greet us as we passed by. There were lots of girl scouts and other kids that we saw that were giving out candy (the first time in my entire life when candy not only didn't sound very good, but kinda made me sick to my stomach). While I didn't want the candy, it was great having them cheer us on. There was one block where the kids had drawn messages to us on the sidewalk and street. I took this picture of a pink ribbon that they drew.

We walked through these neighborhoods for most of the morning until we had lunch at a park near Arizona State University's campus. When we reached the park, we had officially walked 30 miles - half the walk down!

While we had more time for lunch than we had the previous day, we discovered that we didn't have as much time as we had originally thought and ended up heading back out more quickly than I would have liked. On top of this, they gave us a pretty crappy lunch, so I hadn't eaten much. As we walked through ASU's campus, I could feel the heat and lack of lunch already starting to get to me. While Eva was doing ok with the heat, her knee was starting to bother her. So, by the time we had reached the edge of campus, we were ready for a sweep van to take us to the next pit stop. Since all of the various sweep vans were decorated in some way (one had a gambling theme, another had a 70's theme), I had to take a picture of our decorated (though somewhat lame) sweep van.

Now, before heading out from lunch, I had called my hubby to let him know what time I thought we'd make it to the cheering station that was by my parents' house. He, my parents, and my sister were going to come by and say hi. Well, we reached the pit stop at just about the same time I had originally thought we were going to reach the cheering station. This isn't because we walked slower than I had originally planned, but because my math was unbelievably wrong. Again, I wasn't completely coherent after walking 30 miles. Thankfully I got a hold of him before they headed out to the cheering station. I mean, just because I'm stupid enough to walk 60 miles in the heat, I didn't think they'd want to stand out in the sun for an hour or more waiting for me to show up.

In any case, we eventually made it to the cheering station to see my family. Since we had a good rest at the pit stop I was feeling pretty good, much to my family's surprise I think. I'm sure they had heard the horror stories of the night before from my hubby. As we moved on towards the next pit stop, Eva's knee started to bother her again and since we still had 5 miles to go for the day, she decided that she should play it safe and take one of the buses waiting at the pit stop directly to camp. Since I was still feeling fine, I decided to keep going. I even continued to feel fine for the next couple of miles and really enjoyed walking through the Scottsdale Civic Center. Having grown up in Scottsdale, the Civic Center isn't new to me. But it was such a refreshing change from the city streets we had been walking on that it kinda took on a whole new look. Thankfully I managed to remember to take a picture

and had another walker take my picture

because my day went downhill right after this moment. I got to the pit stop late and didn't have a chance to sit and rest. I only had a couple of miles to go, so I didn't think this would be a problem. Apparently I was really, really wrong (and I had also apparantly forgotten that Eva and I had made it to our previous pit stop late and while she was waiting for the bus I continued walking without any rest). It seemed like everything fell apart at once. My feet became painful, my back started spasming, the heat rash on my legs was burning... yeah, I was a mess.

Our camp that night was at Scottsdale Community College. I was practically crawling by the time we reached the college campus. And to make everything that much better, the organizers had set up the food tent right outside the entrance to camp, but placed the sleeping tents in a practice football field on the other side of campus. As I made my way through the entrance to camp, near tears and nauseous, the crew members were telling us that we should eat first and then head over to our sleeping tents in order to avoid walking more than necessary. Um, fellas, maybe you shoulda space planned this better. Huh?

My hubby helped me hobble over to my tent to meet up with Eva and her boyfriend. After crawling into my jammies, he went back over to the food tent to get me some food. By the time he got back, it was so dark in our campsite that he then had to go drag a table and chair under a light at one of the school's buildings. It was at this moment, as I sat there feeling miserable... picking at my cold and dry chicken... and desperately needing a shower... that the defensive line of the football team, who were in middle of playing a Homecoming Football Game (can you believe they had us camping there when they had a homecoming football game being played??!!), came tromping by. Ah, yes, the wondeful feeling of humiliation. Of course, it was only after the exhausted tears finally started coming down that the football players then came tromping back past me. Gotta have that cherry on top!

Thankfully, the worst part of my evening seemed to be over. I eventually took a shower and was able to crawl into the tent to get some sleep. Two days down, one to go!

Day 3 coming soon...

We interrupt our regularly scheduled retrospective

2005-10-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know everyone's breathlessly waiting to hear about Day 2 and Day 3 of the walk, but I found this when I came home tonight:

With my curiosity greatly aroused I opened the package and discovered this:

Now I'm even more curious! I opened the "book of spells" up and found...

Ready?

Are you sure?

Ok, ok, enough teasing. I found

Warm Delights (yum!), a pumpkin pincushion (so cute!), and 4 skeins of laceweight 100% Merino Wool from Knitpicks (soooo soft!) along with a bed jacket pattern that was designed in tribute to the designer's mother who died of breast cancer. Very appropriate after the walk, eh?

In case you haven't figured it out yet, all of this was gifted to me by my very wonderful and sweet (mostly) Secret Pal. I cannot thank you enough Secret Pal!! I love all of it!!

Day 2 of the walk will resume shortly...

Day 1 (aka It Can't Get Much Worse Than This): A Retrospective

2005-10-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

After my frantic packing, unpacking, and repacking of my gear bag a mere 9 hours before opening ceremonies I finally got to bed only to wake up every hour wondering if it was time to get up yet. Of course, when my alarm finally went off, I was exhausted. Thankfully the adrenalin was pumping in no time and after another frantic round of "did I pack everything I need" we took off for the opening ceremonies. When Eva and I met up, we were both pretty excited, so my hubby decided we should get a before and after picture. Here's before:

The opening ceremonies consisted of an annoying spokesperson, but it was still pretty emotional and it didn't take long before I was crying.

Anyway, after a good cry, we were off!

It was right after I passed through this spot that my hubby took the picture of me in which he saw me smiling for the last time that day. I was, however, smiling for quite a while that morning. When we first set off we were walking through intersections of rush hour traffic. As the safety crews helped get all 1700 of us through the intersection we had a lot of people honking and waving at us. I'm sure all of the commuters were happy to show their support in our goal and it sure helped inspire us as we set off on our first mile of walking. Only 59 more to go!

We wound our way through Papago Park. It's a bit hard to see in the pictures, but it was really impressive to see thousands of walkers winding through the paths in the park.

Eva and I were having a great time at this point, so I snapped a picture of her

and attempted a self-portrait of me.

See, we were still smiling for a while after seeing my hubby in the morning.

We eventually reached our first pit stop. The pit stops were where we could get food and water. It was also where we could find the lovely porta potties. We would eventually have a love-hate relationship with porta potties. However, at this point we discovered that the volunteer crew members had tried to make them decorative by assigning a theme to each of the stops and decorating the porta potties (known hereafter as p.p. (which made me realize that porta potties abbreviated is appropriately p.p.)). Anyhoo, the first pit stop theme was Hollywood and the p.p. were decorated to look like stars' dressing rooms. Here's the one I used

Trust me, I got a few strange looks when I first got out my camera to take a picture of a p.p. But it didn't take long before I saw others doing the same. Once I was inside, I discovered that the stars named on the outside have a connection to breast cancer and their picture was posted along with their diagnosis date. And if you thought I got strange looks taking a picture of the outside of the p.p., you can imagine the looks I would have gotten if they had known what I was doing while inside

In any case, this pit stop was the beginning of the end of the fun for me. Because the opening ceremonies started late, or ran long, or something, we were completely off schedule. As walkers we didn't realize that we were going to be the ones to be penalized. But as we got to future pit stops, we were being told that they were closing in a few minutes and we either had to get moving or take a bus to lunch. So rather than stopping and resting at these pit stops as should have, we kept moving at a fast pace. I did manage to snap one more picture before we got to lunch

But after this it was just walk, walk, walk, walk, walk... well, you get the picture. I was stubborn and refused to take a sweep van (which would take us to the next pit stop). This was a pretty stupid move, because I discovered later that I was starting to get dehydrated. By the time we walked into camp I wasn't feeling so hot. I did, however, manage to get a shot of the camp entrance as I approached it.

Eva and I were exhausted and got completely lucky to discover that some wonderful angel had already put up our tent in the camp. We never did get to find out who it was, but it was probably a good thing for my hubby's sake, because I would have given this person a big, wet kiss right on the lips! Speaking of my hubby, he was also an angel. He and Eva's boyfriend were great and helped set up our air mattresses and sleeping bags for us so that by the time we had taken our showers we could just crawl into the tent and go to sleep.

I'd tell you more, but selective amnesia has helped me forget the pain and a lot of details.

Day 2 Retrospective coming soon...

Day 3: Free at Last!

2005-10-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ACCOUNT OF EVENTS OF THE FINAL DAY OF THE 3 DAYS, AS WITNESSED BY "HUBBY".

SHE DID IT!

Nancy and Eva made it to the finish line this evening at Rawhide in north Scottsdale. Both were smiling and proud of their accomplishments as well as happy to be done at last.

In honor of this great accomplishment, I present to you, Nancy's top ten list of the lessons learned during her days on the the walk.

10. Hat head CAN be a fashion statement.

9. Sometimes blisters are a good thing.

8. It's OK to cry infront of a 6ft, 300 pound linebacker.

7. It is possible to have too many banannas.

6. In contrast, a cold grape can be better than sex. (no, I'm not offended. That's OK.)

5. When away from home for 3 days, it's not a given that the husband will remember to give the cats water.

4. A sunglasses tanline is a badge of honor.

3. In a state of extreme delirium, even the most mundane can appear to be the funniest thing you've ever seen

2. After 3 days of walking, getting off the couch isn't as simple a task as it may seem.

And the number one lesson learned from the 2005 3-day Breast Cancer Awareness Walk...

(drum

roll

please...)

...60 miles is a LONG way...

oh, and...there's no place like home.

Love ya sweetie.

Day Two, of a 3 (million) step program

2005-10-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ACCOUNT OF EVENTS OF THE SECOND OF THE 3 DAYS, AS WITNESSED BY "HUBBY".

90 degress, today, and sunny. 19.6 miles on the agenda, ...

AND THE GIRL KEPT A'ROLLIN'!

Yes, she made it again. It started early. 4:45 a.m. I believe there was mention of an interesting attempt to break down the tent, with both participants still asleep on their feet. I didn't have the opportunity to witness this event, but rest assured, had I been there, there would be pictures (and a few giggles, I'm sure).

With repacking done and a bad breakfast consumed, they hit the road (an hour late).

It was warm today, but they made pretty good time. Around 2 pm, Nan's folks, her sister and I went down the street to a "cheering station" to watch as Nancy and Eva came by.

It was a party environment of sorts in the neighborhood. Horns blowing, people clapping, and Girlscouts chanting, "We love walkers!" One guy dragged out his garden hose to fill up the Walk Crews portable misting machine they had arranged for over-heated walkers. A family of four was standing by the road handing out popsicles to walkers as they passed by the family's front yeard.

Nan looked good. Walking strong and smiling that smile of hers. A little red-nosed, but still.

And yes, this too would be the last I would see her smile on this day.

We made plans to meet up at the campsite designated for this evening via cell phone, when she was some 4 +/- miles from the camp. The site for this evening was the campus of Scottsdale Community College. We figured it would take her about an hour and a half to get there. An hour later, a tired voice on the phone informed me she was running a bit behind and it would be another hour. She was alone, as her walking mate had had to ride to the camp with a bum knee.

At the appropriate time, we headed out to the camp to meet up with Nancy. Once there, we watched as walkers were coming in, wearily plodding through the finish line to the applause and cheers of the crews, friends and familes. As we turned to head towards the big tents, my cell phone rang, and the voice on the other end said,"I'm coming up behind you."

There she was, limping badly and red as a beet. Her first words, "I'm trying REALLY hard, not to cry right now." She was drained, completely exhausted and unable to communicate much of anything except, "I gotta pee".

We got her to her tent (which was a mere 3/4 of a mile from the finish line. Nice going folks, good planning.) where she collapsed. After much convincing we got her to agree to eat something.

I found a table outside the tent compound, up against the wall of the school's gymnasium . She hobbled to the table as I brought her a chair. As she sat there, picking at her dry, tasteless dinner, doing her best to hold back the tears of sheer exhaustion, the entire defensive line of the Sottsdale Artichokes football team (yes, that's right, the teams name is the ARTICHOKES) came bouncing by in full gear. All 11 of the 300 pound, tatoo covered, 6 ft tall defensive players, proceeded by their even larger coach, glancing at this poor girl at a makshift table, crying into her dried out baked chicken and rice.

A few minutes later, they came bounding back out of the locker rooms for a second pass. A quick side glance at her, then a direct look at me. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or run.

Following the dinner theater, we shuffled together over to the shower trailers, where, as I waited outside for her, I was asked by a very nice lady if I had found a new pick-up spot. Right outside the ladies showers. I mean if you're gonna hit on a girl, she might as well be half naked and too tired to walk, right?

Needless to say, we got Nan into her tent, warm and tight. And I'm sure she was out before I reached my car.

In 2 days, she's managed to walk some 40 miles in near 90 degree sun bleached temperatures on concrete, through city streets. With one day left, and 20 miles to go, all I can say is,...

we're proud of you sweetie.

Day One: and so it begins...

2005-10-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ACCOUNT OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO, AND INCLUDING, THE FIRST OF THE 3 DAYS, AS WITNESSED BY "HUBBY".

THE NAMES HAVE NOT BEEN CHANGED BECAUSE LET'S FACE IT, SHE'S JUST NOT THAT INNOCENT.

It all began early in the week, when my royal...highness... came home with 2 borrowed sleeping bags. It was at this point that the stress would, of course, begin in earnest. After much debate and endless testing...

...A decision was finally reached. (Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's my companion, my Queen, my...carrot top.)

With this hurdle behind us, the packing began. Last minute, of course, but there was still a full nine hours before the walk. No problem. We would just need to get her mountain of supplies into her single duffle bag. Right. OK.

During this phase of the carefully planned, and obviously on-schedule preparations, a 35 pound maximum limit was announced,... as if it had just been decided. Declared by the gods and offered as a dare to all who would risk opposing their wishes. (she has a way about her, my love does.) After all essentials were zip-locked and Tetris-ed into said duffle bag, the weighing took place. Thirty six and one half pounds...close enough....

JUST THEN...

...cries of "I can't carry that!", as if I'd just strapped my car to her back. (Now, she can walk 60 miles in 3 days, but she can't carry a 35 lb. bag 100 feet to a waiting teamster at the edge of a parking lot. Not questioning the logic, mind you. Just reporting the facts. God forbid.) After an hour of encouragement, we were all set.

She had double checked the list, she was packed, and it was time for bed. The morning would come swiftly and the Queen needed her sleep.

At 4 a.m., after a refreshing 3 hours of sleep, she LEPT from her bed, (after a due course of proding, shoving and mumbled threats) eager to take on the world.

Without any further complications, we arrived safe and sound at Tempe Town Lake, in time, and ready to hit the trails. Along with 1,000+ of her closest friends.

During the opening ceremony, personal stories of tragedy, inspiration and survival were lowered upon the dreary, though eager participants, bringing more than a few of them to bleary-eyed tears, including, of course, the Queen herself. With inspiration feeding their souls, the troops took to the streets to music and applause.

This would be the last time I would see a smile on her face this day. (at mile marker .25)

Nancy made it, though. It was sunny and 87 degrees, nice by Arizona standards, but still tough in the constant sun. She did 21.6 miles in under 11 hours, including the few 10 minute breaks they were permitted along the way. (The result of a scheduling error committed by the organisers and suffered through by the participants, to the great annoyance of my fair lady). Dehydrated, nauseous and a little sun burnt, but she did it.

Just some 40-odd miles and 2 days left. And she'll make it. She always does.

This evening I drove over to the campsite to help her set-up her tent. I've got to say, it can be slightly disconcerting to see thousands of Pepto-Bismol clad women, all wearily limping in unison around a sporting complex-turned refugee camp. The potential for estrogenical implosion was massive, and the results would have been catastrophic, if not really, really pink.

Hundreds of blue dome-like tents lined every spare inch of the fields. Every so often high-pitched giggles and laughter would come screaming out of some anonymous tent, by the few energetic survivors of DAY ONE.

Nancy had hobbled to the shower, and we tucked her into her tent with her walk buddy Eva. Not sure they'll ever get out of that thing. With all their gear and air mattreses and such, it looked more like a storage shed than a sleeping quarter.

After kissing her goodnight and wishing them a good walk for tomorrow, I headed out of the complex to my car. On my way out, I caught site of the few remaining, still conscious walkers enjoying a rousing karaoke by a middle-aged woman drenched in pink, carefully hobbling her way across a stage as she belted out some Aretha Franklin tune. As I passed by, the immortal words of the ancient poets rang in my ears,

"bless the girls,...'cause they're all friggin' nuts."

The beginning

2005-10-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

I had planned on writing a really sappy and sentimental entry about beginning a journey tomorrow as I start the 3 Day Walk. That over the course of walking 60 miles I'll endure temporary discomfort and pain, knowing that many of the women I'll be walking beside are breast cancer survivors whose discomfort and pain is ongoing.

But considering I've got less than 9 hours before I have to be at Tempe Town Lake in the morning and I've packed, unpacked, and repacked a thousand times... well, I've really gotta keep this short. The good news is that my hubby will be acting as a guest blogger here over the next three days. Of course, for those that know my hubby, this may not be considered good news. (ha,ha!)

And if I haven't said it before, I just want to thank everyone who has sponsored me in the Walk for their support. I couldn't do this without you!

See you on the flipside of 60 miles!

Nothing in particular to say

2005-10-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

I have one week to go until the 3 Day Walk, so most of my time is spent doing training walks and figuring out what I need to pack.

In training for the walk, Eva and I have been going on 10 mile training walks over the last few weeks. Not just on Saturday, but Sunday as well. And to try and avoid the heat, we head out pretty early (oh so freakin' early). So early that the sprinklers along the golf course are generally doing their thing. This past Sunday, without warning, one of the sprinklers decided to join us on our walk. The next thing I know, my left side is drenched. Not the side facing the sun, of course. So one half of me is wet and cold and the other half is a tad on the warm side. Anyway, we tried our best after this incident to avoid any sprinklers that were intruding on our path. We did pretty well until we were heading back. As we were parallel with a sprinkler head, we heard the sh-sh-sh sound it makes as it starts up. We each paused for a moment. Then, without looking at each other, we both literally ran down the path away from the sprinkler. Which, of course, didn't come close to watering the path we had been walking on. I can't imagine what the two bicyclists who were several yards behind us must have thought when they saw the two of us running away from the sprinkler. Oh no! Look out! The sprinkler might get us!!

