Chilling Out

As you can tell by my previous posts, the last few days haven't been so great for me. I've made a conscious decision to Chill Out. It's just April. I know this by now. April doesn't love me, and I'm not too fond of her, either. (Previous April disasters- lost a job, totaled a car, had surgery that led to a major health crisis. If it happens to me, and it's life-alteringly bad, it happens in April.)

The apartment is dry, at least for the moment. Hopefully for good. It still smells like Juicy Fruit, now with an overlay of floral yuck (maintenance was in again yesterday afternoon), but it's dry. And the cat has calmed down and started demanding food again. So I'm going to try to let it go. Tomorrow is May! Whoopie!

I'm part of a stash busting group on Ravelry (which you can see from previous posts I really need), and the May challenge is to knit with cotton. Being me, I spent all of April in an obsessive compulsive cotton dishcloth frenzy, so I'm ready to move on to something else. Instead, I have decided to declare May Acrylic Month. That's right, I'm going to take a crack at knitting up the piles and piles of Caron (and a little bit of Red Heart, I'm ashamed to say) that I've acquired in the last year or so. I have a blanket for Project Linus on the needles, which I plan to finish. I have a head scarf for a friend that I want to make. I promised a couple of Jayne hats for auction at the Houston Can't Stop the Serenity event in July. (I further promise to follow an actual pattern and not try to invent it on the fly as I did last time. Whoops!) I also want to make a few hats either for local homeless shelters or to send up to my parents' church in Boston for their program. Houston may not get as cold as New England, but I'm sure there are still plenty of people who could use a warm hat in January. I'm also knocking around the idea of making a Pretty Punk blanket (http://www.therunningyarn.com/2008/04/pretty-punk-blanket-free-pattern.html) in non-pretty, macho-manly colors for a friend who dearly loves all things skeleton and death metal related. The good news is that I may very well have all the yarn I need for that blanket already in my stash! I'd also like to make a baby hat from the December (?) issue of Creative Knitting.

And I'm recommitting myself to No Yarn Purchases for the month of May. Everybody's got to have a goal.

Let's see... that's at least seven projects, maybe more, and two of them are blankets. It won't all get finished, but I should burn through a few skeins in the stash. Woo hoo!

A little rant to brighten your day

I have had it. HAD IT.

I came home for lunch today to discover that maintenance had been in the apartment. How do I know maintenance was in the apartment? They certainly didn't leave any kind of note, as their supposed to. No. It was the amazing, unbelievable STENCH. Someone came in a sprayed something that smells like the bastard stepchild of paint thinner and Juicy Fruit gum. Swear to god. I almost gagged when I walked in. So I opened all the windows and called the main office to complain. No one came by to do anything about it or even check it out. I ended up missing the whole afternoon of work because I live on the first floor and couldn't leave the windows open while I'm gone. And there was no way I could close them up. It's 9:30 at night and it still stinks to high heaven.

So I decided to make a grocery run at 8:30 this evening. It was dark out, and time to close the windows, and anyway I wanted cake. So I close everything up and go out to my car. And what do I find? Someone from this bastard apartment complex has STICKERED MY CAR. Apparently while I was STUCK AT HOME MISSING WORK AND AIRING OUT MY SMELLY ASS APARTMENT they decided to brighten my day with a permanent orange warning sticker. Bastards. It's not bad enough that my apartment floods twice in what? A month? Six weeks? And I miss work because they've sprayed toxic levels of god knows what in here without informing me about it. Now they've got to put a giant ass orange sticker on my car, threatening to tow it? Rat bastards. I'm going in tomorrow to talk to the manager. If anyone so much as LOOKS FUNNY at my car, they're going to wish they'd never been born.

I'm a pretty even tempered person. I'd even go so far as to say that I'm easy to push around. I don't like confrontation. But I strongly suggest that no one FUCK WITH ME for the next few days. Even I have a limit.

