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!)

it's time

y'all know i don't do politics. all it causes is anger, and strife, and angst, between people who would normally get along just fine.

this is a little deeper than politics.

i watched the bob woodruff special tonight. i still need a tissue. the tears were very real. the pain was very real. watching him try to recover his sense of self, and speech, and everything else that went with recovering from a traumatic brain injury, was very intense.

what caused me to cry was watching the families that he followed after his recovery. the worst was the man who will live out the rest of his days in a hospital bed, with a trach tube, and will probably never speak or move on his own again.

here are some frightening statistics.

there have been 1.5 million soldiers through iraq since the war started.

of those 1.5 million, approximately 10% will have some sort of brain injury.

of those 150,000, a large number have closed brain injuries.

the way they explained it, anyone who has been exposed to an IED, or any large concussive explosion, has their brain bounced around in their skull so badly it can cause trauma. think concussions cubed.

there have been calls to screen all returning soldiers for these closed-brain injuries, so that they can be given the maximum amount of help in an expeditious manner.

it's not being done.

of those who are returned home, after going to a rehab center after leaving the major hospitals, have trouble getting help. they showed one man who was supposed to have all his care arranged when he went home, and when they got there, nothing was in place. they waited weeks, and while they waited, he ended up having more trouble, and backslid from where he was when he left rehab.

the local VA hospitals, such as we have here in omaha, are poorly prepared to handle these TBI patients (traumatic Brain Injury), and don't know what to do to help them. in fact, most end up in private therapy, with the defense department paying for it. when they do get help. these hospitals have done nothing but deal with an aging veteran population (for the most part), with the last action being the Gulf War in 1990/1991. they're being asked to deal with these men, understaffed, underfunded, and underprepared.

This is a travesty. I've never served (but i did try, twice), but my brothers have, and my sister-in-law has. My uncles did (my dad was hard of hearing, they woulnd't take him) in WWII. My boys want to. They deserve better than this.

it's time to stop. it's time to stop subjecting our men & women to a situation that we are not helping, and may well be hindering. bring them home.

socks that rock!

i finished my first pair of socks for the L&V Sock Marathon. I've been using sock yarn, but this is the first pair of socks that i've done. they are the wyvern pattern from marnie. click on her patterns page, and it will take you there. these were made from trekking #69 (there goes the inner 12-year-old!), with size #2 lantern moon sox stix i won from sheri @ the loopy ewe (do i really need to link them?)

wanna see?

i know, you wanted to see them on feet. my camera is AWOL at the moment, so this is the best i could do. they look a little odd because they are done with 2x2 ribbing on the sole and the back of the leg. this makes them more form fitting. as much as i normally prefer bright colors, this colorway is definitely attractive. i tried to make these with full repetitions, however, which resulted in them being a tad bit too long for me. that's ok. i had wanted to make socks for A4A for their sock drive, and since they are due march 7, i got these done just in time. while technically this is a lace pattern, the holes are minimal. these will make some school age child very happy. they will go in the wash tomorrow, and into the van (mark smokes, so i'm trying to prevent "contamination") to dry. they will probably be mailed tuesday. I have a hat done for the circus people at A4A as well (they do something with school age children & they had specific colors they wanted (primary green is what i did)).

this pattern was easily memorized. in fact, after i finished sock #1 on wednesday at the school knitting club, i didn't start the next one until friday afternoon. i finished up #2 tonight, and had no problems swinging right back into the pattern after i had finished the short row toe. Whee!

more later, i wanna finish the other Ms. Lime sock (i'm on a finishing roll!)

gandhi

i decided to watch a movie on HBO on Demand (only reason why we have HBO is because mark got digital cable along with phone & internet), since i hadn't watched one in a few weeks. i was scrolling through all the available movies, and Gandhi was on the list. Since it was set to expire tomorrow, i thought i'd give it a shot. I knew it was the Best Picture winner for 1982 (or would that be 1983?), and that ben kingsley was in it, but not much else.

i am in awe. if this movie was anything like an accurate rendering of his life, mahatma gandhi was the most forgiving, unimaginably compassionate man on earth. i was outraged at the Indians' treatment in South Africa (well, any one of "color" for that matter!), and his way of resolving it. what i hadn't known was that at the end of his life, he had been planning a trip to pakistan, with the hopes of making peace between hindus and muslims. one scene sticks out in my mind, toward the end of the movie. he is leaving the compound (asrah?) to go meet with the muslim leader who had helped the rest of the indian leaders fight for independence, because of the whole india/pakistani split. the young men had been chanting "death to muslims!" as he left, someone begged him not to go. his response: "I am muslim. I am hindu. I am Sikh. I am jew. I am India." wow. he wanted a united india.

i also did not know he was a contemporary of nehru. now i know where the beatles got their clothes, lol.

and, of course, the one thing that you KNOW i noticed: the spinning. gandhi spun cotton. (who would spin wool in india, to be realistic!). he wore his own homespun. he used a charkha (the book type). he also used some other thing that almost looked like a walking wheel, except they used it sitting down, and the wheel was turned by a crank. there was one scene where he drove by, and there were dozens of women sitting by the side of the road cheering him on, spinning on those wheels.

as the movie ended, i sat there with my mouth open.

just wish it hadn't taken me 25 years to decide to see it.

what can i say

it's hard to post when you're trying to cough up a lung.

