shhhhhhh

(whispers) it's the elusive buffalo yarn. this is a very exciting sighting, because buffalo yarns are a rare thing, and mostly seen in captivity. see how it exudes it's yarnie goodness, begging you to knit it. alas, this one is meant for another, so off it will go into the wilds of texas tomorrow, eluding capture by this photographer


See, isn't it just beautiful?


i'll talk more tonight, i owe y'all about a month's worth of calendar reviews, sigh.

You might be a redneck if you had your trailer bricked in.
. . . your best china traces the career of Loretta Lynn.
. . . you've ever captained a pontoon boat naked.
. . . all your favorite music came from the checkout counter at a truck stop.
. . . your wedding reception featured an above-ground pool.
. . . you got your wife's wedding ring in a buy one, get one free deal.
. . . your sofa used to be a bench weight.
. . . you're on a first-name basis with animal control.
. . . your tv gets 512 channels, but you go outside to use the bathroom.
. . . the cemetary where your daddy is buried is int he middle of a go-cart track. (wow)
. . . you buy brown sheets so you don't have to wash them (ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!)
ttfn!

public service announcement

for your own sanity's sake, if you have a cell phone, go register at http://www.donotcall.gov. apparently, the cell phone companies are releasing cell #'s, and if you get charged for incoming calls, you're gonna get it. i don't know if this is new or not, but i went ahead and registered both my cell and my home phone. i know, i work in a call center, but it's INBOUND. i will never work outbound, not even if they promise me no cold calls (that's people never called by the company before). no way jose.

and i'm going to knit night! tootles!

woe is me!

deb stoller ( of Stitch & Bitch & Stitch & Bitch Nation, and the infamous SFSE debacle) is going to be at the bookworm today @ 2, and i can't get off work! deep, soul-shaking sobs. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

if i'd only known sooner, i could have sent my book with carin and gotten it signed. deep devastation.

let's cheer things up just a bit:
This is the other easter egg dye experiment i did on sunday, same method as the blue roving. here's the interesting part; i only used one purple pill (and no, you medical people, it wasn't nexium!). apparently, i got too much wool in the container for the amount of dye, so it didn't take evenly. this runs from the purple on the left to a very light blue on the right mixed with the cream of the natural color of the roving. it's very pretty, and i promise i'll bring it to S& K thursday. if i don't die first, oy!

h

these are my heroes:

these are my sons. they've been through hell & back, and yet, they can still smile.

This is my favorite picture i have of mark, as i'm sure you know, since i've posted this a kajillion times. he's a loving husband (yeah, i know, we're not married yet, but as far as i'm concerned, he's mine), and a wonderful father. he's taken my kids in like they were his own.

And this is my baby brother, bob. he's on his 3rd career, at 35. i admire his guts, in hunting for his dream. i admire him in a definite other way as well; he's a gulf war vet. at 19, with only 6 months of time under his belt in the army, in september of 1990, he was sent to saudi arabia. he doesn't talk much about his time there (i've noticed that about vets, they don't talk about it), but i know it changed him. he's got health problems from it (the big one is short term memory loss (his favorite phrase is "i've slept since then" when asked to remember something)). and i thank him every year for serving our country, and protecting us for 8 long hard years.

these are my heroes.

whine alert

this was my dinner tonight :

on april 15, i went to the dentist and had a temporary crown put in. thusly began my saga of pain and agony. this thing would NOT stop hurting. it felt like an atrocious toothache, only this would flare up every time i ate, no matter what side i chewed on. i even went home from work thursday because it hurt so bad after lunch. today i called, and they asked me to come in. they replaced the temporary crown, and put in something much more comfortable. however, it entailed numbing that back tooth once again. i am particularly susceptible to this stuff (i understand it's not novacaine any more), and it lasts forever. i got there around 5, and was officially numb by 5:15. it is now 3 hours and 24 minutes later, and i'm still numb. i am unable to eat because i don't want to chew my cheek. so i had a shake. i'm hoping it wears off soon, cuz i would love to eat something real. bleh.

here's what i did last night:

if anybody remembers, a friend from ac4c bought some buffalo, but didn't spin, so i volunteered to spin it for her. well, lo and all these many months later, it's spun. it's even plied (about 50 yards from 2 oz of fiber), and hung and everything, but i feel like crap, so you'll have to wait til next time for a pic of the plied skein.