The Great Flood of '08

Living in a first floor apartment has many benefits. You don't have to haul your groceries up a dozen flights of stairs. You stay cooler in the summer. It generally costs less to move. But there is one great disadvantage. Anytime one of your upstairs neighbors has a water leak, you get flooded out. Yesterday, around 5 o'clock, my upstairs neighbor's water heater sprung a leak. This was the result.

It flooded the hallway, the linen closet, the bathroom, and the kitchen. The water also crept into the bedroom and the dining room. Every towel in the house was used to sop up the mess, and it still wasn't enough.

It started off just pouring down through the ceiling of the water heater/ac closet. I called maintenance, and 45 minutes later someone showed up. He went upstairs and got the water shut off, which stopped it, sort of. Then he used a shop vac to suck up some of the water, and told me someone else would be by in another 45 minutes to take up the carpet and padding, since they were both completely soaked.

I took the opportunity to grab some dinner, since it was now after 7pm. About five minutes after I finished eating there was a popping noise, and water was gushing out under the closet door again. I opened the door, expecting to see part of the ceiling collapsed or something, but a pipe had blown out, and steaming water was rushing everywhere. I called maintenance and the same guy came back again. Apparently, the upstairs water heater was at it again. This pipe was supposed to handle the condensation from the upstairs ac units. I'm guessing the temperature of the water (not to mention the quantity) was more than it could handle, and that's why it blew.

He put the pipe back together and went back upstairs to turn off the water again. It blew again. He came back and tried to put it together, this time with glue. It blew again. Then the second maintenance guy showed up to deal with the carpeting, and had a fit because there was still water gushing everywhere. (If you think this all sounds like "The Three Stooges Do Home Repair," you are correct.) He hauled in the super-duper water sucking hose and went to work. That's when we discovered that the kitchen pantry had flooded, too. Then the first guy came back and replaced the pipe that kept busting and left. The second guy yanked up about half my carpeting and removed all the carpet padding, which was completely sopping by this point. Then he said he'd be back in a few days to replace the padding and clean the carpet, and to try not to flood anything else. A comedian. Ha.

My apartment finally cleared of all carpet padding and maintenance guys around 9pm- four hours after the water first started coming through the ceiling. It was another two hours before I could coax the cat out from under the covers on the bed. He was, and still is, completely wigged out. He keeps doing this weird hyperventilating thing, and he hasn't eaten anything since it happened. He kept me up all night by walking across my pillow and stepping on my head, when he wasn't hiding under the covers with me. He won't settle anywhere, and keeps meowing and doing the butt-down slink all over the apartment, like he expects maintenance guys and evil super vacuum cleaners to pop up again at any moment. He's making me nuts.

And the apartment is a wreck, too.

Oh, hell.

I got pulled over on the way home from work today. By a cop on a horse. How humiliating is that? The ticket was inexpensive, as tickets go, but I also have to pay to correct the problem so I won't get another ticket. Crap.

To do penance, and replace the money I'll be spending on the ticket and car stuff, I'm now grounded from spending money on eating out or entertainment. (Yarn and all related products included.) I checked my bank statement, and it took me 37 days to spend an amount equal to what I now owe on fun stuff. So from now until May 31 I'm stuck with the books I already own, the yarn I already have, food I've cooked for myself, and cable. (I was already on yarn restriction, but I was getting close to cracking. How sad is that? But it was for a Mother's Day gift, honest....)

I had big plans for today's blog, but now I'm not in the mood. Maybe this weekend.

Buried in Stash

I got a wild hair tonight and decided to inventory my stash. Eep! I have 26,058 yards of yarn. That's almost 15 miles! No wonder it's taken over my living room.

Pardon me, I feel a headache coming on. I think I'll go take a Tylenol and a sleeping pill and go to bed.

