Ramblings of a Crafter

Kvetching

2011-02-24T08:46:00.000-05:00

So, I've been dealing with knee issues for about 3 years now. For the most part the issue has been that my knee cap lay slightly to the outside of my knee and I had inflammation that would come and go in my knee. I think these issues all stems back to an injury I sustained when I worked on the Intensive Unit at an Emotionally Disturbed Children’s Home and had an extended take-down :(. And since this all started recurring 3 years ago my family practitioner, my orthopedic and my spinal specialist have all been telling me that if I would just lose weight and strengthen my quad to pull my knee cap back into proper alignment all of knee issues would go away. HA!

Well last June when I stepped on the scale on my 40th birthday and realized I was at my heaviest ever I knew it was time to do something. So I started being more aware of what I was eating and I managed to lose approximately 15 pounds over the summer. Then toward the end of July a knitting buddy wanted to join Weight Watchers and asked me if I wanted to do it with her. I knew that support would be my greatest ally on this journey, so I agreed and we joined and we go every Monday night. I feel this starts my week off on a good note and keeps my in-line over the weekend because I know I have to weight in Monday!

Then school started back up and a co-worker talked me into joining the same gym she goes to and that she would work out with me. Now, I HATE, absolutely HATE working out. But again, I knew and workout partner would get my fat ass to the gym and she would be yet another great support on this extensive journey of mine. I joined the gym and since August we've been working out together. I now go the gym anywhere from 4-6 days a week. We do cardio on the elliptical and lift weights on the nautilus machines. (But let me tell you, if medical reports came out tomorrow that said “You get absolutely NO benefit from working out I’d stop in a heartbeat!) We would walk/run on the elliptical for 30 minutes and when we first started she was running almost 3 miles in 30 minutes and I was lucky to just make 1.5 miles on level 1! Now, I've managed to work up my endurance to 5 miles within 45-55 minutes on level 8!

Back in October, my knee was really starting to feel fabulous. I’m talking, I could run up and down stairs with no pain what-so-ever. I was even able to wear heels again! (Yes, I have a shoe fetish and have been holding on to all my pretty heels because I was determined to one day be able to wear them again!)

Then in November my workout partner wanted to change up our routine a little and we started taking some of the classes that were offered at the gym. We decided to take a Zumba class. I was really looking forward to it. I had danced for 15 years growing up and still love too, so I thought this would be something that would make me actually enjoy working out. We took the class and I had tons of fun and felt fabulous when the class was over. The next morning however, my knee was not :(. It swelled up like an overstuffed sausage and I was back to wearing my brace. High was quickly deflated. My knee has been temperamental ever since that morning. The swelling would come and go, but it never felt as good as it did just before I took that Zumba class. I tried Zumba 2 more times while wearing my brace and not bouncing as much, but I haven’t been back to a Zumba class since Thanksgiving :(

So, I started wearing my brace whenever I went to work out. Then two weeks ago I was home and changing to head to the gym. I put my brace on and headed upstairs to grab a towel. Each step I took and straightened my left knee it popped. Not a painful pop, but not something my knee normally does. I thought that maybe I had put the brace on wrong or too tight, so I took it off, threw it in my gym bag and headed to the gym. I put the brace back on in the locker room and tested it out. Nope, knee still not feeling right, so I took the gel piece out that suppose to aid in pushing the knee cap in the proper position and just wrapped my knee. That seemed to work and I was able to run my 5 miles with no problem, or so I thought!

That night I was at a friend’s house because we are taking this online class together and twice that night my knee locked up on my while I was sitting on the couch and when I forced it to straighten it popped and hurt. When I got home, I iced it took 2 Aleve and went to bed. The next morning my knee had swollen up again and I called the orthopedic. Due to my knee locking up, he ordered another MRI to check my meniscus and to compare it to the MRI I had done back in 2008 to see if I had torn it more.

Sure enough that’s exactly what I did. The doc thinks this happened from Zumba, but that was a little over 2 months ago. On the same note, I can’t think of anything else that I did that could have torn my meniscus.

Now I need to have knee surgery to repair the meniscus and I’m hoping that while they’re in there, they can fix those other pesky issues with my knee as well. I don’t have a surgery date yet, but I’m going to try and schedule it for his first opening as I don’t want to wait too long and run the risk of tearing it worse.

