Photo happy knit blog entry

So since I'm really behind in my blogging, I figured lots of photos will make up for it right? So right, yeah, lots of photos! First is my Grandma's toque that once again reinforces that I need to follow patterns for a little bit longer before I just rush off all happy into my own little 'why, I'll do a gauge, but then I'll change my idea, and disregard the gauge, but I won't do another gauge, cause I mean, I already did a gauge so....' It still is really quite pretty isn't it?

I had to introduce another yarn because I realized for the incredibly large head I was knitting for, I was going to run out of yarn. The green is a wool/acrylic blend and the autumn coloured yarn is 100% merino, and as it turned out a tad thicker but it worked out. This picture is when I marked the areas for decreasing, where I contined the thinner cables. I will admit I am really proud of the organization of the toque, even though I made it way to big, I will knit it again definately.
I'm missing a photo of the decreased part, but I'll take another photo of it on my Grandma's head at Xmas. Sidenote- my Grandma has assured me I don't need to worry about her seeing these photos, since she doesn't even go near the computer. This is the toque after all the knitting, in order to do the size thing I cast off a big chunk of the cable, still trying to keep the cable pattern. It still was too large. Meh


So this is the streek I sewed in. I sewed two lines and sewed over the lines twice . I was concerned because most things I've read about streeking involved really fine yarn so I was worried about the bulkiness of the yarn causing badness afterwards. You know, after I cut into my beautiful hand sewn cabled toque. And here I am cutting! Aaaaahhhhh!
Eeeeeeek!
Gasp!

And here's a fuzzy bad lighting photo of the finished toque! Wheeeee! One may be saying... why doesn't Leone just take another photo of the toque? That's because it is wrapped and already at home for Christmas. Don't worry, at Christmas you can get photos of the toque and my beautiful Grandma too.And just when you think 'wow- you did that all on your own?' But no! I had helpers! Two of them! Two amazing helpers! And they help at every stage of the knitting too!
And we interupt this knitting to bring you hot chocolate cake! Oh that's right! HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE!!! And here is the newest introduction to out family. My swift (for those who you know, aren't preoccupied knitters, a swift is a knitting tool you use to hold your shank of yarn and rotates it so you or a ballwinder can put it into a nice little tidy ball of yarn). My swift may not be spectacular, but it was a free generous gift from a knitter who I've never met! Her name is Grace and she saw it at a garage sale for 2$ and couldn't let it go, so she bought it and brought it to Darlene's yarn store and Darlene knew I wanted one so she gave it to me! I carried this sucker six blocks home. I loveth it so. I have also bought a new ballwinder that winds the yarn so you can pull it from the center and the outside... I know you knitters out there understand how great that is!
The above is a picture of the swift with yarn on it, the top swirly moves up and down to the length of the shank. (I hope shank is the right word for yarn coiled like that, it could also be skein I think) That's my beautiful alpaca, mmmmmmmm. And least we forget, my helpers. This is the first skein of yarn I put on my swift which of course was the only one I've tried that has turned out to be too large for the swift. It's hand dyed 100% rayon, like caaaandy. The kitties were so pleased I brought them back another toy to play with (you should have seen them when I got the ballwinder and swift going, poor Chuck nearly went out of his head).

So these following photos detail a conversation between Spike and I.
Spike: Just turn away okay?
Me: Spike...Spike: It calls to me
Me: No it doesn't. Don't be bad.

Spike: this thingie here swirls if I hit it with my paw!
Me: you are just so bad.
Thus mostly ends my insanely knit photo blogness. I will end with my current (one of) project which I have very mixed emotions about, but it's fun to knit. I promise to have a more actual word blog entry about the other things going on in my life, like you know, psychological journal articles that go on and on and on and on.... and on........

School? Nope- doesn't ring a bell.

So over here in denial land, I'm doing quite nicely thank you! I've done lots of knitting (one glove down, one more to go), lots of shopping (two winter jackets! Two, mwahaha), lots of coffee (wheeeeewheewheewheeeeee), lots of sleeping, reading a fasincating book called The Girls-more about that when I finish it, lots of visiting with friends and chatting, lots and lots of eating (I think I can honestly, without a doubt, say that I have consumed more sugar in my time here than all of September combined), watched TV with the Bears, and have also gotten my hair done. And by done, I mean streaked. And by streaked, I mean my whole head in reds, browns, coppers, and a few dark blonde streaks as well. I also got it cut- I have bangs! They are sooo cute. Asymmetrical in length and volume! My most amazing hair ever.


School?



What school?

Oh, you mean that homework assignment due tomorrow on a chapter I haven't read yet and still have to email to my friend, the interviews I need to type up and code and write on, the five journal articles that need to be 'thoroughly analyzed' by Monday, and the quiz I will have on Wednesday?

Mmm... don't know what you're talking about.

I'm going downtown soon! See you later!

So... that was fun

But then again, travelling on Greyhound is always fun.

Yes, I'm now at my original home, living off my parents for a week and pretending I don't go to university. Instead of a black and white Spawnkitty (he posted by the way, around a week ago), I have a black and white Snazel kitty who is very loud. Very very loud. I also have two bears with me: Ellaphante, who is a not a New York bear but has never been to Vernon before, and Spike! They are watching TV with my Dad right now, still a little groggy from the trip.

Just a short blog before I go watch Jag with my dad. I just wanted to let you know the oddities of this particular greyhound ride.

So I'm in line for my bus ticket, it's half an hour before my bus leaves, and the bus terminal is uber crowed, and of course, you have your typical greyhound bus residents: the child from hell who is way to young to be exploring* the terminal by himself but his mother is busy doing nothing to pay attention, the scary looking massive man who is drunk who goes straight to the front of the line to get his ticket, the people who don't necessarily speak the best english who are arguing with the one person selling the tickets, and the scary people who you just don't make eye contact with.

Anyhoo, the line is barely moving, and sure enough, before I can buy my ticket they start loading my bus. I've got a little panic flutter, no biggie. The line starts to move faster after some troublesome customers, so I try not to panic. Then-woohoo- get my ticket! Then I turn around and see the line up for my bus that is massive despite the fact that the bus has been loading for quite awhile now. Not good- but I figure, I have my ticket, they can't take it back now! But I don't really know that for sure so I'm still kinda worried. Finally, the bus driver takes my ticket and I board the bus... second to last person to get on the bus. The bus looks like a really bad movie or something. People have walked to the back looking for seats and are now walking back up the aisle, and the bus driver has already given up the two reserved seats for his belongings. There is a vacant seat right there, right at the front, so you are looking out the massive window that the bus driver looks out, and the lady has her purse all over it.
me: is anyone sitting there?
her: no (doesn't move purse)
me: can I then?
her:... (moves purse)
Despite this inital greeting, she turns out to be quite nice and I'm thankful I'm sitting next to her cause I can hear people in the back 'move your stuff' 'not enough room' and other fun bus conversations. This is bad.

But then, complete reversal caused by the crappy conditions! A bus driver comes on and says 'this bus is too full, all of you going to the okanagan get on that bus over there'. So your truely grabs her stuff and is the first on the nicer bus where she gets two seats to herself because there were way more people going to Vancouver and we didn't even have to transfer! HA!

Okay, I'm going to go now. That wasn't a very short blog was it?



*and by exploring, I mean running into people, running in and out of the bathrooms (the downtown bus terminal bathrooms people- DOWNTOWN), knocking luggage over, and opening lockers.

tooooooo much sugar

never offer me free doughnuts

~thanks

I am so fricking happy right now

Do you not love it? Do you not want one? Oh how I love it. I loveth it so. My precious. (you saw that last one coming right?)

I can't seem to find the right info for it because it is technically this link here but mine has 1G, not some wimpy 512mb. Which means right now I have a bloody tonne of songs on this baby and am only at halfway.

It looks like a pink vibrator doesn't it? Heh... but yeah, so wrong.

So I have also gotten to do the meme I've always wanted to do~ which of course means I can't find the original one I wanted, I found these ones from other blogs after doing a search but none of them were the ones I wanted so I took a few questions from a few and made up some of my own.