I also went to a pumpkin festival this past weekend. I brought a new toy with me (it's a Birthday/Anniversary present from my hubby!) and took pictures of the sheepies in the petting zoo. Unfortunately, I haven't actually downloaded them yet, so you'll have to hold your breath in anticipation. Of course, then I'll download them and discover that I hadn't read the instructions correctly and none of the pictures will have come out. In which case you'll just have to use your imagination and picture the sheepies in your mind. See, now you're really in anticipation!

I'd give you more exciting news about my life, but I'm sleepy. (Now, now, no need to thank me!)

2005-10-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

I know that this will come up eventually with other knitbloggers who are participating in Secret Pal 6. But I'm gonna save everyone else the trouble by saying that my Secret Pal is the best!! Wanna know how I know this fact? Because my (mostly) Secret Pal not only sponsored me in the 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk, but she brought me up to my $2100 minimum. Wahoo! See? There's no way that anyone else's SP can even come close to mine.

:-)

In the I'm-continually-cracking-myself-up category...

One of my tasks at work is to look through the newspapers for law-related articles. As I was looking through one of our local newspapers today, I came across this article. While I was reading it, an attorney came up and asked me if there were any interesting articles in the paper. So I said, of course, that I was reading about making mosquitoes pee to death. The poor guy didn't quite know what to make of this announcement. He asked me if I said PETA, and I said no... urination. I highly doubt this guy will begin any future conversations by asking about interesting articles in the paper.

I also cracked myself up tonight when I was telling my mom about a woman I passed on the street with her sightseeing dog. I meant seeing eye dog. But I love the idea of a sightseeing dog. "Over on your right you'll see a statue. And on your left you'll see a fire hydrant. Oooh! A fire hydrant!"

Oooooowwwww!

2005-10-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

I walked this weekend. A lot. Not as many miles as I should have, but a lot for me. I did 13 miles yesterday and then 11 miles with Eva this morning. My blisters now have blisters. Ouch.

Since I'm going to be sleeping, eathing, and breathing, ummm, walking over the next few weeks, I may not be posting many exciting thoughts over the next, ummm, few weeks. (Did I say exciting? Maybe I should have said coherent.) Of course, this assumes that I normally post exciting thoughts. For my ego's sake, let's just say that I do. k?

Anyway, before I go continue the nap that I started at 1:30pm, I've gotta finally tell you about the "microwave incident." The first time we used our microwave after moving last month, I noticed an electrical burning smell. I looked at the plug in the wall and the cord where it comes out of the microwave, but I didn't see anything so we just kinda shrugged and forgot about it. The next time we used the microwave I noticed the same smell. I looked again and I still didn't see anything. We decided that we'd only use the microwave when we were in the kitchen, just in case. So a few days later we use the microwave again, and there's the same smell. As I'm taking the food out this time, I notice something in the back of the microwave. I look closer and discovered that it's a nightlight. What the hell? Apparently, my hubby had packed a bunch of items in microwave for the move and kinda forgot this little item. Oops! After being nuked three times, the plastic had melted and the metal prongs were a little singed. But, amazingly, we were still alive. I'm thinking that the next time I want to cook a nightlight, I'm going to stick with baking it in the oven.

Send Thigs. Make 'em spicy.

2005-09-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

Three weekends. After today, I only have three weekends left to train until the 3 Day Walk. Holy crap! I'm still looking forward to the event, but I've begun asking myself, "Self, what the hell were you thinking?"

Anyhoo, I know that this will come up on many Secret Pal participant blogs, but I've gotta say... I've got the best Secret Pal in the whole world! Earlier this week she sent me a $20 gift certificate to Audible.com. I've been meaning to check this service out since I first got my iPod last year, but I've never gotten around to it. You can bet that I'll be checking it out now! The funniest part about this gift, though, is that the email Audible.com sent to me accidentally included my Secret Pal's name. This is something that I could completely see happening to me! She recovered nicely, though (much better than I would have). I've promised that I won't seek her blog out, but I gotta admit it's going to take a ton of willpower. Don't worry Pal! My hubby would kill me if he thought that I was even thinking of doing this. So I'll be sure to fight every temptation. :-)

Along with walking this weekend, I went with my husband to check out a gliding school. My hubby is, well, crazy and has decided that he wants to get his glider's license. I'm excited for him and support him in this crazy endeavor. But I'm terrified of flying, so I'm also a little nervous knowing he's going to be flying one of these planes solo. The instructor told us that at some point they're going to take me up in one so I have a better understanding of what my hubby is doing. In fact, they offered to take me up that day. I practically pee'd my pants before declining. I'm sure I'll go up at some point, but it's going to require some valium or a stiff drink before I do so.

So, I have tons of other things I've been meaning to blog about, but everytime I finally get the chance to get on my computer I either forget what they are or I don't have time to go into everything. Tonight it's due to timing. So, for tonight, you're going to get this little tidbit.

I generally take the bus to work, but I had to drive in the other morning. On my way in I drive pass a couple of Church's Fried Chicken fast food restaurants. This particular morning, I look up as I was sitting at the intersection next to the first restaurant and here is what was on their sign outside:

SEND THIGS SPICY
ORORIGINAL ONLY $

My first reaction to this sign was that it was an SOS message from someone and they're message was to "Send thigs. Make 'em spicy." Of course, they wouldn't have time to write out an entire message, so it's in shorthand. And I have no idea what a "thig" is, but they must be important to the person who left the message. In any case, as I was I continued on, I tried to figure out what the sign was really supposed to say. Obviously it was something about thighs in spicy or original. But what about the "send" part? As I came up to the next restaurant's sign I thought I was going to finally solve the puzzle. Nope, it had an entirely different message... albeit a coherent one. So while I'm still trying to figure this out, I prefer to think of it as an SOS sign.

Remind me to tell you next time about how my hubby and I almost kill ourselves with our microwave. It's always an exciting adventure in our house!

Too much information, thanks

2005-09-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

We often have patrons at the law library who like to give us way, way, way more information than needed. I suppose it's better than the patrons who won't give you any information, but then want you to give them all of the answers. Anyhoo, you're about to get more information about me than you ever wanted or needed.

First of all, I've been sick with the cold/almost-flu bug. I've been stuffy, headachy, sneezy, and all-around-cranky.

Second, I've finally answered my Secret Pal 6 questions. So, if you're not my Secret Pal, you may not give a rat's ass about the following information. For those brave souls who choose to read on anyway, I've tried to make the answers interesting. But when your head is full of snot, it's tough to be creative for every question. Sorry!

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)?
Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you? I'd love to say that I think all yarns are equals and that all yarn deserves a chance... but I gotta admit that I'm a yarn snob. However, while Rowan, Debbie Bliss, and the like are brands that I love, I'm more of a yarn snob in regards to fiber type (more on this a little farther down...).

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
I'm trying to learn both, but I haven't had the time to put into the crafts to say that I do either.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
Thankfully, I don't have a lot of allergies. However, as I've recently posted, I'm apparently allergic to the chloroform in cut grass, many perfumes give me a headache, and it would appear that coolmax socks are a problem.

4. How long have you been knitting?
I believe that this December will mark my 5th Anniversary.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes, although it's woefully out of date. I'll need to work on that over the next week.

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
I prefer fruity scents over flowery scents.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
Do ducks love water? Do cats love the nip? Yes. Yes, I do have a sweet tooth. I love, love, love milk chocolate. I also love milk chocolate filled with nuts, caramel, crispies, etc. Not so crazy about white or dark chocolate, though. I also love all kinds of candies.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
Nothing else right now, but I love to learn new crafts and hobbies. Any ideas?

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I have an iPod, so I'm able to play mp3s. In my opinion, you can never go wrong with 80's music (Duran Duran Rules - Whoo!) . I'm also interested in checking out some mp3 version of books, because even music gets a bit boring on my longer training walks.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?
Neutrals have a long standing preference in my palette, but I've been trying to break out of this by finding colors that I like. Right now, blues and greens seem to be winning, although I also lean towards pink (maybe this has something to do with the breast cancer walk?)

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I'm married to the greatest hubby in the world (no, mine is!)

And I have two furry kids - Mom Cat

and Penny

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
Winning the lottery so that I can sit on a beach and knit for the rest of my life.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
Before moving back to hell on Earth (also known as Arizona), I would have said Merino wool. But now I prefer cotton blends.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I have never liked knitting with novelty yarns. Their fuzzy factor is a bit annoying to deal with. I also generally don't like 100% wool (too scratchy) or 100% cotton fibers (too heavy). I tend to prefer blends of fibers. I even like some acrylic blends, as long as they're not too scratchy.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
I don't think I really have any. I'm easily swayed by the current trends that are out on other blogs, but I'm such a slow knitter that I don't usually start working on these projects until the trend has kinda died out (such as Klaralund).

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Tank tops and baby sweaters are always great for instant gratification garments.

17. What are you knitting right now?
I normally have several projects in the works, but because I've been so busy with the move, new job, and training, I've forced myself to stick to only one project, which is Klaralund.

I've finished the front and back so far, although they look more like overgrown swatches, don't they?

18. What do you think about ponchos?
I've knit one, and while I like them on other folks, I don't think they're for me.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
Circs!

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Addi bamboo and Addi turbos (what can I say, I've got expensive tastes - ha,ha!)

21. Are you a sock knitter?
Nope

22. How did you learn to knit?
I was visiting my hubby's family one Xmas and my mom-in-law-to-be offered to teach me how to knit. The rest is history!

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
Let's see... I've been knitting for about four and a half years, so that would make my oldest UFO just under four and a half years old.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
I love animated characters, and Pinky used to be my favorite

but right now my favorite is the Evil Monkey from Family Guy

(I snagged this image from Hot Topic. It's not the greatest picture, but the only ones I could find on the official Family Guy website are Flash.)

25. What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween, but it's mostly because my birthday is the day before.

26. Is there anything that you collect?
Postcards.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I used to subscribe to all of them, but when I discovered that they were out on the newstands sooner than I was receiving them I decided I'd rather just buy them when they came out.

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?
I think a bunch of new books have been released, but I haven't found had the chance to find a bookstore that has them yet to see if there are any I want. Of course, as much as I love pattern books, I'm sure I'll want them all!

29. Any patterns you have been coveting, but haven't bought for one reason or another??
Same as for question 28.

30. What are your foot measurements, and what kind of socks do you like?
Gotta admit, I'm probably the only knitter that's not crazy about wearing handknit socks. (Don't hate me!)

A wee bitty post

2005-09-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

I heard from my Secret Pal today! Whee!

Also, two recent conversations (well, paraphrased...):

me (to Eva): I'm lucky I don't have a lot of allergies, although cut grass is one of them. Must be something to do with the chloroform.

me (to my hubby): Boy, yoga bit my ass tonight!

You bet your bippy

2005-09-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

I gotta say, you guys have some great sayings! I can't wait to start using them in my conversations. Of course, I wonder what kind of response I'll get from my co-workers when I manage to fit in "Got dandruff and some of it-itches, that patron sure is an empty barrel! Of course, when the freak show is on the road again, you know the day is going to suck Cheerio holes."

In case you didn't see this on Yahoo!'s list of headlines this morning, this study sucks like a rubber duck (and I use the term "study" loosely). In case the link doesn't work, or you just don't feel like reading the article, it talks about a finding that breakfast helps girls stay slim. Now, I'm not claiming that breakfast isn't good for girls. In fact, I think breakfast is a good thing for everyone. And their theory that breakfast might help girls from becoming overweight because it helps prevent them from eating foods higher in fat later in the day is a potentially valid theory. However, the study is partly funded by General Mills cereal. And, what do you know, they found that girls who ate cereal for breakfast were slimmer than those who skipped breakfast. Hmmmm... the study couldn't be biased, could it?

And it gets better! Here's how the study was performed: (quote taken from the article)

"As part of the survey, the girls were asked once a year what they had eaten during the previous three days. The data were adjusted to compensate for factors such as differences in physical activity among the girls and normal increases in body fat during adolescence."

Ooooh! A whole 3 days once a year! Now that's a study with some reliable statistics. I'm not sure which is scarier... the fact that these findings are trying to be passed of as a real study, or the fact that Yahoo! reported it as news.

Flying rats

2005-09-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

I love colorful expressions. And I don't just mean the kind of color that requires swear words. One of my favorites that I hear others say is "Christ on a bike." No idea why I love it so, but I giggle whenever I hear someone say it. One of my personal favorites to actually say is "Who gives a rat's ass." Again, I'm not sure why it strikes me so fondly, but I say it all the time. I especially like how it can be modified to fit various occassions. For instance, the rats can be flying. Or they can be another, ahem, colorful f-word. As much as I like my saying, though, I think I need to expand my reportoire of expressions (and I'm sure my hubby would agree). Anyone want to tell me what their favorite saying is?

Dear 3 Day Walk Scheduling Committee Members,

2005-09-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

What were you thinking!?!? Who's idea was it to schedule the 3 Day Walk in Arizona for the end of October? Your own organization suggests that the 3 Day Walk participants should train for 24 weeks. Do you know how hot it gets in Arizona during the summer? Do you realize that you're asking participants to train during the hottest time in Arizona? Well, in case you didn't know, it's freakin' hot! My suggested training schedule said that I should walk 7 miles this morning. Ha! I was crawling home after 4 miles. And as if my ego wasn't deflated enough, I passed an elderly couple jogging (jogging!) and smiling. Is this a conspiracy? Did you purposely have this couple jog past me just to show me that walking in Arizona in 100 degree weather isn't that big of a deal? I have to admit that when I signed up for this walk while living in San Francisco in January I had forgotten just how freakin' hot Arizona can get. Now that I'm back in the full glory of Arizona's summer, I have to ask... what were you thinking!?!? Perhaps you should rethink the timing of Arizona's 3 Day walk? Might I suggest having the walk in March? Maybe even April? This way the participants can train when the weather is cool and walk for 3 Days when the temperatures are considered normal in other parts of the world.

Sincerely yours...
Heat frustrated walker in Arizona

Holy Cow! It's almost September!

2005-08-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the month is almost over. It's been quite an, um, exciting month. In fact, it's been so long and so exciting, that I'm not quite sure where to start.

First of all, I need to say thank you. Unfortunately, I don't exactly know who to thank. You see, during all of the craziness of the move, my hubby received a RAOK that was sent to me in California while I was in Arizona. Thinking that we'd have our stuff moved pretty quickly (see the next paragraph), he packed it up. Unfortunately, we are just now unpacking and we can't find the RAOK. So... I want to thank whoever it was that was nice enough to send me a RAOK, but I don't actually know who it is. We know that the gift is hiding somewhere in our stuff, so we're sure that we'll find it at some point. But I didn't want the person who sent it to think that I'm rude and purposely ignoring them. So, thank you and I'm sorry!

As I alluded to above...

If you're in the Bay area and planning to move, let me tell you about our experience with Homestead Moving Systems. One of the co-owners came out to our place to see what we would be moving and give us an estimate. The guy seemed really nice and gave us a huge discount. The selling point, however, was when he said they would deliver our stuff in four to six days, sooner if they didn't have any other moves lined up. Well... they not only didn't deliver our stuff in four to six days, they weren't even going to to give us a delivery date until a week after they had already picked up our stuff. Eventually we were given an actual date, but no one would return our calls or apologize for what was happening. Anyhoo, long story short (for once), I won't be giving these guys my name to use as a reference.

Onto a totally different topic, I got my hair cut last night and I have to tell you about my hair stylist. When I walked into the salon last week to ask about whether they could match up my hair color, one of the stylists had her back to me. As she turned around, I realized it was actually a guy. Now, I've lived in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. A transvestite doesn't surprise me. However, I wasn't entirely sure if this was a man trying to be a woman ("she") or if this was a really effeminate man that just happened to dress similarly to a woman ("he"). When I went in to get my haircut last night, I was still trying to figure this out and I wasn't sure which pronoun to use (and there's only so many creative ways you can keep using someone's first name). At one point in the haircut, as I'm still trying to use my deductive skills to figure it out (i.e. when this person's cell phone rang, it has a cat's meow for a ring - I'm not sure what the heck that tells you), we were listening to the DJ's on the radio. They had just played 'Talkin Bout My Generation' and one DJ asked the other DJ what song they would call the song of today's generation. The other DJ mentioned the song that goes something about 'somebody told me that you had a boyfriend that looks like my girlfriend.' At this, the stylist says, "You got that right! Girls looking like boys and vice versa." Are you kidding me??? (In case you're dying to know, I'm pretty sure "she" is the correct pronoun.)

I have some great patron stories from the law library that I'd love to tell, but I'm paranoid that these people would somehow discover my blog and sue me or something. (I told you that I'm paranoid) Eventually I'll have to find a way to tell some of them, 'cause it's killing me not to!

And on a completely random note... I've started taking the bus to work. It's a bus for commuters that work in the city, so it's filled to the brim with a bunch of government workers (I'll give you a moment to picture the stylish and trendy people on this bus). Anyhow, I'm listening to my iPod on my way home today and "I Want Candy" starts playing (you know - the song by Bow Wow Wow?). I'm one of those people that has no shame when listening to the radio in my car and I'll start singing and dancing when I'm driving. When this song came on in the bus, I was torn between making a fool of myself or suppressing it. I ended up suppressing it, but can you imagine the look I would have gotten from the guy sitting next to me?

Busted!

2005-08-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

My blog was discovered by a co-worker today (Hi Liz!). She was doing a general blog search on our law library and found me. How random, huh? Liz and I got to talking about blogs and I mentioned that I'm interested in starting a librarian/library-related blog. I know Lolly is thinking about doing the same thing (unless she's already launched it and I completely missed the news). The tough part is that there are a ton of library blogs out in blogland and most of them aren't extremely interesting. I'm trying to figure out how I can be interesting and stand out from the pack. One thought is that I'd concentrate on the reference and "information" side of librarianship - the organization of information, finding information, info literacy, etc. I know there are a bunch of librarian knitters out there. Whaddaya think?

Anyhoo... I've got my hubby here by my side (at long freakin' last!). We still don't have our belongings yet, and we're not exactly sure when we'll have them. Cross your fingers that we'll get our stuff sooner than later, because it's starting to get a little cramped in my parents' house. I'm starting to get the subtle hint that the folks are ready for me to be moving along (you know, packed bags sitting outside the house, those kinds of hints).

In the meantime, I'm just working and enjoying the cool weather. Don't believe me? We've been in the high 90's over the last couple of days because of rain. Now, normal people in most parts of the world would think that high 90's is scorchingly hot. But for Arizonans (which I can now call myself again), these temps are chilly. Brrrr! (Ok - I'm stretching it just a bit). It really is freezing, however, in my office. It's so cold that I have to bring a heavy sweater into work with me. I look like a freak walking through the Phoenix streets on my way to work in a sleeveless blouse carrying a heavy sweater.

