oy vey

i wasn't going to blog today, but i gotta speak up, sigh.

i got liam's grades today.

4 F's. 1 D. 1 C. 1 B. 1 A.

the F's were in classes he's been struggling with keeping up with the homework: science, social studies, language arts and lit.

the D was in Algebra, because he got himself so far behind.

the C was in computer applications. he hated that class last year, and doesn't like it any more this year.

the B was in health. from what i could get from the teacher, it was a super easy class. no homework. lots of movies. oy.

the A? Band. Mostly because he turns in so much practice time. we make him practice 30 minutes every evening, except thursdays, and saturdays (and sometimes he does then, too, it's just not mandatory for those days). the requirement is 100 minutes a week. you do the math. (ok, ok. without thursday and saturday, he turns in 150 minutes of practice time a week. that's what happens when your dad is a musician, lol)

i haven't gotten sean's grades yet. i'll have to check with his old foster dad. he got the last ones, because the school lost the superintendent's letter stating that sean was home with us again. i'll wait a few days and see. if not, i'll call the school, as well. funny part? the school KNOWS my last name has changed, but i'm still getting stuff from them in my maiden name. i know they know, because everybody calls me by my married name. i even filled out paperwork to that effect. but any relevant school paperwork that comes in the mail still comes in my maiden name. oy.

liam irritated me last night, as well. he was missing a social studies assignment, and forgot his book at school. sooooooooo. since they announced at school orientation before school started that the building was open until 10 pm, and that liam's counselor had brought her kid back at 8 pm to fetch a book, i knew i could take him back. so we went at 530, and we got his damned book. and he finished his assignment. he's actually doing pretty well, right now. he's a little behind in social studies, but still passing. lit has an A+ (100%!). Algebra is running an A. i haven't heard from science, or computer applications. Language arts isn't doing so hot, but he's slowly catching up with all his work. i know all this because i email his teachers on a regular basis. so he is turning it around. i just wish he wouldn't wait until last quarter of the year to do it. sigh.

here we go again

wanna see some more yarn?

This is "Twisted," by pigeonroof studios. it was very very sunny looking before i spun it up, but now looks vaguely autumnal. it's still very pretty, as far as i'm concerned. the funky picture is because i thought a piece of white paper behind it would help, and well, i got in a hurry, and the paper slipped a bit, lol. i'll be posting this at my etsy shop later on today. There's 303 yards of sock-dk weight yarn. i was pushing this, lol.

i've also been spinning some stuff from deb over at dudleyspinner. the color i'm doing right now is adelphia. there's 7 oz, so it's taking a bit of time. in fact, since i've been splitting the rovings in half to make it easier to ply them, i actually stopped in the middle of adelphia, and did twisted. i did half of twisted, then indulged in a couple of batts of the lincoln fleece i bought from tonya. because it's lincoln, it's coming up a bit prickly (bits sticking out) but it's soooooooooooo lovely. steel and silver and black and cream, and oooooooooooooooooo. i love spinning this stuff. i may investigate other ways to spin it. i'm doing short draw (i think?) right now. i'm going to see if i can find a way to make a smoother yarn with this.

speaking of spinning, i've finally named my wheel. i was reading margene's blog earlier this week (late last week? who knows, my days are blending), and saw that she named her wheel emmylou. as i read about her spinning exploits, it came to me. my wheel is named madeline. like the little french girl, she's independent, and sometimes gets in trouble (i'm on my 6th drive band, lol (nothing wrong with the wheel, just that much spinning!)), but still eventually gets there. i'll post a pic as soon as i get my camera back, and you can see madeline in all her (wobbly (i need to find an allen wrench, and tighten her up a bit, we've been going through the paces lately)) glory.

well, i'm off for now, i've got a diaper bag to finish (this one is sewn, from the pant legs i cut off sean's pants! recycle, recycle, recycle!), and some spinning to do.