Put your mp3 player on shuffle and whatever song comes up is the answer to the question (I'm not going to do the classical ones cause Allegreto #7 doesn't really seem all that fun of an answer). No cheating! Then the final ten songs I will only put the first line and see if you can guess them- I don't know if enough people read my blog to make the last meme work but it's my blog and my MP3 player so I'll do it anyways.

Describe yourself:
All I Really Want~ Alanis Morisette
How do you feel about yourself?
Dying~ Hole (um... ack)
Describe an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend:
Rock & Roll~ Led Zeppelin (sadly but seriously, all my exs are so vanilla)
Describe your ideal girlfriend/boyfriend:
Striptease~ Hawksley Workman
Describe where you want to live:
Stupid~ Sarah McLaughlan (do you think it's stupid because I can't remember how to spell her last name?)
Describe what you want to be:
Use Once and Destroy~ Hole (I need to stop getting this band!)
Describe how you live:
Stairway to Heaven~ Led Zeppelin
Describe how you love:
Try Just a Little Bit Harder~ Janis Joplin
How do you feel about school:
Awful- Hole (I swear on the Spawnkitty this was not a fixed answer)
Share a few words of wisdom:
Going Under ~Evanescence
Do people secretly lust after me?
(Okay, the first one was Amie by Damien Rice but that is stupid so I'm pressing it again)
Freakshow~ Ani Difranco (not much more sense, but better) (Oh, and the song Amie by Damien Rice isn't stupid, it's great, but not as an answer)
How can I make myself happy?
Mariner's Song- Cowboy Junkies (marry a fisherman?)
What should I do with my life?
softer, softest- Hole
Will I ever meet my soul mate?
Cornflake Girl- Tori Amos (yes and no questions don't really work well on this meme do they?)
What is some good advice for me?
Bye Bye Baby- Janis Joplin
How will I be remembered?
Gone- Kelly Clarkson (it's kinda like the player is mocking me)
What is my signature dancing song?
Soap Star Joe- Liz Phair
What do I think is my current theme song?
Joyful Girl- Ani Difranco (wonderful answers like this make the meme all worth it)
What song will play at my funeral?
Icicle- Tori Amos
What type of men/women do you like?
Cherry Popsicle- Jann Arden (Okay, I was so tempted to skip that song because... well, I'm sure you know why)
What is my day going to be like?
(another name song, Isaac by Madonna, going to skip it too)
Forgiven- Alanis Morisette (I'll let you know tomorrow how this plays out)
How are you feeling today?
Roll on Home- Susanna
What is the story of your life?
Never Said- Liz Phair
What was high school like?
Credit in the Straight World-Hole
What do your pets think about you?
Past the Mission- Tori amos
What is in store for this weekend?
You Me and the Weather~ Hawskley Workman
Since you are blogging and not writing your paper, what do you think your comment on it will be when it gets handed back?
Piece of my Heart- Janis Joplin (is that good or bad?)

Some of these are kinda really easy but most of them are kinda hard so I don't know.

1. I don't believe in the smile/ that you leave when you awalk/ and say goodbye
2. you said things I wouldn't say straight to my face boy
3. it's not/ what you thought/ when you first began it
4. oh baby it's crying time/ oh baby I've got to fly
5. take your coat and shoes off/ come and sit beside me
6. How can you see into my eyes like open doors
7. live baby live now that the day is over
8. I don't want to work away/ doing just what they all say
9. I recommend getting your heart trampled to another/ yeah/ oh yeah
10. Got your hand up all in my shirt/and you know that it hurts
    

My shuffle option is leaving out a long of albums, but it really seems to like Hole. I loveth it so.

sushi and journal articles

Wow, I just wrote an entire paragraph then deleted it because it was soooo boring. I'll condense it so it's more reader friendly.

Have a paper due in three days about journal articles about self esteem that were so tedious to read I kinda wanted to kill myself. My experiences with each are as follows

1. fell asleep while reading it
2. took me ages to read because I kept on listening to the conversations of people around me (which I'll mention more later)
3. skimmed in 45 minutes before class but turned out I was one of the only people who even printed it off so we didn't discuss it anyways.
   

In other news, I'm going home over thanksgiving! Wheeeeeeeeee!

Poor baby Spike the Spawnkitty is sick. He was up all night barfing up his new kitty food. When he is sick he likes really confined dark spaces, well, more than he already does, so he was in the hall closet snuggled between blankets all morning but I moved him into his kitty tent and put blankets over it so it was more enclosed. I prefer for him to be where I can see him incase he starts to get sick again. It's really hard to try to make cats drink water. At first I got his paw all wet thinking he would lick it but he just fell back asleep (or feigned sleep so I would leave him alone) and then I was putting it on his nose but I realized quickly if I was to do that again he was going to bite me, no matter how tired he was.

September is evil but that's not your fault so I won't talk about it much. Just know- evil.

Oh, going out for sushi tonight.

Can you people help me? I really need to start exercising again because since school started and I quit work I have not been exercising. I use to walk all the time for hours at a time but now my biggest walk is the ten minute jaunt to the bus stop and the stairs up to Jenn's office. I really want to start swimming but I never go! So frustrating. Did I tell you that I lost seven pounds this summer? That was nice.

And I need to buy a MP3 player. Need you say? Do you really need an MP3 player Leone? Yes. Yes I do. Without one, all I do is become distracto girl, listening to people's conversation, looking at what people are wearing, trying to figure out what they are reading, looking out windows, counting lights, trying to figure out the stitch pattern in my new sweater, etc. With an MP3 player (okay, I know that M isn't a vowel but when I write a MP3 player it just seems wrong, don't ask me why) I can just disconnect myself from everything around me and focus on the task at hand. Yes sometimes I skip a song or I will listen to a song but the amount of work I get done with an MP3 player is stellar. Must have one.

Away I go.

I am so smart! S-M-R-T!

So, you ever do that thing where you kinda spontaneously say something in class and the moment the words leave your mouth you realize how stupid that was but really, all you can do is sit there while everone else in the class systematically tears down the stupid thing you said because it's stupid and you just kinda decide to shut up for the rest of the class?

No, I've never done that either.

School..... right.

So yeah, I'm completely weird and boring right now. The first week of school- I was so prepared, I was ready, I was psyched- nothing happened. No textbook for one class because it has been backordered till the end of the month so no readings and no readings for my other class because I had already read the intro to the book. I only had two subjects last week so I went to four classes and I was kinda bored in each, but I did try. I took notes which quickly turned into scribbling sketches which then would turn back into notes when I would try to get back on track and once again into the scribbles.

And then there is the lonely factor. My friend Kim and my friend Alyson graduated last year, so I have a lot of acquaintences and people to chat with, but not like I can with those two. It really sucks. I pouted a lot.

Yesterday was a lot better. My methods class is ridiciously hard core and there's about three papers altogether, hordes of reading that we have to get done in about 6 weeks because after that is when we accumulate and then analyze data for our final paper so I'm happy with this class because my other two are so low key that I will be able to focus with this class and while I'm sure it will stress me out I think I will enjoy it a lot more than if I was taking lots of classes.

Yesterday was also my last day at work. I go back in December for Xmas rush which I'm fine with.

Just, I feel really disjointed and out of place now, and it's kinda disheartening. Blarg. Oh well, soon I will be up to my ears in journal articles about self esteem so I will feel more homicidal then disheartened. I'm just pouty.

In other news, I finished the cable toque. Sewing than cutting knitting is very stressful but is also kinda fun.

Whose up for some drinks after class? Me! Me!

My body and I aren't talking right now

Two days before school starts and I get a coldsore! Argh! (The massive breakout of zits along my chin are my fault... chocolate bar? What chocolate bar?)

I'm going to make this a short blog as I realized yesterday that my last blog entry was freakishly long and it could be boring-I don't know, it's too long to read again.

Knitting with beads takes longer than ordinary knitting. This can prove really really really annoying; however, continuing to knit a complicated cable toque when you know it's too large may cause you to shun it onto the top of your bookshelf along with the chess set (star wars chess set, thank you very much) and scowl at it from afar.

Last night I had an upsetting dream that was freakishly real and now I don't want to go back to bed.