For those who are wondering, by the way, I've managed to avoid anymore blonde moments at my new job since my massive printing job that I did a few weeks ago.

On a totally different topic... has anyone else discovered these things call "warm delights?" (Ahem, get your mind out of the gutter. ) They're these dessert kits that make a single serving dessert. All they need is a little bit of water and a quick nuke in the microwave. They are sooooo good! As a matter of fact, I think I'm gonna go make a brownie delight right now. Yum!

Keys are in hand

2005-08-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

Now I just need my hubby and my belongings. Scratch that... I'll settle for just my hubby!

I can't believe I missed it!

2005-07-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

I was reading some blogs and I noticed there are quite a few 1st Year Blogiversaries (for those that don't know blogspeak, this means blog anniversary) in July. Then it hit me... I started my blog in July! I went back to my archives to my very first post and sure enough, it was July 15th. Does this mean I get to have a big slice of chocolate cake to celebrate? hee,hee!

Speaking of other knitbloggers (sort of), I met with a bunch of 'em last night. I'm horrible with names, so I'm hoping our photographer Sarah will document them on her blog at some point. But I can tell you that Pam, Alison, Heather, Mel, Illana, and Leia (I hope I didn't mispell her name too badly!) was there. One of these days I'll bring my camera with me so Sarah won't have to get stuck taking all of the pictures (and because she never gets her own picture taken and that's just not right). And speaking of posting pictures of herself, I discovered that Alison, whom I met in person for the first time last night, had pictured me a lot older. I really need to start providing more pictures of me so people won't get the same impression. (Oh, and just to set the record straight, I'll be 34 in October.)

Of course, I can't just post gratuitous pictures of myself. They need to involve knit items. So I suppose I should get to work, huh?

Now this is what I love about Arizona

2005-07-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

This has been a pretty good week. We found a rental in Chandler, so the "official" move can now happen in early August - and I can be reunited with my hubby! In other good news, I had lunch with Eva and Karen yesterday. We all work somewhat close to each other, so I'm hoping that we can make this a regular thing.

And to top it all off, the monsoons have moved in. Hooray! I love the monsoons. I especially love the smell of the rain here. I don't know how to explain it, but when it rains here you smell the dirt in the air. Anyway, I stood outside for a minute tonight smelling the rain. It almost makes up for the oppressive heat during the day.

I've also returned to my knitting this week, although I'm almost at the same point I was before I started back. sigh... I began working on Klaralund in Rowan All Seasons Cotton. I thought I was making the 38" size, but as I got about halfway through the back I realized it was only about 18" across. Although math wasn't my strongest subject in school, even I realized this was only going to be 36" around. Well, my gauge was right, so I looked at the pattern instructions again and realized that the amount of stitches they had me casting on would only come out to 36" at the appropriate gauge. For those who have knitted Klaralund (I know Nathania has. Anyone else?), I'm wondering if this might be because the yarn that is called for in the pattern (Noro Silk Garden) is a drapier fabric than the ASC? Anyhoo... I ripped it out and started again in the next size up, which according to my calculations will actually come out as the 38" finished size.

I also worked on sewing up my Nothin' but a T-shirt. This is my first real attempt at set-in sleeves (aside from a couple of baby sweaters) and I had to rip out the first sleeve about five times before I got it in correctly. I still have to sew in the other sleeve, but I'm hoping that I learned from the first one and will only have to rip out twice. (C'mon, I might as well be realistic, right?)

Edited to add: Two thoughts to add actually. The first is a quick shout out to Sarah, who made a donation to sponsor me in the 3 Day Walk.

The other thought continues in the spirit of thinking of others. After I finished posting I read some blogs. Sadly, I discovered that Kerstin's brother-in-law, John, was recently killed in an car accident. If you're like me, you'll remember reading about John's wedding last year and what a great guy he was. If you'd like to honor his memory, Annie is coordinating a Blanket Project. I'll definitely be make a square.

My drivers license says that I have red hair...

2005-07-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

I survived the Motor Vehicle Department this morning and I am now an official Arizona driver. For those of you in California, and especially those of you who haven't dealt with the DMV in another state, use and appreciate the appointment system that the California DMV offers. See, in California, you can call or go online and set up an appointment to come in and take care renewing your drivers license, taking care of registration issues, and whatnot (I love that word, whatnot). In Arizona, you stand in a long, long, long line. In the lovely summer sun. For an hour and a half. Yuck. But I'm done and that's the important part! (And another fun fact for those outside of Arizona - my license doesn't expire until 2036. The Arizona DL expirations dates will always crack me up.)

So, when I first started coloring my hair red, I continued to put my real hair color of blonde down on my drivers license description, because I wasn't sure if I would like it enough to keep it. After several years as a redhead, I decided that it was time to start describing myself as such and that's what I put down on my description today. However... I am a true blonde at heart as I displayed yesterday at work.

One of my assignments right now is to do some research on legislation that has a proposed amendment. I found a bill that was recently passed in another state that had a small section that applies to the proposed amendment here in Arizona. I clicked on the print icon and I received a window that I don't normally receive when printing from Westlaw. Did I bother to actually read the text inside the window? Pshaw! I clicked ok and went out the printer to see if my document started printing. I should explain that the reference librarians and patrons all print from the same printers. This can be annoying at times, but works for the most part. Anyhoo... my document wasn't printing. Hmmm... I went back to my desk and clicked on the print icon again. Before I could go check on my print job I received a reference call and momentarily forgot all about it.

I eventually had to go out to the reference desk to grab a book and I discovered a patron having problems with the printer. She claimed that she kept sending her print job but nothing was coming out. We quickly discovered that the printer had run out of paper. As we put more in, the patron pointed out a printout that was almost two inches thick and told us that this had been sitting in the printer. I picked it up and saw that it was a 482 page document that had only gotten around to printing about 200 pages before running out of paper. Then I saw the cover sheet. It was the print job that I had forgotten about. I made the biggest rookie mistake when using Westlaw. Before printing, you should always check the number of pages a document contains (I can't tell you how many law students I have chastised for making this same mistake). My supervisor and the other reference librarian were extremely sweet about the whole thing and told me that they had both done this at some point in their career. (In case you're wondering, print jobs that originate from Westlaw aren't routed through the network the same way as when you print from Word or something. So while I could have eventually figured out a way to kill the print job, it would have been close to finishing and we decided to just wait it through.)

Anyway... this poor patron stood by the printer as my behemoth print job continued on its merry way. Eventually we started counting down... 480... 481... 482... At last! The printer began printing the next job in the queue, which I grabbed out after the first couple of pages. I looked at the top corner and it said "1 of 482." That was when I remembered... I had sent the job twice! I'm telling you, you can take the hair color away from the blonde, but you can't the blonde away from the girl.

:-)

Counting down the days

2005-07-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

I need a massage. I have never needed a massage as badly as I need one right now. Ok... that's sort of a lie. My last semester of school was probably a lot more stressful than this. But I think that the fact that I didn't get a massage during the semester means that I deserve one even more so, don't you? I'm too cranky to go into specific details, but I on a larger scale: I miss my hubby, it's freakin' hot, I haven't knit a stitch since in a couple of weeks, I had to endure an a boring day of new employee orientation today and am looking forward to another day of orientation tomorrow (yes I'm being sarcastic), and I just want to know that I have a place to live.

Ok, enough of my pity party. My life is turned upside down right now, but so I know that once things settle down my outlook will improve.

On the bright side, Chelsea is an awesome blogger whom (who? that?) has sponsored me in the 3 Day Breast Cancer walk!! This gets my total donations up to $1755. WooHoo! Thank you soooo much Chelsea!! (If you've never stopped by Chelsea's blog, you should go over and check out the Candle Wrap that she's just finished. It's bee-yoo-tee-ful!)

I'd like to tell you that the next time I post I'll be in a much better mood and will have more positive stuff to tell you about. However... I'm going to the DMV (or the MVD as it's known in these parts) to take care of my license, title, registration and stuff. Cross your fingers that if I have to wait 8 hours that I get lucky enough to get a chair - indoors (I've heard horror stories) - so I can at least spend the time knitting. The thought of that perk almost makes me look forward to it...

Trying to get settled in

2005-07-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

I've survived my first two days at my new job. I gotta tell you, working in a public library really shows you how messed up the world can be. It's a bit depressing, but I feel better when I know that I'm able to help some of the people that come in (well, I'm not really able to do much right now other than track down another reference librarian who actually can help, but I'll eventually be the one helping).

While I've been slaving away at work, my two cats have been lounging around in an air conditioned house with ceiling fans. Rough life, huh? I'm going to be checking out a couple of rentals tomorrow night. I only hope I can find a place that meets their approval.

Other than my new job and the heat, I don't have much to talk about right now. I attempted to knit a swatch for a sweater the other night, but my gauge is way, way off (I've gone down three needle sizes and it's still too big. I think I'm gonna have to try blocking the thing and see if I can get it to shrink or something). Anyhoo, I'll hopefully have something more interesting to tell you about soon, 'cause I'm even boring myself right now. ha,ha!

Ready or not

2005-07-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

We made it to Phoenix. It took thirteen and a half hours (that's 13.5!!), but we made it. The cats are still a bit confused, but they seem to be relaxing a little bit today. The vet gave us some X@n@x (for the cats, not me) and although I don't know if helped their anxiety over the ordeal, it sure has given me some amusement. After taking this stuff, they become little drunk kitties. They weave and stumble and are the most loving cats I've ever seen. Even Mom Cat, who's not normally a lovey-dovey kind of cat, comes stumbling into my lap and looks up at me as if to say "I love you man!" (You have to picture this being said by a really drunk guy in a bar, and you'll know what I mean).

Aside from the kitties surviving the move, my laptop and my dad's internet connection are playing nice together, which means I'll be able to check my email and blog while sitting on my bed. Unfortunately, it's freakin' hot (as expected), so I probably won't be sitting like this for long periods of time. But I'll be doing it more so than I have been over the last month, so I expect that you'll be hearing from me more often (and I'll actually get to do some blog reading!).

Now I just have to get myself ready for starting my new job on Tuesday. I've been so preoccupied with the actual move this weekend, that I almost forgot the purpose. I also have to find a place for me and my hubby to rent. So, for those of you living in the Chandler area (or a similar area, preferably close to a freeway that will get me to downtown Phoenix in a reasonable amount of time), let me know if there are any houses available near you. We could be knitting neighbors! :-)

The day before the day before the move

2005-06-30T14:42:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I'm waiting for one of the moving guys to come over and inspect our crap, er, belongings in order to get a quote for moving the crap, er, said belongings.

It's been a long, long week. I've said lots of goodbyes, shed lots of tears (and thanks to Nathania's recent blog entry, shed more today), and am stressed out of my mind about the 10 to 12 hour drive coming up on Saturday and starting my new job on Tuesday. I've attempted to have a heart-to-heart talk with my cats about the upcoming terror they are going to experience, but they just gave me blank stares and then walked away. At least I tried, right?

While the stress won't stop completely next week - I'm going to be running around trying to line up a rental for me and my hubby to move into when the moving guys bring our crap (ah hell, let's just call it what it is, shall we?) out in August - I'll hopefully be able to blog a bit more than I've been able to in the recent weeks. I'm bringing my laptop with me, so cross your fingers that I'm able to get internet access through my dad's router. Otherwise, I'll have to blog from my dad's computer, which blogger doesn't seem to like much.

Not sure that I'll be able to blog tomorrow, since I'll be wrapping up last minute details before heading out on Saturday. So the next time I post, you can expect me to be whining about how freakin' hot it is in Phoenix. I bet you can't wait!

I may not be ready for the big move...

2005-06-24T16:18:00.000-07:00

but my cat Penny seems to be.

Are you kidding me?

2005-06-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

I just posted this to my BAWDies peeps, so this might be repetitive to some folks, but I'm still recovering from my earlier freak-out and just had to post this in a couple of places.

I'm watching tv with my folks when one of those news break things come scrolling across. These generally come across quite often in Phoenix during monsoon season to warn about flash flood warnings, but right now it's dry as a bone so I actually read this one. It stated that a 7.0 earthquake in Northern California had prompted a TSUNAMI warning along the entire California coastline - more news at 10:00pm. What? It's 9:15pm right now. WTF? I immediately called my hubby who's home with the kitties and discovered that he was completely oblivious to the warning. We decided that although a tsunami wasn't likely to actually hit (the quake was centered some 350 miles north of San Francisco) it was better for him to find higher ground, just to be safe. By the time he got to higher ground I had managed to get online and discovered that the warning had been cancelled. Amazingly... my hubby was disappointed. He had grabbed the video camera and was waiting for some really huge waves to crash.

Anyway, as I said to the BAWDies... 120 degree temperatures or tsunami warnings... for once, the 120 degree temps are sounding like a better choice.

And to think that I complain about public mass transit

2005-06-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

I flew to Phoenix yesterday and realized that the people who fly are just as freaky as the people I see on Bart everyday. As I was standing in the security line with my shoes in my bin, a guy walks up, puts his bag down next to my bin and puts his huge smelly athletic shoes on top of mine in my bin and says "Don't worry, I won't tell your husband." Then, as if he's being a gentleman about it, he unearths my poor flats out from under his sneakers and rearranges both pairs of shoes so that they're sitting side by side. When I grabbed another bin and mumbled that I'd prefer my own, thanks, I think he was actually a little insulted. THEN, as we're trying to board the plane, a guy at the front of the line was holding us up because he had two huge carry-on bags, when you're only allowed one. From what I could tell, the guy didn't speak a lot of English, which was making everything a little difficult for the gate agent. The agent finally managed to get the man to step to the side while they dealt with checking in his second bag and as I walked by, I could see that the guy had a ventriliquist dummy strapped to one of his bags. Okaaaay.... So, I'm finally seated in my aisle seat and I'm waiting for the person who has the middle seat to arrive so I can get settled. Ends up that the ventriliquist guy was seated next to me. As he was trying to stick his bag and dummy into the overhead bin, I had this fake wooden head staring down at me. It was all very bizarre.

Anyhoo, I'm in town for my mom's surgery on Monday morning (minor shoulder surgery, but good thoughts are always appreciated!). I get to meet some Phoenix knitters Wednesday night. Yay! Although I'm not moving to an entirely new area where I don't know a soul, it still nice to be meeting some knitters and to know that I have a knitting group to belong to when I get out here in a few weeks.

(By the way, I'm going to be blogging from my dad's computer this week. Blogger doesn't seem to like his computer, so this means no text formatting, linking, etc. Sorry!)

One positive side to a desk job

2005-06-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

I hadn't realized how much blogging I did while I was at work. Wait, I didn't mean work! I meant, um... studying at home. No wait, um... well, you get the picture. Now that I'm not in front of a computer out of necessity, it's tough to sit down and purposely blog. For instance, I have nothing off the top of my head to talk about. But it's been so long since I've posted, I'm afraid everyone might think I've disappeared. Of course, just because there's nothing off the top of my head, doesn't mean I don't have anything to actually tell you about. Such as...

The wonderful and talented Cindy RAOKed me with some beautiful stitch markers (You're not actually expecting pictures from me anymore, are you? At least not when I first mention something picture-worthy? I mean, eventually I'll try to get some pictures up here for you, but I'm sure that by now you're used to my excuses. Are we good? Great! I just had to make sure.). As I was saying, before I interrupted myself... thank you Cindy!

My mom-in-law came in town for a week, as I believe I've mentioned. In addition to her and my hubby attending my graduation ceremony*, we went to the Winchester Mystery House (interesting, but they need some sort of self-guided tour because it ends up being a little overrated), Monterey Bay Aquarium (more jelly fish photos coming in the hopefully near future!), and Napa (I'm not a wine drinker, but we were able to find one winery that had "champagne," which of course is a joke to a champagne snob such as myself, but the sparkling wines were still pretty tasty).

Next on my to-do list is to start packing for the big move. ugh. I'm also heading to Phoenix on Saturday. My mom's having minor shoulder surgery on Monday, so I'm going to help her out around the house. I'm also going to finally meet Eva and Heather (and maybe some other AZ bloggers?) while I'm town. Yay!

Speaking of Heather, she tagged me a while back for the 10 Things You've Never Done meme. You would think this one would be easy to do, because there are a gajillion things that I've never done (for example, I've never bought drugs off the black market). But all I can seem to come up with is the fact that I've never been overseas (Although I'd like to get Europe, especially Ireland. Unfortunately, I have a great fear of flying, so this is something I'm working up to.) and I've never kayaked. Pretty pathetic, huh? I dunno, something will probably come to mind at 2am and awaken me up from a deep sleep. That's usually how this kind of stuff comes to me.

And lest you think I haven't been knitting... I have! Do I have pictures to prove it? Well, no. So you'll have to believe me when I say that I've gotten up to the armhole shaping on both the front and back (I'm a glutton for punishment and am actually working on both at the same time) of my Nothin' But a T-shirt. I'm also working on a Debbie Bliss baby cardigan that will be a store sample at Commuknity. I've gotten the back and the right front done so far.

Gee, considering I had nothing to say off the top of my head, I've sure blathered on for a quite a bit. Haven't I?

*If you were adventerous enough to actually look at the graduation pictures posted on my program's website, you'll actually see my back in the very first picture shown under San Jose. In the foreground you'll see a faculty member and one of the graduates. I'm directly behind the graduate with my head turned. It's one of the few pictures of myself from graduation that I like!

Irony

2005-05-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

When I have all the time in the world to blog, it's because there is absolutely nothing interesting going on in my life. When I finally have lots to blog about, I'm so busy that I don't actually have time to blog (and when I do finally have a few minutes, I'm freaking exhausted). My mom-in-law is in town, so I'm running around doing touristy, vacationy things right now. And I graduate tomorrow (yay!). So when I have more time (and am more awake), I'll give you the rundown.

I've also gotten tagged for the 10 Thing's I've Never Done meme. This one's going to be tough...

A blue girl moving to a red state

2005-05-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

So as I was saying, there were more naked guys than you could shake a stick at. Of course, some were swinging theirs... Excuse me? I'm referring to my last post, of course, regarding the Bay to Breakers and all of the, um, freaks that were walking in it. Of course, you would probably realize this if it hadn't taken me almost a week to post again, huh?