This is what i did yesterday inbetween bits of house ravaging (this place is too much of a mess to call it cleaning) wanna see more?

Think you see the correlation now? just wait!

and it's going somewhere you'd not expect! it went outside! just like suntea! now, wanna see what it came out like?

It's a bit blotchy, but hey, it's handpainted roving!

i'm gonna quit while i'm ahead with the pics, blogger never let's me post more than 5, and that was just #6!

and yes, it's now 852, and my jaw is still numb. sigh.

Edit: it's 1021 and i finally can feel most of my face. my lower lip is still tingly, but i had a can of soup an hour ago. i couldn't wait any more. but i didn't burn myself, and didn't make TOO much of a mess. 5hours, sheesh!

kat's contest

Kat is having a contest for unusual places to knit. i had left a comment on deb's blog, and she suggested i enter the contest, so here it is. my 5 unusual knitting places.


hmmm, i can think of all kinds of places that aren't the "norm". i once knit a mitten while christmas shopping at walmart. while walking around. no, i didn't push the cart, lol.
i also knit at the dentist office. i was once told by a hygenist (i sell lots of novelties to dental offices, lol, the treasure boxes rock!) that it's good to do something to keep you preoccupied before it's your turn. keeps your mind off the drills, and the funny noises. in fact, when i have to get major work done, it's nothing for me to drag my bag back there, and while they're waiting on the novacaine, to knit a few rows. IN THE DENTIST'S CHAIR.

ummmm, at work, all the time. used to knit while working the phones, to keep me occupied between calls (and during slow moving calls, lol) but theyput the kabosh on that last september, and now i hide a book & read.

at bookstores, while reading. i'm usually reading knitting magazines, lol.

um, i knit while i was in labor with my first daughter. it helped keep me calm, when i was waiting at home for the pains to get closer together. (and i also had an urge to pick the house up, too, so i did that between pains, and knit during thepains).

and i WILL bring knitting to my own wedding. i'm planning on making a little "reticule" from the leftovers of my train (this is a park wedding, no way in HELL am i wearing a train, so it's getting cut off, and the fabric used for silly things like the ringbearer pillow, and my "reticule".) as i know my tendency to cry at things like weddings. i'm also going to hide a baby bootie in there on my size 1's. i'm not telling mark, lol.

in other news, i swear, i'm going to string sean up by his toes. he asked if he could play outside for a little bit when we got home, and then would help me with the basement room (we're moving down there, but had originally thought to make it a "play room" and had the boys move toys down there. of course the toys are everywhere). i was a wee bit distracted by the fact that both the glass AND the screen had come out of my front porch door, and since they were the full length of the door, anybody could walk in and out at will. i remembered to call him in 20 minutes later, except no sean. so i went downstairs. no sean. i checked their room. no sean. i went back outside, and walked all the way round the house. no sean. i'm starting to get upset. i go to both neighbors, even though he's been told to tell me if he goes in anywhere, but nobody was home. ok, time to start panicking. i called mark, and he actually answered! (it was 8, and that's when he usually goes to bed). i told him sean was missing, and he said "get in the van, and go look for him. i'll get in the truck and start looking too." i went in and told liam to start on his typing homework, and to call me on my cell if sean showed up while i was gone. i drove up the alleys to the local drugstore. he's been known to walk up there without permission before. they hadn't seen sean, but said they'd tell him to go home if they did. i went to the community center 6 blocks from my house, because he knows where it is, and i thought he may have decided to see if the library was open. no sean. the guys playing basketball did say they'd tell him to go home if they saw him. i stopped at the park close to his daycare, and asked the people there who were setting up for the local fair days if they'd seen him, and they told me they'd send him home. at that point, i decided it was time to check in at home, just in case sean had just walked in, and liam was too busy chewing him out to call. mark pulled in behind me, and had sean with him. sean had decided to go down by the railroad tracks, and mark figured it out as soon as he realized sean wasn't at the drugstore. i immediately burst into tears. i was so frightened that his BF had shown up, and decided to take him. he apologized (he's not used to see me crying, unless i'm angry, lol), and said he wouldn't do it again. i told him he needed to apologize to liam, too, and sent him in. whew. and the reason why he didn't tell me where he was going was because he knew i'd tell him no, because i'd told him that he wasn't allowed down there last summer. oy. some days, i swear, some days.

i've started a vest with my green/white handspun. it's a bit stiff, but it will definitely keep some little one warm. i'm thinking i'm going to send this to dulaan, after all, because i've sent so much to a4a, and i've only got 2 hats done for dulaan, and the due date is july 1. i'll show pics when i find my camera, lol.

my immortal

this is my g post.

my boys are rockers, as am i. however, one of sean's favorite songs is my immortal, by evanescence. they decided to play that cd tonight, and as i listened to it, i could hear sean sing along, word for word, in that beautiful soprano that only an 11 year old boy can sing. as only he can sing, as he's lived every word.