Tomorrow is my last day of freedom. I'll let you know how that goes.

Eileen, how did your exams go?

I'm allergic to the university library

I've got some time to kill before the student services office opens. I'm up the university bright and early in order to beat the insane first year orientation rush of students. Hopefully all my books will be in and I can get my syllabi(buses?) today as well.

And yes Podgy! I am knitting something with cables- and they are making me bonkers! I see people knitting with cable needles like it's nothing, meanwhile, when I knit with cable needles, I always have to drop the yarn I am holding, shift my weight, hold the needles closer to me, possibly elbow someone next to me, and sometimes (just sometimes) I have to swear a whole lot. Oh yeah, and this present (since this person I don't think reads this blog, I won't name them but I will talk about it) is a toque with two different yarns (sooooo pretty- like autumn). I knit the swatch as the cable pattern, figured out my stitches per inch, then I figured out what I needed in order to knit the toque. But you see, what I did was figure out how many inches I needed for the toque, not for the cable pattern. So the cable pattern is 16 stitches, and my stitch count was 184, which is not divisible by 16, so I realized this after I knit an inch of ribbing and just figured out a different way of putting the cables on, and also decided to do less cables so I wouldn't kill myself. All said and done I am doing 7 of the original cables and 7 similar but smaller ones- so it looks quite pretty, I have it in my bag here with me, it's gorgeous. Is it too large? Why yes, yes it really really is. That's what happens when you change the pattern and don't bother to knit up another swatch. I am honestly thinking of sewing then cutting off one of the cable repeats. It might make me throw up in my mouth a little but there is no way this toque is going to fit a woman's head and I'm not giving it to anyone else! Oh, the sewing and cutting is usually only done with sweaters which is shown there by Wendy (this is the woman whom I have quite a jealous knit envy for- you can see why when you read her blog). I'll have the full rundown after Xmas. Crap, they are kicking me out!

-90 minutes later-

le sigh. Well, I got quite a bit done but not all of it was as expected. My literature class is studying the buffy film, not the TV series. What the fuck? Blarg. Other than that, the syllabus isn't that crazy so it shouldn't be a problem keeping up with the readings for that class. And I have all the courses I need and then some to graduate, so that's good. I went to the bookstore to double check my books and good is that my one class has no text and my other class has two which I already have, but the bad is that my text for my science course still isn't in which means I'll probably have to stand in line with all the other students for half an hour to get it. My student fees are mostly taken care of until next week where I will have to go back into student services to give them this green slip of paper which will also require standing in a line but the lady there was so nice and helpful that I can't begrudge that. Thank goodness for knitting eh?

Oh right, and about the title, I am allergic to the university library, but I think it is their air conditioning or something. All I do when I sit in there is sneeze. Very annoying.

-60 minutes later-

Ohhhh.... I got a spiffy locker and I got one of those thingies you can put in your binder of the human skeleton (anterior & posterior) so I'll something to do during my science class! My last science class I drew skulls with bat wings.

And I got gum!

I can hear the distance

I couldn't think of a title so I just threw in one of the lines from the song that has been going through my head for the past hour even though I haven't listened to it for quite a while now (China- Tori Amos).

I have been knitting like mad because I need to get as much done before school starts as possible because knitting productivity goes down once school starts (damn papers). I finished my mother's present and the second part of a three part gift. I also have started two new ones and am still contemplating with to do with my dad's scarf (he doesn't read the blog). I started doing double knitting with maple leafs, so red background and white leaf on one side and a white background and a red leaf on the other side, and then switching in little squares for the length of the scarf but as it turns out, double knitting and following a maple leaf scarf is way more work than I can allot for an Xmas gift but I don't want to frog it because I'm so proud of my one little maple leaf so I'm in a rut with that Xmas gift currently. I do think that I have all the yarn purchased for the rest of my xmas gifts.

School is about a week or so away. I'm taking three courses: Literature of the Fantastic (I get to study Buffy, who's jealous? You? Of course you are!), Physical Sciences (shut up), and methods in social psychology (this class has the potential to go either way, I'll keep you informed). Mostly everything is already decorated with stickers or drawings (Jim did the drawing for my social psychology binder) and all the fun stuff (purple glue!) is purchased and carefully stored (somewhere on my bedroom floor). I'm actually kinda looking forward to school starting now. Just a little, but at least it's there.

Oh right, I also handed in my two weeks notice at work. It's bittersweet cause I didn't mind it too much and now I can't say, I work at a comic book store, but oh well. More time to study and volunteer since I will be applying to education programs this year (oooohhhhh scary!).

Away I go to bed! I mean, it's nearly 11 people, ELEVEN!!!

Three bonus points if you can end the phrase to my blog title (contest not extended to either of my sisters because it would be like asking them to point to their toes).

Right! The meme from Drunken Monkey! Okay... won't be as funny as hers but here I go:

5 things in my freezer

1. Frozen fruit popsicles
   
2. jalepeno poppers (I didn't spell that right did I?)
3. Tonnes of salmon (maybe not tonnes, but surely lots)
4. Some alcohol that has been untouched for over a year
5. Ice (I know that's a gimme but I'd have to get up and go look and I'm lazy)

5 Things in my closet

1. 4 inch red satin heels with a silver bow on them, open toe
2. a massive bag of yarn from my Grandma's thrift store that she bought for me that I will one day crochet into an afghan for her
3. sweaters I keep but never wear
4. toys from Wendys
5. three very similar black dresses cause I keep on buying the same one over and over again

5 Things in my car

1. I don't have a car
2. so there's not much in it
3. but if I did have a car
4. it would have the bobble head buddy jesus
5. from some jay and silent bob movie

5 Things in my purse

1. puffer
2. batman keychain
3. loose change
4. 5 dollar bills
5. expired learners licence (shut up shut up!)

5 Things in my school bag

1. swatch for my Grandma's xmas present
2. deodorant
3. work shirt
4. elastic thread
5. cable needle

I should have lied and made it out like I was a serial killer. Now that would be funny.

Goodnight!

School and other observations

Top Ten Reasons Why Going Back to School is Okay; Take I

1. Buying and organizing school supplies! I mean, we already got the largest container of gel pens ever (100 gel pens for 14$!) I still get to decorate my binders, decorate my page dividers, decide on a pencil case (kitties or bears?), put together a portable knitting case (already got the latest Simply Knitting magazine that came with the knitting case, but it wasn't filled), and other fun school supplies oriented activities.
   
2. Getting to see my friends that I haven't seen over the summer because a)they went away and b) I'm antisocial and don't call anyone.
   
3. Once that student loan comes in I'm getting some nice tops that fit well dammit!
   
4. The excitement of getting new books even though they are overpriced and sometimes ridicously boring and soul sucking, they are still books and I do love them so.
   
5. Knowing that I graduate this year!
   
6. That everything changes.
7. New things to preoccupy my thoughts because sometimes I get a little OCD when left on my own.
   
8. Learning stuff so that I don't suck at jeopary as much as I do (thought tonight, did anyone see that 'words of a writer' category that was freakishly easy in the double jeopary round that barely any of the contestents got? What was with that?) Because I still remember when something I learned in biology helped me answer a jeopardy question- that made those hellish four months slightly better in my mind's eye.
   
9. Going back to being considered a 'student' in the opinion of my bank so I can use my debit card again without being slaughtered in fees (grumble).
10. Being in a place that I know well and am comfortable in and feeling good about my future.
    

Other observations as of late

• A good way of curbing how much chocolate you can eat in a sitting is by making each candy, in this case, a singe reeses pieces, dependent upon knitting an entire row of stitches. The trick is to make that row about 80 tiny little stitches, so that in half an hour you've eaten about three. I've now started hoarding candies, so I knit about 12 rows (or about three TV shows worth) and then I get all the 12 candies at once! I got this idea from the Yarn Harlot by the way, well, not the hoarding part, the caaaaandy part.
  
• Even if you don't know if you are losing weight or not, walking every day just makes you feel good.
  
• If you decide to have a conversation with a squirrel in your yard, make sure that your new neighbour isn't also sitting on his porch. Even if you are affectionately calling the squirrel a dirty little bastard.
  