Lovely Weekend

Day three of my three day weekend was very relaxing. Not long enough, but no weekend ever is. I made pancakes and turkey sausage for breakfast (yum!), and have a bunch left over for breakfast this week. For dinner I made a lasagna and homemade bread (again, yum!), which I hadn't done in ages.

I did make one short trip out of the house today for gas. The car was running on fumes, and I didn't want to have to deal with it tomorrow. Ouch! This was my first ever over $50 fill up. If I drove some massive gas guzzler I wouldn't be surprised, but I don't. I drive a Camry! Fortunately, I live close to work. If I don't run around too much, which I'm trying not to do since I'm trying to save money and limit unnecessary spending, this tank of gas should last me 3-4 weeks. But still. Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, I went to my pilates class on Saturday. It was seriously tough, especially since I started my period yesterday morning. I was already cramping, and the pilates didn't help any. But I don't feel too bad today. Maybe I'm getting better at it!

Spike TV has been playing the Star Wars movies, and my Tivo caught them for me. Today I finally finished watching the last one- Return of the Jedi. (Well, I suppose it depends on your definition of "last," but whatever.) I saw the remastered Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back in the theater a few years back, but somehow missed RotJ, so I hadn't seen the new effects and music. They ditched the "Yub, Yub!" song at the end! That's just criminal. (Funny story: when I saw Empire the whole audience was obviously familiar with the series. When Leia kissed Luke, the entire audience went "eeew!" Some wit yelled, "incest is best, put your sister to the test.")

I actually got a few pages ready for my critique group tonight. I need to get more on the ball about that. We meet tomorrow! I think I dodged the whole transition problem by just cutting it all out. Amazingly, that seems to be the solution to a lot of my dilemmas with this story. Have a problem? Cut it out! I'll see what the group says, but I think the less-is-more approach really helps with the Bethany character. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about her. I'm still not 100% sure, but what I've got now is more subtle than the club to the head it started out as. I like the fact that Daisy just doesn't fit in with the humans in her life. Some of the supernaturals are real pieces of work, too, but she finds a family for herself in that crowd, too. I realized about half way through NaNo that I was exploring racism in my story- humans vs. supernaturals, the more "magical" supes vs. the more "physical" ones. There are a lot of assumptions, a lot of erroneous beliefs floating around. The more aware I became of what was going on, the more heavy handed it all seemed. Some of it may not be as "frying pan to the skull" as I think it is. But it definitely needs a lighter touch.

Didn't come anywhere near finishing my fingerless mitts this weekend. I did finish another (!) Granny's favorite since I last blogged, though. It's a sickness, I swear.

Trouble says hello.

The Jayne Cobb Disaster

This week I tried to break the OCD-like hold that the Granny's favorite dishcloth seems to have on me by knitting a Jayne Cobb hat for a friend. I looked at a few patterns online, but I was feeling grumpy and uncooperative this week, and not in the mood to follow a pattern. (Pattern? We don't need no stinkin' pattern!) (This attitude is a kissing cousin to "Gauge swatch? Never heard of it.") After all, it's only a damn hat. So I cast on. This was a mistake. As you can see, the hat is way too big and also looks like a meathead hat, only not as cute. http://www.flickr.com/groups/meatheads06/pool/

I suppose that's only fair, considering Jayne is a bit of a meathead himself. (The character, not the actor, of course.) But still. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to frog the damn thing and start over or keep it around as a reminder not to do that again. (Because, trust me, internet posterity or not, I will forget.) (Also, I love commas.)

I've done 14 dishcloths in the last two weeks. Eleven of them have been Granny's favorites. I told you. Scary. But my pile-o-Christmas presents is getting taller by the minute. If you know me, you're getting a dishcloth for Christmas. (Sorry to kill the suspense.) In fact, there's a reasonable chance that you'll be getting one if you don't know me, too. Kind of like living in the midwest in zucchini season- don't leave your car windows down unless you want a little surprise when you come back!