this is mostly why i hate so much having a "real" cold. when i was 4, i had pneumonia, so whenever i get an intense cold, it starts in my head, then migrates to my chest, where i end up living on halls & nyquil (i don't care about the decongestant at that point, i can actually breathe quite easily. it's the coughing that keeps me up all night that sucks). i forgot my nyquil last night, and woke up at 2 coughing so hard i couldn't see (i know, it was dark, but i couldn't see anything) i thought for a minute i was going to stroke out. i didn't get up with mark this morning, and when the alarm went off at 6:15, i almost cried, my head hurt so bad. not migraine bad, because my migraines run on one side of my head. this was on ALL of my head, sigh. fortunately, a handful of painkillers has taken it down to a tolerable level, except for one small problem.

today is parent teacher conference day. sigh. the kids get out at 11, and they start at 1230, so i have to scram in a little bit here. i hate days like this. at least they only take half-days 2 times a year, for parent teacher conferences. i would like to know, however, why the hell they're having these when the quarter is only half way done? quarter ends MARCH 16! blooming idiots.

anyway, i have two new yarns up on my etsy site:



this is goose. this was dyed by miss vi, and it's 100% domestic wool. 223 yds of sock-dk weight lovliness.





then there's this:
This is platinum, by Erin of Mama C*eye*berfibers.


This is a 50/50% superwash merino/tencel blend,which means it's machine washable! there's approximately 160 yards of dk-worsted weight, there.

go on, check them out! i gotta scram, i got laundry to do before my day devolves into sitting in lines for hours. oy.

bad blogger

(curse new blogger and its tendency to insert huge spaces when you add pictures!)

I know, i know, bad blogger, no posties.

i've either been too bored, or too tired, or recently, too sick. blech.

a few funny things though.

i had bought a purple cauliflower, and had decided to experiment with the left over cooking water. i had about 5 yards of some left over handspun merino that i had used for Herbie, so i put the cooking liquid in a bowl, and tossed in the pre-soaked yarn. and it sat in the fridge. and sat. and sat. well, tuesday, i had gotten a chicken out for supper wednesday night, and mark was putting it in the fridge. he found the container, and said "ew worms!" while iw as in the kitchen (we have 2 fridges, one is in the spare bedroom, and catches anything that would be extra or harmed by being frozen (the one in the kitchen runs super cold)). i heard him in the bathroom when he said this, then i heard the toliet flush. i ran to the bathroom, to find him holding the container my yarn had been in. "YOU FLUSHED MY YARN!" he got this guilt-stricken look on his face, and he said "i thought it was left-over french onion soup! i was even going to joke about it being in the fridge for so long it had turned purple! I'm sorry!" i couldn't help but laugh at that. i forgave him, since he didn't know, but now he knows to make sure something really is food before he flushes, lol. and then i said "thank you honey, you just gave me some good blog fodder!" he laughed at that, and said he would probably be the most hated man in all of knitdom.

and now for some sadness.

stephanie and her roommate had gotten a puppy 4 months ago. everybody else had a pet at the complex they live in, but apparently, the manager had decided that sadie was too big. she was a golden retriever/black lab cross. so steph had been trying to find someone to take her, either on a permanent basis, or until they could move in june. a friend of hers volunteered, but he flaked out on her, so now she's permanently pissed at him. they had finally decided to take her to the humane society, because they HAD to get rid of her, and were actually on their way out of town when another friend, who knew their plight, called and said "we'll take the dog." the friend's husband only worked part time, and liked to run, and wanted to take sadie with him on his runs. and steph could still visit her. goodness all around. until 2 days later when steph found out this "friend" took sadie to the humane society anyway. now, sadie was only 6 months old. very lively. i've said before she had springs in her legs & rubber in her butt, but was a sweet pup, none the less. she just needed some training. steph was very upset, but figured that since sadie was just a wee lassie, she'd be adopted out in no time, and have a good home.

monday, my cell rang, and i answered to hear sobs. steph had been trying to see if sadie was on their website, so she could give them the correct information, because the "friend" had given them the wrong information as to her age, and breed, etc. they finally got an answer out of the humane society monday. apparently, even though sadie passed every other test they had, the one she failed was fatal. she had hip dysplasia. they put her to sleep. (scuse, me i need a tissue.) i don't blame the humane society, they were just following their rules. they can't give out a dog that has health issues. what was frustrating is that they had just had sadie to the vet a couple weeks before, and he said she was healthy. I'm also very angry with the "friend." If they really couldn't deal with the dog, why didn't they tell steph, so that she could find an alternative home for her. once the dog had gone to the pound, several people (including us) said that we would have kept the dog temporarily. i hadn't told mark she had a dog before, but did after this, and that's when he said we could have kept her for a while. meanwhile, steph is upset. even her msn messenger name is "i miss sadie :*(" she had a bunch of questions about hip dysplasia, which i answered as best as i could, but the one thing i can't do is bring the puppy back. sigh.

ok, how bout some pics?

this was dyed by Miss Vi, and she named it "goose." this pic isn't the greatest, but it's lavendary-grey with splashes of mauvey pink. very nice. it's approximately sockweight, 223 yards. it's going up tonight on my etsy shop.This is "Liam." i got the roving from dudleyspinner. custom requested color, and it's NIIICE. it's actually a little darker than this, but this is very hard to photograph, as the camera wants to pick up the highlights more. i thought i'd downloaded a pic of "sean," but apparently not. you'll get that one next time.

these are the last 2 hat/bootie sets i needed to finish, plus the extra booties for the dragon sweater. funny part is this is the same pattern, knit on the same needles, and look at the difference in sizes!