2 years ago, i feared for his sanity. the boys had been placed in foster care with their aunt & uncle, against my wishes, 2 years before that, and then, as suddenly as they arrived there, they left. however, there was lasting damage, particularly for sean. he had been told that if he came to live with me again, and not with his aunt & uncle, that he would die when the final reckoning came, because i had chosen not to be of their religion as i once had. a nine year old boy. understandably, he was torn. life everlasting (as they had shown him), or be with the woman who gave birth to him, and had fought for 2 years to get him home. and as fragile as he was already, this tore him to pieces. he didn't threaten suicide in this time period, but there were visits where he'd scream and cry and try to break things, and say the evilest things (never to me, though, always directed at "those in power"). to watch this from my baby, who had always been sweet, even when he was trying, almost broke my heart.

this is when my immortal came out. "when you'd cry, i'd wipe away all of your tears." i did. "when you'd scream, i'd fight away all of your fears." i did. "but you still had all of me." and he did and does. and it was a long, hard fought battle, and to this day, we fight the good fight. but, he said something the other day, to his sister who has chosen that religion, that i thought was a very brave thing to say: "i'm not (such & such religion) any more. i'm a christian." he doesn't believe he's going to die, anymore.

and it took GUTS.

(ok, now who needs a tissue, i've used up my box!)

my sok

here's my sockpal000za sock. finished. and for some reason, i can't find the pic i took of it and the second one i started immediately after grafting the toe for this one. i'm not entirely happy with the toe (it seemed a bit pointy to me) but i have very square feet. i'm hoping it will fit my pal better. it at least is as long as she asked for. i hope she likes it!

Here's the pattern, close up. this actually looks pretty good in this colorway! i got it from here. i had bought yarn from her for my sp7 exchange pal, and it was so nice, i bought this as well. i had originally planned to keep it for me, but it told me it needed to be sock pal socks, so i gave in. however, i've ordered more for myself, lol.

and now i must dash, i gotta get the kidlets off to school

here's my F

goddammned FUCKERS! there, that's my f. i'm pissed. i got my tax bill from my accountant tonight, and i'm absolutely LIVID! long story short, i have assets inherited from my grandmother in wyoming. they generate an income. now, you would think that i would be paying wyoming income tax, if they had any, right(they don't, it's about the only logical state i know of!)? no. apparently the rules are written that the companies who deal with these assets, and garner my income, get to tax me from the STATE THEY OPERATE IN! What the Fuck is that all about? So, even though i don't live in new mexico, colorado, or oklahoma, nor are my assets there, i owe them income tax. so, the money that i've pinched and scraped and saved for the wedding is going to go to these fuckers!

i'm about in tears, and on top of that, Liam has decided that sean has "ruined my life!" and they've been screaming at each other for the last 45 minutes.

i was gonna show pictures, but my batteries died in my camera. can this evening get much worse?

Edit: the toilet just backed up. sigh.

ok, here's E

i'm slacking big time on the abc-along. i still don't know how to add myself to the ring (i think i'm added, but don't know how to do the blasted button thingie, erin, you need to rescue me!)

i'm having EGGS for a snack. how's that? i'll try to get to f later.

and now, for your weekly meme (well, not weekly, but it sounds good, eh?) this is from leanne, who i used to be secret pal for (#6, i believe, correct me if i'm wrong, leanne)

oh, and these are women authors, apparently i forgot to paste that bit, sorry.

Instructions: Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've been wanting/might like to read. ??Place question marks by any titles/authors you've never heard of. Put an asterisk if you've read something else by the same author.And, I'm going to add another one: put a + beside anything you add.**Edited to add, this meme came from My So Called (ABD) Life by way of The Clutter Museum.