• I want a wedding like Jill's wedding. It was small and in the park outside with great willow trees and pretty flowers and all green and lush and she wore blue with gold highlights and a blue long veil and was sooooo beautiful and had a bouquet of full bloom scarlet red rose with babies breath and he wore a maroon dress shirt and it was family for the wedding with lots of babies and the reception was at the house on the porch with the best salmon and chicken and veggies with dip and caesar salad and cupcakes in a tower and there was a great cake (mocha) and lots of charming people to talk to and even more babies and conversations about travel and how marriage changes how you feel about people (I didn't really have anything to contribute to that conversation but I liked listening to it) and people asked about Spike and some people knew Jim and Jenn and oh yes, there was wine and I had a glass (red) and fyi, my hair looked great, which is something I would also like at my wedding, and it was, without a doubt, the best wedding I have been to, and the bride and the groom are so great and wonderful and yes, it was a good day.
  
• Left to my own devices, I will eat so much watermelon that I have to have a nap.
  
• Sheena's comment on my last blog entry made me laugh so hard that I will get the day to day sex position journal.
• School will be okay.
  

quasi-insomniac

Did I spell that right? Anyhoo, I've been having odd bouts of insomnia lately, it was really bad last week, and it kicked in again last night. Before I dose myself with gravel, I find I come up with lots of good ideas for blogs and I either a)forget them b)realize that's actually a stupid idea for a blog, or c)for some reason or another they just aren't blogged. Some of the good ideas that I haven't blogged about are

• how the Bears take good care of me when I wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare (which have been on the increase along with the insomnia so I would really like to have a conversation with the PTB about this all) and how comforting they are. Spike the Bear and I had a whole conversation about this when I woke up at 3am with a nightmare and he came to sleep with me but I couldn't sleep so we chatted and I can't remember much but I wasn't scared so it was all good. I love the Bears.
  
• how I saw the university route city bus the other day and kinda threw up in my mouth a little. I need to realize that there are good things about school starting and blog that.
  
• what I should do with the incredibly, incredibly fine linen yarn that was given to me by a lovely friend but is so fine I have no idea what I could knit with it. I came up with all these ideas and was going to ask opinions but I can't remember now.
  
• why it is that in the space it takes me to knit a bloody dishcloth somebody else can knit a several pair of socks -or even better-in the space it takes me to knit ONE sock somebody can knit a fair isle sweater on needles the same size as mine. Bitter people, I'm bitter.
  

Some bad ideas were

• different types of veggies to put in tuna casserole (I had a whole list and different combos to put out to you all in a survery)
• if I should get the 'position a day' sex calendar for 2007 in a journal form or a day to day calendar; again, I had a whole blog entry about this

And now, I am going to bed. Is it bad that I don't care about my grammer on my blog?

Hi there, Cowboy

So... I've been back for a week. I heard a funny story about a very organized woman at the knitting store today and I laughed more at myself because I haven't unpacked yet. Some things, yeah. The first thing I did when I really was at home (technically, I got home at 6am, showered, went to bed, got up at 930, went to work at 1030, so this is when I got home from work and wasn't a complete wreck) was open a package from Brooke which was this beautiful yarn! As you can see, the Bears like it lots too! From left to right, that's Spike the Bear, Daphne Rose, and Mosaic. Mosaic is one of my Bears, not a New York Bear in case anyone got confused. We are all very excited! There are many things we are thinking of knitting with it, like this, or this, possibly this if we are feeling advantegeous. (if you don't feel like clicking on those links, they are all just knitted sock patterns from Knitty) In other news, this household has started their first puzzle! It's a photomosaic puzzle of a bear on a bookshelf that I got Jim for Christmas. If you recall, my family tried to do a photomosaic puzzle of the Starry Night painting by Van Gogh and we ended up not even nearly completing it in time because it was so bloody difficult. Luckily this puzzle is much more manageable, but still very challenging. We have a special mat we put it on to keep it from getting kitty bites on it.
And oh yes, another reason to blog is for me to announce that I want to lose ten pounds this month. I'm not going to list my current weight or measurements, not out of vanity or shame or anything, I just find it annoying when skinny people do that and while I'm not skinny, I think it would be hypocritical of me to do so. So if I figured if I blogged about this that I might actually lose some of the weight. I know I've blogged before about exercise and all that, but if it helps even a little, then it's worth it. I actually did have a weight loss goal for the summer, and I did really well in June, but July is a month of shame (it's fun when you name a month a writeoff before the month is over because that meant that going out for hamburgers and a root beer float on Sunday was perfectly legit).
I still haven't taken any photos of the yarn I got in Kelowna but I will soon. And yes, shout it from the rooftops, I knit a pair of socks!!!! Me! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Cooked Alive

So, it's kinda hot in the Okanagan right now. Just a tad. No really, just a tad. Though, after stating this, I should also comment I'm currently drinking an iced vanilla latte in an air conditioned house. Spoiled person waves sheepishly.

I have had an amazing visit. I've gone to the beach, gone shopping, gone to the farmers market twice, gone for coffee a multitude of times, played pool, gone for drinks, gone out for dinner, gone to my grandparents house, and lots of other things too. Some noteworthy events include

• finding out that the only yarn store in Vernon is closed for 3 weeks (what the hell?) and throwing a hissy fit on the main street. This initially bad event promted my mom to offer to drive me to Kelowna to the two yarn stores there and ohmigoodness, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I shall post the purchases I got that day (whatever you do, do not ask me how much money I spent) and there will be photos, oh yes, there will be photos. Least to say, we are now going to go to Kelowna for our yarn when I make the voyage home. Wheeeeeeeeeee!
• While waiting for my dear friend Jodi to finish her shift at McRonchies, I was just sitting at a table knitting on the second Hedera sock when a woman passed by, then exclaimed 'are you knitting a sock?' I confirmed that yes, indeed, it was a sock, and she ran off and then came back with four children. She told me that she was showing them how to knit the other day and was trying to describe knitting a sock to them. They were really nice children and asked lots of questions and I let them see the sock. That was fun.
• Raspberries. I have eaten so many raspberries here. Mom and I went to the farmers market and I got a container of raspberries and ate it before we had finished the loop. It's all good.
• Hazel. My first kitty that I lives here now. She looks just like Spike but smaller and more ruffled looking. She's been sleeping on the end of my bed and she's so funny. Nothing disturbs this cat! I get up in the morning, turn on the light, make the bed, and she stays in her original position, doesn't move at all. One would think she was dead. This morning she had her tounge sticking out, so cute. And she is so dirty because she's an outside kitty. I would give her a bath but I want her to have happy memories.

Okay, hopefully this whole post comes through. I tried blogging earlier this week but it only blogged half my post and deleted the other half. Bad computer. Soon I shall have photos of the yarn! No worries.

Tomorrow To Do List

I have decided to blog my to do list for tomorrow. Just thought I would clarify my title in case you are drunk and hence confused.

• Clean bathroom (sigh)
• Tidy (put away books, bobby pins, CDs, knitting projects and associated knickknacks {yarn labels, yarn, scissors, knitting magazines, stitch markers}, and my drawing stuff {erasers, pencils, sketchbook, pens [the uber good ones]})
• Put away laundry ie. put clothing in drawers or in closer (hung up). Revolutionary.
  
• Go to work (gimme)
• Write personal letters (3) and mass email to let people know I'm going home for a week.
  

And that is it. Now that I have blogged, maybe I will actually do at least a few of the things on this list.

The Sock

So this is the Hedera sock from Knitty, designed by Cookie A. I'm knitting them with Regia sock yarn, and I can't remember the name of this colour scheme. It's very pretty no? Here The Sock is in the garden with the ribbing and lace done. Oh, and a warning, I don't know how to make blogger agree with me on photos and text so this may be kinda rough.

The next photo is of the heel just being finished. I have a thing about heels, I love knitting them. Slip stitches are interesting because they feel like cheating but they are allowed. It's like in high school when you get a spare class and you leave the schoolgrounds during school hours. Yes, I'm odd. Rah rah rah.