So, yes, I know I've been more than remiss at blogging this week. But it's all because of the excitement going on here at GEIS-land (in case you're wondering, that's short for Got Ewe In Stitches). I started my first official week working at Commuknity. Thankfully there weren't any kids asking me if I had lambie hiding in any places that left me blushing. I did, however, have lots of fun interacting with the different customers that came in. We even had a couple of unique requests (one guy in a Harley shirt came in asking for strong, white cotton to hang stuff with - he bought Rowan Denim; then a couple came in and the husband asked for nylon that could be used for tying fishing flies). I especially love it when multiple customers come in on their own to sit and knit and eventually an informal knitting group starts to form. It's exactly the kind of atmosphere I would want in my own yarn shop (or even better, a shop that I visit). I'm looking forward to each day I get to go into work (I still can't believe that I'm working in a yarn shop!).*

My other excitement came this week when I got a job offer. I had interviewed for a Law Librarian position with the Superior Court Law Library in Phoenix earlier this month. Well, they called and offered me the position and I accepted. So, it looks like I'll be moving to Phoenix pretty soon (hence the title of today's post). Yikes! I know I've been planning to do this move for a while, but the thought of actually having to move all of our crap, er, belongings to another state makes me hyperventilate. The hardest part is that I'll be going out for the first month or so on my own, while my hubby looks for work and/or tries to work out a contract deal with his current company. So me and the cats will stay with my folks until we can all be reunited, hopefully in July. We've done this before, so at least I know what to expect. But it still sucks.

I promise to have Bay to Breakers pics coming in the near future. But it probably won't happen until next weekend. My mom-in-law is coming out for a visit (hi mom!), so we're trying to get our place within health code standards before she gets here (well, close to health code standards).

*Even if it is for just a short time. sniff...

Edited to add: I can't believe I almost forgot to include this! Maryellen sent me a cute origami whale. Ummm... no picture right at the moment, but trust me, he's very cute! Thank you so much Maryellen!

Edited to add (again): Ok, one more thought. I'm not only behind on my personal blogging... I'm also a wee bit behind on blog reading (ok, in all honesty, I'm way behind in blog reading). I'm trying to read a blog here and there as I have time, but it's just not the same as plunking my rear down and reading through a bunch of blogs, ya know? So if you haven't seen any comments from me in a while, don't fear because I'll return to proper blog reading soon!

Before I collapse on the couch

2005-05-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

I survived the Bay to Breakers, although my feet are killing me. Judging by the amount of open drinking and nudity that took place, I'm guessing that the rules are loosely enforced. (ha,ha!) We had lots of fun and took lots of pictures, but I haven't had the chance to download them yet, because I promised my BAWDies pals that I'd come hang out with them and knit after the event. I'm now going to kick back on the couch and relax in preparation of my first day working at Commuknity (well, my first day as an "official" employee).

More to come later this week...

More tats

2005-05-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

No time for a lengthy post, but I wanted to mention that more tattoos are being flashed in the blogiverse!

Kae (Kae - I'm sorry I missed your original comment!)
Elizabeth
Ada
Jennipurr

I've been having fun checking out everyone's tattoos. Unfortunately, I've been so rushed (Friday was my last day of work at the library, plus I had to work at the school's graduation ceremony) that I haven't had time to leave individual comments.

Sunday morning is the Bay to Breakers. It's a walk/run event across San Francisco (I think it's 7.46 miles). There are serious runners that participate, but apparently the majority are in outrageous costumes. Joanna summed up the event pretty well a while back by noting that the event rules prohibit public consumption of alcohol and participating naked. I'm curious how far people go with the latter. I'll be bringing my camera, so I'll hopefully have some interesting photos for you all.

The time has come...

2005-05-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

to show my tatttoo!

For those who don't know, this is Pinky from Pinky & the Brain (I tried to find an "official" link to the show, but it doesn't appear to exist anymore sadly). I hadn't realized how faded he's gotten over the years. He might be in need of a touch-up, huh?

Be sure to keep an eye on these other fine bloggers who might be flashing their tattoo (and other body art) pics...

Nancy
Pam
(me)Lanie
Lynn
Steph
Karen
Cathy
Rachele
Carolyn
Samantha (well, her hubby anyway)
Alison(who might be showing her belly ring)
Alison

Meme time!
Cj tagged me for this meme. Please list 5 things that you may or may not have done before that you would like to learn or try again. Hmmmm....

1) Kayaking. I've never tried it, but have always wanted to. This is a tough one for me, though, because I can't swim. I know I can wear a life jacket, but I'm still a bit nervous about it.
2) Fencing. I actually learned sabre fencing several years ago, but I'd like to learn epee.
3) Sign Language. As a librarian, I'd like to communicate to patrons who have hearing disabilities.
4) Charcoal drawing. I took a drawing class years ago that covered a bunch of different mediums. I really enjoyed using charcoals and would love to take a class that concentrates on this.
5) Pottery. After reading about Karen's adventures with her pottery class, I'm definitely going to take a class in this at some point.

On a completely unrelated topic, I visited my friend and her parents a while back and I got to meet her two Border Collies. They were both so cute and I took lots of pictures. Here's my favorite...

The funniest thing about this? The female dog is on top of the male dog. Apparently, she does this a lot. I'm withholding names to protect their identities, but I guarantee that my friend will kill me if she finds out that I've posted this picture. (heh,heh,heh)

And on yet another unrelated note... I just have to tell you about one of my experiences while working at the yarn shop this past Monday. Several people came in throughout the day with their kids. In order to help the parents shop, I'd go over to the children and try to entertain them for a bit. One little girl was playing with a stuffed lamb that's kept in the living room area of the store. I went over as the girl was covering the lamb with pillows and said "Where's lambie? Where'd he go?" Then I'd say things like, "I think he's in your ear!" and she'd giggle like mad. Anyway, I kept coming up with new places, "I think he's in your shoe" "under the lampshade" and such. Eventually the girl decided she would come up with places and she'd say to me "I think he's in your sleeve." And I'd pat my sleeve and say, "Nope, he's not there!" We went back and forth like this for quite a while until she said "He's in your throat." So I touched my throat and said, no, not in there. Then she said "He's in your tummy." Ummmm... no, (as I touch my tummy), not in there. Then she said "He's in your vagina." Excuse me? I can definitely say he's not there without checking. After turning 20 shades of red I said no, not there. Hey, look, lambie was under the pillows all this time. Next game?

My informal education

2005-05-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

While I may be done with my formal education (for now), I've discovered that my training walks are helping with my informal education. Here are some things I've learned this week:

Lesson #1: When training for a 3 Day walk, it really is a good idea to walk in all types of weather. Joanna agreed with me a while back that I should suck it up and walk in the rain, because there's no way I can control the weather for three straight days (one day - sure; two days - maybe; three - forget it). However, I've continuously wimped out when it's been raining. This past Sunday I was supposed to go walking with Becca and Joanna, but by Saturday, when the weather forecast continually predicted rain for Sunday, I decided I was going to skip it. Well, my hubby and I woke up Sunday morning to the rain and decided that maybe I should at least try walking in the rain once. So I dressed in what I thought would be good rain gear and discovered that while I was dry, I was extremely hot. Now I need to find some clothing that is waterproof, but a lot lighter. And then I actually need to hope for more rain so I can try the clothing out. Therefore, my guess is that the rainy season is officially done. For those of you in the Bay Area that are completely sick of the rain, you're welcome.

Lesson #2: Turning into a slide is a lot different than turning with a slide. While my hubby and I were walking in the rain we watched a guy turning at the intersection go into a slide and make several doughnuts. There wasn't a lot of traffic around, but I was still really nervous. My hubby commented that the guy had done the doughnuts on purpose by turning with the slide. Well, I was really confused, because I had always been taught that if your car starts to slide, you turn into it. My hubby agreed with this and then I was even more confused. This confusion turned into a long explanation of turning into a slide and turning with a slide, which are apparently two different things! (I should explain that my automotive understanding is quite limited. When my hubby and I were first dating, he put my car into reverse while we were sitting at a red light [I won't even bother to explain this one]. I simply rolled my eyes and put the car back into gear when my hubby said something about how the guy behind me was probably freaked out. I asked why and my hubby explained that the guy would have seen my reverse lights go on. Reverse lights? What are those? Completely amazed that I could have a drivers license and not know what reverse lights are, he then explained that the little white lights at the back of a car come on when the car is put into reverse. I had no idea!)

Lesson #3: Pacifica has lots of snails. As we were walking in the rain, it was like walking through a minefield trying to avoid them all. (Not only will I not walk on them, I've made my hubby save banana slugs from certain death by moving them off of hiking trails).

Lesson #4: Snails and banana slugs are very similar, yet very different. This lesson came from when I asked my hubby why snails have to have shells but banana slugs don't considering they're both long, slimy creatures. His lame response was that although they are similar, they're different. Something tells me that he's trying to hide the fact that he doesn't know.

Lesson #5: Scents really can trigger memories. I know this one is obvious, but I had a scent-triggered memory on our walk. We passed a hotel as we heading back home in the rain and we passed the housekeeping area where they were washing and drying linens. Whenever I smell that smell dryers give off in the rain (do you have any idea what I'm talking about?) it makes me think back to when I was a little kid and my mom had to take our laundry to the laundrymat. She didn't have a dryer back then, so when the weather was nice she'd hang it out on the line. But when it rained, we went to the laundrymat. Anyway, I'd bring my coloring books and my mom would buy me a soda and some candy from the vending machine. I had so much fun hanging out with my mom on those days. Of course, looking back on it as an adult, I'm guessing she didn't have as much fun as I did - lugging the laundry basket and detergent around with a kid in tow. But hopefully I was more of a help than a hindrance at the time. (Right mom?)

Lesson #6: I now know what it means to work through pain. I decided to go for a 10 mile walk on Tuesday morning. I stopped at the 3 marker to stretch and noticed that the muscle behind my left knee felt tight. I stretched that leg a little extra and then continued on. By the time I got to the 4.5 mile marker, I realized that the tightness had turned into mild pain - starting from my sciatica nerve all the way through my leg and knee. I figured that I had made it to 4.5 miles, I could at least make it to the 5 mile marker before heading back. Well, by the time I got to 5 miles, the mild pain was now real pain. And I had 5 miles to walk back. I sat down at one point, and it was such a relief, but I still had 3 miles to walk by then and I knew I was never going to get home (or get to work that afternoon) if I didn't get moving. So I walked through the pain. Well, hobbled is a better word for it. But I did it! (My hubby and I are thinking that it the waistpack (I know others call it a fanny pack, but I refuse to use that term) might be putting pressure on my sciatica nerve and causing me the problems. Looks like I might have to try an actual backpack. )

Lesson #6: My new boss is the best. I didn't learn this from a training walk, and I'm stating the obvious, but... look what Nathania brought me from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

I love, love, love this yarn!

Ok, enough lessons for tonight. More tomorrow, including an updated list of those participating in Friday's Show Your Tatto Day, a meme and sexually confused dogs. (That got your attention, didn't it?)

No Maryland for me

2005-05-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

While many knitters are playing at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival (I'm not even bothering to link to at this point - if you know what it is, you've been to the website), I'm working at the library. It's kinda hard to believe that it's my last week working here. I've been here for almost three years now. While I'm going to miss many of the friends I've made here, I'm not going to miss the screwy hours, bookshifts, or checking student id's at the door (we're a private institution, so only registered students are allowed in).

Anyhoo... a lot of bloggers that weren't able to make it to Maryland are blogging today to show what fun things they are doing instead of going to Maryland. Um, yeah. How about I just update you on whose joining us on Show Your Tattoo Day (so far!):

me
Nancy
Pam
(me)Lanie
Lynn
Steph

Anyone else? (C'mon - I know there's more than 6 knitbloggers with tattoos out there!)

Oh! And Lynn asked about a gallery. Depending on how my weekend is looking next week, I might be able to snag the photos everyone posts and put a page with them all. Just let me know ahead of time if you'd rather I not do this for you.

Show Your Tattoo Day!

2005-05-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

In a post earlier this week, Nancy mentioned getting a "new tattoo." (No, I'm not talking about myself in the third person. I'm referring to Nancy of Bronx Girl Knits). Which, of course, brought up the question... what tattoo do you already have? Realizing that I also have a tattoo, we figured if we can have a day to show off your stash, why not have a day to show off our tattoo(s)? C'mon, I know many of you knitbloggers have one. And you need to show it off! Therefore, Nancy and I proclaim Friday, May 13th, as Show Your Tattoo Day!

And look! Thanks to Alison, we even have a button to make it official!

If you want to participate, email me or leave me a comment with your blog address, and I'll start up a list. And if you snag the button, be sure to save it to your own server. Thanks!

This oughta be fun!

Constant state of flux

2005-05-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who commented recently. I've been on cloud nine since I got The Letter on Friday night. And, amazingly, I have even more news...

First of all, I had an interview this past Monday. I won't go into great detail, because I'm paranoid about the fact that this is a public blog. Yes, I realize that the chances are pretty slim that the management staff of this particular library would stumble upon my blog, but we all hear "small world" stories and I just don't want to take the chance. I will tell you that the interview was for a position in Phoenix and that it went ok. I didn't spill coffee on anyone, trip over myself, leave my purse behind (which I have actually done once), or do any other stupid things. Although, as I told my sister, it has generally been the interview where I have done stupid things in which I was offered the job. Anyhoo, they're holding interviews all week and will then decide if they want to hold any second interviews. We'll see...

As for my second piece of news... well, I'm a little afraid to actually say it. I keep thinking that as soon as I do, I'm going to find out I had imagined it all and it's not actually happening. Of course, I've given my boss my two weeks notice, so if that's the case I'm quite screwed. Ok, here goes... Nathania (and Gail and Tom, Commuknity's owners) have asked me to be their Assistant Manager. Can you believe it!?!? For all of you in Arizona, this doesn't mean that I'm not going to be moving. It just means that I get to fulfill my dream of working in a yarn shop (and what a yarn shop!) while I look for a library gig. My boss has been really supportive of my decision, and many of my co-workers are extremely jealous (I've been discovering what they're dream jobs are, which has been quite interesting).

For now, it's back to reality. I have a ton of training materials to create before I leave. And I'm incredibly sore from my training walk today - the first one I've gone on in two weeks. ugh...

The Letter

2005-04-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

My hubby and I were heading out for dinner tonight when we realized that we hadn't checked the mail yet. Actually the conversation went something like:

Him: Did you check the mail?
Me: Yes. No. Wait, no, I don't think so.
Him: You don't know if you checked the mail?
Me: Uh, no, no I didn't.

Anyway, we walk over, lift the lid, and there it was... The Letter. The letter that would determine my future. The letter that would tell me if I graduate in May or have to re-take my culminating class in the Fall. My heart stopped and then fell to my feet. My hubby finally had to take it out and open it for me, because I just couldn't function. He opened it up and The Letter said...

Ready?

Are you ready for it?

Are you sitting?

I'm serious, you should be sitting for this...

The Letter says:

Congratulations! This letter is to inform you that your answers to the two culminating questions successfully fulfilled the requirements by the Faculty.

Hot damn! (Or as Rachael would say, day-um!). I'm graduating on May 28th!! Woo Hoo!!!

Can I have some cheese with my whine?

2005-04-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

Let's see, I've told you that I'm lazy, impatient, and a perfectionist. I'm also a big baby. A wuss. A Nancy-boy (as my hubby likes to call me). My back is killing me, and I've really had quite enough of it by now. I'm pretty sure it's my sciatica. Which means there's not a damn thing I can do other than ice it and take ibuprofen. The mornings are the worst, because the whole area is in a big spasm and I can feel where the nerve is pinched. Thankfully, after I've put some ice on it, I can move around. Unfortunately, though, I haven't gone walking because of it. I had thought that the rain would be my excuse, er, reason today. But Joanna agreed that I should suck it up and attempt walking in rain (because who knows what the whether will be like during the 3 Day Walk itself).

I did try and do some knitting today while I was freezing my buns off (literally! - ha!). I cast on for my Nothin' but a T-shirt and decided that I would work the back and front of the shirt at the same time. This oughta be interesting. I've been working both sleeves for my Must Have cardi at the same time, and I'm constantly untangling myself. But I hadn't realized that Rowan's Calmer is like velcro to itself. Each time the two strands come into contact with each other, they seem to stick. I've only managed to get one row done so far, so needless to say... no photos yet. Of course, I still owe you photos from a couple of training walks and stitch markers I've received (all of which are already photographed), so you probably shouldn't get too excited about this just yet.

Along with my aching back and sticking yarn, I've been on the job hunt. This makes me think back on some of my more memorable interviews. There's actually quite a lot of them, but there's one in particularl that is my favorite. I was working for a company that created computer based training products for information technology. Anyway, I was working as a programmer, but I wanted to become a project manager. A co-worker friend got a job at another computer based training company and he told me that they were hiring a lot of people on, including project managers. I applied and managed to get an interview.

Ok, so I show up for my interview where my friend is now working. The building has two floors, but the upper floor is kinda like the second floor of a mall in that there are offices along the outer edge of the building, but the center of the floor is cut away and you can look down into the cubicles on the first floor. I meet the woman who is going to interview me at the receptionist's desk. She's dressed in a silk blouse and suede jacket. Very nice, very expensive. Anyway, the woman's got a mug of coffee in her hand and asks if I want anything to drink. I say no thanks and we begin to go upstairs to a conference room for the interview. The woman is, of course, ahead of me and while following her I look down and see my friend. He looks up and we wave to each other.

I turn back to continue following the woman only to discover that she has decided that we should use a different conference room, which is in the opposite direction. What this means is that I walk right into her as she's walking towards me. Bam! Coffee is all over her very expensive silk blouse and very expensive suede jacket. I must have apologize a million times and offered to pay for the dry cleaning. She waved it off and said it wasn't a problem, but I felt like an absolute idiot. Oh, and of course, everyone (including my friend) who was on the first floor looking up managed to witness this fiasco. Anyway, she continues on with the interview (with me apologizing during every pause in the conversation) and I eventually leave.

Amazingly, she called me and offered me the job. I never dreamed that this poor woman, who I scalded with coffee and most likely ruined her clothing, would call and offer me a job. More amazing is that I turned it down, because I found a job elsewhere that I wanted more. But wait, there's even more! When the woman found out why I had turned them down, she offered me more money. I thought the other company would be a more enjoyable place to work and turned her down again. I can't even imagine what this poor woman thought of me. (By the way, the other company I went to work for was a great place to work. And that job also has an interesting interview story behind it).

It's a good thing I used to be a Project Manager

2005-04-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

My life has gotten quite hectic over the past week. Unfortunately, many of the details I either can't discuss or am not ready to discuss just yet. Suffice it to say that I have a full calendar right at the moment, and I have to keep juggling schedule changes, which is confusing me and the hubbykins right at the moment. My blogging episodes will probably become even more erratic (which could result in more posts than usual, or so few that you'll think I've fallen off the face of the blogiverse). Hopefully things will slow down in the next week or so.

