Missing a lung but otherwise fine

Sorry!  I've had a lot of family visiting, and between that (which is awesome, not complaining) and having a boyfriend who lives in another city (just one skytrain and a bus but still), I was feeling pretty worn out.  I remember one weekend thinking, gosh, I should probably take it easy this weekend, so I cancelled half of my commitments and still ended up going out five times over the weekend, and hence I got sick.  Really sick.  Now I'm mostly better, still sound like I smoke two packs a day, and I'm really tired of being in my living room.  The cats have loved it.  When I curl up for a nap in the middle of the day Spike purrs so much it scares Lala.  I have relatively little knitting to show for it but I did watch the first three seasons of Parks and Rec.  Time well spent we can all agree.

Knittings!  I'm started a top secret project that I can't show you but it's GORGEOUS.  Just imagine the prettiest thing ever and there you go.  I also finally started another top!  Finally.  I started Acer with my PEI yarn (not purchased in PEI, just what it is a called by Rachel and I).  It's coming along nicely only it's the second project I'm working on that requires keeping track of rows so that can be annoying but well worth it. 

And that's it!  I have one pair of mitts at the boyfriend's place for when I forget my knitting so those don't count but even if they did that's only THREE projects on the needles!  I usually average around six projects or more.  Woo me.

I can't believe I don't have any photos of my Rock Island shawl to show you.  It's the  most beautiful thing I've ever knit.  I'd highly recommend the pattern to anyone.

And also, finally, here are the fingerless mitts I knit Julia way back in December.  They are my Purl Soho knockoffs since I started them away from any pattern and only a memory of what they were suppose to look like.  The button band is fake and I sewed the dragonfly buttons on like they were taking flight.  Super cute.  Julia got a lot of wear out them in the cooler weather and they are totally her colours.  

I'll get some good shots of my shawl and I'll also write a post later about the awesome boardgame Boyfriend got me for our six month.  Smallworld Underground.  Freaking amazing people.

Great Computer Experiment

About twice a year I recognize I have a computer addiction and do something about it.  Of course it never sticks but that's fine.  There is a time that computers are lovely and it is soothing to be on them, times of stress, times of mass amounts of rain, times that friends are all away, and times when you feel like crap and want to just scroll for hours.  All that being said, now is not any of those times.  Feeling fine, not overly stressed, lots of friends, and the weather is getting better every day (I live in Vancouver so really, using rain as an excuse to be on the computer would not be a good thing, I think it's when it's been raining for five days that you get a little moody), so I have no reason to be on the computer as much as I am currently.  My challenge, starting tomorrow, is to limit myself to half an hour to computer time a day.  Yup.  Half an hour.  That means no turning on the computer when I wake up and reading Jezebel for twenty minutes, no pinning for fourty minutes when I should be getting ready for bed, no facebook games on non-stop while I do other things.  That last one is a real problem.

Now, during this half hour, I still want to blog on my progress so that'll be interesting.  Emails are no problem because of my phone, so it should just be reading Jezebel and games.  Emails on my phone could be interpreted as cheating but if I didn't have that I would be turning on my computer a lot more often and that's where the problem usually starts.

Part of this is inspired by my angst this morning.  I'm inside doing housework and it's beautiful outside and I get really really really angry with housework.  Stupid housework making me stay inside this is criminal this is stupid why I should just let you sit here and not get clean grumble mumble.  Then, as I finished washing dishes from Wednesday, I thought 'huh- what if I had actually done these dishes on Wednesday, instead of leveling up in Castleville?'.  The answer to that is, of course, I'd be bloody outside frolicking in the sunshine that's what.  

So all that being said I'll leave you with my annual spring sky photos (no magnolia trees in this area so something new this year)(also I need to tag better because I can't find some years photos, oh well), go finish my laundry, and get myself outside!

I made peanut butter chocolate chip raspberry cookies

I'm really tired so I shouldn't be posting. When I read my blog I can always tell when I'm tired and still blogging. The posts are total spaz entries~ usually about really boring topics that I'm really excited about (I need to remember that just because I think it was the best baked tofu dish ever it will make the best blog entry ever). I was about to go to bed but I had already posted these photos so I'll try to make it a short blog entry and try to stay away from the spaz. We'll see how that goes.

Firstly, remember my shawl that I was having issues with? The Icarus shawl with the cursed yarn overs? I cast off after trying to tink three stitches. I was figuring out what yarn to use for an edging when Smart Darcy said 'just weave ribbon through the top here and wear it like at the front'.

She is so smart. I'm smizing here. Can you tell?