This is Norbert. He's Norberta's little brother, as i didn't double-strand when i knit this up. this is the Knitty pattern from from the winter 2006 issue. he went with the dragon sweater (which was meant for a boy, hence Norbert and not Norberta).

These are 7 of the 8 scarves i've knit for robyn. she's taking these with her to chicago for breast cancer survivors. i've got one more on the needles as we speak, and may try to whip up a few more before she leaves next week. since all they are is 10 (or 8 depending on the yarn) stitches in garter stitch, they go fast. i can whip one up in a day.

in case you've noticed, i've been posting a lot of my charity stuff here. my intent is to keep some sort of log, and at the end of the year, i'll count up, and see how many i've actually made. if it's a sweater/hat/bootie set, it counts as 3, because each item could be worn separately, even though it's intended to be together.

ok, now i must flee, steph wants me to cash her check, and i gotta run to my house cuz i never did yesterday, and i gotta get the mail, and grab some yarn for another super secret project.

keep your eyes on the prize

I had entered a contest over at the Loopy Ewe. actually, it was Sheri's blog, but close enough, lol. She had bought the doors from her grandparents' house, because it was being torn down, and wanted to know about our memories, and if we'd done something nutty like that. i left a comment, about the delft china door knobs & switch plates i had taken from my grandmother's house, because we knew the house was to be torn down. well, i won, via random number generator, lol. this is what i got:

What you're seeing is a skein of cherry tree hill supersock sock yarn, a set of Lantern Moon Sock Stix (in some dark wood, they're just yummy!), samples of wool wash, a Sock Yarn Diary, and the most darling card! And all i thought i'd get is sock yarn. Wow! Thanks, Sheri!

And this has been a week for packages! I finally got my Violet's Pink Ribbon (ask, and i'll post a pic, most of you have seen it before, lol). Thanks Lisa!

and package #3? from my secret pal, who isn't a secret any more, lol! Lindsey Behrend, from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hey Lindsey! you didn't send a blog addy! Give it up, woman! And here is what she sent:

What you're seeing is 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn (i can't remember the name, lol, 2 balls of some yummy blue stuff (the box is at my house, lol, so i can't remember waht the name was), a glass canister filled with chocolate covered almonds (spot on there, lindsey!), citrus soap, a Love pearl kit (you get sent a tin with a mollusk in it that you open to find a pearl, and a necklace to put the pearl in!), 2 different boxes of gum, a pretty berry/lavendar candle, a box of hand-dipped truffles (don't worry, lindsey, i'm hiding these!), some tootsie pops for the boys, a tootsie roll, a post card from her show at college (she's an art type!), and magazines from her area. the pop rocks she sent are already gone (steph got them, since it was her birthday, and it's the only candy she can eat!). woohoooo! thanks a ton lindsey, these are fantastic! and here's a few things i've been working on lately:

This set is one of the promised for AC4C.

The Dragon Sweater! i did do a few alterations. No spots (i was ready to murder by then), i crocheted the ears onto the hood, crocheted the ridge onto the back, and added a pointed tail. dragonny enough for ya? i think i'll send a copy of this pic to Marnie, since it's her pattern.

This hat was started last summer, for dulaan. of course, i got sick of it, and it sat in Time Out for months. well, i finally decided i needed the needles, and since i hate putting things on stitch holders just cuz i want the needles, i decided to finish it. it looks funky like that because the bottom was done with the lime green mohair i had won from the ABC along, and the top was the brown mohair that i had given natalie when i was her secret pal. she could never figure out what to do with it, so when she put it up for her destashing, i got it back, lol. her contribution to dulaan! and finally, a pic of the birthday girl:

We went to Ameristar to the buffet for dinner that night (her request). i couldn't get a decent picture in the place to save my life, i'll tell ya! after this, she went to lincoln, and drank herself silly. Who's heard of a shot drink called frog sperm? what's in it? that, plus a cement mixer, and a scooby snack, and god knows what else. good thing she took tuesday off, lol!

so, anyway, i've got tons to do, so i gotta scram! TTFN!

fun stuff

enjoy

growl

i didn't want to do it. they made me. i'm in the new blogger. oy. we'll see how this works.

anyway, i was supposed to post a pic of the bunting from hell last friday, but i got lazy. so here it is:

This is the third picture i took of this little bugger, and i had to go outside to do it. the bright bits don't pop as much as they appear in this pic, but you know how that crap goes. as miss vi put it at S&B thursday, baby could play outside in the arctic and be comfy! it's soft, but my god, is it dense!