Before I go dashing off, I have to give a big thanks to Dympna for sponsoring me in the 3 Day Walk (SAVE THE BOOBS!). Thanks to a big rainstorm on Friday evening and a massive back spasm that had me laid up this morning, I haven't gotten in a long walk all week. And, of course, by the time my back will be feeling better, more storms are expected. I know, I know... suck it up... a little rain never hurt anyone. But I'm really quite the wuss.

Just random musings

2005-04-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who responded to my crimpy yarn and workout music questions. I've gotten great music suggestions, although I haven't had the chance to actually go into iTunes and listen to the songs yet. If anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to keep leaving them for me. For the yarn, I got two votes for uncrimping the yarn prior to use and two votes for using the yarn as-is. Since the leave as-is option is more heavily weighted (because, you know, that's the answer I wanted to hear), it looks like this is the winner!

I have to tell you a story. I don't know why this popped into my head this morning, but it did, and so I have to tell it. I have a brother who is 9 years older than me. My mom would often have him watch me while she went out. Everytime he got stuck watching me, there was some sort of torture involved. For example... there was an afternoon that we baked cookies. Seems pretty sweet and innocent, right? Not when my brother is involved. He decided that instead of making individual cookies, that we would make one big cookie. So we spread the dough out and stuck it in the oven. While it was baking, he proceeded to explain to me that because the dough was in one big piece, it wouldn't be able to handle the heat and it would eventually explode. Well, I sure as hell wasn't staying inside a house that contained a time bomb. So I ran outside and cried in the front yard until my mom got home. Another time he convinced me to stretch out my hand and put it through these decorative slats that we had in our kitchen. Once my hand was through to the other side, he had me make a fist and then try to take my hand out. Of course I couldn't, because my fist was too big (kinda like the raccoon trying to grab food from a hole - or whatever animal that is). So I stood there bawling until my mom got home. Are you starting to see a pattern? Ok, so here's the incident that popped into my head this morning...

The house I grew up in has a hallway with two bedrooms to one side and a bedroom and bathroom to the other side. My bedroom was the last door on the right and the bathroom door is the first one on the left. So, essentially, they're diagonal from one another. One day, while my brother was supposed to be watching me, I was in my bedroom playing with a friend with the bedroom door shut. My brother took some rope and tied it to the bathroom doorknob with the door slightly ajar by about an inch. He then tied the other end to my closed bedroom door. When I opened my door, the bathroom door shut and I was essentially locked in my bedroom. This story has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. I just had to share my torturous childhood memories.

Another random item is this

This is the t-shirt that James was wearing at my BAWDies get together last Sunday. I just liked it (and I think my nephew would, too) and had to share a pic. Also, check this out

It's a new line of Peruvian Highland Wool (better known as Amanda's cat Grumblebunny). Can you tell how happy Grumblebunny was?

Oh! I'm going down to do some more work with Nathania at the new yarn shop on Monday. If you haven't seen the pictures she's posted, you have to do so right away. The shop looks simply amazing!! I can't wait to see how it looks in person!

I'm lazy.

2005-04-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

I'm also impatient and a perfectionist. Quite the combination, huh? These three traits often put me into dilemminal situations (yes I made up the word dilemminal). For example...

Remember my original Must Have cardigan sleeves? The ones that were much too small to meet gauge, even with blocking, so I started them over again with bigger needles? Well, I finally goy around to taking them from this

to this.

Of course, since the yarn was knitted up for a while, the wound yarn is now crimpy (this may or may not be a made up word). Here is my dilemma. Do I really need to wind this yarn into skeins and wash it to remove the crimp? Or can I just use it as-is? The lazy part of me just doesn't want to deal with this extra step, but the perfectionist in me doesn't want to use the yarn if the crimp is going to show when I re-use it. The impatient part of me just wants the damn sleeves done already, but that's another issue entirely.

I went on another walk today, and took yet more pictures. I finally downloaded all of the pictures from Sunday and today and discovered that I had about 100 photos to go through. The lazy part of me said screw it, I'll deal with it later; the perfectionist in me said I want to be sure I have time to go through and only post the nicest pictures, so I'll deal with it later; the impatient part of me said I just want the damn sleeves done already, so I sat down and knit for a little while.

Speaking of knitting and the breast cancer walk (well, sort of), I spoke to my co-worker this evening and it looks like all of the cancer was removed during her surgery! Woo Hoo!!!! I'm going to have lunch with her on the 1st, so I'd better get movin' on her pink scarf. Yipes!

And speaking of exercising (see paragraph 4), you know those songs that really get you moving, even when you think that you don't have any energy left? I have a bunch of music on my workout playlist, but there's only a handful of songs that really get me moving like this. And, I'll tell you, when you're into your second hour of walking, you desperately need this kind of music. Anyway, I'd love to hear what songs or music does this for you. I don't have a particular genre, as long as it's music that'll get my feet to move.

Sleepy

2005-04-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

(Before I got into my post I have to thank Samantha and Christina for sponsoring me in the 3 Day walk. Thanks you two!! SAVE THE BOOBS!! Also, in my previous post I could've sworn that I linked to Becca's and Carrie's blog, but it looks like I didn't. Sorry about the oversight!!)

Not sure why I'm so tired tonight. I can't wait to crawl into bed. {yawn!} I had quite a busy weekend, and eventually you'll get to see pictures. Unfortunately, I've been so busy that I haven't had time to pull the pics off the camera. Let's see... I went for a hike/walk on Sunday morning. I met with the BAWDies for knitting later that afternoon. Then, on Monday, I helped Nathania out at CommuKNITy. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful that store is going to be!! You'll just have to take my word for it!

Today was pretty much a typical day, except that I finally picked up some Addi Turbos for my Nothin' but a T-shirt. However, after reading some of the gauge issues that others are having, I'm wondering if I should've purchased a smaller needle size. I'm pretty close to gauge right now on my swatch, but it appears that others are noticing that they loosen up when knitting the actual garment. argh!

Anyhoo... in addition to finally getting my needles, I also finally responded to Lolly's interview questions. (And you thought I'd forgotten about 'em, didn't you?). So, here are the rules to the interview game:
1) If you want to be interviewed, leave me a comment saying "interview me" (I can't imagine there are any bloggers left that haven't participated in this game yet. However, if you decided participate, keep in mind that if you choose to be interviewed, I can't guarantee how quickly I'll get the questions to you. I'm a procrastinator by heart. I'll do my best, though!)
2) I will respond by asking you 5 questions here on my blog.
3) You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4) You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. (I think this has been around long enough that you get the drift).

Ok, so here are the five questions that Lolly gave me and my answers (Sorry for the length, but I think by now you know that I can't shut up. Oh, and if they seem a bit, um, fragmented, that's because I've been slowly answering them here and there.)

What did you study in your undergraduate days? I have a BA in Broadcasting.
Originally I wanted to work as a networktelevision producer. By my second to last year in school I had a friend who actually became a television producer for a local news station and I discovered something... I have ethics. As such, I am unable to work in this unethical industry. (She actually called me up one night after a horrible plane crash. She was ecstatic because her station was the first to air the story. She was ecstatic and I was naseaus.)Thankfully, I had also gotten an internship around that time in a corporate communications department for America West Airlines learning how to make training videos. I decided to get an emphasis in Educational Media (if I had stayed in school a bit longer, I could have actually minored in this, but I wanted the hell out). Eventually I meandered away from education and fell into managing web development projects.
Oh, you just asked about what I studied. Well, this extra information leads into question #2...

Why did you decide to go to library school? Is it something you always dreamed about? Do you have second thoughts now?
Back when I was in the 8th grade, I had the chance to work in the school library. It was supposed to be study hall, but I preferred to help the librarian out over studying. Anyhoo, after graduating with my Broadcasting degree and unsure what to do with my ethics, I thought about working as a librarian only to discover that the position actually requires a Masters degree. I was truly shocked at the time. So, eventually I got some video gigs that turned into web development gigs and I found myself miserable in my line of work. I had a great manager who happened to ask in our quarterly "one-on-one" meeting (god I hate corporations) where I saw myself in 5 years. To which I responded, anywhere but here. After she recovered, she asked me what I'd like to be doing and I told her that I was always curious about being a librarian. We happened to have a few MLS folks that worked for our company so she hooked us up and next thing I knew... I was enrolling at SJSU to get my MLIS. Shortly after I was accepted into the program, our company was downsizing (as they had been for a couple of years) and my number finally came up. I decided it was fate and looked for an entry level library job. I got luckier than I could have imagined and got my current position as a library assistant for an academic law library. I absolutely love helping the students out in the library and can't wait to finally become a reference librarian. So, no, no second thoughts.

The Bay Area is so cool--when I come and visit next year (en route to Hawaii, I hope I can lay over for a few days!) what are some of the things in the area that I simply cannot miss?
Everything! Ha,Ha!! Well, for the true touristy trip, you absolutely have to visit Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. It's extremely cheesy, but lots of fun. I also love Sausalito, which is just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge and is a great day trip. I know there are more places to visit, but I haven't actually been to many myself yet (school's kept me busy for most of the time I've been here). My best recommendation is to rent a car and take Highway 1 along the coast starting from San Francisco (or even Sausalito) and stopping in Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. You'd get to see everything in just a few days!

When did you learn how to knit? Who taught you?
I learned just over four years ago. I went back to visit my hubby's family for Xmas and his mom taught me. I really just thought I'd be learning a new hobby. I had no idea how hard the knitting bug would bite me. I'm obsessed!

You obviously like to knit... are you into other crafts? or do you want to learn more about other crafts?
I've attempted to learn crochet, although I don't keep up with it often enough to remember it each time I pick up a hook and yarn. I also tried to learn spinning last summer, but school got in the way of my progress. While I was at Stitches, I stopped by the spinning guild's booth and tried the cd drop spindle. I was amazed at how quickly I remembered what I had learned. I plan to get back into learning how to spin once I have a little more time. Right now I barely have time to knit! I'd also like to learn how to dye yarn and other crafts like soap making. I love to learn new skills.

Now for the fun part... I get to reciprocate and ask Lolly questions. Actually, I'm keeping it simple and asking the first two questions she asked of me. Don't worry, Lolly, I know you're in crunch time at school. I'll let you take a day off after your papers are turned in before expecting your answers. hee,hee! (Is it possible for a blog to be egged?)

For shits and giggles

2005-04-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't gone on another training walk yet. And I have no knitting progress to speak of. So this post is mostly to amuse myself. (Lucky you!)

I received another 3 Day walk donation today. Thank you Becca!! (Save the Boobs!) I also came home to find a package from Carrie. Inside was this

Yarn! Cotton yarn! Sonata cotton yarn! Yay!

Thank you Carrie!! Speaking of random gifts, I was heading home on the Bart train the other night when this young kid comes by with a big bag. As he passed by he was giving everyone a balloon corsage.

I kept expecting him to ask for money. You know how you used to get hit up at the airport gates all the time? He said it was free, but I kept waiting for the "donation" request. Surprisingly, it never came and it was apparently just a nice gesture. (Is it just me or is the city making me cynical?)

Anyhoo, my hubby helped me take a picture of my corsage when I got home that night and then he went running around trying to take pictures of the cats. Moving targets in low light result in some funky pictures.

The elusive Mom Cat

And the curious Penny

Speaking of animal pictures (yes we were), remember those calm and serene pictures I took from my walk earlier this week? You know, the ones I took while rocking out to Green Day, Offspring, and, of course, Duran Duran. Remember the pictures of the sweet deer? Well, here's a picture I took that same day of nature at its finest.

And hence my post title.

An unexpected workout

2005-04-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

First off - I want to thank Allena for RAOKing me yesterday by sponsoring me in the 3-Day walk. Her donation even pushed me just over the halfway mark in my fundraising. Yay! Thank you Allena!!

I went on my first back-to-back training walk yesterday, and I visited San Pedro Park. I'd never been there before, even though it's only about 15 minutes from my house. The park consists of several short and easy trails, but it also has a couple of difficult trails that offshoot from the main ones. One is a 4.5 mile loop and the other is 9 miles (round trip, I think - and hope). I decided I would try out the 4.5 mile loop, but once I got to the park, I couldn't remember the name of the trail I wanted. I took a look at the list of trails at the entrance, and found that the Huckleberry and Montara trails looked like they might be right, but the mileage listed next to them didn't match what I was looking for. In the end, I decided whichever trail I found first I would try.

I brought my iPod, as always, and listened to my workout playlist that includes Green Day, Offspring, and, of course, Duran Duran. As soon as I entered the park, I was in awe. First of all, take a look at what greeted me...

It's a little difficult to see them, but there are two deer.

After I got over at my awe of being so close to these guys, I took a look around me and saw this gorgeous scenery...

And this cute little bridge that takes you over a creek...

I also saw these cute little guys all over the place.

All I could think of was how calming and serene this place was...

While listening to Green Day, Offspring, and, of course, Duran Duran...

Because, you know, nothing beats serenity while rocking out.

I finally found the entrance to Huckleberry Trail and decided it looked like a cute little trail.

I began my way up and right away I discovered lots of wildflowers.

I continued my way up. And up. And up some more. And even more (yeah, cute little trail my ass!). I was huffing and puffing and then looked up and said Oh, Look at the Fog!.

Then I looked down and said Holy Crap!

See that itty bitty strip of green in the center? That's where I was when I saw the deer. Ummm... exactly how far up had I gone? No wonder I was freakin' tired. I actually continued to walk up some more after this, but I started getting nervous. What if this wasn't the 4.5 mile loop, but it was the 9 mile trail. And what if that's 9 miles one way, not roundtrip? I decided not to take the chance, and headed back down. Of course, once I got back to the entrance of the park, I discovered that I was on the 4.5 mile loop and I probably would have made it all the way around with no problem. But if I had continued on, I guarantee it would have been a 9 mile, one way, trail, because that's the kind of luck I have.

Anyhoo, in the end, I figure I walked around 4, maybe 4.5, miles. I had a pedometer, but I don't trust those when going up and down hills. I'll definitely be going back. And although I'll claim that I'm going back to conquer the loop, I'll really be going back to see the deer and bunnies. (Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, ok?) . And I'll be sure to listen to my Green Day, Offspring, and, of course, Duran Duran. Because, you know, serenity and conquering are much better when rocking out.

I still need to answer Lolly's interview questions that she gave me weeks ago, but I'm swamped and will have to try and get to them later this week. Thankfully (well, not for her, but for me), she's also swamped, so I doubt she's had time to worry about me not getting to her questions. Sorry Lolly! I'll get tothem soon, I swear!

SAVE THE BOOBS!
(If you haven't done so, you should read yesterday's post so that this makes sense.)

SAVE THE BOOBS!

2005-04-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

Let's try this again, shall we? It's unfortunate that the post I lost last week was my most brilliant one to date. But I suppose that's always how it happens. I'll try to recapture the essence in this post. But, alas, I expect the creative genius that flowed from before is gone. Stupid, freakin' blogger.

I want to thank Joanna for sponsoring me in the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk. In case you've just started visiting me, I'm walking Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer walk in October. I'll be walking 20 miles each day, for a total of 60 miles to raise money in the fight for breast cancer. I still have a long way to go in my $2100 minimum (Eva and Heather are kicking my butt in fundraising). So I would really appreciate it if you could sponsor me. And, as such, here's my new motto:

SAVE THE BOOBS!

(See the cute little button over on the right? It has the ball of yarn and pink ribbon? Click on that and it'll take you to my online donation form. You can donate online with a credit card, or print out a donation form to mail in with a check. If you can't print out the form, let me know and I'd be happy to mail it to you). No amount is too small. For every $20 donated, your name will be entered into our K1W3 team drawing. I'm also planning to hold a drawing for all of my personal sponsors, although I haven't yet decided when I'll have the drawing or for what (I should probably get off my butt and figure this out, huh?). Anyhoo, I would just like to point out that I've only had TWO bloggers sponsor me so far (Wendy and Joanna). tsk, tsk, tsk. I thought bloggers were generous folks, but I suppose I must be wrong. Unless, of course, you'd like to prove otherwise. :-)

SAVE THE BOOBS!

Aside from fundraising for the walk, I've also been training. Rather than simply describe my walks ('cause how boring is that?), I've decided to bring my camera along and take pictures for you.

3/27/05
My hubby and I checked out Sawyer Camp Trail on Easter Day. It's 12 miles roundtrip and the views are beautiful. My hubby took this photo from the three-quarter mile spot.

We made it to 3.5 miles before turning back, for a total of 7 miles. Here's a shot from where we turned back.

4/5/05
We have a trail near our house that eventually leads to a Taco Bell. Since I don't know the official name of this trail, I've nicknamed it Taco Bell Trail. (Just thinking about walking it makes me hungry). I took this photo after about a mile.

Right behind me was Highway 1 (and I mean literally behind me - the cars screaming by made me a little nervous at times). Before one can get to the Taco Bell on this trail, one has to climb a fairly steep hill. Thankfully, the trail is a switchback (or somethink like that). Once I got to the top, it reminded me of Lombard Street, aka the Crookedest Street. Check it out.

Sorry the picture itself is so crooked, I was holding the camera above my head to try and get as much of the trail in the picture as possible. I didn't make it down the other side of this hill, 'cause I was afraid I'd never make it back. So in the end, I walked about 5.5 miles. It's probably another mile or so to the Taco Bell. How bad do you suppose it is to eat Taco Bell in the middle of a strenuous walk?

I also passed this interesting spot on my walk.

Although it's hard to see in this photo, it's is a 9/11 memorial.

4/10/05
My hubby and I made it back down to Sawyer Camp Trail today and took advantage of the great weather we're having. We decided to start from the opposite end of the trail today. Here are a couple of shots of Crystal Springs Lake, which the trail wraps around.

We made it to the 4 mile marker (for a total of 8 miles roundtrip). Here's a shot of where we turned around.

I'm supposed to go on another training walk tomorrow morning. This'll be my first back-to-back walk, so I'm not making any promises. But if I make it out, I should have some more shots for ya to check out.

Ok, enough about the walk. I've also been knitting some. Not as much as I'd like, but I suppose it's better than nothing. I had finished the increases on my Must Have cardi's sleeves and realized that they are just way too small. While aggressive blocking might be able to stretch them out some, I just didn't believe that it was going to be enough. So... I'm starting them over again using needles that are a step up in size. Unfortunately, these are the same needles that I was using for my lacy scarf. They're interchangeable needles, so I can technically work on both projects, I just have to move the needles from one project to the next. But knowing how lazy I am, rather than do this, I've started swatching for the Nothin' but a T-shirt project. Unfortunately, I don't have the right size needles for this. Now I need to go out and buy some needles. While I'm lazy, I love any excuse to visit a yarn shop, so I'll be sure to go out and buy these sometime this week.