Darcy was here because not only is she smart, she's also extremely generous and kind. She offered to drive Spike and I to the vet after recommending them. Spike hasn't been to a vet for awhile~ one of the obstacles being that I couldn't find anyone who could recommend a good vet. All I heard was 'insensitive assholes' and 'exhorborant fees for things you didn't need'. Darcy assured me her vet was awesome so I called and we booked a time.
This is Spike's pose of 'why-no-I'm-not-trying-to-eat-your-food-I-just-like-to-sit-at-different-heights'.
See how his belly there hangs over his feet? Yeah, they put him on weight reduction food.

The vet visit was really good. I highly recommend them: Granville Island Vet Hospital. Wonderful staff and no price gorging at all. They were awesome. Spike, well, Spike had issues. They involved bringing in a technician with gloves, who then left to get even bigger gloves, a towel, me, the vet, and did result to rather guerilla tactics to get his last vaccination. The technician and the vet were on the floor as the technician had Spike wrapped in a towel and pinned to the floor as he got his shot. They were very gentle but it was what it took. He was so upset he tried to attack me when I went to pick him up after the first shot and he usually doesn't do that. After that we couldn't even get the door to his kennel locked when he was in it because every time you went to twist the handle to lock it he'd try to attack your hand. I also think he summoned Satan with his last guttural yowl so, you know, look busy. The vet interpreted the yowl as 'he's going to eat my face off'.

Apparently he is also 'rather a strong cat'.
The cruel face of a Spawnkitty.

He's totally fine now. The moment I opened his door he came out and started rubbing against my legs asking for treats. And the wet cat food? Oh he loves it so.

The misplyed yarn did turn out! I was pleasantly surprised. Thanks Louisa for letting me know what I had done. It's pretty tight yarn now but it's lying flat! Woo!
This yarn is a yoke to a short sleeved cardigan. So far so good. I did a twisted rib around the neck. I'm using two skeins of the yarn to help hide the massive weight differences. It's all pretty moot but I don't care.
In some areas it's slightly stripey,
and in some it's not. I'm still enamored with this yarn. I think I will be for quite a while.
Rambling spazlike story about me and mine? Check. And now... to sleep.

Blogging Again Part I of II

Holy crap I have an apartment! I was very concerned it was winning: the laundry, the dust, the paper, the yarn, the books... augh. It was very overwhelming and the whole working like a crazy woman wasn't helping. Before my Mom came I spent many repeats of Rihanna on my 'walk-in closet' situation. You see, I couldn't walk in my walk-in closet anymore. It wasn't good. I ended up with a walk-in closet, many shirts I had forgotten I owned and am very pleased to have back, and two and a half bags destined for Big Brothers.

When Mom got here she helped me a lot with, well, everything and also helped me with my living room. It was actually nice because a good friend gave me two bookshelves so for once I actually had space for all my stuff. We also moved things around which is fun and exciting. Spike is exhausted from the day.

Here is the daybed moved up against the far wall (ignore the rumpled look- it's still in process) with my shoerack beside it and my new knitting on it (see Part II). On the wall is a Georgia O'Keefe and a Shaun Tan both from the Vancouver Art Gallery- remants of shows I've seen. Oh- and my frog calendar.
Here is the wall my table use to be against. We put the table there and put my PNG painting on the wall (my Renoir is also up there- my most favorite ever). Mom is eating an orange. A lot of yarn is on the bottom part of my shelf in those clear structured bedding bags- very helpful.
The flip side wall from the table. You can see the new bookshelf from Jess with the new TV stand- which I love! Do you love my way of storing the dpns?
Makes me very happy.

And not many pictures of my bedroom but I did want to show you my new yarn storage system (besides the yarn in my living room and on my daybed). Jenn bought me one of those spiffy things that hang down from your ceiling and I put very special yarn in it. My knitting needles and magazines went on one shelf, my knitting books on another, and more yarn on the top and other one there.

I am tired.

Blogging Again Part II of II

UFO MADNESS!!!! (ignore the craptastic photos- I have a hard time telling on my camera whether or not they're fuzzy until I upload them and by then I'm too lazy to go back and take more photos) (also writing in sentence fragments- don't care)

Criminal #1: Hey Teach.

Don't now what happened. I was doing well and have picked it up again. Need to just get started. Done 3/4 of the back. The yarn is so gorgeous you could eat it (but you can't).
Criminal #2: Rainbow Log Cabin Blanket

I'm actually not really thinking I'll finish this one any time soon. Super acrylic- super fun.