(I've really got to find a new pattern to obsess over.) (I also love parenthesis!)

(And before anyone asks- yes, I know that a Jayne Cobb should have rust/orange ear flaps. The damn thing was already so ridiculously wrong, I couldn't stand the idea of spending the time to add the ear flaps. When and if I get around to trying again, there will be ear flaps.)

(Damn Blogger won't put the spaces between my paragraphs. I hate that!) (Gah!)

Good Behavior

Bless me, for I haven't sinned. Yet. It's been two weeks since I last bought yarn. I honestly thought it had been longer than that. It certainly seems longer than two weeks. But, no. I have resisted temptation several times, including last night when I made a Walmart run. (They sell Peaches & Crack there. It doesn't matter that I have 2 large shopping bags bulging with balls of P&C, and 4 half-used 1 lbs cones. I still want more.)

I was so tired last night. I was supposed to go to a pilates class last night, and I just couldn't do it. The only reason I managed to go out at all last night was that there was no more food in the house. (Which probably doesn't matter that much, because there are no clean dishes in the house, either.) Also, my old headphones gave up the ghost this week, and the only thing that gets me through my work day is my mp3 player. I just couldn't live another day without headphones.

I discovered a diet trick while deliriously wandering the Walmart aisles, though. I was in the frozen foods section and came across a display of Goldfish crackers. (???) They were the giant boxes, and it was the extra flavor (read: extra fat and sodium) variety. My first thought was "oooh!" (Crunch, salty things are my particular weakness.) Then I glanced at the price- $6.46- which stopped me in my tracks. Not because it was a particularly high or low price, but because the Peaches & Creme cones I'd just looked at are $6.64. (There's a blue and cream colored cone that I've been eyeing for months now, but I've managed to resist because buying another cone when I already have so much is just silly.) I thought about it for a minute. For approximately the same price, I could have a giant box of Goldfish or a cone of yarn. The yarn would last longer and give me more pleasure. I seriously considered staggering back to the craft section and buying that cone. But sanity prevailed, and I bought neither.

I did, however, manage to buy 2 Smart Ones frozen dinners by mistake. I meant to buy the frozen dinners, I just got the wrong varieties. One was a Spicy Szechuan something-or-other, which I'm afraid might have nuts or otherwise cause problems, and the other was a quesadilla with corn and beans which will definitely cause problems. I guess I could return them, but that seems like a lot of effort. Maybe I can pawn them off on my best friend? She likes to take this kind of stuff for lunch.

Monday Monday

I talked to my boss this morning, and he's going to let me have Friday off. Hooray! A three day weekend! I've decided to drop again on the Pred on Thursday and then sleep all weekend. Wish me luck!

My Tivo only recorded the first 15 min or so of Dexter again, so I got on Netflix to watch it. No go. I don't know what's wrong exactly, but my dinosaur desk top doesn't meet "system requirements." Boo! I guess I'll be adding Dexter back to my Q.

I cast on for my 8 bajillionth Granny's favorite at lunch today. It's getting to be a sickness. This one is in Peppercorn. I bought a cone of the stuff back in January, and there's still a ton left. I think I'll cast on again for the Jayne Cobb tonight, too. I've got last night's Eli Stone on the Tivo, and that would be good ES knitting. Crap. At least I hope I have it. I'll be very disappointed if that one got screwed up, too.

I called my company's accountant in the home office this afternoon for help filling out a property tax form. (Actually, I just found out recently that he's not an accountant. I'm not entirely sure what his qualifications are, but it's his butt on the line if something gets screwed up, not mine. That's good enough for me.) The form is due tomorrow. Whoops! It turns out that we have an accounting firm that's supposed to fill out these forms. Did I mention it's due tomorrow? And tomorrow is also income tax day, too, so they're up to their eyeballs in tax forms. I filed for an extension online and mailed it to them. They'll handle it next week, when things aren't quite so hectic.