I'm having to fight my startitis urge on some other projects. I'd like to start my Clapotis, the capelet kit that I purchased at Stitches. One project I do need to start is the pink scarf for the woman I know who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

(Ok, really quick update on this - She went in to find out her course of treatment, and because the cancer has been deemed as agressive, she goes in for surgery on Tuesday and then has to go through chemo and radiation. Although I didn't know her extremely well before all of this went down, she chose me to confide in and as a result I've learned that she's a new knitter. I so wish I had known this before, as her entire family is in Africa and she doesn't know a lot of people here. I'm definitely going to introduce her to other knitters in the area as soon as she's feeling better, but it would have been nice for her to have a larger support network in place as she goes through all of this). It would be great if everyone could send supportive vibes her way over the next few weeks.

One last thought before I crash on the couch... I finally got the bookbookbook!

SAVE THE BOOBS!

Blogger bites

2005-04-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

I won't even go into details. Long post. Blogger ate it. I'm so mad I could scream. I'll try again later.

grrrr....

Good intentions, yadda, yadda, yadda

2005-04-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

As much as I try, I don't think I'll ever become a daily blogger. At least not until a few hours are added to the day. And even then I'm sure I'd manage to overextend myself somehow and I still wouldn't have enough time. For now, enjoy the pics from Monterey some more. I'll try to tell you all about my current knitting projects tomorrow.

(By the way, if you buy some frozen yogurt at Costco and it looks a little funny but tastes ok? Trust me, don't eat it. My stomach still ain't right after eating it eight hours ago)

Monterey goodness

2005-04-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

Now that my papers are done, I have lots of catching up to do. Taxes, laundry, blogging. I have tons and tons to tell you about, but I'm not sure how long I can type for (or how long you want to read for), so this might have to be done in phases.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their comments on my photo of my peeps knitting. I'm sure my hubby was inwardly rolling his eyes, but the trooper that he his helped me set everything up and take the pics. Thanks sweetie! By the way, Heather commented that it would be make a good note card. What do you think? Should I try to make one up in CafePress?

I also want to thank everyone for their encouraging words during my trials and tribulations last week. I was a wee bit stressed out. But thanks to a wonderful weekend in Monterey, I'm much more relaxed. Well, as relaxed as a pseudo-Type A personality can be. (I say pseudo, because I technically don't fit the description of the personality, but I sure do feel like it!).

Speaking of Monterey...
We took tons and tons of photos, but to save my sanity and your patience, I'll only post a few pics. I'll get to the most important part of the trip out of the way first - yarn stores (not sure my husband or non-knitting family members would agree with this statement, but I know the rest of you do). I visited not one, but two (two!) yarn stores on our trip. The first shop was The Golden Fleece in Santa Cruz. This shop has some interesting yarns that I hadn't seen before, but I couldn't think of what I would do with most of it, so all I bought was this

An aquaintance at work was just diagnosed with breast cancer (as in last Wednesday), so I thought I would knit her a pink scarf. [A quick downer here: her entire family is in Africa and she was supposed to return to be with them pretty soon, but now she's not sure what she's going to do. I can't imagine having to deal with something like this alone!]

The other yarn shop was Monarch Knitting in Pacific Grove (which is so close to Monterey that they kind of blend together). I managed to a little more damage at this store by buying Rowan Calmer to make Nothin' but a T-shirt. Here are my colors

The light green for the body and blue for the trim. I know someone is hosting a knit along for this. If I can ever remember or find who it is, I'll probably join in.

Believe it or not, we also some non-knitting related sights on our little excursion (I know, can you imagine?!). Before yarn shopping on Sunday morning, we had breakfast in Capitola. We saw these fun colorful houses along the beach

And I liked the murals that were painted alongside the restaurant where we ate.

We had dinner Sunday night at a restaurant that overlooks the bay. The food was wonderful, the drinks were fruity,

and we even had nature's version of dinner theater

There were lots of otters swimming out in the bay and their interactions with the seagulls gave us quite a show. Of course, on Monday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which provided us with organized displays of sea life. As otters are my favorite guys, here's some more pics

How cute is she?

My hubby and I also like the jelly fish tanks, although they're a bit tough to photograph due to the dark lighting. Here's a few that came out, though.

I felt bad for these last guys. It's three jelly fish stuck together. Poor things!

That's about it for Monterey pics. I also managed to get some knitting in, but alas, I think I'll hold off on that until tomorrow. Ooooh! Something to look forward to! :-)

done

2005-03-30T19:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, there was a slight chance that I was a little melodramatic yesterday. The fixes I had to make weren't exactly HUGE, but I was sure glad I caught the errors in time. I actually found a couple of other small ones this morning that I had to fix before I could turn everything in. Which I did, by the way. Wanna see proof?

I owe you all a real blog post, which I had planned to do tonight. I was even going to answer the interview questions that Lolly posed to me (they're good ones, too!). But I'm tired. And I'm at work. So the real post will have to come a bit later when I have more brain cells. Scratch that - I think the brain cells are gone forever. How's about when I have more energy?

freaking. out.

2005-03-29T21:47:00.000-08:00

I'm turning in my papers tomorrow and I just had to fix a HUGE error in one of my papers. HUGE! MONSTROUS! Do you get a sense of the enormity!? I just hope there aren't any other HUGE problems, because I've printed out my papers (two copies of each, as instructed*). All I have to do is to re-burn them to cd-rom since I had to fix my HUGE mistake.

Ok... I'm going to go hyperventilate now...

*I was taking a library management class in my first semester of library school. We had to write a research paper on one of the management subjects we had discussed during the semester and I chose employee motivation. I had charts and all kinds of fancy shmancy stuff going on. I turned in the paper and the very next day realized... I didn't mention libraries anywhere in the paper. My library management research paper in library school didn't discuss employee motivation in libraries once. I pulled out the instruction sheet for the assignment and the very first item said something like "research a management subject as it relates to managing a library." D'oh! I immediately emailed my professor and admitted my stupidity. I even offered to write an addendum to my paper. Thankfully he was one of the nicest professors I ever had and overlooked my, um, oversight. Ever since then, my hubby reminds me to look at the instructions one last time before handing in an assignment ('cause, if you can believe it, I still manage to miss "little details" in assignment instructions).

Word

2005-03-27T10:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Easter from the Easter B.

If you're looking for me, I'll be knittin' with my peeps

How can it be Tuesday already?

2005-03-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

I had planned on writing about the great weekend I had on Sunday. It's now Tuesday. I feel like my life is part of a big black hole and time just gets sucked through it. Anyway...

Now that my papers are nearing the end (and on time!), I took some time to meet with some gals and do some knittin'! Nonblogging Lolly (not to be confused with blogging Lolly) was brave enough to open her home to us. I know I'm probably going to miss someone, but there was Nathania, Shetal, Joanna, Jewel, Janine, Joy. (There were a few others, including another 'J' name if you can believe it, but I can't remember their names right at the moment). I had a mimosa and worked on my Must Have cardi, the poor neglected thing that she is. It felt so nice to relax and chat with everyone. I forgot my camera, of course, but Jewel saved the day and posted some pics.

Then on Sunday my hubby and I decided to go for a walk. I'm not going to start an "official" training program for the Breast Cancer walk until April 11th, but I've been trying to get walking in whenever I can. Now, I should explain that the weather forecast called for rain on Saturday, but it pretty much fizzled out. So we figured we would be safe on Sunday. The sky was a bit overcast, so we decided to take our umbrellas just in case. We got out about a mile out and it started to drizzle. No biggie, so we continue. By the mile and a half mark, it's pouring. We turned back, but it was too late and we got soaked. Thank god we had the umbrellas! (yes, sweetie, you were right - we did need them) Even with the weather, the trail we tried out was absolutely beautiful. Once the weather clears up, we're going to go back and get some photos.

The other great thing about this weekend is that I managed to send my second paper into my copy editor on Sunday. That's two days early! My papers are due on April 4th, but right now I'm planning to turn everything in on March 30th and then my hubby are going down to Monterey on the 3rd. He's even agreed to go to a yarn shop. Anyone have any recommendations for shops in the Monterey or Santa Cruz areas?

Edited to add: By the way, thanks to everyone for their comments about my cats and their, um, issues. I especially liked Cathy's idea of shaving the cat, spinning the fur into yarn, knitting with it, and then selling the knit garments on eBay to pay for the vet bills. hee,hee!

Quizzes - anyone see a trend here?

you are the cute but psycho happy bunny. You
adorable, but a little out there. It's alright,
you might not have it all, but there are worse [not sure why this ends so abruptly?]

which happy bunny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

You Are 45% Normal
(Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal...
Other things you do are downright strange
You've got a little of your freak going on
But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

Cat for sale, cheap

2005-03-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

Much to my hubby's disappointment, I'm joking. But I'll tell ya, if this cat has anymore health problems come up in the near future, I'll need a second job to cover the bills. Back in October we had major behavioral problems with the two cats. Several hundreds later and a visit with the a pet behaviorist, we have the two cats on pr*z*c.

Then in January I notice that the one cat, Mom Cat, was favoring one of her back legs. It just so happens that this is around the time of her annual checkup, so I bring it up with the vet. The vet said that the best way to determine the problem is to do xrays. She says this as we're both gazing at a cat who is curled up in a ball, hissing, growling, spitting, and doing anything else she can to avoid being touched. Rather than try for xrays, we decide to go with small amounts of aspirin (yes, aspirin can be toxic to cats, but only at certain amounts).

Two days later - heck, it might have even been the next day - I notice a patch of fur is missing from her chin. Then we realize there's fur missing from the back of one ear and in front of another. I bring her back to the vet. Several hundreds later, the cat has been knocked out, biopsied and xrayed (might as well see what's going on with the back leg while we can). After several tests, and almost a month of waiting, we find out there is some sort of environmental allergy (I didn't even bother asking the vet what the heck that means) that's causing the hair loss and she needs a steroidal shot (this is after we thought it might be a fungal thing and I've been smearing cream all over the poor cat AND we found that she has arthritis and is now on Glucosomine). I cart her back to the vet and get the shot. (By the way, the vet tech mentioned that my cat's got a sailor's mouth on her - like mother, like cat!)

Just as I was lulled into thinking that everything is fine and dandy once again - well, aside from the pr*z*c, glucosomine, and asprin - a fight broke out last night and we discovered Mom Cat limping this morning. This time it's one of her front legs. I brought her back to the vet, and can you guess what she said? She said that the best way to determine the problem is to do xrays, as we're both gazing at a cat who is curled up in a ball, hissing, growling, spitting, and doing anything else she can to avoid being touched. We decided to assume the leg isn't broken, since she can gingerly put weight on it. But now, in addition to the pr*z*c, glucosomine, and aspirin, I get to give her antibiotics for the next seven days just in case the other cat gave her a puncture wound with her claw. If the cat's still limping on Friday I get to add pain killer meds to the mix, and if she's still limping by Monday we get to knock her out (again) and do xrays. Anyone in a betting mood?

And I call myself a groupie

2005-03-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

A co-worker and I were talking about Duran Duran a couple of weeks ago (around the time that I went to the concert) and she asked if I had ever seen the Behind the Music for them. Sadly I had not, but my co-worker did the absolute best impression of Simon I have ever heard. As I was sitting at my computer at work today, trying to look busy, I remembered this conversation and I decided to check out the show's website to see if this might be airing anytime soon. It isn't, but I read the blurb they have on the band and just about choked when I read "John Taylor has gone on to form his own band and landed a role in a feature film." Whaaaaat? Granted, this was apparently written back whenever the show aired, but how had I never heard of this??? I've done a search on John Taylor and have discovered that sure enough he has tried his hand at acting in several films and produced a solo cd. I'm definitely curious enough to buy his cd. And if I can figure out a way to either bribe or drug my hubby I'll be renting the films (even The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas - what could he have been thinking?).

Taking a break

2005-03-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

My mind, it be mush. I have nothing exciting to talk about, but I desperately need a break from research paper writing. My first paper is back from the copy editor and is waiting for me to go through and review all of her edits (and there are quite a few!). I have the "foundation" of my second paper done, which means I have a really, really, really rough draft written. But I prefer to work from something than nothing, so this is at least a start. My gameplan is to have a real draft written by Sunday morning and then I get to begin the back and forth exercise in which my hubby and a couple of suckers, er, friends read my paper and give me comments. I'm planning to have the paper turned into the copy editor on the 22nd and then I can start to breathe a little bit. Or, at least I won't be holding my breath quite as deeply.

A quick pity party for a moment... on top of everything else I had a migraine Wednesday and Thursday and I'm coming down with a cold. yuck.

Otherwise, life is good. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel (Wait - that's not the end of a tunnel! Stay away from the light!!). Although I haven't been doing as much knitting as I would like to (can anyone say neglected Must Have cardigan?), I have been working on my lacy scarf during my Bart commutes. I've just started a second ball of yarn and I don't expect to use the whole ball. So, I'm a little more than halfway done with it.

My sister has been knitting and so I'm living vicariously through her right at the moment. She's making a baby sweater, using a Debbie Bliss pattern and cashermino yarn (god, how I love that yarn!). When she's done, I'll convince her to send me a picture for everyone in the blogiverse to see.

Let's see, what else... the cats have been acting almost like their old selves again. Not sure if this is the meds finally doing their work or that they know I'm so stressed out that if they push me a little too far they'll find themselves living in a cardboard box on the street. Whatever the reason, it sure has been nice!

I finally listened to the songs that I recorded on my cell phone's voicemail from the Duran Duran concert. You couldn't really hear much of anything, but it still made me giggle.

I guess that's about it. Once my papers are done, I promise I'll be very exciting! Well, moderately exciting. Okay, how about I at least leave the house once in a while and do some knitting?

By the way, I'm so disappointed that I won't be able to make it to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival in May. And I won't be able to make it to Rhinebeck in October. But, there's a chance I'll be out to Stitches East in September. I know it's a fer-piece out there, but is anyone thinking of going?

Bored.

2005-03-09T15:20:00.000-08:00

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

But busy. Oh so very busy.

(just a few more weeks to go...)

A little too appropriate

2005-03-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

I was reading Michelle's entry from March 1st and she mentions the Snack Food Chinese Zodiac. I was born in 1971, which is apparently the year of the Ding-Dong, which actually fits my personality pretty well...

Ding-Dong - Reliable, solid, perhaps a bit dense--you may not promise much at first glance, but those who get to know you are rewarded. Don't be afraid to come out of your shell sometimes. Your ideal job: Treasury Secretary. Marry a Fried Fruit Pie or Cheese Puff, but never an Oreo. Born in 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019.

What year are you?

Gotta love those wild boys!

2005-03-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

I know you've all been dying for a concert recap. No? Well, that's too bad, because that's what you're getting. There's also the knitting meme at the end, so be patient and your reading will be worth the effort.

First, I must get past some ugliness. I had sent a little note to John backstage before the concert letting him know of our rendezvous spot for afterwards. Well, when he didn't show up, I knew that a certain someone was responsible. I don't have any proof, so I can't make any explicit accusations, but it seems a little convenient that she has to be in "DC" this week for her "new job." Yeah, right.

Anyway, my friend Mary and I drove us down to San Jose and we met up with my hubby to have dinner at the Tied House in San Pedro Square. It was very yummy, and I had fun trying to spot the people who were in their 80's gear for the concert and those that just don't know any better.

We then headed over to the concert. I had thought about sneaking in a camera, but the "good citizen" part of me was afraid of getting caught and was then p.o.'d when I could have gotten away with it. However, I did buy the obligitory souvenir t-shirt and mousepad (which just cracks me up!). The opening band was awful. They had a sound that was a mix between the Cure and Social Distortion. Even if they had just chosen one and gone with it, I don't think it would have helped.

Anyhoo, here are some highlights from the concert:

- Even from where I was sitting, I could tell that John still looks incredibly hot. (Thankfully my friend is delusional and thinks Simon is the hot one, so there wasn't any tense moments of competition between us).

- The boys are definitely drawing a slightly older crowd than they used to. When they first tried to make a comeback in the early 90's (this was when it was only three of the original five), there were a lot of screaming teenagers. This concert was full of their original fans, so it was mostly people in their mid-30's and mid-40's. Which was better than being in the middle of screaming girls who didn't even know the band used be around in the 80's, but...

- The area where my friend and I were sitting was full of boring people who actually just sat and watched the concert rather than getting up, dancing, singing, and making general fools of themselves. My friend and I, of course, were doing the latter. Now, thankfully, most of the people sitting were at least bopping their heads, tapping their feet, or doing something to make it seem like they were at least enjoying the music. But not the couple sitting right next to me. They sat stock-still the entire night. Between their rigidness and my spastic dancing, I was beginning to feel like I had tourette's or something.*

- One of the funniest things, or so I thought, was during Save A Prayer. Simon says "For those of you who still smoke, get out your lighters." There were a few bics that lit up here and there, but then there were these stupid neon glowsticks. I think these people should be banned from any other concerts in the future. But, the funniest thing was that a bunch of people turned on their cell phones with the little picture display and waved them around. I was both saddened and giggling.

- The music itself was so great! I was a little disappointed at one point, because they played four ballads in a row. I love the songs, but I would rather they spaced them out between the more upbeat music.

- I attempted to capture the encore songs onto me cell phone's voicemail system. I haven't tried listening to them yet, so I'm not sure if it worked. Maybe I'll wait and save them as a treat later this weekend. I just hope no one else needs to leave me an urgent message.

If I ever have the chance to see them again, I'll scrimp and save and figure out a way to buy floor seats up front. Not necessarily front row, but in the general vicinity. Partly because I'd be up close and I could actually see the guys. But also because you could tell the folks down in that area were just dancing and having a great time.

Oh, by the way. All last night I kept thinking to myself "I feel like I'm 13 all over again" and then I'd let out a scream because I'd get a decent glimpse of John. This morning, after a few hours of sleep and swollen and sore knees from standing on concrete all night, I realize that I'm not 13 all over again. ouch...

Ok, so as your reward for getting through all of the concert highlights, the knitting meme which Marisa tagged me with a while back...

Do you knit using the English or Continental Method? Neither? Both? When knitting, I hold the yarn in my right hand and throw it around the needle. When I'm purling, I hold the yarn in my left hand and throw it around the needle.

How long ago did you learn to knit? Christmas-time, 2000

Who taught you how? My (now) mom-in-law

What was your first FO? A blue Red Heart scarf in alternating stockinette and garter stitch rows

Favorite yarn? This is a toughie! I'd have to say cashmerino, although I've really only knitting some baby sweaters with it so far. One of these days I'm planning to make something for myself out of it!

Favorite pattern you’ve knit so far? I haven't honestly knit anything so far that has made me say "I must make this again!"