Criminal #3: The Beast (aka- Medallion bag from Noni)

I need a new bag so instead of purchasing the one I want from 150 bucks plus I just spent 60$ on yarn and am knitting the one that I want. I got it impulsively on Sunday and am knitting like a mad woman on it so I hope it won't be a UFO for long. It's cascade in a boootiful brown and blue. Spike included for scale.


Criminal #4: Starsockers.

This is one of the rare times I actually knit what I think up on my bus. It's halted right now because I'm worried about gauge. It's two skeins of noro sock yarn with fair isle stars. It's a lot cooler than it looks.
Criminal #5: Teeny Tiny Scarf

Another project I'm not thinking will be done soon. Those are 1.25 mm needles and that's silk thread there.
Criminal #6: Never-ending knee socks.

Seriously. Never ending!!! This is the second one. I have to finish the ball of yarn and then about four inches of ribbing in black. Started these socks years ago.
Criminal #7: Aaaahhhhh.

I love this scarf- I just keep forgetting and losing the pattern. It's cashmere laceweight and very lovely.
Criminal #8: Waves of Grain

Horrible colour here. It's a fawn purple.
Criminal #9: Teeny socks for Mom

Lorna's laces knit on hiya hiyas. That's a braided cable down the front which I love because it's the only cable that makes sense to me and I don't need to follow a pattern. This knit up fast but it's on hold over spring break. Knit this mostly on buses and wrote down the pattern during a staff meeting.
And to end on a good note.... A Finished Object!!!!

My dad's socks! Wooly bulky goodness just in time for a blistering Okanagan Summer! Wooo!

I'm going to go work on the bag.

I'm calling it.

That's right folks. As of 10:30am, January 5th, 2009- today is a Mental Health Day (aka- Leone-is-going-to-have-a-meltdown-of-epic-proportions-if-she-doesn't-calm-the-fuck-down).

On my list of things to do are:

• vacuum and sweep
• put away dishes and load dishwasher
• unpack
• play BrainAge and Guitar Hero on my DS
• brush Spike (should really do that before I vacuum)
• empty all garbage and take out recycling (couldn't do recycling- I don't think it's been picked up for ages)
• organize stash
• get groceries and do banking
• email my friends who probably think I am dead (hi ladies!)
• make an awesome dinner for my dear friend coming over tonight (okay- long story slightly shorter... we were the total of best friends growing up but grew apart in late high school and stopped after high school but she is so important to me I would still have fun dreams with her and be sad I couldn't phone her up and tell her about the rowboats and the swimming cows and then I saw her at UBC and contacted her on facebook and she's a total crafty uber-cool librarian so I mean, how could we not be bffs again? She rocks).
  
• make tiger butter
• maybe do a load of laundry
• be prepared to sub tomorrow- that means all the random stuff like making a lunch, setting my alarm for seven, prepping clothes, but mentally prepared as well. I like my job and I don't like being unhappy about it like I am right now.
  
• go get a soy london fog from the cafe so it's FREE!

Now you may be thinking- 'hey, isn't a list of things to do kinda silly on a mental health day' but I need to do these things right now in order to be sane. And the whole thing is waiting around to be called to work is weird and because of my negative headspace I'm not doing anything productive and my place is falling apart and I just need to do something good you know? Yeah, I let you know how it goes. Now I'm going to go crank some Blondie and I'll talk again real soon okay?

And just for you fangirls here's a picture of John and I.

Last Minute Xmas Shopping For ME!!!

1) Never Not Knitting Calendar by Stephanie Pearl McPhee

2) Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns by Carol Sulcoski

3) Wrapped in Crochet by Kristin Omdahl

4) Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush

5) It Itches by Franklin Habit

6) Inspired to Knit by Michelle Rose Orne

7) Spider Man Sticker Collection (Glow in the Dark)

Kitchener Stitch! (The knitting equivalent of a touchdown if you are wondering)

I made it! Wow. Woo. Yeah, not as entertaining as one would think. Or maybe just as entertaining as one would think?

Got an email from napoblomo with this in it 'just two more days until we cross the finish line, and what have you learned this month? Have you managed to post something though-provoking every day, or do you feel like you clogged up the Internet with less-than-satisfying content for the sake of endurance?' and I was like... um- the latter? The only blog entry I'm really thinking of deleting is that stupid quiz result one that didn't even format right- but I think the endless blog entries of me complaining about how tired I was aren't the things dreams are made of. I do think I have some nice entries. My goal is to blog at least 6 times in December so I can at least make this the second highest year of blog entries (no way I'm beating 2006's 94 entries) but I just need to make it 72 (this one is #65). And hopefully they will be better blog entries.