Allcott, Louisa May–Little Women
Allende, Isabel–The House of Spirits??
Angelou, Maya–I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret–Cat's Eye ??
Austen, Jane–Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade–Salt Eaters??
Bank, Melissa-Girls' Guide To Hunting And Fishing??
Barnes, Djuna–Nightwoodde??
Beauvoir, Simone–The Second Sex
Blume, Judy–Are You There God? It's Me Margaret*
Burnett, Frances–The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte–Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily–Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S.–The Good Earth
Byatt, A.S.–Possession??
Cather, Willa–My Antonia* (i'm from nebraska, this is actually required reading in school!)Cherryh, CJ- any ??
Chopin, Kate–The Awakening??
Christie, Agatha–Murder on the Orient Express*
Cisneros, Sandra–The House on Mango Street??
Clinton, Hillary Rodham–Living History
Cooper, Anna Julia–A Voice From the South??
Danticat, Edwidge–Breath, Eyes, Memory??
Davis, Angela–Women, Culture, and Politics ??
Desai, Anita–Clear Light of Day??
Diamant, Anita-The Red Tent??
Dickinson, Emily–Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois–I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne–Rebecca??
Eliot, George–Middlemarch??
Emecheta, Buchi–Second Class Citizen??
Erdrich, Louise–Tracks??
Esquivel, Laura–Like Water for Chocolate
Fielding, Helen-Bridget Jones's Diary
Flagg, Fannie–Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty–The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne–Diary of a Young Girl
Gedge, Pauline-Child Of The Morning??
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins–The Yellow Wallpaper??
Gordimer, Nadine–July's People
Grafton, Sue–S is for Silence
Hamilton, Edith–Mythology
Highsmith, Patricia–The Talented Mr. Ripley
hooks, bell–Bone Black??
Hurston, Zora Neale–Dust Tracks on the Road??
Jacobs, Harriet–Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Jackson, Helen Hunt–RamonaJackson, Shirley–The Haunting of Hill House*
Jong, Erica–Fear of Flying*
Keene, Carolyn–The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them)
Kidd, Sue Monk–The Secret Life of Bees??
Kincaid, Jamaica–Lucy??
Kingsolver, Barbara–The Poisonwood Bible??
Kingston, Maxine Hong–The Woman Warrior??
Klein, Naomi-No Logo??
Larsen, Nella–Passing??
Laurence, Margaret-The Stone Angel??
L'Engle, Madeleine–A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K.–The Left Hand of Darkness
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris–The Golden Notebook??
Lively, Penelope–Moon Tiger??
Lorde, Audre–The Cancer Journals??
Martin, Ann M.–The Babysitters Club Series (any of them)
McCullers, Carson–The Member of the Wedding??
McMillan, Terry–Disappearing Acts??
Markandaya, Kamala–Nectar in a Sieve??
Marshall, Paule–Brown Girl, Brownstones??
Mccullough, Colleen-The Thorn Birds*
McDonald, Anne-Marie-Fall On Your Knees
Mitchell, Margaret–Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy–Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan–When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost??
Morrison, Toni–Song of Solomon??
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu–The Tale of Genji
Munro, Alice–Lives of Girls and Women
Murdoch, Iris–Severed Head??
Naylor, Gloria–Mama Day??
Niffenegger, Audrey–The Time Traveller's Wife
Nin, Anais-Little Birds??
Oates, Joyce Carol–We Were the Mulvaneys??
O'Connor, Flannery–A Good Man is Hard to Find??
Piercy, Marge–Woman on the Edge of Time??
Picoult, Jodi–My Sister's Keeper
Plath, Sylvia–The Bell Jar??
Porter, Katharine Anne–Ship of Fools
Proulx, E. Annie–The Shipping News??
Rand, Ayn–The Fountainhead
Ray, Rachel–365: No Repeats
Rhys, Jean–Wide Sargasso Sea??
Rice, Anne-Interview With A Vampire*
Robinson, Marilynne–Housekeeping??
Rocha, Sharon–For Laci??
Sebold, Alice–The Lovely Bones??
Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein
Shields, Carol-The Stone Diaries??
Smith, Betty–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie–White Teeth??
Spark, Muriel–The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie??
Spyri, Johanna–Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth–Amy and Isabelle??
Steel, Danielle–The House*
Tan, Amy–The Joy Luck Club*
Tannen, Deborah–You're Wearing That??
Tyler, Anne-The Accidental Tourist
Ulrich, Laurel–A Midwife's Tale??
Urquhart, Jane–Away??
Walker, Alice–The Temple of My Familiar??
Welty, Eudora–One Writer's Beginnings??
Wharton, Edith–Age of Innocence
Wilder, Laura Ingalls–Little House in the Big Woods*
Winterson, Jeanette-Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit??
Wolf, Naomi-The Beauty Myth??
Wollstonecraft, Mary–A Vindication of the Rights of Women??
Woolf, Virginia–A Room of One's Own
Banana Yoshimoto-Kitchen??