And my contribution to the Holiday Headstart thingie:

i know it's a dishcloth. i've had this cone of peaches & cream for over a year, with the intent of making holiday dishclothes for my family & friends, and never got 'round to it. so this is #1. who knows what else i'll make for the holidays. i'm not inspired yet, i'm still worn out from last month!

other knitting progress. i got hat/bootie set #1 started. the booties are done and the hat is in the decreasing stage. i'll post a pic as soon as it's done. i did have to cheat a bit, as i ran out of the yarn i was using.

i'm up to the hood on the dragon sweater. now all i gotta do is assemble, knit spots and attach, and figure out how i'm going to close it (i really don't wanna use a zipper. oh, and the ridge. mustn't forget the ridge.

that leaves me 2 more sets of hats/booties, and norbert. ugh.

i'm definitely cutting back for next month!

and since i know you've had a hankerin' for this, here we go:

you might be a redneck if you carry more than two extra tires in the back of your truck.

. . . you've taken a pregnancy test and a sobriety test on the same day.

. . .you were married in a Laundromat.

. . . you think a "sex change" means trying the backseat.

. . . a screwdriver is required to open the trunk of your car.

. . . your bucket seats are real buckets.

And i've already started myself out behind on the Pattern a Day calendars. sigh.

Let's finish out 2006, shall we?

Knitting

9/1-3: Hooded Baby Sweater. At least i think it is, lol. another one of those patterns i pulled out to work. i may have to change it a bit for the purpose i have, but it is cute!

9/4: Silly Snake Scarf. Very cute, but it's done on a knitting machine. sigh.

9/5: Autumn Shrug. This is supposed to be one size fits most (i'll be glad when they get rid of that "all" thing. most things that fit "all" don't fit me!).it's hard to gauge this pattern (get it, gauge? ok, i'll just review then, since you obviously do not appreciate my comedic talent (sniff)), because there's one crappy pic. i don't thinkso, though.

9/6: Julia's Hat. At first i just thought this was an ordinary short-row hat. then i looked closer. teh "popcorn" is very un-bobble-like, and the fringe is actually knit in as well. rock on!

9/7: Opal Fall POncho. made with doublestranded sock yarn. i can think of a better use for sock yarn, like socks for A4A (go knit a pair for them, they want 250 prs by March 7. let's blow their doors off!)

Crocheting:

2006

9/1: Strip Method Rose Pattern. Really pretty. i could see attaching a lot of these on hats (not my type of hat, but i know a lot of people who like those kinds of hats)

9/2-3: Dolls! I could see making a plethora of these for little girls. wheee! (there's that granny lust going again!)

9/4-5: Framed Sunset. this is a Dude square. very nice. but too lacey for most of my purposes.

9/6: Universal Shell Lace Hat. this is very nice. and simple. and SOOOOOOOOOO not me, not in that namby pamby peach pastel crap. gimme color!

9/7: Fall Poncho. Doesn't any body get that ponchos are out again? Huh?

ok, i'm tired, i'm going to go take a nap now. gotta gear up for the PARTY CELEBRATION!

(steph's 21, today, wait for the post, lol)

never forget

auschwitz is crumbling. the Holocaust deniers would have you believe this is all made up by a bunch of paranoid jews.

i don't know anyone who survived the camps. i don't even know anyone who's parents/grandparents/great-grandparents survived. but we must never forget.

those who forget are destined to live history again.

Dilatory

if you don't know what it means look it up.

my stab at educating the world, i suppose!

and i'm so excited! i just listed my first item on etsy.com!

go look! i'll wait!

this is what i'm selling:
i know, it's not a lot, but it's there! this is some domestic wool blend that ms vi had for sale at the OW&SG last fall. i hadn't bought it with the intent of selling, but i need money, and this turned out quite well. and yes, i do have permission from ms vi to use her name when i listed this. it's approximately 169 yards of dk-worsted weight. and yummy! i had to wait 2 days to get enough sun to take a pic, sigh.

I finally finished the Bunting from Hell. i'll post a pic after i wash it (joplin kept trying to sleep on it). as ms violet said last night at S&B, it's so thick & warm a baby could play outside in the arctic and be comfey. the dragon sweater continues apace. i'm up to the second sleeve. miss vi is looking for sock pattern designers for her book, so i'm digging up stitch dictionaries and needles & yarn like mad, lol! and i've been doing alot of the funfur scarves for robyn . i'm up to 7. i did one at S&B last night, and just gave it to her when i wove in the last end.

life has been a tad bit boring, lately. the usual rounds of school, home, my house, my mom, etc. i got my van back monday night. i was in the driver's seat for approximately 4 hours that night, sigh. i had to drive to blair to pay for steph's car (she better be getting a doozy of a refund!), then have her follow me back to council bluffs with the van so we could take the in-laws thunderbird back to them, then drove the girls back to blair, then came home. didn't eat dinner til almost 8, sigh.

oh wait, there was one interesting thing that happened. go see this. i'll be doing some baking around here!

my hubby loves me! he tried to surprise me with it, but i caught him with his credit card out, and closing a window on the computer so i couldn't see. he finally broke down and told me monday. this is my valentine's gift, and 6 month anniversary gift, and "baby you treat me so well" gift.