Favorite Pattern Source? Books! I have tons and tons of them!

Favorite Needles? My "bamboo sisters" which are interchangeable.

Nicest thing you’ve ever knit? That would have to be a scarf I made in 2x2 rib using fingering weight alpaca. This was when I was still fairly patient at my knitting and I didn't mind the fact that it took me a year (a year!) to make a scarf.

Most hated project? Like Marisa, I hate Homespun. I attempted to make a sweater with it one time, and I was never even able to finish the back.

Who are you going to pass this on to? I'm thinking that I'm probably the last person to have gotten and responded to this meme, but if someone wants it, it's all yours!

A woman I work with is learning how to knit. Yay! She showed me the 2x2 ribbed scarf that she's making and she's doing a fantastic job! She asked me if I thought she would be ready to make a tank top next month. Next month? She's ready now! I'm so excited for her!! (Another one to the dark side. mwah hah ha hah!)

* Don't get your panties in a bunch about the tourette's joke. I realize it's a disability. Although, I had a friend in high school and college with tourette's and there were times when it could be pretty funny. Of course, it probably helped that he had a great sense of humor and joked about it as well.

Perpetual state of stress

2005-03-02T14:33:00.000-08:00

Hi. Just thought I'd let everyone know why I've seemingly disappeared from the blogisphere. I had a pretty bad migraine Friday and Saturday, which just wiped me out. Then, when I emerged from my comatose state Sunday morning, I looked at my research paper schedule and said to myself... holy. fuck. (I'd apologize mom, but do you really expect any less from me at this point?)

I gave myself a hard deadline of turning in my first paper to the copy editor on Thursday, which means I had to kick into high gear. All I've done this week is research, write, edit, and go to work. The good news is that I should indeed turn my paper into my editor tomorrow. Unfortunately, I only have about 3 weeks left to work on my second paper. Holy. Fuck. So, my photo-less posts will probably be spastic and sporadic posts over the next few weeks. I also haven't been, knitting or reading and commenting on other folks' blogs lately and this trend will probably continue until my other paper is done. sigh...

In the meantime, I thoroughly plan to enjoy myself at the Duran Duran concert tonight (boy howdy!). I'm considering a pre-concert cocktail or two, but in my exhaustive state I'm afraid I might fall asleep during the concert. That would not be an impressive sight in front of the man I'm trying to hook up with, now would it?

In a rush

2005-02-24T19:19:00.000-08:00

I'm not able to post a real post right at the moment 'cause I'm supposed to be working. I'll try to get a real one up tomorrow (including the knitting meme that I was tagged for). But I had to take a second to say...

6 days to Duran Duran!

A friendly face

2005-02-23T19:28:00.000-08:00

My day was pretty good (more on that in a moment), but I had an incident at work that put me in a superbly foul mood - something which appears to be an epidemic judging by the blogs I'm reading. Anyway, to get over my mood I went to get dinner. Of course the place I decided to go to closed as I walked up to the door. I was almost in tears (I tend to cry was I get frustrated), but I still had to order food somewhere (finding food in the financial district of San Francisco is nearly impossible after about 5pm) and I didn't want anyone to see my crying. So I sucked it up, wandered around, and finally found some food. As I passed Stacey's Bookstore on my way back to work I happened to look in and saw Stacy (oh hey, I just noticed that - cool!), who is in my BAWDies knitting group. Stacy is one of the sweetest, nicest, and kindest people you will ever meet in the world and I haven't seen her in ages. I waited for her to come out of the store and we chitchatted for a few minutes about knitting projects. I'm not sure if karma was looking out for me or what, but after we went our separate ways my mood had dissipated and things weren't so bad. I'm not sure if she reads my blog, but thank you Stacy! Our chat was just what I needed!

So, about the good things today... First, I had my breast ultrasound done and the technician confirmed that I have a "simple cyst." I knew from the research I had done that this was most likely the case, but I didn't realize exactly how nervous I had been or the fact that I had been holding my breath until he came out and said it. He said I could have it aspirated if I wanted, but that it would most likely go away on its own eventually. Hmmm... let's see, purposely stick a needle in my b**b or go on my merry way. I'll let you all take a guess as to which option I chose.

After the ultrasound I stopped at the mall to buy a new jacket from Lerner's (who I think goes by New York something-or-other now), because they're having a 70% off clearance sale. Well, I not only got a new down quilted jacket, but a black leather fitted jacket, and a nice fitted blazer - all for $88! They're also having they're "city bucks" gimmick right now, which is for every $30 you spend you get $15 city bucks. I'll be going back on Friday after work to check out their pant sale. Awww yeah!

I also got some RAOK gifties to send. Now I just need to get my posterior to the post office to mail them out (Play on words not intended, by the way. Isn't that an onomonopeia or something?) Optimistically, this will happen tomorrow before or after I get my long-awaited haircut. Realistically, it'll probably happen on Saturday.

In just about a week from this very minute, I will be attempting to hook up with John Taylor - oops, I mean attending the Duran Duran concert. [I know you're all jealous. Admit it, I know. That's ok, I think you should be jealous. :-) ] I have absolutely no idea what to wear. What do you suppose an aging rock star would find appealing?

SOMETHING ABOUT TITLE HERE

2005-02-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

My research papers are moving painfully along. I'm supposed to be done writing my first paper, but it's still in the "rough draft" stage. Most of my paper consists of a sentence or two and then "SOMETHING ABOUT BRAZIL'S REAL PLAN HERE." Thankfully, I was able to take a break yesterday and visit a new yarn store in San Francisco, Noe Knit. The store has only been open for a week, so they're still a little light on stock. But I managed to find some yarn that has convinced me to succumb to the Clapotis craze.

Look Terri - colors!!

I've promised myself that I can't start on this until I'm done with school, but that's only six weeks away (silent screaming inside my head at that thought).

In the meantime, I've also gotten some knitting done on my Must Have cardigan sleeves.

I'm knitting both sleeves at the same time, so blur your eyes a little bit and imagine a second sleeve in the photo.

Finally, as I was downloading these two photos off my camera, I discovered the pictures I took of my Knitter's Review Gift Fairy gifts from Liz.

She got me a bunch of great stuff including Lantern needles, A Christmas Carol on tape, notecards, yarn... the same yarn she used to make my ruffle scarf...

I never did get my hubby, er, official photographer to get a picture of me in this scarf. So you get my spastic, blurry, self-portrait instead.

Ok, I'm sleepy and I can sense that I'm going to begin rambling any minute now. Before I head off to my comfy couch (covered in notes and books), I want to let all of my blogging friends that use Blogger comments that I'm having problems accessing the new comment system from my wooo-rking computer that's not at home (as opposed to my computer from work, because that would be bad). Anyway, since most of my blog reading time occurs from this specific computer, I'm not able to comment as much as I'd like. I just wanted to let you all know that I'm not ignoring you!

Also, I have a bunch of friends sitting for the California and New York bars this week. So I wanted to send out a Good Luck vibe to everyone!

Manly knitting

2005-02-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

My sisters husband Brad has apparently decided to join in on the knitting craze. However, he has a slightly more, umm, macho way of knitting. First, for those who haven't seen it, here's part of the comment he left in my last post...

"...I'm here to talk about knitting. That's right, I finally heard so much about socks, and the work it takes to make these puppies, special tools, yarn, concentration, I thought it might be something really difficult. Terri took the class, and became so frustrated she..... never mind about that. So I figured, what the hey! I got this one hour drive to work every day, so maybe I should try knocking off a sock and see what the whole thing is about. So before leaving for work, I pulled a couple nails out of the truck bed, a spool of nylon leveling cord, and knocked off a sock on the way to work. No big deal! The nails were even bent, for crying out loud! I ended up doing a pair before I got there it was so easy! On the way home, I misplaced the nails, and had to use a file and a screw driver, but hey golly! They worked too! I'm sending a picture to Nancy to include on her blog, cause I don't think I can put pictures into the comments here, it might just lock up her website or crash it. I'll try anyway, I know she won't mind, she's really understanding about that."

He did indeed send me a picture of his socks and I have to admit that I'm quite impressed.

Not bad for nails and nylon leveling cord (ummm... whatever that is), eh? I think we should try and convince him to make the Mancho next.

Yarn as far as the eye can see

2005-02-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

I'm almost at the halfway point in my semester (I only have 10 weeks, instead of the usual 15). So, I've officially decided to stop apologizing for the lack of photos. I'm beyond stressed and figure that a) if something's got to give then it's better to blog sans photos than not blog at all and b) you all are the greatest and won't hold it against me.

I did manage to take a break from studying this weekend to attend Stitches West. Woo Hoo! My sister even flew in from Arizona so that she could attend her first Stitches event with me. Here are some of the highlights:

- Although my sister and I didn't actually eat with the gang, I did stop and say hi to La, Joanna, and Seltsame at Bennigans. There were many more knitters there (La posted pics), but I didn't get the chance to meet or chat with any of them. Hopefully this will become an annual tradition, because I'd love to plan on meeting them all for dinner next time.

- After my sister and I had dinner, we were going to head back to the hotel to relax and knit when I realized that I had forgotten to pack pajamas. It's 9pm on a Saturday night. In a town I only remotely know. Where in the world am I supposed to find pajamas? We start driving around and discover that the area is just a bunch of businesses and hotels (I actually considered stopping by one of the nicer hotels' gift shops to see if they might have something that could pass for pj's). Just as we we got on the freeway to see what we could find, we found a TJ Maxx. In fact, it's a TJ Maxx that's just down the street from the restaurant. I knew it was, because I had to take my traffic school test in the same area and had killed some time here before heading over. Thankfully they were open until 9:30pm, so I had just enough time to run in and grab something before they closed. Even in my haste I managed to find some cute Hello Kitty pj's.

- Stitches itself was great. I actually managed to leave with only a few purchases. I got some Debbie Bliss wool/cotton from Webs and bought a capelet kit. I also bought a book, which I think is called Hip Knits or something like that (I haven't had time to unpack my loot!). And I caved and bought a t-shirt from the Knitter's folks. It says "Eat knit and die." Now, at the time when I ordered the shirt (since they sold out and will have to ship it to me), I knew that the saying was a play on another one. But for the life of me, I just couldn't think of it. Well, I realized yesterday that it sounds like "Eat shit and die." Ummmmm.... now I'm not so sure if I'm crazy about this t-shirt. Especially when I later saw ones that said "Eat, knit, and dye" which is much cuter. Oh well!

- I briefly met up with several of my BAWDies friends including Tina (of KnitWhits), who I haven't seen in ages.

- I got to meet the one and only Rachael! I'm afraid I was a bit of a spaz, but I was just so excited! At first I only thought that I spotted her, but then I spotted Lala and I knew it was definitely her. I went over and introduced myself, feeling like a groupie. They were there with a friend, but I feel bad because I can't recall her name now. They were all so nice and I can say that Rachael is even cuter and nicer than she appears on her blog.

- My sister and I got spinning lessons from Serendipity Spinners. I was surprised at how much my fingers remembered about the process. I'm feeling pretty confident now that once school is over I should be able to pick up on spinning pretty quickly.

- Finally, I got to knit this weekend! I worked on the two sleeves for my Must Have cardigan and I've gotten enough done to see the cable pattern emerging. This is such an addicting knit that it's hard to put it down! This is also the first item that I'm knitting from a chart. I usually write out the chart into longhand. But these charts are actually making sense to me, so I'm just working from them. However, I can see that I'm going to have to make a master chart of all the different cables, because I'm going nuts bouncing between them.

- I got RAOK'd twice!! First, Abby sent me a buttonhole bag that she's donating to the raffle prizes for the Breast Cancer walk (cough :: sponsor me please :: cough). Along with the bag she also sent me some beautiful stitch markers! I told her that I have the feeling she sent the stitch markers in order to lure me away from stealing the bag, which is even cuter in person than it was in her picture. (Doesn't mean it will work, but I appreciate the attempt. hee,hee!) I also got a wonderful gift of Valentine's candies from Kirsten (who lives in Scottsdale, AZ, my hometown!). Mmmmm... candy.... yum! Many, many thanks to you both!

I think that covers the highlights. Even though it wasn't a lot of time (my sister came out on Saturday night and left Monday morning) I had such a great time. Now I'm back to business on my papers. blah!

A knitting fairy tale

2005-02-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

You guys are too much fun! I've really enjoyed watching the Gwendolyn's story progress. It was just what I needed to get me out of my doldrums. By the way, thank you for everyone who let me know that I'm not as boring as I think that I am. :-)

As promised, here's the full story (complete with an ending that I wrote). I'm not completely sure if I'll be online this weekend. My sister is flying in Saturday night so that we can go to Stitches together on Sunday. Our hotel room supposedly has a network connection, so with any luck I'll be able to update while we're hanging out. If not, I'll make up for it by actually knitting!

[Edited to add: Sandy added to the story, but I must have been updating my blog when she did it and so her addition got missed. Sorry about that Sandy! This was so much fun that I may have to do another story in the near future, so be sure to keep those creative juices flowing.]

Ok, here's the story. Enjoy!

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful princess, in a beautiful castle, in a beautiful kingdom. Her name was Gwendolyn and she appeared to have everything her heart desired. Lots of money, closets full of clothes, a shiny carriage, and hair and skin any other princess in the surrounding kingdoms would kill for. But alas, as with any other princess in a substandard fairy tale, our Gwendolyn was unhappy. She thought and thought and thought about what she could do to bring happiness into her life. Finally, an idea struck her! She decided she would... knit! Yes, the beautiful Gwendolyn knew that a beautiful princess like herself need not knit, because after all - that is what servents were for. But she longed to do something interesting, and fun, and wild.

She started thumbing through her kindgom's yellow pages for a local yarn store. She found the typical chains - JoAnns, Michael, but they just wouldn't do. She needed a store that would assist a princess in need, a store where the owners would not just recognize her beauty but help her pick out yarns to match, a store where the owners were nice - even to a princess like herself. After hours and hours of searching (it's a big kingdom you know) she came upon Rapunzal's yarn store "Throw me a braid"... She fired up her horses and went off in her shiny carriage to the store... but... just when she thought she was going in the right direction.... she noticed a strip mall with both Michaels AND JoAnns! She decided to stop, "just to look", she explained to her trusty steed.

Once inside the first store, she became confused with all of the plastic flowers, scrapbooking paraphenalia, buttons, zippers, patterns, frames, more plastic flowers, and row after row of bolts of material.

Beginning to swoon in princess-like style, a concerned employee, bedazzled by her beauty, proudly led her to the yarn section, way in the back, hidden from the general public.

And this is what she saw... 3 hanks o' Fun Fur in Hot Pink and 8 skeins of Red Heart Acylic an Puce (think green here). The Fun Fur excited her but she thought to herself "I'm sure this is not all there is. There must be other yarn."

She turned to look at the needles and accessories and was taken aback by the abundance of garish plastic knitting needles. Upon closer inspection, she noticed they were all US15s.

Not wanting to offend the kind employee, afterall she is a princess with impeccable manners, she "remembered" that her carriage was double-parked and left the store.

Somewhat shaken, the princess... reached into her silk brocade bag and pulled out her Patternworks catalog. How beautiful the yarns in the catalog were, so varied in color and texture, fiber and weight. She knew she had to get to Rapunzel's before they closed at 3 pm, as it was Saturday. Damn and blast those shortened weekend hours. The princess told the driver that he was not to stop until she was at the door of Throw Me A Braid. They rode for what seemed like ages, until she saw it, in the distance, glistening like...a beautiful ball of golden silk.

Trembling in anticipation, Gwendolyn stepped through the doorway and gasped, a flutter in her heart, as she beheld the riches before her. Silk, wool, alpaca, cashmere . . . even microfiber! . . . all arrayed in aisles of glorious color, as far as the eye can see (Vertically, that is, since this is Rapunzel's shop.) A voice wafted down, "Let me know if you need any help."

Gwendolyn looked up, up, up and saw . . .gleaming at her from the distance the most beautiful pink cashmere she had ever seen. She had nothing made out of such fine and lovely yarn and decided on the spot that this was the yarn she needed for her first project - yarn fit for a princess. She called up to the voice from above that she indeed needed assistance and began to wander the shop.

After a few minutes she felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned...to see the Jolly Green Giant handing her the pink cashmere. She noticed his multidirectional scarf made from Kureyon and his very attractive Koigu socks in the most interesting shades of orange. When she asked him why his knitted items weren't green, she was shocked to hear him say...because I am a fashionista! Those Queer Guys for the Straight Guy taught me that colors that "pop" will help bring out the rosey tones in my green skin. This pink cashmere is divine and will make a gorgeous Clapotis that will bring out the rosey tones in your skin. You'll need some needles for your project. Do you prefer straights or circulars? The lovely Gwendolyn requested some Latern Moon needles, a box of jeweled stitch markers, and an exquisite yarn cutter pendant as well.

The Jolly Green Giant wrapped her order in some golden paper and said...ho, ho, ho, come on home with the Jolly Green Giant! No, that's what she thought she heard. What she really heard was... "can I help you with anything else?" Gwendolyn just knew that her new passion, knitting, would be even more complete by enjoying it with someone else. Gwendolyn responded by saying "Sure. You can come back to my castle and knit the days away with me." The Jolly Green Giant, who might be a knitter with a flair for style, was also as straight as green giants come. So he agreed and they lived happily ever after.

Now for something completely different

2005-02-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

I have to wonder if anyone even bothers to frequent my blog anymore. I mean, I'm even boring myself. Therefore, I've decided to try something today, just for the hell of it. When I worked as a programmer, I used to get unbelievably bored (it was essentially copying and pasting code parts). So my co-worker and I began emailing each stories. You've probably heard of this, but you start a story and then another person picks up the storyline and continues it, and then another person picks up on it and so on. My experiment here is to start a story and then you wonderful guys reading it get to continue it in the comments. You can write as little or as much as you want, or even get as crazy as you want, as long as you keep the story going. If we have an interesting little story going by Friday evening, I'll post it up in its entirety. This experiment will either be lots of interactive fun... or it will fall flat on its face. Shall we see what happens then?

"Once upon a time there lived a beautiful princess, in a beautiful castle, in a beautiful kingdom. Her name was Gwendolyn and she appeared to have everything her heart desired. Lots of money, closets full of clothes, a shiny carriage, and hair and skin any other princess in the surrounding kingdoms would kill for. But alas, as with any other princess in a substandard fairy tale, our Gwendolyn was unhappy. She thought and thought and thought about what she could do to bring happiness into her life. Finally, an idea struck her! She decided she would..."

The first person gets to take it from here!

Edited to add: I can't believe I almost forgot this! Heather sent me the greatest e-card yesterday. The best part about it was that it came after a horrible morning, just when I needed a lift the most! Thank you Heather!!!