ok, now all y'all readers have at it, i'm whipped!

i'm tired

i feel like hedda van schtupp in blazing saddles. i'm tired. granted, i haven't gotten more than 6 hours of sleep for the last 3 days, but still!

the boys spent the weekend at their grandmother's, which was VERY nice. they were gone thursday, and i picked them up sunday. very nice, indeed!

and for all of those asking, my new ride is a Chrysler Town & Country Limited Edition. very chichi! and it is TOTALLY LOADED! leather seats (which are no big deal to me) that are heated at the push of a button (now THAT is a big deal to me!), automatic doors and hatch, nice sound system, and best of all, a SUNROOF! it's quite nice, and i think the only time i've had that sunroof closed has been at night and in the rain. i'll post more pics later, i'm just too lazy to download them.

i'm also too lazy to take a picture of my sockpal000za sock. it progresseth well. i'm past the heel, and onto the foot. this fits me a little tight, but my pal's feet are a bit smaller than mine, so it should be fine. i like how it looks, too. but you'll see soon enough.

you might be a redneck if the three little words you whisper to your wife at night are "pull my finger."
. . . your hospital uses jumper cables as a defibrillator.
. . . you still own every tire you've ever bought.
. . . your doghouse has more carpet than your living room.
. . . the local news crew won't put you on tv because you embarassed them the last 2 times.
. . . your pocketknife doubles as a toenail clipper and cheese slicer (ew!)
. . . your back yard smoker used to be a rest stop trashcan.
. . . you bought your last set of tires & your wedding dress at the same time. (tractor supply rocks!)
. . . you get lost in your own backyard.
. . . there was a deer on the hood of a car in the last funeral procession you were in.
. . . you own more cars than socks (hey, i don't wear socks!)
. . . you view duct tape as a long term investment.
. . . you can identify your friends by the sound of their mufflers.
. . . you receive a jar of pickled eggs as a wedding present.
. . . your first pet was a chicken (camilla!)
. . . your neighbors chip in to buy you a muffler.
. . . you are driving the car you were conceived in (hey a classic never dies!)

what i'm reading
Drums of Autumn by diana gabaldon (book cd in the house)
The Bonesetter's Daughter by amy tan (book tape in the car). i have to admit, this is kinda boring. i'll finish it out, but . . .
Something from the Nightside. dont ask me who wrote it, that would entail getting up and looking, and i'm lazy, remember?
A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffet. what an all around guy. this book is good. a little crazy (and what, from the father of all parrotheads, is not a little crazy?)

and there's your lot. i promise pictures next time (i think)

what a birthday

here's my sockpal000za sock. yes, it's only this far. the last was so mistake-ridden, that i decided to frog all the way down to the ribbing, and started over. while this reincarnation hasn't been exactly mistake-free, i've only found two, and i was able to do some creative knitting, and have fixed it. here's hoping the good knits continue. and now, for my "birthday" present.

Yup! mark & i went car shopping friday night, and actually went with the intention of just looking. however, we couldn't pass this baby up, so we brought it home to try for the weekend (hefty down payments tend to convince salespersons that we are sincere in our intent to buy, and they will do amazing things in turn!). i'm in lurv! it has automatic everything, plus a sun roof, which has only been closed when it's raining. we go sign the paperwork tonight (better take liam, they may want a first born, lol).

Mark & i went out to eat saturday night, and my mom watched the boys. we had a lovely time. the food, however, was so-so. this was a historical place that i'd never been to, and mark had gone several times as a child. i think that when the owner retires, so will the restaurant. sigh. however when we got home, mark surprised me, and stayed up with me. he always dies around 8 pm, so when 930 came, and he was still wide awake, we decided to watch monty python. i had so much fun saturday night!

well, i must off, i have a child to take to daycare, and a note to write. catch y'all on the flip side.