100 books meme

found this at Leanne's blog

Bold the ones you've read.
Italicize the ones you want to read.
Leave Blank the ones you aren't interested in.
1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)(i own this, and have started it (repeatedly!) but just haven't finished. now i'm reading all of them as one book. i've actually finished the first one)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) (saw the movie, don't really feel the need to read the book (not my style, too tom clancyish)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

apparently, i'm not as well read as Leanne. i got 4. however, like my movie meme, i've got a ton of "want to"s. 32 to be exact. why yes, i'm a reader, lol. and the old classics like Les Miserables, and The Good Earth? i read them because i wanted to. i've got a drive to find out what all the hubbub is about with books like that.
(and look at those underlines! i put those in myself! i think i'm getting html a little bit, at least!)

movie/geek meme

got this from carin who seems to think she's a movie geek, lol.

DA RULES:
mark the ones you've seen. if it's over 85, you have no life.

( X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest*
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
(X ) Blazing Saddles
(X ) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
(X ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates*
( ) The Princess Diaries*
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement*
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(X ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
(X ) Resident Evil 1(until i threw up!)
( ) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
(x ) Lilo & Stitch
(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland*
(X) Signs
(x ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(x ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot*
( ) Robots*
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events*
( ) Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed*
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(X) King Kong
( ) A Cinderella Story
(X) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x ) Halloween
(x ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2*
( ) Surviving Christmas
( ) Flubber*
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy*
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
(X) The Day After Tomorrow
(x ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x ) Just Married
(x ) Gothika
(x ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x ) Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
(X) Predator I
(X) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
(x ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
(X) Independence Day
(x ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(X) E.T.
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( x) War of the Worlds
(x ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(X) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls*
( ) Sideways*
( ) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
( ) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
(x ) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(x ) The Terminator 3
(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
( ) X3*
(X) Spider-Man
( ) Spider-Man 2*
( ) Sky High
(x ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
(X) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
( ) Swimfan
(x ) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook*
( ) K-Pax*
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
(x ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(X) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
(x ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe*
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(X) Waterworld
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 1*
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2*
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes*
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
(X) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
(x ) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
(X) Hannibal

*these are on my netflix queue, so they'll be seen eventually!

and it's official i'm a geek. i had 90. sigh. if you add in the potentials iwth netflix, i've actualy got 111! sheesh!

the world's shortest books

FRENCH WAR HEROES by Jacques Chirac ______________________________________


THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY COUNTRY by Jane Fonda & Cindy Sheehan. Illustrated by Michael Moore ________________________________________

MY BEAUTY SECRETS by Janet Reno _________________________________________________

MY CHRISTIAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS & HOW I HELPED AFTER KATRINA by Rev Jesse Jackson & Rev Al Sharpton

_______________________________________

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT BILL by Hillary Clinton _________________________________

Sequel: THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HILLARY By Bill Clinton ___________________________________

MY LITTLE BOOK OF PERSONAL HYGIENE by Osama Bin Laden ___________________________________

THINGS I CANNOT AFFORD by Bill Gates

____________________________________

THINGS I WOULD NOT DO FOR MONEY by Dennis Rodman __________________________________

THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE by Al Gore & John Kerry
________________________________________

AMELIA EARHART'S GUIDE TO THE PACIFIC ___________________________________

A COLLECTION of MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES by Dr. J Kevorkian

_________________________________________________________

ALL THE MEN I HAVE LOVED BEFORE by Ellen de Generes & Rosie O'Donnel ____________________________________

GUIDE TO DATING ETIQUETTE by Mike Tyson __________________________________

THE AMISH PHONE DIRECTORY

___________________________

MY PLAN TO FIND THE REAL KILLERS by O.J. Simpson

__________________________________________

HOW TO DRINK & DRIVE OVER BRIDGES by Ted Kennedy

____________________________________________

MY BOOK OF MORALS by Bill Clinton with introduction by The Rev. Jesse Jackson

yarn harlot, here i come!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAWWWW!

i just made my hotel reservation to go see the yarn harlot in st paul. i'm so thrilled! wheeeee! i guess i'd better cast on a hat so i can "represent," huh?

*much happy dancing going on*

i'm going to take lots of notes. i'm going to take a sock. too bad i don't have a handknit i could take! i give all mine away! i know, i can take sean's hat, lol!

i'm going to be meeting a lot of people i've seen on blogs, and on my yahoo group AC4C. i'm just so thrilled!