Speaking of blog entries- remember this one? Yeah- unrealistic goals are made to be broken. I cast on this last night and may run out of yarn so I will have to pick up some more but it's the Scrunchable (non-rav link) scarf made into a cowl knit out of Noro Iro. Mmmm.... Noro Iro.
And remember when I decided I was going to do that blog entry where you take a picture of yourself but then decided I looked waaaaay too crappy to do it so I decided to do just right now and even though I am dirt tired I still look half decent! Spike was in my lap and behaving for once so he's in the photo too. He's wondering why I am playing with the camera and not petting him. He left in disgust soon after the photo was taken.

So this is Spike and I saying goodnight for now.

A Knitting Promise and a Computer Promise

By December 1st, I want to have finished at least one pair of socks and two scarves OR two pairs of socks and one scarf. If I succeed I get to throw in an extra five dollars into my tip money jar for yarn and get to cast on a new project but if I fail I am not allowed to cast one any new projects until the fifth. Way to take the fun out of knitting eh?

And here's another thing- last night I was bemoaning my lack of finished items and cursing my three (very soon to be two) jobs but I came to another realization last night. Maybe it has something to do with the amount of time I spend on the computer. Huh. Just maybe.

So now I am going to turn off my computer (I haven't played Sims for over a week!) and just knit knit knit. And watch a movie. And knit. Ahhhh.... I'll turn it back on around 2:30 before work and then will come back on for a bit after work to show you some pictures. How nice.

Sims Sims Sims

If I had known how long it was going to take me to get these photos organized.... sheesh.

Anyhoo here is my Sims2 Family Third Generation. Bear with me here as I go through the backstory: I started a family once on my sister's laptop with the brand new Sims2. I called them the Fables and it was Ashley and Milla. But it was my sister's computer so I didn't play them all that much. Then my sister got a newer laptop and some more expansion packs to sims, so I started the Fable family again but again- it is my sister's computer. Than I moved out with the first laptop and was playing the Fable family there but the old laptop struggled with Sims, especially with the expansion packs. Then... I got my new computer. Aaaahhhhh. And the sims- they be mine. All mine. I can *so* get addicted but it comes and goes. Without further ado:

The Aesop Family.

This is Angel and Milla. You might notice in further photos I changed Angel's look right away. They started out as strangers but eventually....
.... fell in love and got engaged. Here Angel is proposing to Milla in their tiny house.
Then they started to procreate....
and even more (adoption too)...
till the family tree looks something like this: Mathius, Spike, Renn, Brenda, Quirk & Harry (twins), Boo, Alon (only boy), Parker & Jamieson. All children are either adult or young adult right now. Only Mathius, Spike, and Brenda have graduated from university because OMG could university take any longer? I kinda think eight semesters is TOO much! Angel is a Police Chief and is kinda like a superhero- he rocket jets to work, and Milla is... Chief of Staff? Can't remember, she graduated anyways. Anyhoo, here are some random shots and facts about the Sims family.

Here is... Quirk I think. She's making out with her professor which improves her grades. I know. So wrong.
Here is the eldest, Mathius, with her kid- Jackson- whose father is the maid, Steve. Mathius is the Hand of Posiedon and Jackson is a progedy child. He's already maxed out three skills and he's only just a teenager- creativity, logic, and... cooking? Something like that.

This is Spike, who is nothing like her namesake, and her partner, Wren, who is serenading her. In the bathroom. Wren is a mascot so most of the time his head is a Llama which freaks me out.
Here are Parker and Jamieson who are now in University. They were the last of the children so by far had the richest childhood which means they are really skilled sims.
Ah... the lone boy Alon. He was adopted and I was going to stop once the family finally got a boy but Milla was already pregnant so he wasn't the last. He's in a frat house right now which is fun because I'm being evil to the other frat boys because I didn't know you had to play the other frat characters when your sim got into the frat house. So annoying. I'm trying to kill one of the frat brothers by making him tinker with electronics or fix electronics and he has low mechanical skills. So far he just keeps electricuting himself so he's all singed and his clothing is burned off but no death. I'm also leaving a lot of dishes in his room so he may get swarmed by flies.
Brenda married Greg and has adopted Brittany and Grant but is pregnant right now. I'm also trying to get Greg abducted by aliens by looking through the telescope all night long so he can have an alien baby but so far he just has really high logic skills.
Milla and Angel are old now but still like to have public woohoo.
So that's it. My geekiness is now and forever branded upon me. I'm trying to get all the kids out of university- Boo will be graduating soon- but geez it takes forever. I have also started my own neighbourhood for people in real life but we'll see about that.