What i'm reading now:
John Adams by David McCullough (book tape at mark's (almost done!)) (ok, i just heard "the end!")
Witch Hunt by Ian Rankin (booktape at my house)
The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips(booktape in the van)
Knitgrrl by Shannon Okey
Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell Hamilton
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

and i'm off like a herd of turtles again!

well.. .

i know, it's been a while. and i've been lazy about posting. how about a couple of pics to make up for it?
This is a hat/bootie set that i made a commitment for to match a sweater that someone else on the AC4C board is making. i've timed myself on these booties, and minus seaming, they take 50 minutes each. i think with seaming it's an hour. and i have the pattern memorized. gotta love it. the hat is the knitting-in-the-round on straight needles from the twisted sisters sock workbook. i love that technique! i've made another set since this one, lol, but it's to go with a flamingo-colored sweater i just finished last night. i'm actually starting to be a bit hopeful that i will finish everything i committed to this month. i'm almost done with the blasted bunting; i just have to knit the sleves, seam it, and sew on the buttons. oh wait, i was also going to fake a hood to put on it. growl.

the dragon sweater continues apace, although it's kinda stalled out. can't tell you why i don't particularly care to work on it, but it's not inspiring me much. i have the back, left front, and most of the right front done. i need to finish the right front, the sleeves, the hood, and then do the colored patches and the back ridge. i also need to do a pair of booties for this. and norbert. arrrrrrrrrrgh! (dragon sounds, ya know!)

the flamingo set is done! woohoo!

then i need to do 3 more hat/bootie sets in red, blue, and variegated pink. none of those are started yet, but they are quick to make.

and what am i doing right now? i just cast on a fun fur scarf for robyn over at warm with love. she's collecting them for a breast cancer thing. go ask her, she'll give you the skinny.

I've been doing a lot of spinning lately, as well. i just finished a roving dyed by miss vi, and it's very pretty. i just signed up for an etsy shop, so it may go on there if i can get decent piccage soon (prays for s un!)

What I'm reading now:
John Adams by David McCullough (book tape in mark's house, i'm getting there, it's got 26 cd's, and i'm on 22!)
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Knitgrrl: Learn to Knit by Shannon Okey
Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire hunter, yummy!)
The Egyptologyst by Arthur Phillips (booktape in the van, when i get it back!)
Eat Right 4 Your Type by Peter D'Amado (this one just moved to the top of the queue, it's overdue, and i just tried to renew it and it wouldn't let me, sigh)
Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

no booktape at my house cuz i just finished one this afternoon.
ok, well, i'm off like a herd of turtles.

float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

Edit: i had a link to muhammed ali, as it was his birthday, hence the title. there was supposed to be a blurb about fighting the big fight now, etc, etc, after "there'll never be another like.. ." growl. i also had a bit about a 72-year old man who was rookie of the year in 1966 for NASCAR, who is trying to qualify for the Daytona 500 this year. and blogger just ate it like so many cookies. crap.
there'll never be another like coffee to perk themselves up? just be careful where it's coming from. anymore, you have to watch the sources of ANYTHING you buy nowadays!

ok, on to mundane crap.

it's a good thing i love my daughter. she called me tuesday morning telling me that her car wouldn't start. with the extreme cold, it didn't surprise me. it's an older car (1990!). i told her i wouldn't be able to make it up there, so she took preVTO until 4. she ended up taking the whole day off, cuz she absolutely could not get the bloody thing to jump start. on top of that, she couldn't get her trunk open, either. i think the lock froze. so i told her i'd come yesterday morning, and we'd try again. nothing. just a click. so i'm thinking battery. i took her to work, and then after she called for me to pick her up, we got a new battery, and went back to blair to replace it. THREE fucking hours later, we got the new battery in. mark had sent wrenches to take the cables off, but forgot to send something to take the stabilizer block off the battery. we ended up going to Pamida to buy a cheap socket set, took apart the air filter cover, and finally got the battery changed. click. FUCK! by this time we were both frozen solid, because while the temps were in the mid 20's, there was a good south wind, which was blowing the snow off the roof of the apartment building and into our faces. it took TWO cups of tea to warm me up enough to sleep last night.

to cap everything else off, steph has a dog, and i swear that thing is either part jack russell terrier, or she's got springs in her legs and rubber in her butt! she would NOT stop jumping, no matter what. i finally got a hand in her collar, and made her sit. EVERY TIME I WALKED INTO THE APARTMENT. damned dog. i know she's a puppy, but those damned claws hurt. and yes, for those of you who have dogs, i praised her every time she sat still for me, but it was a struggle. i'm done raising babies, oy.

ok, enough bitching.

no pics, i'm too frigging lazy to download them. in case you haven't noticed, it's 6 in the blessed a.m.

however, there's progress on everything, including the cursed bunting. i need to get my butt in gear though, today's the 18th, and i want to mail everything on the 1st of february. move it, move it, move it!

ok, i'm scramming now. i gotta get the boys up in 15 minutes, and i want a little more quiet time.

to drink, perchance to dream

ok, i found this really cool site on the L&V message board (i always do, don't i?)

it's this. this week's challenge is to write a piece of poetry with the magnetic poetry kit, and there are several online resources. then, create a piece of artwork that pertains to the poem.

here's my poem (i picked the shakespeare kit, lol)

Methinks a dream drunk
Doth measure melancholy
Though it deceiveth me
As if I were a drunkard myself.

i'll be posting my artwork later. too cool!

well

here's a few things i found and saved JUUUUUUUUUUST for y'all:http://www.monstercrochet.com/TomatoPattern.html these are so frigging cute! go ahead, and cruise the site in general. they've got bits like severed fingers.
and this sounds cool! i think it's much better than american idol, fer sure. i may even try to enter! now, where did i put that manuscript?