*cartwheels & roundoffs!*

(i could only do that virtually, my fat ass couldn't handle them, lol)

ok, i need to go run around the house, and burn some of this energy off!

i've been busy

see these?

These are a small dent in my mileage for the L&V Sock Marathon. This is the same yellow & blue yarn i used to make these mittens. after these, i think i've got a thumb-sized ball of it, plus a thumb-sized ball of the xxl trekking color #69 (giggle). these are toddler sized, and i started them yesterday afternoon and finished them last night. fuuuuuuuuuuuuun stuff! definitely fraternal, lol. they're 4 1/2 inches from toe to heel, so i think that would fit a toddler (i hope!) as soon as i get the tails tucked, they will go in the box for Dulaan.

life has been interesting around here. Pray for me. i just volunteered to be a chaperone for a field trip for liam's band class. on friday. Gulp.

and the A+ classes started again today. the crappy part? it's from 9:09 to 9:39 on tuesday mornings. apparently, having it as the last period on fridays didn't work well, because kids were skipping out on the classes, and going home early. sigh. So, once again, i get the weekly torture of trying to teach kids to cast on & knit. there is one boy in the group this time, but i think he was forced. he did not look happy. there was another girl who wanted out RIGHT NOW. she hated it. poor things.

sean is taking origami, and liam is taking kitchen science (imagine that, getting to eat twice at school!) i think liam did it specifically because he thought he would get to eat, lol. i'll have to ask him what they did today. sean says they did cranes (sean threw up after lunch (greasy school food, sigh) so he's home now)

well, since my day has been all screwed up, i'll dash now. i've got some spinning to do before i go to the store.

bird calls

I love listening to birds (as long as it isn't 5 AM and i'm trying to sleep!). When i got here this morning, i could hear a cardinal. for those of you who don't know, a cardinal has a 2-tone call. high-low. very imitatable by a human. i ended up calling to the cardinal til i got in the house. but it made me think of something that happened when i was a kid.

When i was 14, my brothers and i had 4-H calves. (Did i ever tell y'all i grew up on a farm? It might explain some of my insanity, lol.) The layout of the farm was such that to get to the cattle shed you had to walk west from the house to the barn, then turn south towards the cattle shed. you couldn't see the shed until you'd turned by the barn.

one morning that summer i was walking down to the cattle shed when i heard a cardinal. i hadn't gotten to the barn yet. it was a game with my brothers and myself to see if we could keep the cardinal calling until we were bored. So i called back to it. It called back. This went on for several times, until i turned the corner by the barn.

There, i discovered my brother (2 years younger than me (i was 14 at the time) who has a wicked sense of sarcasm, and will ride anybody if he gets the chance), calling back. This one time, he was unaware that i wasn't a real cardinal, and i hadn't realized he wasn't a real cardinal til i walked 'round that corner and saw him with his lips frozen in pre-whistle mode. Maybe cardinals are TOO easy to imitate, lol.

(and no, no pics. i forgot to load pics on flickr, so you'll have to wait til tomorrow)

you'll love this

Omaha Barbie collection.

Millard Barbie This princess Barbie is only sold at Village Point. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a cookie cutter house. Available with or without tummy tuck and face-lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with "augmented" version.

Dundee Barbie This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, archless feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her " Willow ." She does not want or need a Ken doll, but you if purchase two Dundee Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag sticker for free.

South Omaha Barbie This Spanish Speaking only Barbie comes with a 1984 Toyota with expired temporary plates and three baby Barbies in the back seat, but no car seats. the optional Ken doll comes with a Meat Packers uniform and is missing three fingers on his left hand. Green Cards are not available for Barbie or Ken.

Bennington Barbie This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.

North Omaha Barbie This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy with dark tinted windows and a Meth Lab in it. This model is only available after dark and can only be paid for in cash-preferably small, untraceable bills. Unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking about.

Council Bluffs Barbie This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six pack of Coors light and a Hank Williams, Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when he's drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

West Omaha Barbie This modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full time occupation or secondary education. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately.

Benson Barbie This tobacco chewing, brassy haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased Beer-Gutted Ken out of Council Bluff's Barbie's house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid washed jeans, fake fingernails, and a see through alter-top. Also available with a mobile home.