Okay, I'm hoping that the next photo in this line is the photo that has a dark background (arm of couch) and is really poorly focused because I suck at using Jenn's digital camera. This is when I had just finished the gusset and started on the foot. I don't feel like going into it, but I wanted to work on getting detail with the camera then I would show you insane amount of mistakes I made in the decreasing for the gusset. I cheated so much. Even small children would probably look at the sock and say, 'what's up with that?' but I digress. This part seemed to take the longest but I'm sure it wasn't. At this point I had memorized the lace pattern so it wasn't nearly as time consuming as checking off pattern repeats when I did the foot.
And then the finished sock! (Jenn is our lovely foot model today). I am so happy with the toe! I did grafting which is so much fun I'm going to knit all my socks top down in order to save this delicious knitting technique to the last. (Well, I've never tried toe up socks so I'm not going to stand by that last statement). And there is also a detail of the lace pattern on the sock too. And actually you can see some funkiness in that decrease line on the gusset, I think that is where I realized I had forgotten to decrease on the last decrease row so I did a double decrease on this row.

So there it is! My first WEARABLE sock ever! And yes, I've already started the second one. I've decided that while I may have many knitting projects on the go, I can only knit one pair of socks at a time. And since the Bears and I finished Jim's present we started on another one, which is our first adventure into double knitting- and I have to say that I am thoroughly fasincated by this. It's like reversible fair isle. I have many ideas cooking.

I also bought a book the other day, called Theory and Practive of Perspective by G. A. Storey and it was written in 1910. It's rather an intense read and it makes me wonder how humankind ever progressed if this is how they communicated to one another. I like it, I think once I finish this book I will know perspective better than anything else. And also, I used my credit at books & co so it cost me 2$. Mwahaha!

Ramblings

Not much to blog. I mean, the usual.... knitting.... reading (The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory)... buying (Martha Wainwright's new CD-cannot remember the name) .... going out for dinner and forgetting that ice tea has caffeine in it (I had not drank it for ages) so I drank 5 glasses of ice tea and was up till about 3 am talking to myself like a maniac in my bed. In other news, the person who was mean to me is so longer ever an issue. How lovely.

And Jim is getting here today! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm very excited. Jim is an excellent brother in law. The Canadia Bears and I are going to frantically try to finish knitting his Xmas present today but if we can't we will cleverly hide it somewhere in the house. The Bears are also currently reading my biology textbook, they find it very engrossing.

Mom is also in town, hence the spoiling of us. It's also why it's 9am and I've been up for an hour. I'm very productive while my mother is here. Today we are going to the Books and Co which is the most amazing bookstore. I remember working at a fast food joint (a dark, dark period of my life) and having saying that I enjoyed having visits from my Mom and that we had a lot in common, and having somebody, who was a mom herself, kinda sneer at me and say 'well you aren't normal'. That was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. My mom is also an amazing knitter. AMAZING. She knits these massive triangle shawls on tiny needles and I am just flabbergasted when I see them. And get this, she works on one at a time. She only starts another when she has finished the first one. Seriously. Maybe that's something that skips a generation, and my kids will knit like that.

Well, we are headed out soon so I shall depart in order to be decent for once (I am so sick of ponytails, but styling naturally curly hair is quite ambitious). And here is a photo of Chuck, who was so pleased that I clean my room and cleared a space for him on my bookshelf.

Wheee! Mwahahaa!

So, I was having a day. You know, those days, where you don't want to knit, or draw, or read, or watch TV, or phone anybody, or go outside (hot and smokey), and you don't feel overly well because you still aren't over that stupid cold you got two weeks ago and you still cough up a lung every few hours, and basically, you are a big mope. (I mean, I don't even want to play sims!)

I decided to get some productivity done, cause sometimes that helps. So I put away the dishes and put on a load of laundry and swept and made more coffee. Felt a little better, than I decided to just check my email to see if that person who stood me up on Canada has written me an apology email yet (boys can be stupid, no?) and what do I see?

A NEW knitty issue has come out! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (I saw that when I went to check my email because I get an email notification for new issues) I'm so psyched and I wasn't even expecting it so I am doubly thrilled! I'm going to get myself a cup of coffee, fluff the cushions, arrange the fans for opt cooling and read patterns all afternoon! I am so giddy. I first read the article by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who is the Yarn Harlot, who I have a major blog-crush on. But yes, life is good. The article has tonnes of sock and glove patterns which is crazy because that is my current knitting theme! Sppppoooky. The Bears and I will pick out our favorites and let you know later, I also keep on meaning to blog the picture of my REAL sock that I'm knitting. You know, a sock that will actually fit a human foot. And I'm planning on knitting two of them! (I'm completely serious you know)

Woohoo! Happy happy Wednesday!

Oh, and a belated Happy America Day to my beloved Americans! Hug hug!

In other news...

How sad is it that I kinda don't want to blog because I don't want my incredibly silly and long title to the 06 06 06 post to go away on the sidebar? In other news, I categorized dice today according to the number of sides (4, 6, 8, 10, 12, & 20) and to style of dice (clear, cloudy, marbled, freckled, and solid colours). Yup. Thrilling.

Canada day was bloody awesome (just like I said). I went to the park with Jenn and her friend, who has two darling little girls, and we had a blast. I am apt to find that younger people are more fun to be around more and more (this statement could also be founded on the fact that a friend my age who was suppose to accompany us couldn't because he was still in bed half an hour after he was suppose to show up so.... but still, the girls were lovely). And lo and behold, what do I find in the park? YARN! Beautiful, beautiful yarn. So with my own money I got two skeins of recycled silk sari yarn from Nepal, and with the Xmas money from my grandparents that I had saved for just an occasion I got 22 very long strands of hand dyed hand spun felted wool from Germany!


Couldn't you just die? Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful Xmas present! It's the prettiest wool EVER!!! I'm thinking (with a lot of Jenn's help), two wallhangings, one a blue underwater theme, and the smaller one very bright sunshine red colours. And again, just to emphasize, a lot of Jenn's help went into that decision.

So I have two days off again. I'm knitting a sock, so I'll post that soon cause I can, and I'm working on some new drawings that I will see if I can get up to the university and scan sometime. I'm not talking to Aspirations right now. I don't like the watercolour part of it at all. I'll fix it somehow.

And yes, I did get the rainbow brite cakepan. And yes, it was very, very good.

(and hopefully, Spike will have blogged tonight, thought I would tell you because he's been rather anti-social as of late)

What day is it?

IT'S CANADA DAY!

Have a bloody awesome day! And kudos to Jim for his first half Canadian Canada day! Wheee!

It was Ian, in the meat locker, with a meat hook

Thanks to everyone for all the really nice words. Between knitting and bears, I'm very happy now indeed. I just wanted to quickly blog and show to everyone that is is bloody 7am in the morning. And it's my day off (of two! Two days off people! In a row!). Why am I up at 7am those of you who know me well are asking... well, it because I just had a really disturbing nightmare and I decided being awake and groggy is better than going back to sleep and entering the same dream. I'll let you know how the rest of the day goes.

In other news, last night, I finished the knitting on TWO projects. Oh my god.

People Suck

So you ever have those dejavu moments? Where you are like... 'wow, am I back in high school?' because people are being so bloody immaturingly mean to you? In a little gang? They've all voted you off their friend list? Now, if it was high school, sure, I would sink to their level and write something nasty about them on the bathroom wall but no. I know now that there are things in life that just aren't worth it.