i don't have any pics, i'm too lazy. i've also been sick all day, blech. which leads to my simple pleasure: having a man who is willing to take care of it all when i can't, and i know is capable of it. a HUGE front came through, and i was miserable and achy all day. my arthritis was kicking up, i was achy, and i was verging on a migraine all day. i did get up and function to the point of making lunch for the boys (if you can call heating a can of soup and cutting up an avocado making lunch). mark asked if i would take the boys over to my house for a few hours so they could scoop, and he could get a few hours of alone time, since he didn't get his afternoon yesterday (i'll explain more later). the boys scooped, then came in and read. i finished up the roving that erin got for me in Minneapolis a year and a half ago. i've been spinning on this since last summer. and i actually got something similar to what i had on the previous bobbin! i started plying, but we'd been there over 2 hours at that point, and with the snow coming down, i thought we'd better scoot. i'll show you pics when i get it plied. i'm planning on making marnie's gloves that she's just posted. go see, they're cool! it's a different color than she's got, but i still think they'll be nice.

i'm still knitting away on charity stuff. however, i did finish the test sock for miss lime. remind me to tell her about any corrections! i cast on the other sock thursday night (she got to see the finished one, i kitchenered the toe at S&B), but haven't gotten far. i've been knitting away on this. i'm not using any of the recommended yarns. this is for AC4C for one of the sets for BOL. it's a dragon set! i'm also going to do matching booties, and norberta (i'm rechristening her a him as norbert, as this is a boy's set!) from knitty. this will be an extra toy. the yarn i'm using? Caron's Simply Soft Brites in Limeade & Lemonade. the trim is in lemonade. in order to get gauge, i double stranded it (it's a very light worsted, almost DK) and go down 2 needle sizes to a 9. typical for me. i also went to hobby lobby last weekend because i thought i was out of the confetti bright & lofty for the bunting in progress. they didn't have any black, so i bought some of the hobby lobby yarn bea boucle. i thought it MIGHT work. of course, in my perambulations around my house, i discovered another 3 skeins of the confetti, plus another skein of the black that i'm already using. sigh. i'm sure i'll find a use for it. if nothing else, i'll double strand it with some black wool to make it warmer, and ship it off to dulaan.

speaking of wool, i was bad. i had heard that personal threads carried dyes, and i needed a size 9 needle (can't find any of mine, lol), so i headed down there on the last day of the sale, yesterday. ok, so i'm weak. i bought 4 more skeins of malabrigo, and 5 skeins of Galway worsted. my credit card is whimpering. especially since i finally found the link to dudleyspinner's roving. goodness. and she had one named Sean. i HAD to buy that one. (and a few others, sigh). hey, she was having a sale! when it got to my house, sean was so thrilled that he carried it around with him, and lost it in his room. sigh. liam said, "isn't there one named for me?" so i emailed deb. she asked what colors he liked, and he said black, blue & red. i joked to her that it sounded like a bad scrape. she came back with "does he want gravelly bits in it?" he thought that was so funny that he agreed, it could have grey flecks in it! too funny. anyway, so she gave that to me at the sale price as well! i'll see if i can find the link.

i have all my calendars here, but i'm too tired & lazy to go get them, since there's no room on the computer desk for them here at mark's.

The reason why mark didn't get his quiet time yesterday is because the high schools have started holding open houses. liam is in the 8th grade. we have to pick a high school soon, and central had their open house yesterday. we're going to go check out 2 more high schools. all 3 are relatively close to us (approximately 15 minutes drive time, or so). there are 2 we are focusing on specifically, because we think they would be good for him, and for sean as well (sean insists that he will go to the same high school as liam, which is probably good for both of them). liam was so overwhelmed by everything that we didn't stay over an hour, and didn't really get into any of the presentations, other than the main one. i personally like the school. it's almost 100 years old, and feels comfortable to me. i grew up in a high school like this (only a lot smaller, lol). i do believe this was the first high school in nebraska. we'll see though. mark and i have agreed that at this point, liam is old enough to participate in this decision. wow. my babies are growing up.

knitting like a fiend

i've been a busy girl. of course the pictures are all at mark's computer! i finished a pair of toddler mittens. oh wait! i posted these on the L&V Sock Marathon! bet i can post the pic! hang on!
woohoo! it worked! these are made with handspun from an etsy shop called perchance to knit. i don't remember the link, or else i would. however, everything else i've done hasn't been photographed yet, so don't worry. i'll post pics later. i've finished the back to the bunting from hell (appropriate that it's black, eh?) i've also finished a pair of booties, and am on the decreases for a matching hat. i think i may have overdone it for AC4C this month, lol. and by the way? it's Bundles of Love, not Babies. oh well, i had the right idea!