3-Day Walk update

2005-02-08T19:54:00.000-08:00

I've been locked away in my tower (better known as the King Library at SJSU), so I've gotten no knitting done. I cast on for my Must Have cardi last week and it's been untouched since then. And, because my photographer and I haven't been home at the same time as each other, I also don't have any scarf photos. So, I thought I would give you an update on the 3-Day-I-must-be-nuts-for-thinking-I-can-walk-60-miles Walk update.

First of all, on the training front, I managed to walk 4 miles on Sunday. I was unbelievably sore Monday morning, but I was proud of myself for getting as far as I did. yay!

Second of all, on the incentives front, Brooke, Eva, and I have been brainstorming about raffle prizes. We already know that we're planning to knit items as prizes. Brooke is planning to make the beautiful Shedir cabled hat Knitty's special Breast Cancer issue.

And Eva is making a fun scarf and hat set. I'm thinking of making the besotted scarf or the heart scarf from Knitty's Breast Cancer issue. I'm also considering the Booby scarf from that issue as well. I'm not actually sure that anyone would want to win this, but I think it would be fun to announce that the "booby prize goes to..." (Does anyone else ever feel so juvenile at times that you just know there is a 13 year old boy trapped inside somewhere?). AND, the wonderful Abby is going to donate one of her buttonhole bags to the list of prizes.

Is she great or what? Finally, I'm sure I'll be donating some yarn (I'm thinking ArtFibers) and some other items to the list of prizes. Plus, Brooke and Eva are cooking up some other ideas.

Of course, now that I've been talking up the prizes, you just know there has to be a pitch, right? The three of us have decided that for every $20 you are able to donate, you will get an entry into the raffle. If you would like to contribute, but just can't donate $20, I'm thinking of having a special mini-raffle that will include all of my walk sponsors. The prizes wouldn't be as significant, but this way no one would feel left out! Anyhoo, I'm at $350 right now, but I have a long way to go to meet $2100. (Read this as: until I meet $2100, you're going to hear me beg and plead - a lot).

Finally, on the what-this-is-really-all-about-front. I went in for my "female exam" today. It looks like I have an "encapsulated" lump in my left breast and I have to go in for an ultrasound. I had a benign cyst removed when I was 18 and I'm positive that this also a benign cyst. But I have to admit that my heart skipped a beat when she first went "hmmmm..." I have breast cancer in my family history. My maternal grandmother died from it and my sister has been diagnosed with pre-cancerous tissue. I've been lucky that this is as close as it has touched me... so far. Many of my sponsors have told me that they are sponsoring my walk in memory of a loved one that they have lost to breast cancer. This has made me realize just how many people this cancer affects. One of the goals of this walk is to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. It's also about honoring the people who have survived and lost the fight. And... it's about realizing that any of us, or our loved ones, could be in this fight in the future. Today's exam was a major wake-up call for me. Please, please, please do your self exams. And if you're over 40, be sure to go in for your regular mammograms.

Ok, I'm stepping down from my soapbox. I'll be sure to have a cheerier post next time!

Tagged (twice)

2005-02-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

Both Wendy and Elisa tagged me for the music meme (For those who are non-bloggers, I have no idea what meme stands for, although I did at one time and am too lazy to look it up. Basically, it's set of questions that everyone answers on their blog.)

Before I answer these, though, did anyone else notice in my last post how I managed to go from the subject of knee pads to Duran Duran? Hmmmm....

Ok, here goes:

1. What is the total amount of music files on your computer? I honestly have no idea. I meant to turn on my computer last night to look, but again, that lazy thing kicked in. I just got a 40 Gig iPod last November, so I'm slowly adding music to it. Slowly because my hard drive is almost full so I can only put on so much music, transfer it to the iPod, and then I have to delete it to add some more. Aren't you glad you asked?

2. What was the last CD you bought? I haven't personally bought a CD in years, but the last one gifted to me was Duran Duran's latest CD Astronaut. My hubby got it for me for Xmas and it's very cool because it has an bonus DVD which has live performances and other goodies.

3. What was the last song you listened to before reading this message? I can't actually remember what the last song was before I found I had been tagged, but the last song I heard on the radio this morning was by Los Lonely Boys.

4. List 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you. Really, there's only two songs that I feel are worth mentioning. At Last by Etta James was the song my hubby and I danced to at our wedding. And Bittersweet by Big Head Todd & the Monsters because I remember dancing to it in my hubby's apartment when we were dating. It was the sweetest thing, because he had just bought the cd and we were listening to it while hanging out and he just grabbed me and started dancing.

5. To whom will you pass the stick and why? Oy, this is the toughest question, because I know some people really don't like to deal with these things. So... I'm going to tag my three walking buddies, because this might be a good way to get to know the people I'll be trekking 60 miles with (and they're hopefully good sports and won't kill me). Brooke, Eva, and Shannon... you're it!

Spaghetti, meet Sauce

2005-02-01T21:02:00.000-08:00

I worked at the community college library last night (this is the same place where I interned last semester and they've hired me on as a substitute reference librarian - very cool!). Anyway, I went over to the cafeteria to grab a bite to eat and the sign for their special of the day said "spaghetti meet sauce". All I could think of was the cook introducing the spaghetti to the sauce. I know, I know, but I was tired and this really struck me as funny. I desperately wanted to be even more juvenile and write in a comma after spaghetti (to further ensure that others would read this as I had), but I was the only one actually in the cafeteria at the time (aside from the employees) and it would have been a little obvious.

Sadly, this is the most interesting thing I have to talk about today. I did try to take some pictures of me in my scarf (the one that my Gift Fairy made me!) this morning, but I discovered that either my arms aren't long enough or just not coordinated enough to take a photo of myself. At least not from a distance so that you can actually see what I'm wearing. I was going to try the bathroom mirror shot, but our bathroom is tiny so I couldn't back up far enough to get a decent shot. So I'll have to wait until I can have my official blog photographer take some pictures of me with the scarf. While I'm at it, I'll also have to have him take a picture of me wearing a scarf that my niece Shauna made for me over Xmas. It's very glam!

Since I don't have much of a life right now, I'll have to tell you a quick, funny story. Hopefully this will be funnier than the spaghetti story. {grin} The night I signed up for the 3-Day walk, I announced to my hubby after clicking on the submit button, "Well, it's official. I'm doing the 3-Day walk." My hubby said "I hope you have some good knee pads." I paused for a minute. Knee pads? What exactly did he think I'd be doing on this 3-Day walk? He recovered pretty quickly, though, and followed up with "You know, for raising the money."

By the way, did anyone else see Duran Duran on Good Morning America this morning? I can't believe I'll be seeing them in concert in a month! sigh...

Llama llama duck!

2005-01-31T14:47:00.000-08:00

I only have a minute for this post, and most of the blog surfers have seen this already, but for those who haven't... you must go check the Llama Song out now! It matches my personality and humor exactly - you've been warned! (It's a little slow to load, and if you're asked if you want to download something, say No. Whatever it is, it's not needed to watch the video.).

Also, did you see the nifty new Knit 1 Walk 3 button my hubby made for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk? It's over at the left (below the archives), but in case you're having trouble spotting it, it looks like this

Speaking of the 3-Day walk (you knew this was coming, didn't you?), why hasn't anyone sponsored me? C'mon, don't make me beg. If you do make a donation, be sure to let me know. The lovely Brooke is organizing a team raffle for everyone who donates to one of the members of the team. We'll all be knitting items to give away, and I'm sure there will be some fiberly goodies. The details are still being worked out, but I'll be keeping track of names in the meantime. So if you're feeling generous (any amount is appreciated!), click on the button at the left.

Completely unrelated... if you're a cat or dog owner and have to give your pet pills, I found the coolest thing at my vet's office yesterday! They're treats called 'pill pockets.' My one cat finds them pretty gross (as do I, actually), but my other cat went nuts over them. You just stick the pill in and your pet gobbles it up. (No affiliation, I just think they're pretty great!)

My Knitters Review Gift Fairy and I were finally able to exchange gifts with each other. I don't have time to show pictures right now (I'm supposed to be, uh, working on my research - don't worry honey, this is a really quick break!), but I'll try to take some pictures of the great items I got. My gifter actually knitted something for me!!

Ok, ok... I'm going back to my research...

1 week down

2005-01-29T13:12:00.000-08:00

First off, I'm sorry about the lack of linking in my previous post. I thought I had more time than I did and I had to rush off pretty quickly. Second, I'm going to go into a little bit of detail about my culminating topics. If you're a librarian, librarian-to-be, oddly curious, or just plain odd, you might be interested in knowing what the heck I'm stressing about over the next 10, er, 9 weeks. If you couldn't give a rat's ass (my most favorite saying, by the way), then you can skip down a ways. There's actually knitting content today - I swear!

I'm just going to tell you about the two topics I've chosen to work on, but in case you're actually into this stuff, then feel free to read all of the posted topic choices. (Wow, I think a couple of you actually clicked on the link!)

The first topic I'm working on (#4 in the list) is almost directly lifted from the final project I had to do last semester. The class was "Developing Web Products for Different Cultures" and we had describe how the user interface would account for the users and their culture from a specific country. I chose the Philippines last semester, because I have several Filipino friends and I really wanted to know more about their culture. I learned a lot, but it was extremely frustrating because there just isn't a lot published about this country in regards to the info I need for my class. So, this time around I think I'm going with Brazil. I have to discuss the country's political and economic background as well as the state of their information and communication technology. Then I have to discuss their culture, the way Brazilians communicate, etc. And, finally, I look at how all of this will affect the user interface that would be developed for a website used by users in Brazil.

The second topic I'm working on is a little tougher. It's #5 in the list and it's about the supposed decline in reference transactions taking place in libraries over the last decade. I have to find statistics that demonstrate whether or not there has been a decline (so far it's pretty iffy). Based on these statistics, I then have to discuss the factors that might have caused the decline. I'm not sure how to approach this part, because from what I can tell, there hasn't been a decline. Finally, I have to discuss the qualitative changes that have taken place in reference transactions. Basically, are people coming to reference to ask where they can find bathrooms, or is it for research?

This second topic is killing me, because I'm supposed to find reference transaction statistics for academic, public, and school libraries at both the national and California levels. I can't find any reference statistics for school libraries. Anyone out there a school librarian? I'd love some help!

That about sums it up. I might chime in from time to time as to what I'm doing, but I don't want to bore everyone too much. I've been pretty stressed about this whole ordeal, because I had a couple of friends last year that didn't pass and they're having to do this again. I did get a great sign last night, however, that gives me hope...

******

Ok, enough librarian-speak. Onto knitting!

As I (very) briefly mentioned, I've joined in on the Must Have Too knit-along. I absolutely love this sweater, and I bought enough Peruvian Highland Wool a while back in order to make this. Or so I thought. I knew that the yarn called for in the pattern has a different amount of yardage than the Highland Wool, so I calculated the change in amounts needed. I realized yesterday morning that I hadn't exactly read the yarn requirements correctly and bought yarn for the size small with some extra to spare. However, I actually need to make the medium, and based on the amount of balls of yarn needed, I would have exactly enough to make this size. This makes me very, very nervous. After much stressing, debating, posting on the MHT blog, and making a long distance phone call, I think I've made a decision. Sonja had responded to my post by reminding me that even though the pattern calls for a difference of 6 or 7 balls of yarn (which is a little over 200 yards) for the small and medium sizes (respectively), the large also calls for 7. Therefore, the entire 7th ball (and 200 yards) isn't needed to make the medium. I talked to my mom-in-law this morning, and she was like me - use this yarn for something else and buy enough to spare in another color. Unfortunately, I really wanted to make this cardi in the same gray used in the model. So, what have I decided...?

I'm going for it with the yarn I've got. I'll be hopping mad if I run out of yarn. Actually, I'll probably be more than "hopping" but I'm trying to be somewhat positive here. And, with that, I leave you with the most boring picture you'll ever see. My Must Have swatch... (which, by the way, had to be done on size 5 needles to get gauge!)

Since you asked...

2005-01-27T20:51:00.000-08:00

I was a bad blogger last time and forgot to give you the specs on my sock. oops! I'm using Koigu PPPM (although I don't remember the exact colorway right at the moment). And the pattern is the basic sock pattern from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles (sorry, I'm too lazy to go to Amazon and get the link). The sock is a bit big, but Lolly told me that Koigu tends to tighten up after it's washed, so hopefully that will take care of it. Of course, you would think that upon finishing my first sock I would cast on for my second sock and actually have a pair of socks. Well, you would be wrong. I mistakenly thought that having to count rows while knitting would be too difficult as I started the culminating this week. I decided instead to cast on for a scarf.

This is an ArtFibers kit that my friend Anna got for my birthday back in October. The yarn is Chai, which is Tussah Silk, and the pattern is a simple Herringbone Lace. I've never really worked with a lace pattern before, but I figured it's so simple it'll be easy to memorize. What you see in the photo above is was taken on Tuesday. As of today, well... picture the scarf with four rows done. I'm really quite a distractable person, so even an easy lace pattern is turning out to be quite a challenge for me. (yes, I know stitch markers would help, but it's really a simple pattern that really shouldn't require markers).

By the way, because I'm not driving myself crazy enough, I've also joined into the Must Have cardi fray. I've been wanting to make this cardigan forever and I even bought some Peruvian Highland Wool a while back in order to make it. So, what the heck. No time like the present, eh?

I have to run and catch the Bart. I have tons more to post, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Until then!

And so it begins

2005-01-24T08:20:00.000-08:00

Remember the "culminating experience" that I told you about? It's the final step I have to take to get my degree. Essentially, instead of a thesis, you're provided with topics from which you choose two and write a 20 page research paper for each in 10 weeks. Well, I attended our orientation session on Saturday and began working that night. I spent the day at the library yesterday and am heading back today. Needless to say, I probably won't have too many knitting photos for you in the next 10 weeks (yes, I know, not that I normally do). But I will continue to knit as I get the chance and will hopefully have tales to tell as a result. And if not, well you'll get to know more about the culminating process than you ever thought you would!

In other "beginnings," I have officially signed up for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. I'll be walking with other knitters from the Phoenix Stitch n Bitch group. Our team name is Knit 1, Walk 3. I've included a link over at the right in case you are so inclined to support me (I'll hopefully have a button soon!). I've also listed donation totals, other K1,W3 members, and my donors. If you donate, and would like to have me link to your blog, shoot me an email (nancydeegan AT sbcglobal DOT net) so I can do so. You don't need to disclose your donation amount.

In true knit-blog fashion, I am thinking of having a contest for those that donate (no blog required). However, I haven't come up with one yet, because a) Brooke has announced plans for a contest on her blog and I need to see what she's doing first and b) I, um, don't have any prizes at this time. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for the warm-fuzzy feeling you get from donating to a worthy cause. That, and the deduction you'll get on your 2005 taxes.

By the way, I managed to finish my first sock last week. See?!

I have to head to the library now. Don't forget to donate!

Sometimes I move beyond spaz

2005-01-20T21:02:00.000-08:00

Way back when, I worked for a really great company in Los Angeles. It was a small company (the biggest we ever were was 26 employees), owned and run by three friends. Although I became friends with all three of the owners, I've mostly stayed in touch with Mike (the CEO). Over the last year, however, I haven't talked to him much.

One day, back in late November or early December, I was watching an episode of Who's Line is it Anyway that I had TiVo'd from a couple of weeks back. In this episode, one of the improvers goes up into the audience and sits on someone's lap. Right next to this person is my friend Mike. I about died of shock! I immediately emailed him and he told me that it was indeed him, but that he missed the airing of the episode and never got to see it. I told him not to worry, that I would record the show to tape and mail it to him.

I intended to do it before the holidays and didn't. Then I intended to do it right after I got home from the holidays. Didn't. So this morning, when every channel was showing the inauguration...

(side rant: I purposely keep politics out of my blog. Anyone who was reading my blog around election time knows that I'm not happy with how the election turned out. However, I chose not to partake in the inauguration protest that other bloggers were taking part in because, as I said, I try not to get political. With this known, even if I had voted for the incoming president, I still wouldn't have watched the boring inauguration)

I decided to record the show. I popped in the tape, played the show, hit record, and then proceeded to blog surf for the next 30 minutes. When the TiVo screen came up asking me if I would like to delete the episode, I said "sure!"

Now, I have my undergrad degree in Broadcasting and have worked in video production in my past. I know that many things that can go wrong when taping ANYTHING and that the first thing you do is CHECK THE TAPE. Immediately after selecting "delete" I think to myself, "Self, you should have checked the tape before deleting the episode." Then I thought "aw, I'm sure it's fine."

Do I really need to tell you more? You know, right? I rewound part of the tape and hit play. Static. Nothing there. Nada. Zilch. I rewound some more. Nothing. I rewound to the beginning. Nothing. Then I thought... (Mom - close your eyes) FUCK.

I emailed my friend and simply said that something happened and the show got deleted before I could record it. I haven't heard back from him, but he's a great guy so I'm sure he won't be mad. I just feel so bad! I'm going to keep an eye out on the repeats. With any luck, the episode will air again soon and I can try again.

Speaking of trying again... I'm making some more brownies tomorrow night. Think my cats will offer to help again?

Special brownies

2005-01-18T20:14:00.000-08:00

When I decided to bring brownies to the Knit In last Friday, I decided to use a recipe that I had never used before. For the topping, you melt chocolate chips with some milk to make a chocolate sauce that you pour on the top. I ended up not using enough milk, so I had more of an icing, but it was still quite yummy. Anyway, I made the brownies on Thursday morning, right before I had to leave for work. Since they were still quite warm when I had to leave, I covered them up with a towel and headed out the door. When I came home this is what I found...

My cats must have decided that they wanted to have a hand in making the brownies, because there were paw prints all throughout the icing. Don't worry! As I said, they were covered with a towel. So although there were paw print impressions, no fur was actually in the icing. When I chose to leave the brownies intact (well, except for the taste test that my hubby and I did) and all the gals had a good giggle over the paw prints, I knew I was hanging out with a great group!

By the way, I had my latest "moment" today. I had to run over to UC Berkeley's library to get a library card. I planned my Bart schedule out so that I would have two hours to get from the station, get the card and wander around, grab some lunch, and then get back to the station. As I was wandering around the library, I looked at my watch and realized that I only had 30 minutes to get lunch and get to the station. I wasn't sure how I had used up that much time, but I hurried as quickly as I could. I got lucky and just made the train that arrives at 40 after, which would mean that I would actually be slightly early for work. Ummmm... slightly early.... yeah. It ends up that when I thought my watch said 12:15pm, it was actually 11:15am. I was over an hour early getting to work. My boss thought that I had lost my mind. :-)