It's not so much them because I mean -ew- but it does make for a really crappy day and I keep on thinking there is something I need to do, not to them, but something I need to do for myself that will instantly make this crappy feeling go away. Well, I have some ideas but none of them are attainable, like gathering today my Harem friends (don't ask) for drinks at M. But it's this nagging feeling like part of me knows what to do but my cognitive part can't remember. Very odd.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

*this is my first attempt at a book review. A small quasi-spoiler is in here but not anything important. Please keep in mind that I am not a writer and keep your expectations low*

Guilty Pleasures is the first book of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. So far, there are fourteen books in this line, but I've only read the one. This book was everything I expected it to be(which wasn't much), and in all honestly, a little more. It was an entertaining and quick read, with no deep thoughts, no moral lessons, and kinda a wonky plot. The upsides were Anita Blake herself, who narrowly escaped being another sarcastic, overly cool, heroine. She had enough quirks and downfalls to make me actually like her. The dialogue was surprisingly good, I was worried at points it would fall into the way too sarcastic realm (think The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) or the way too orchestrated realm (think Gilmore Girls-which I know, isn't a book, but it's written isn't it?), but for the majority of the book, the dialogue was consistent and believable. The book provided enough violent gore and sexual innuendo to keep it slightly edgy, but not enough for my liking- personally. As for character development, not much went outside of Anita Blake. There were some rounded characters that helped balance out the usual stereotypes, but a lot of characters that seemed like they should play crucial roles were not given any lipservice. Probably the biggest downfall to the book when the odd playout of the plot. A lot seemed to be happening without a lot getting done. It didn't really seem that Anita Blake figured out the mystery, more she just keep on putting herself in exceptionally dangerous situations because of her outstanding morals and then eventually near the end of the book the mystery kinda exposed itself while she was there. I don't know, I was impressed by Anita's disregard for her own well-being but not for her detective skills. All in all, I give this book three and a half stars out of five because it was very entertaining, I read it in three evenings, and the female heroine didn't end up getting rescued by some guy. I hope to read some more Anita Blake books at some point, and see how or if the books change.

Thank you for reading my book review. If I know you and like you, please leave comments (good or bad) about this review. If I don't know you and you are polite, you too can leave comments. If I don't know you and you aren't polite, please- go away. I mean, why are you reading my blog, rude person?

We all have our vices

So I had a bad day today at work. A really crummy bad day. Miserable. Anyhoo, Jenn was lovely and asked me what I wanted to get or to do to cheer me up- lovely girl that one. And I'll jump a little into the future here and paraphrase (taken some blog liberties) what Jenn said to my response...

When most people say 'I know I shouldn't but...' they usually follow it with 'I'm going to drink till I'm drunk and incoherent' or 'I'm going to eat this tub of cookie dough ice cream all by myself' but not a lot of people say 'I know I shouldn't but I'm going to start a new knitting project!'

But yes, that is what I'm going to do. My other projects will just have to wait! This will take my grand total of current projects up to... 5! (to some knitters, that's heresay, but to others, it's the tip of the iceberg). But I know which one I'm going to start and it won't take me all that long to do. I'm very excited about it and am going to start my swatch after I finish this blog! As well...

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO DAD AND GRANDPA!!!!
I love you both very very much and even if you don't read this blog, I just wanted to let everyone know what astoundingly amazing men I have in my life and fortunate I am to have them. I lead a very blessed life.

Okay, I'm off to swatch! Wheeeeeeeeee!

Productivity, the fun kind

So it is only 12:30 pm and I've been so crazy productive! Bonkers I tell you. And none of that 'writing papers, studying, reading textbooks' productivity, this is the good kind.

• Knit
• Written two long overdue emails
• Organized my email inbox into folders (8) and went through over 200 emails (still 300 to go)
• bought a book of poetry (don't get excited, just a student anthology but still, makes me happy)
• Finished the details on a scarf I'm designing
• Showed somebody how to do a russian join (knitting)
• Bought yarn (for scarf I'm designing so it's a legit purchase)
• Had three coffees!!!
• Talked to a good acquaintance which is nice because she's leaving for Vancouver in two days and I didn't think I'd get to see her before she went
  
• went for a fourty five minute walk
• and now I'm blogging!

In other news, I found a Star Bright cake pan and it's really expensive because the woman also rents them out but I want it so badly. Should I fork out the 20 dollars for it? I mean, it's Star Bright!

WASP!

There was a wasp in the living room. This involved herding the kitties into my room, a chair in order to get close enough to the wasp (on the ceiling), throwing heavy magazines (simple living), jumping on magazines, realizing wasp is not under magazine, throw magazine outside anyways (just in case), phone Jenn, finding possibly dead/not moving wasp on floor, dropping a magazine on it but running away and screaming at the same time, jumping on said magazine, putting armchair ontop of magazine, realizing Spike will get to the dead wasp no matter what (and that leaving a dead wasp underneath a magazine underneath an armchair is not the responsible approach to the whole situation), herd the kitties back into my room, picking up the magazine, getting a bag to pick up the wasp, realize I cannot pick up the wasp, putting the magazine back on the wasp and jumping on the magazine till the wasp is smushed onto the magazine, and I'm very proud to say, carry the magazine to the garbage can outside, let the kitties back out, and restore the living room back to order. I've also been compulsively checking the kitties to make sure they weren't stung but so far they are fine so I'm guessing that they weren't stung, doesn't mean I won't stop checking.

In other news, the blister I got on my index finger on my left hand because of my knitting on tiny metal needles with thick yarn got stabbed by another knitting needle yesterday and started to bleed! Dangerous I tell you! Well, I do like to live life on the edge.

Spike says hi.

Finished The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. I really liked it. I imagine it would be spookier if I didn't know how the story ended, but still, had quite a chills in the spine factor. If I ever join a bookclub I would love to discuss this book with people. Halfway through V for Vendetta, and so far I am really enjoying it. I don't know if I want to see the movie but I think I will when I am done the book. I'm having a hard time picturing Natalie Portman as Evey but meh.

Up and atom!

A firey shower of star shaped books about samosas written in dye made from pansies plauged the western half of N. America-excluding parts of Alaska

I had very high expectations for today. I don't know what I really expected to happen, but nothing really all that significant happened. It was a nice day, don't get me wrong, quite a nice day detailing some friends stopped by, and I knit a dishcloth and watched lots of simpsons, but nothing that I could put on this blog entry in big capital letters with lots of exclamation marks. A jehova witness came by this morning while I was still in my big red houserobe. That was fun. Oh wait, I could make this into a big thing.... SPIKE TRIED TO SCALE THE FRONT DOOR WHILE IT WAS OPEN, GOT TO THE TOP BUT LOST BALANCE, DANGLED BY HIS FRONT PAWS FOR AWHILE, THEN FELL, HITTING HIS BUM ON THE LOW BOOKSHELVE THINGIE BEFORE HITTING THE FLOOR!!! Meh, not quite what I was going for but it works. Spike was fine by the way, he licked his tail for a long time and then decided to run run run and so now Chuck and him are wrestling.

And I'm proud of my dishcloth. I'll try to see if I can get a photo of it for here. Even though it's just a dishcloth- I still knit it in a half a day so I'm proud.

Just a lazy Sunday afternoon

I took today off of work because I had a bridal shower to go to. It was lots of niceness and I got a thing of wine charms as a thank you present which I'm going to turn into stitch markers so that was nice too. I realized it has been ages and ages since I had a Sunday off and it's turning out to be really nice. I'm doing a lot of laundry, knitting, and petting of whiny kitties. I also thought I would blog all the comics I'm getting. I'll never be a hardcore geek (bathe too much and don't shrink away at the touch of natural sunlight) but nevertheless...

Lenore (for me and Jenn)
Magician: Apprentice
Ptolus
Artesia (warning, a tad explicit... just a tad)
Marvel Civil War
Serenity (me and Jenn)(I love the artwork in this but unfortunately I don't like the way they drew Inara)
Bettie Page: Queen of the Nile (I've only tracked down the first one but rumour has it I may be getting the next two eventually)
Eternals (hasn't come out yet but it will soon!)
All star Superman (for Jim but I read them too)

Okay, this is really annoying because I know I am getting 11 comic titles but I cannot remember the other two! I took Johnny the Homicidal Maniac off... I don't think it's any Marvel or DC comics... meh. Just in case anyone is wondering (which I doubt you are but, eh) I have not yet dyed my hair.

In other news, I would like to announce that I would like to enter into a relationship with someone who doesn't play mind games. Just thought I'd put that out there. If anyone has talked to me through phone, email, or msn, then you know what I am talking about. I mean, the silent treatment? Are we in the fifth grade again?!? Huh?!?

Oh, and apparently Chuck would like me to let everyone know how incredibly hard his life is (Chuck is the orange kitty) and how incredibly abused and neglected he is. Unloved. Unloved.