I've got some calendar catching up to do!
you might be a redneck if you 've given an oil change as a wedding present.
. . . you've ever used jumper cables to start your washing machine.
. . . you still have scars from the last family reunion.
. . . just thinking about your beard causes others to lose sleep.
. . . your eyeliner is a sharpie (or tattoos?)
. . . there is an electronic singing fish in more than three rooms of your house (hmmmm, the under-the-sea room, miss lime?)
. . . you've ever had your picture taken next to a Dale Earnhardt Coke machine.
. . . whenever you go to the dog pound they ask, "Picking up or dropping off?"
. . . you've stolen turf from a golf course.
. . . you carry money in your bra (does a paycheck count?).
. . . you put antlers on top of your Christmas tree instead of an angel.
. . . you think "watching your weight" means standing naked in front of the mirror (ew!).
. . . your hair salon is also an auto parts store (brings a whole new meaning to lube & oil, eh?).
. . . you went fishing on your wedding day.
. . . you don't think reading should be a requirement for high school graduation.
. . . your favorite restaurant also sells propane.
. . . you use pop-top chains on your Christmas tree.
. . . your wedding buffet includes hush puppies (catered by long john's?)
. . . you bought all your Christmas presents at the liquor store.
. . . you have two big-screen TVs, but no running water.
. . . nothing under your Christmas tree is paid for (hmmm, grand larceny, credit cards, handmade gifts? your choice!)
. . . your car has never had a full tank of gas.
. . . your porch swing is a tire swing.
. . . you said your wedding vows while watching a football game out of the corner of your eye.
. . . you remember the entire NASCAR schedule but can't remember your wife's birthday.
. . . you think a "balanced diet" means starting and ending the day with a Big Mac.

well, that was 2006! woohoo!

now, how about a little crochet?

8/1: Recycled Plastic Tote Bag. i've been saving bags for years to do something similar, but the thought of cutting up all those bags just makes me shudder. i think i'll just use crappy yarn instead (it will still feel like plastic, and be easier to deal with!)
8/2-3: Bourbon Rose Jug/Bowl Cover Pattern. this is cute. very lacey. i could see it working well, particularly if you lined the back so bugs couldn't get through.
8/4: Filet Square Wire Earrings. These are cute, but it's still the same problem i've had before: working with wire. sets my teeth on edge, and would probably put my arthritis in an uproar.
8/5-6: Blossoming Fleur-de-Lis Necklace. this is kind of pretty, but the yarn they used is too fuzzy for my taste. something like this should be crisp, like linen or cotton.
8/7: Ivy Rose Square. this is pretty, and might actually work. it's a little holey, but not bad. however, i've noticed, this designer has a thing for bullion stitch, lol.
8/8: Zeitgeist. this is a dude square (i'm not linking right now, i had trouble the last time i did). very nice. would definitely work for a baby square. no holes!
8/9: Tan Button Purse. this is cute, but it's made with Lion Brand thick & quick chenille. i can't hack that stuff!
8/10: Perfect Foot Beach Sandies. these are cute. however, they seem to think these will get you into a restaurant. i thought the idea was things on the BOTTOMS of your feet?
8/11: Fashionable Filet Scarf. This comes perilously close to a non-pattern. anyone who crochets knows what filet is. they are right about filet work being calming to work though. and the fringe is fun! ch 5, fasten off the ends, and then use as fringe. i can live with that!
8/12-13: Cool Baby Blanket. this is cool. it's got a stitch that drops below, so youv'e got a ridged pattern all across. i like!
8/14: Crochet Dangle Scarf. this is a band crocheted to go around your neck, and the ties dangle. um, yeah. looks dorky to me.
8/15-16: Maritime Overlay. this is cool, but it has too many holes for baby stuff. and it's a dude pattern as well.
8/17-18: Square Filet Jug or Bowl Cover. another, pretty thing. and you can bead the center as well, if you wish! i like that whomever designed these did them with cobalt blue beads.
8/19-20: Crochet Chair Seat. looks like fun. can you imagine the color possiblilities? as long as you could find the appropriate twine!
8/21: Ribbed Baby Booties. I'm not a huge fan of crochet ribbing, although i did use it for the hat for Janice. they are cute, though.
8/22: Knot So Fast. a little holey, but since it's 13", i could probably adapt it for A4A or some such. dude square
8/23: Shades of Denim Potholder. this is nice. would make a quick & easy housewarming gift. and an easily available yarn (peaches & cream).
8/24: Jubilee Scarf. non pattern. total focus on the yarn. and it's hideous. oy.
8/25-27: Red Flower Poncho. A filet poncho with flowers worked in. interesting.
8/28: Summertime Tissue Cover. ultimate kitsch. oh stitchy! (i'm running away!)
8/29-30: Lizzy Poncho. looks pretty straightforward at first. then you notice the details, like the pretty edging, etc. for a poncho, it's not bad.
8/31: Flower Coaster. this is cute, but i think i'd use something more absorbent, like cotton.

ok, i must dash!

yes, i'm still bored

however, i've been kinda busy since the 1st. not to mention the fact that i've been praying for the 8th. the kids go back to school. oy! i think we are the only district in the whole country who gave their kids 15 days off!

my simple pleasure for the day:
the boys got into a knock down at hobby lobby, and neither one will tell the same story, so i don't know what happened, except sean was crying and his nose was red, and liam was holding his arm. while i was intensely upset with both of them, when we got home, they both apologized to each other. i accepted it as well. the fact that they are willing to apologize (and sincerely) for wrongs to each other, at this age, gives me hope for them being good young men when they get older.

life has been ok. there's been some adjustments to sean being home all the time. i knew this would be the test, because there's no school to distract. and i'm home this time. the kids are adapting to that as well (as am i!). i've never been home before. it's kinda wierd.