Even if I didn't know the date, I'd know it was tax time. Either that or Christmas. My office is across the street from a post office. This is a small semi-residential street. And there was a traffic jam at lunch. Cars backed up on both sides of the street, trying to get into the completely full post office parking lot. Thank god I filed my taxes online weeks ago. I already have the money back! (It went into savings to replace some of the money I had to pull out for car repairs.) Now all I need is the extra $600 our illustrious President promised me to stave off the recession that he claims we aren't having. Whatever. I'll take the money.

Progress

Well, I made a little bit of progress this weekend. I made it to my reformer class, and now I hurt everywhere. The apartment is still a mess, but it's not quite as much of a mess as it was on Friday. I'll just keep plugging away there.

I finished the MD washcloth. I made it through a few rows on the yellow and orange ballband dishcloth. I finished a red, white, and blue Granny's favorite and started on another with a scrap of Spring Meadows. I lost a stitch somewhere on the patterned dishcloth and ended up frogging. Started on the Jayne Cobb, decided it was a little too small, and frogged that, too. I got all the ends woven in on the baby gifts. I still need to finish the icord ties and sew on the velcro.

I'm so tired. I don't even want to think about going back to work tomorrow. If it weren't for the fact that property taxes and the March closing are both due on Tuesday, I'd consider calling in sick. But they have to be done, so I'll have to struggle through. Maybe if I get to bed really early tonight I'll feel better tomorrow.

Finally watched the DVDs I got from Netflix two weeks ago. Disc one, season one of Dexter and Atonement. There was only one episode of Dexter that I hadn't seen, and I got bored with Atonement and gave up about half way through. It was probably my attitude more than the movie, but I just couldn't take it. I ended up watching an episode of Firefly and Phantom Menace instead. PM was pretty much as bad as I remembered it being, but at least it wasn't depressing. Overall, this round of Netflix movies was a waste of time.

It's only 5:30pm and I'm already ready for bed. I don't have high hopes for this week. Must keep after the boss for a vacation day in the next couple of weeks.

Weekend Goals

I got on the scale this morning: 277 lbs. That's 45 lbs up from my lowest weight out of the hospital last summer. I'm still on steroids, so losing weight won't be easy, but I have to do something. My first step is to clean the apartment.

Seriously, that's where I need to start. Losing weight means working out and eating right. I can't work out at home if there's no room to put down the deck on the treadmill or follow along with an exercise video. I can't eat right if I don't have clean dishes or clear kitchen counters. So, step one- cleaning. I also want to make it to my reformer class on Saturday morning. Please, guts, let me go.

My other goal is to get all the finishing done on the baby gifts for my cousin. I need to weave in ends on three sets of bibs and burp cloths and two hats. I also need to make icord to make ties for one of the hats. I'll take pictures before wrapping them up and shipping them off.

I started on a yellow and orange ballband dishcloth- one of my 19 projects from last weekend- and I'd like to finish it this weekend, as well as another patterned dishcloth that I started. If I'm really lucky I'll make some progress on the Mason Dixon washcloth I started last weekend, too.

I think that's enough for one weekend. I'll check in on Sunday to let you know how I did.

Book of the Year

The Smart Bitches announced the winner of their March Madness-style book of the year tournament- The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason. http://tinyurl.com/5vcfzf

I read The Rest Falls Away last year and enjoyed it. But it didn't get my vote for book of the year. My first choice (out of the options in the tournament) was Agnes and the Hitman by Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer. When they were knocked out in the first round by the eventual second place finisher- Nora Roberts- I picked Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs which was knocked out by, I believe, Gleason in round three. I preferred Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. Wilson as well, but that was knocked out by Gleason in the first round. It's sequel, Lady of Light and Shadows, was also excellent, although it didn't make the list.