Update: Jenn (Mgan) should cook everyone dinner. Seriously. Just do it.

Update deux: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter & Emily Strange are the other two

Oops... more yarn

There is a sale currently at the yarn store (I wish Darlene had a website in which to show all of you) but anyhoo, there is a sale currently so I went a little bonkers today. I bought this insanely soft Frisky yarn in which to knit my Grandma a shawl (last I heard Grandma doesn't read blogs so I'm safe) and I also picked up this pattern here in which to knit some for either me or xmas presents for pumpkins (or adults, whatever). I picked up two types of fur, blue and sparkly white, and two types of body yarn, an off-white and a soft purpley. The purple and sparkly white go together while the blue and the off-white go together. Do you like my picture below? Heh. I can't start until I finish some of my current projects which are actually coming together nicely lately. I only have about another two hours or so on my mohair shawl and then another evening of tv or a movie for my spca blanket.
In other news, life is kinda messed up but not in a drastic way. I miss Jim. Work has its highs and lows. My room is atrocious! The kitties are good. I got a new book from the library since I finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Very, very, very good. I had a little bit of a rough patch getting into it because the main character seemed kinda flat but the book addressed that and it just kept on getting better and better. I picked up Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris so I'll start that when I finish The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin and V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. I haven't seen the movie for either of those. I want to see V for Vendetta but The Stepfords Wives... meh.

not much to say

just thought I would blog


I'm turning into a geek-getting four comics a month now, wait, five if you count the superman I get for Jim, and six once Eternals gets here



hope to dye my hair this week



there's a sale at my local yarn store so that means I have to buy another container for my yarn



going to bed now






sweet dreams

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIA!!!!!

Happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday dear Juuuuuuuuuuuuuu-lia
happy birthday toooo yoooou!

whee! woohoo! wowzers! eeeeheeehee! yeah! bonza! whee! willikers! tralala! woo! whee! wow! tubular! wowzers! yea! whee! bingo! wow! eeeeheehee! woo! woohoo! yeah! willikers! whee! radical! wowzers! dude!

Things I've learned in the past week

1. Don't put an end table and a whole bunch of trinkets where your laundry basket was cause at night you'll throw your robe at it and break stuff.

2. Don't let Spawnkitties near tulips.

3. Jim Henson is a God (already knew that, but got reinforced) (and yes, I know he has passed on but still is a God).

4. Don't fall asleep ontop of a knitting pattern (or knitting needles for that matter) because it will have a weird effect on your dreams (ever tried reading a chart in your dreams? So insanely frustrating).

5. Don't point at a knitting magazine and proclaim loudly about how much it sucks only to open it and realize there are patterns you like because then you can't buy it (at least when there are other people around).

6. When you carry a massive sketchbook, a collection of pencils, and a reference book up a steep and long hill, make sure you are actually in the mood to draw. Or else you just bitch a lot about the weight, and then throw things at the other people around you as they draw.

7. Mothers are amazing. Wheeeee for Annika!

8. Brother-in-laws are good things in life and everyone should have one. Especially one with Bears. And a fondness for Pita Pit.

9. Drunk Monkeys can knit like nothing else!

And that concludes my blog entry at this time. Archives and further blog reading can be found on the righthand side of the screen (your right, not the computers right).

So many posts

First things first, I know need to stretch before I go on my walks that turn out to be a few hours or more, because oi do I hurt right now! (it's all my hips and ass, which is a good thing, because that means that I may be getting an ass! Hips I need no more of)

In other news, I just wanted to comment on my messed up logic. So I'm knitting something right now that is composed of diamonds, so I increase one stitch per row for x amount of rows and then I decrease one stitch per row for x amount of rows. So when I'm increasing, I get all pouty. I start to dislike my knitting. I shun it for days. I bargain- 'Okay, just knit one row, then you can read another chapter in American Gods (Neil Gailmen)' and when it gets to the last, let's say, probably 15 rows, it's like torture. I knit a row then put it on my shelf and don't talk to it for a few days. I get angry at the yarn. I take it to work with me because anything is better than nothing during a break at a mall. The thing is, once I reach that magic number, where you stop increasing, and start decreasing, I'm so excited! I love it! I knit like crazy! I finished the increasing last night, and today I have knit six rows. Six! The six before that probably took me at least a week, maybe longer. And it's the same amount of work, I mean, I do enjoy knit 2 together, it's my favorite stitch, but still, I love the decreasing parts of patterns. So strange. I also fall in love with the yarn all over again. It's sooooo beautiful. This also happens to be the piece of knitting that I've gotten the most comments on while knitting in public. I also have blisters because of this knitting. See! It's a confused knitting!

As well, I appreciate the comments people left about maintaing two blogs. I've thought about it and I'd actually have three blogs because Spike gets me to maintain his blog too and that would be a lot of work. As well, I can't blog much about my knitting since two of three knitting projects currently are Xmas presents (so I just allude to them vaguely, as above) but I can't really go into detail. I'm thinking of after Christmas, blogging about one present each week, which will take awhile. I'm going to still take photos of progress and everything and just keep the photos on CDs. Rant rant rant.

And for the last note, I want this. It loves me so.

Heh... Nocturnal Exploration

Is there something you're not telling me?

So I've technically been up for an hour and a half, but I only got out of bed half an hour ago, but the point here is that I cannot shake this feeling that I have something ridicously urgent to do. Usually this feeling is accompanied with a realization that a) some school work is due b) I work in the afternoon or c)I am meeting someone for coffee but none of those things are happening today! This is so annoying.

In other news, I ate so much pasta yesterday I nearly went comatose. Seriously.

List of Things to Do

I have been doing a lot of stuff since school ended (ie. reading and knitting) but there are so many things I keep on saying- oh, I need to do that. So instead of actually doing them, I going to blog about them. Maybe blogerizing my list will help motivate me to complete some of these. Let's see here.... (is 'let us' an appropriate contraction as let's? I so confused all of a sudden. My brain is completely atrophed.)

• Phone Alyson, Jodi, Jolene, Kim B., and Nic
• Find a proper way to store and organize yarn and knitting needles (seriously, what to do about circular knitting needles? Argh I say!)
• Dye my hair! I've been meaning to do this for months!
  
• Go through my filing, which will take a couple of days at least
• Mail Julia her B-day present (which at this point is going to be dreadfully late as is)
• Make my blog all so nice and new and possibly start a knitting blog too cause well... it's kinda obligatory
• Go through all my emails (all 456 of them) and either print off the ones I want, put them in special folders, and delete the ones I don't read! I fear the delete button. I really do.
• Finish painting the store warhammer army! This one is doubtful. I painted for an hour and half last night and got the skin on one space bug done.
  
• Find a good way for me to keep track of my money, so a budget plan/doohickey that will work for me. I watch that show on the life channel called... well, I can't remember, but that woman comes in and gives money advice to people over the space of a month and anyhoo, the key I think is to not have credit cards and if you do, no more than one. Oh, this one has turned into a tangent, maybe it has something to do with the insane Chuck love I am recieved while trying to type.
  
• Finish my alligator and frog drawing.
  

Lists are fun.

Chicks & Tattoos

I love it when tattoo artists presume that because you are a woman that you know nothing about tattoos and talk down to you and don't listen to what you are saying. I love that because that makes my decision of where to not get a tattoo so much easier.
Me: Well, I drew up this sketch and I know I can't draw tattoos so I was wondering-
Him: That can't work for a tattoo.
Me: (pause) Yes, I know. What I want is-
Him: This inner star would just bleed into the outline.
Me: (sigh) Yes, I know. This is smaller-
Him: This type of detail can't be replicated. And this part would bleed as well.
Me: Yes well, thanks for your time. Byebye now!

In other news, I get to wear a catwoman (original catwoman, not Halle (shudder)) shirt to work! Wheeeee! Kudos for working in a comic book store!

Update: Do not go to Adrenaline tattoos

Residual school anxiety

It seems funny to be experiencing this now since it's been nearly a month since school ended, but I've noticed lately that I have moments of panic when I see the date and think 'is something due today?' and I just came home from work and thought 'I'm so tired, I don't want to do schoolwork' and then I had the little gigglingly feeling of realization that I have no schoolwork and could play sims2 all night long if I wanted.