Regency Barbie This collagen injected, rhino plastic Barbie wears undergarments from Borsheims and drinks cosmopolitans while entertaining friends at Gorat's. Percocet prescription available.

Florence Barbie This Barbie swears she doesn't live in omaha, and comes with an annual ticket to the Florence City Players, a spot in the Florence Days parade, and a job at the Western Star. Ken is also available with a pick up truck with roll bars, and hunting dog.

ok

Edit: I added pictures (for those of you who wonder why this post showed up again on bloglines, lol)

i know, no pics yet, but i'm working on it. i'll just upload them to flickr, and then post them.

so, imagine for now, there'll be pics later.

i got sucked in again at AC4C, lol. i didn't want to commit to anything this month, just cuz my brain has been fried over the last two months. but i got sucked in, lol. they're doing something similar to what they did in feb, but for a group in Michigan. they need diaper bags. so, i decided, what the heck. a crocheted bag is a breeze, particularly if you use 3 strands of yarn and a huge ass hook. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO. . . .

(here's where the imagination comes in. imagine a big tote-style bag, with the handles worked in as a part of the bag, in black & red) this was when i ran out of yarn for the night.

i almost ran out of red yarn doing this one! the handles are a bit off-set (i wasn't paying attention, i was in crochet fast mode!), but it's definitely a useable bag. and the funny part is that when Mom was over last night with Dad for corned beef and cabbage, she said not to be surprised if it went walkabout with her. must have turned out nice! mark was so impressed with it when he got home on friday, that he asked if i could make music equipment bags with the same technique. apparently the chef at his work was hunting stuff for his equipment, and ended up buying camera cases, because they're padded. mark said he may see if he can find a place to advertise things like that, and who knows, i may be off and running again!

anyway, that first bag went so quickly (i started it tuesday about 4 pm, had to stop at 7 cuz i RAN OUT OF YARN, then, when i got more yarn wednesday morning, had it finished by the time he came home for lunch), i decided to volunteer to make another one. this one is in pinks. well, mostly pinks. i've got a red heart giant that is called sunrise (or some such) that is pink and white, and little bits of yellow.
(imagine it here)

it's quite pretty, and the bag is turning out nicely. as an experiment, i did it with 4 strands to see if that would make a thicker, cushier fabric, since mark said the red/black wasn't quite thick enough. looks nice so far, but with the same # of base stitches, i'm actually getting a smaller bag? go figger.

well, i'm off like a herd of turtles, since mark's beer is warming in the van, along with the boys' candy bars (they've been REALLY good today). i'll post more tomorrow.

sigh

ok, this is frustrating. apparently something is wrong with mark's computer. i can't access blogger, or my bank from his computer.

so, all my pics are on his computer! gah!

anyway, go check my etsy site. i've uploaded 2 more skeins of yarn. they're goblin elbows super wash by tara. i'm also working on easter egg ornaments, which i'll be putting up shortly. i think you'll like!

well, since the in laws are coming for corned beef and cabbage i'd better scram

ERIN GAE BRAGH!

let's see

i've been extremely laggardly about posting. just haven't been feeling it, sorry.

and to warn you, this will be a picture heavy post. i'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind.

let's start with this:

These are the wyvern socks. i got this pattern from marnie, the same lovely lady who wrote the dragon hoodie pattern. for those who don't know, wyverns are a wingless type of dragon :).

How about these?:

These were made with the remnants of the yarn from the wyvern socks.

The yarn was trekking xxl colorway # 69 (giggle). the toes & heels are lisa souza sock merino in the colorway Emerald City. I had actually used this yarn to make the test socks for miss lime, but you won't see those. at least not until the book comes out, lol.