There were a couple other books that didn't make the tournament list that I enjoyed more:

Garden Spells, Sarah Addison Allen
Jinx, Meg Cabot
White Knight, Jim Butcher
An Ice Cold Grave, Charlaine Harris

This all sounds like I'm dissing Gleason and The Rest Falls Away. I'm not. It was a very entertaining book, with a unique take on vampires. (I do love the supernatural beasties.) It just wasn't, in my opinion, the best book of 2007. Did it belong in the top 64? I think so. I only read 9 of the books on the list. All but one were quite good. TRFA fit comfortably in the middle of that pack.

At one time I read romance almost exclusively. Eight or nine years ago I probably would have read closer to half of the books on the list, maybe more. I wandered off into mysteries, which lead me into scifi/fantasy, which lead me back around to romance. The funny thing is that just among the titles I'm familiar with, 3 of them aren't shelved in romance at all. They're sold with scifi/fantasy. (I'm not counting the YA titles, which are obviously shelved with YA.) A few years ago they never would have been included in a romance contest. I wonder how much the fact that the authors are women causes readers to associate them with romance anyway?

Well, my sleeping pill is really starting to kick in, and I'm getting (more) rambly, so I guess I'll go now. Have you read any good books lately? I hope so!

Letting My Geek Flag Fly

I absolutely have to learn how to crochet. This is the coolest thing evah! http://geekcentralstation.blogspot.com/2008/03/star-wars-amigurumi.html

I'm so making these for my brother for Christmas. (Yes, I'm thinking about Christmas crafting already.) And then I'm making a set for myself, too.

The first time I saw Star Wars I was about five. It was my friend's birthday, and her parents took us to a drive-in movie. We had a choice of Star Wars or The Muppet Movie. Being very grown-up five-year-olds, we of course chose Star Wars. And then spent most of the movie watching the Muppets through the back windshield. A year or two later and I was absolutely obsessed with Star Wars. I had figures, cards, the whole nine. I always played Han Solo. (As you might have guessed, I was a bit of a tom boy, and princesses were yucky.) It was a few more years before the benefits of being Leia dawned on me! ;) I still love Harrison Ford, although I do my best to pretend the whole earring thing never happened.

On the knitting front, I am a fool for the Granny's Favorite dishcloth. http://www.jimsyldesign.com/dishbout/kpatterns/grfavorite.html Since last I blogged, I've completed two of them, and I'm 2/3 of the way through a third. Unfortunately, they are all from scraps left over from other projects, so I can't really say I've reduced my stash any. But, hey! I'm making progress on the Christmas knitting!

I started on the Mason Dixon washcloth, and somehow put the bobbles on the wrong side. Whoopsie! I put out a desperate cry for help on Ravelry, and learned that just happens sometimes. Even though you follow the pattern, the bobbles end up on the back. Several people responded saying that all you have to do is poke them through to the front and you'll be fine. I'll mess with it tomorrow and see what I get.

After my picture and project fest this weekend, I remembered six more projects that I have yarn and patterns for. Oy. That brings the total to 25 projects purchased and sitting around in my living room. Not good. I've challenged myself to knit only from stash from now until my birthday. (November) With 25 projects, ranging from dishcloths to socks to blankets, I should have more than enough to keep me busy. That's not even counting this little cutie, who will be perfect for my best friend for Christmas. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTpasha.html And I have all the yarn!

Projects & Pictures

I spent a lot of Friday and Saturday trying to convince myself that I don't need any more yarn. After making a couple of lists and taking pictures of just the stash I have plans for, I think I've succeeded. Here's what I have at the moment:



This is part of my Peaches & Creme collection. The yellow and orange balls will be 2 ballband dishcloths- one yellow with an orange background and one orange with a yellow background. The blue and Winterberry will be a ballband or maybe a ballband variation (it forms diamond shapes instead of evenly stacked brinks) and I also want to do a blue ballband with a white background. The Fiesta and Pink Lemonade colors may be Granny's Favorites. I've got 2 more balls of each, which may become Baby Genius burp cloths, which I'll use as kitchen towels since I don't have any kids to burp. Either the yellow and white, Peppercorn, or Spring Meadows in the back will be made into a Mason Dixon dishcloth- I've been wanting to try that pattern for a while- and possible more BG kitchen towels. And of course there are the monthly dishcloths and other patterns that I've picked up from the internet that I want to try. So that's at least seven dishcloths. (And let me remind you, this is just part of my cotton stash. There's a lot more.)