In other news, I finished the kick ass skull and crossbones wristband I knit up on those ridiciously tiny 1.75mm needles. I lined it in jersy and sewed on snaps and then pounded on some metal studes and voila! When I get my hands on a digital camera (I won't be purchasing one until I have a better idea of my hours at work this summer) I will get Leboe to pose with it. I was really worried it was going to irritate his skin (hence the jersy) but he wore it all day at work today and so far so good!

Jenn made bran muffins while I was at work, and they were ready right when I came home, and let me ask you... is there anything better than coming home to a house full of yummy smells and eating a piping hot bran muffin with raspberries in it? Is there? I think not! Sisters rule.

So, what do you think?

I want this soooooooo badly.

Update: nevermind. Don't want it anymore.

Holy Fast Shipment Amazon!

So I ordered a book on Amazon last week, I think it was Wednesday or something, and today I see a mailpost van in the driveway and I run out all excitied cause I'm like... wheee! My book! Now, it is a big book, around 11 " by 11" approx, but the box this guy is holding is huge! So I just think, oh, it's a wedding prezzie for Jenn, and it does say Amazon on the side, but Jenn's gotten Amazon presents already so nothing new. Anyhoo, I get the box, and my name is on it! It's my book! My obviously incredibly fragile book because it was packed in a huge box with those massive air filled ziploc bags. Now, there was also a newspaper like thingie about books in my order, so maybe that was why, but nevertheless, I got my book! It's the one I raved about earlier, Module Magic by Ginger Luters.

And I'm doing good about not buying yarn. I had to get the mohair in order to finish my shawl since I ran out but otherwise so far so good. I read this article in knitty and it made me think about my growing yarn stash. I also started knitting with the yarn I bought at The Never Ending Yarn and it is esquisite! (is that word correctly spelled?) I want a digitial camera. So bad. I may go down to london drugs and hold a few today. Oh, and with all my yarn that I have left over from other projects I'm knitting little squares and such and going to put in into a horridly mismatched afghan one day. I'm very excited.

In other news, I have another five days off in a row but I do believe this is the last time for the summer, which is good, detailing I want to buy an ipod as well as a camera. I have no big goals this week, except to get out and walk everyday.

In other news, for the first time in my life, I drank beer. Two cans people, two cans! It only took me about four hours as well.

Well, I'm off to have a cheese sandwich. The kitties have finally quieted down but detailing all the noise they were making while I was writing this blog I also need to go put the rugs back in their proper places (instead of all smooshed into the wall) and possibily pick up some of the dishes I just washed off the floor. Sigh. Kitties.

I thought up a really good title last night but now I have forgotten it

Heh, so Monday I had a freaky productive day. Freaky I tell you! It was kinda my first day at home because I worked on Saturday and Sunday (yup, got into town on the bus at 6am and worked at 2pm, so not that bad). I am completely redoing my room and so far, I really like it. I also have gone through all my laundry and my closet and getting rid of some clothing and went through a tonne of schoolwork and have a box of paper to be recycled. I also (this is still Monday) went downtown and did some banking and this time nobody asked me to sell crack for them! I bought some organization doohickeys, like a massive CD booklet so I can stop using up bookshelf room for piles of CD cases, an extension cord so I can have a light by my bed (I hate it when you are reading in bed and you get all tired and you have to get out of bed in order to turn off the light- I lead a difficult life) and I tried in vain to get my christmas lights in working order but so far it just doesn't work (the only way I can have them where I want is to have a whole bunch of cords right above my head at night and I'm not overly keen on that idea). And I put away dishes and bought a swiffer duster! And how I dusted indeed! I also started the vast task of reorganizing my bookshelves (they will be arranged into books I have read and the ones I haven't and then in alphabetical order). I also realized I have ENOUGH knitting pattern books (for awhile at least), well, except for the module magic one that I just ordered on Amazon, but I had no module books so. I also finished my triangle shawl, which got a little upsetting because I ran out of yarn and so my last triangle is shorter than the rest because I decreased more frequently in an attempt to not run out of yarn and the last bit of the triangle is a different yarn, but still angora goat so you can't really tell. The shawl is actually also more of a shrug , much shorter than I wanted (and expected) so I'm taking it with me to my favorite yarn store to talk to Darlene about what to do. Jenn has a good idea to take a contrasting yarn and add long extensions to either side. So that was Monday!
Okay, background rant here to fill you in on explaining my Tuesday, because during the schoolyear when I spent a long time either on the nitendo, playing sims, playing the computer, or watching TV, blah blah, I would always feel really crappy afterwards, so I didn't want to do that anymore. HOWEVER, if I have a crazy productive day the day before, and I'm careful to insert little productive things throughout, I can have a day where I goof off and live guiltfree! On Tuesday, I played so much sims! So much! And Sims is also better than TV because I get so much more out of it. My major Sims family, the first one I started on Sims2, and the only one I have a storybook photo album made up for, just had their third baby (a boy) and the twin girls are only 4 days away from adulthood! (I am such a dork, I embrace that). I also did the dishes, some more laundry, the kitty litter, and the garbage yesterday, and then, Jenn and I went out for Greek! OHMYGOODNESS! I am so going back there! Not only was the dinner amazing (I don't know if I can ever have calamari anywhere else now!) but the dessert was to die for!
So now it is Wednesday, and I'm a tad tired because I woke up at 5am, and accidently woke up the kitties too, which normally would mean Spike would keep me up, but he was tired and just went into the living room to sleep, so Chuck decided to take over. He actually bit me! Chuck! I was so ready to just open Jenn's door and push him in there. He also started attacking a plastic case that some of my knitting needles come in, and when he hits it, it makes this loud pop noise and he was just smacking it and runnning away and peeling out then running back and hitting it and running away....
Anyhoo, my rambling, rambling, rambling post of the day. I'll let you know how that shawl turns out.
Prend soin!

Update: okay, I just read this on my blog, and realized I am a complete spazhead

Big Wuss

so despite the fact that I have no problem going back home and home is where my kitty is, and my sister and my knitting and my books and lots of my friends and all other stuff that I really do like mucho, I just looked up when my bus leaves tonight and I'm now all upset and weepy and don't want to pack and mopey. I'm so going to cry at the bus stop.

I am such a baby.

Pizza pops for breakfast? Okay!

Can you tell I am at my parents? I have done lots of marvellous things since arriving, all of them stress free. Mostly though, I've done lots of knitting and lots of reading about knitting. Module Magic by Ginger Luters is excellent! I've also flipped through Unexpected Knitting by Debbie New, which is good and interesting and all, I just find it a little... preachy. Has anyone else read that one? So I decided to use my hand spun hand dyed 100% angora goat for the first time I've ever knitted using modules. After I started I was like... this was not a good idea; however, so far, no mistakes to speak off. I am very tired, I started this post quite awhile ago but have know chatted on the phone for an hour and have found myself quite fatigued. I will write more about my fabulous time at home but just quickly list some of the fun stuff I have done (cause I like lists)

• Went for a walk with Mom
• Finished two of the three 'cousin' scarves
• Bought vintage knitting magazine for quarters!
• Gone shopping at the good ol' mall here and got pretty pretty shoes for work (easter present)
• watched Lord of the Rings trilogy (the first two on TBS but the third was rented)
• helped Mom with some of her teacher stuff
• eaten tonnes of good food (like cookies and easter bunnies and pizza pops) and eaten tonnes of good food (like squash and corn and baked veggies and homemade veggie chili and veggie lasagna)
• played the original sims (heh)
• went to a local restaurant/pub with a dear friend and had lots of fun drinks (remind me to tell you about the orgasm story)
• not once have I slept in past 9 am!
• Had lots of coffee at the most wonderful coffee cafe ever
• Went to the yarn store and bought 30$ worth of yarn for only 16$ and resisted (just barely) buying a 75$ set that included hand spun fingering weight wool dyed candy soft pink in smooth and in loopy (I lack knowing the proper name or title of this yarn) from NS

And now, even though I'm sure I've forgotten lots of things, I retire. Bonne nuit!