these two pair plus the test knit ones have winged their way to san francisco as a stop on their way to afghanistan. miss lime also sent a pair along with mine. fetching those was an adventure! as most of you know, there was a HUGE snowstorm last week, that shut down a large part of the country on thursday, and even friday in some parts. i went NOWHERE thursday. mark even ended up coming home early. when he called at noon to tell me they were talking about closing at 1, i got the boys bundled up and we went outside to scoop. sean has a pair of snowpants that still barely fit, so he was the last one out the door. just as he shut the door, i checked my pockets and realized i didn't have my housekey. we were locked out. 10 inches of snow on the ground, howling winds, and we were locked out. no cell phone, no keys, no way to get in the van. sigh. i was able to dig out the garage (we had blocked the door because we had had possums hiding in the back of it, and the "expert" we called said if we blocked the door for a few days, they'd find somewhere else to go. of course, the door never got unblocked because we don't use the garage, as it's too small to be of much use to our monstor vehicles), and had the boys go in there, so they'd be out of the wind. i knew mark would be home in an hour or so, so we could have toughed it out in there, but i'm stubborn. i did find a window that was unlocked, and squirmed in the house (i'm getting too old to break into my own house any more!), and let the kids in. sean's first words? "mom, you saved our lives!" of course, now, every time we go outside for anything other than going some where, sean checks to make sure the door is unlocked, lol.

going to fetch the socks from miss lime was an adventure as well. while driving there wasn't too bad, driving back was actually worse. we had taken a different route back, and while 60th street is normally considered a major street, it hadn't been plowed very much. it was actually like driving on a washboarded country road in spots, there was so much snow. even worse? ames avenue. this is a major street leading from north omaha to the rest of omaha, and it was hideous. some poor slob had to stop just before the crest of a hill on 52nd st, and couldn't get going again, in the middle lane. i tried to give him room, but nobody would let me back down the hill to do so. finally, after 3 light cycles, i got backed down far enough for him to squirm over to the outer lane, where there was some dry pavement. he was able to make it up the hill in that lane. since i drive a lovely, HEAVY front-wheel-drive minivan, i was able to make it back up the hill in that lane.

steph bought a car. i'd show you a picture, but she hasn't sent me the one she took yet, so you'll just have to imagine it. it's a 2005 dodge stratus. my mom cosigned the loan with her, so she got better interest than i did! she bought it the day before the storm, lol. she ended up not coming in to work thursday, and they told her she'd have to take points. that made her very unhappy, but she wasn't going to risk her life for a stupid job. as it was, they closed at 230, and they forgave all points for that day. she went to work friday, but it was blowing so hard, she gave up after lunch, and went home early. it was just as well, because blair ended up being in a blizzard warning again. the real pain in the butt thing? her roommate's boss came and got her to take her to work on thursday, so steph went to pick her up. when she got out of the car, the wind caught the door and slammed her hand in it hard enough to make the door latch. fortunately, no broken bones, but all the clinics had closed at 1 on thursday, so she had to go to the emergency room to get it treated. since she doesn't have insurance, that will be expensive. i did tell her to talk to them when she got the bill, and make payment arrangements.

ok, ready for more pics?

this blurry pic is a baby sweater/hat/bootie combo that is going to the Binky Patrol in california. they're made with Caron Simply Soft Brites, colorway Limeade. this yarn is VERY soft.

This is the same set, done in redheart supersaver colorway stars and stripes. i'm going to have to take my camera in, i think. the focus is messing up. these weren't even zoomed a bit, and they're blurry, sigh.

This is the same sweater done in baby yarn (don't ask me what kind, i don't have the label any more, although it's the same yarn that i used for steph's turtle, oh so long ago) using baby yarn made this turn out a large preemie size, which is what i was aiming for. this pic was taken a couple weeks ago, which may be why it didn't turn out so blurry.

This hat & bootie set go with the above sweater. i made the hat so that it would be open at the top if necessary (that bow is actually a drawstring), as they sometimes run IV's for preemies to the top of their heads, because the skin on their arms/legs/ hands can be so thin, and the blood vessels are bigger there.

Here's another preemie sweater. i actually had to adapt a pattern for a micro-preemie, which was done in baby yarn, so that i could use worsted yarn. you can see how tiny it is. i made the sleeves extra big so it would be easier to get the little one's arms in and out.

This hat was done in granite stitch crochet, with the same kind of drawstring feature i mentioned earlier.

These were some more scarves i sent with robyn to chicago last month. i'm going to stop here for now, as i'm not sure what pictures i've actually downloaded, lol. i'll catch y'all on the flip side (i'm hungry too, it's lunch time!)