Here is the yarn that I bought to make a Jayne Cobb for a friend. She's the one who turned me on to Firefly, and one of the first things she said to me when she learned that I was knitting again was, "Hey, you could make a Jayne Hat!" So I'm making one for her. And probably one for me- there should be enough yarn, I think.



Here's my faux-Noro scarf, and a sampling of the yarn I bought to make it. This will be one seriously long scarf. Aren't the color combos cool? I thought I would hate the 1x1 ribbing, but watching the colors change is so fun that the constant switching doesn't bother me. I'm working on plastic needles right now, but I may switch to bamboo. This yarn is slippery, and combined with the plastic needles it's kind of a pain. Bamboo is much "stickier", so it should make the yarn much more manageable.









Socks! I have yarn to make myself seven pairs of socks. I have one sock knit from the pink/yellow/orange combo in the middle, I just need to do the second one. I didn't really care for the first sock- it seemed to bag a lot at the ankle- so I've been playing around, trying to pick a different pattern to finish the pair. Who said socks have to match? My sister-in-law, who works at a Hallmark in Indiana, said that mis-matched socks are one of their biggest sellers. It's very fashionable right now. Of course, that's Indiana. And who cares about fashion anyway? But it's a good excuse, right?

It's a little hard to see, but the purple Jelly Beans on the far right will be a pair of slipper socks. My first pair of socks were slipper socks out of Jelly Beans in blue, so I decided to go for another pair. They're really cozy, and my favorite foot warmers when it's cold. It's rarely cold in Texas, but they're still fun to knit.


I bought this to make a Rasta Hat for my best friend, but after the disaster of my Fugly Hat I decided to do something else with it. I finally settled on the Rosie the Riveter pattern, since she loves to wear head scarves. She's one of those strange people who loves to clean, and she always wears a scarf to get in the mood. She also wears them when she runs, and since she's a marathoner she should get a lot of use out of it. I'm still planning to make one for myself out of the Red Heart camo that I bought a month or two ago. (Yes, the cursed yarn.) I just didn't take a picture of it. So that's two more projects.



And here is a sample of the yarn I bought to make my log cabin blanket. I'm still thinking about doing it in a spiral pattern, but that may change as I work. We'll see.

If I counted correctly, that's 19 projects that I have patterns and yarn for. Really, that's enough for anyone, don't you think?

Good News/Bad News

It was a good news/bad news kind of day.

Bad news: my car broke down on the way to the dealership
Good news: several people stopped to make sure I was OK and see if I needed help

Bad news: my water pump basically blew up and took the timing belt with it
Good news: I replaced the timing belt in January, and it was still under warranty, so they replaced it for free

Bad news: they quoted me $1200, plus towing charges, for the repair
Good news: it only cost me $700, including tow

Bad news: the tow cost $95
Good news: my car insurance covers $80 for towing

Bad news: my car was in the shop all day
Good news: it wasn't me getting worked on for a change!

Bad news: I had to pull money out of savings to pay the bill
Good news: I had the money set aside and didn't have to put it on a credit card

It wasn't the best day ever, but really, it wasn't too bad. And I made more progress on the latest burp cloth. My dad was teasing me on the phone tonight about getting water-cooled knitting needles. Just call me Lightning!

Welcome to the world, Baby Girl!

My cousin had her baby this morning! A 6lbs 9oz baby girl. As far as I know, mother and baby are just fine. Welcome to the world, little girl!