i joined the L&V Sock Marathon and i'm off like a herd of turtles. actually, i'm not doing bad. i've turned the heel on Miss Lime's sock that i'm test knitting, and am now working on the gusset. considering this had been frogged 3 times (curse you arthritic hands and dropped stitches!), i think i've done well! and the Lisa Souza has held up like a champ! i've also knit a hat with sock yarn double stranded with some terryspun (i think that's a coats & clark product, but not sure, i think it's discontinued), and i'm making a multi-directional scarf with cherry RH (hey it's for charity, and i'm trying to use up my stash!) and some red/white/blue sock yarn that i mooched (she was gonna throw it away!) (take that, Norma! red marker that!). i'm also working on a bunting for AC4C for BOL (january's project, i think it stands for Babies of Love).

want a few pics?

sure you do.
This is the multidirectional scarf. i don't know why, but a lot of my pictures have been coming out hideously fuzzy, sigh. i wonder if my zoom is messing up? i LOVE this pattern! it's soooooooo easy! once i clued into it, it was amazingly easy to memorize. i'll have to check back for the finishing wedge, but i doubt i'll ever forget it now that i've done one. they're kinda like salted peanuts. can't just do one. i'll be doing more.

This is the bunting. the reason why it's killing me? it's double stranded light & lofty by red heart, and it's on #10's. yes, my arthritis is giving me fits. i can only work on it for an hour or so at a time. good thing it's a fast knit.

and Deawn is back in town. and guess what she brought me?

she loves me! she brought some for others here (i can't remember, i was in such a haze over getting this myself!) this has the tricoteur sans frontieres (i'm going off memory, ok, i don't speak french) pin, a bumper sticker (which is NOT going on my car, not yet, a nyway!) a glow in the dark duckie key chain, and a lovely little chiffon bag with sparklies on the bottom. the flag looking thing is a magnetic clip for like the fridge. is that the danish flag, gang? i'm too tired to look it up.


What I'm reading:

Shadow Game by Christine Feehan (this was due today, so i'm putting it at the top of the queue)
Star Wars Episode II/Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore (booktape in the van)
Promised Land by Cynthia Felice
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (she also helped with Promised Land)
John Adams by David G. McCullough (booktape in the house)
Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters (booktape at my house)
Knitgrrl: Learn to Knit by Shannon Okey
Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

whew, waht a list!

i will leave you with this lovely sight:
you've heard of a chez lounge? how about a chez liam?

knuck knuck knuck

if you came here looking for three stooges, you thought wrong (although i did give liam 3 stooges pj bottoms for christmas, lol!)

this is the kind of knuck we're talking about:
this is the beginning of the knucks. this is a pattern i found at knitty. i had thought about doing it on my own, but if there's a pattern out there for what i want, why tax my brain this hard for something that may or may not get worn? steph asked me to make her fingerless gloves because she'd lost the pair she was using at work. i understand completely, i used to work there, and my little mitts would freeze in the winter. yes, it looks huge on me. i have tiny hands. sean, who is 12, and just barely even thinking about starting puberty, has hands big enough for his fingers to be a full knuckle longer than mine. i wear a size 5 1/2 wedding ring, and the only reason why it's that big is because i've had a lot of arthritic swelling in the last few years, and want to be able to get it off when i need to. i have finished one:
this is the same color as the other one, and was even taken in the same light, i dont' know why it came out looking different. i'll start the other one tomorrow morning, in daylight. i started this one in the bedroom last night, and had to have the overhead light on. it was still tougher than beans to do, and i had to wait until this morning for daylight to continue with the fingers. once the fingers were done, the rest was easy.

the yarn: Kerry by Tahki. 50 wool/50 alpaca. it's very soft, but kinda splitty, and i noticed a few thick spots. considering i got this on clearance from WEBS, i can see why. it works for the job, though. it took less than one ball to do one knuck. and while it still looks hugely oversized, when i check the fit, the hand part actually is only a little big on me, so with a little reverse ease, this should fit steph just fine. i also used the knitting in the round on straight needles to do the ribbing in size 4's (the rest was knit in 6's) and the fingers as well. with so few stitches, it didn't make sense to try to do them in the round.

i'm starting a new thing here at casa dragon. sean said something that was so funny, i just gotta pass it on. this kid is amazing. he's scary bright, but emotionally he's no where near 12 years old. he comes up with the oddest things.

today, on our way home from our in-laws for the christmas celebration he looked up at the moon and said: "the moon looks like an alka seltzer, in a cosmic kind of way." good grief.

and since i'm a part of the simple pleasures ring, here's my simple pleasure of the day: not having to cook. while most of you enjoy this anyway, i cooked professionally for almost 20 years. not having to cook is special to me in a way that most don't see. we took green bean casserole over to mark's folks today, and i didn't do that either. bliss.

and now, for one of my resolutions that i posted on the L&V message board. i'm casting on a hat for Dulaan. the resolution is to craft something for charity EVERY day. granted, i finished a bootie this morning, but all i did was finish casting off and sew it up. hardly worth counting!

What i'm reading now:
Blood Angel by Justine Musk
John Adams by David G. McCullough (book tape in the house (i found it!))
Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters (book tape at my house)
Pompeii by Robert Harris (book tape in the car)
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (as if you didn't know that already!)

i gotta take the van in again tomorrow. they couldn't get a read on the airbag light because the starter had dragged the battery all the way down, and erased any readings. well, guess what, the light popped on again! so i'll probably be getting tons of knitting done.

tootles!