So, despite all the doctors telling me to lose weight and all my knee issues will go away, I’m almost 65 pounds lighter and my knee has never been worse!

As if that wasn’t bad enough – my mother thinks I can fly down to Florida after the surgery to recoup and let her take care of me! Can you picture this – knee bandaged up, crutches, sitting in coach and the damn service cart coming by and hitting my knee?? What is my mother thinking?? *le sigh*

OK, kvetching over with…

On the Road to Healthy

2010-10-22T14:22:00.000-04:00

OK, so it’s been two months since my last post. Now that I’m heading to the gym almost on a daily basis, I’m finding it harder and harder to find the time to do web surfing, knitting and house cleaning! So what have I been doing with myself? Basically, working, working out, and hanging out with friends :)

My workout partner, Kit, and I have set-up our workout routine and we’ve been going pretty regularly since the first week of September. We’d go right after work and do the elliptical machine for about 30 – 40 minutes for our cardio routine and then we’d go lift weights. We’d alternate days between the upper and lower body for weights so that our muscles had that recommended 24 hours of rest in-between. Pairing up with Kit as a workout partner was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. We have different strengths that push each of us to get the gym or while we are at the gym. I researched what exercises I definitely needed in my routine that focused around my knee, back and neck and Kit was happy to add them to her routine as well. She is better at making sure we get our cardio in and pushing me to do more during my cardio. As such, her cardio endurance in better than mine and I can lift more weights then her, so we tend to push each other to keep up. We do this in a very helpful and supportive way. We were spending about 2 hours at the gym Monday through Friday. Kit started thinking that was too much time, so she started looking at all the classes that were being offered and picked a class for each day of the week for us to go to. Yes, I did say every day of the week. Do we really think we’ll be working out 7 days a week?? No, we’re not that crazy, but if one or both of us has to miss a day due to LIFE we have a schedule in place to make up for it. Not to mention that some of these classes, neither one of us has taken, so plans may change in the future :)

I never thought I would say this, but I do miss just simply lifting weights. I know cardio is a very important part of my health and mixing it up helps to keep me from getting bored, but building muscles is just as important to me in that muscles are what are going to help me burn more calories. I guess you can say I’m still working on trying to find my happy medium between both.

So far we have tried a Body Sculpt class that focuses on non-impact, toning and shaping utilizes light weights and Spri bands to work the major muscle groups through resistance training. I try to get to the gym early enough so that I can get at least 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical before class started. I really like this class because in 60 minutes the instructor really does do a total body workout. What I don’t like is that we don’t really stretch much at the end or rather we don’t stretch as much as I would like. I think next week after the class is over I might just move to another part of the gym and do more stretching before I leave. We tried out a mixed-level yoga class, but we had a substitute instructor the time we went, so we’ll be trying that one another time or two before we decide if we stay or try something else. We went in on a Saturday to take a Pilates class and were suppose to follow it with a Kick Boxing class. Unfortunately, that room had just been painted and the fumes were really playing havoc with my head and boarding on triggering a migraine that we didn’t stay for the kick boxing. So after Pilates we rode bikes for about 30 minutes. I really enjoyed the Pilates class. I need to remember to bring my yoga mat with me for that class though. I’m still looking forward to trying the kick boxing class, but I don’t know if we’ll be doing it this weekend, maybe next. We also tried a Core Strength class which was a short 30 minute class, but wow the abs workout was so worth it! Unfortunately, the class is smack dap in the middle of a Friday evening – not really an ideal time for either of us on a weekly basis.

Last night we went to our first Zumba class. OMG! When the class first started I thought I was going to die!! The first few songs that the instructor had us dancing too were fast paced, but then she took us through a slower paced song and we both actually made it through the whole 60 minute class! And I LOVED it! I think this is my new drug! The instructor had so much energy throughout the whole class and you could just tell that she was having a ball up at the front of the class dancing her ass off. I had so much energy surging through my body after this class at I wish I could take it in the morning to start my day off! When I got home, I turned on my computer to see what other days and times this class is being offered. I realize that for this class the instructor can make all the difference in the world, but you never know till you try!! There is a morning class offered, but it would be cutting it close to me getting to work on time. I might try it next week and see.

My progress so far? Well, before Weight Watchers I had lost 17 pounds. Since joining Weight Watchers, I’ve lost 15 pounds which puts me at a total weight loss of 32 pounds!! In addition to losing a small child, I shrunk a total of 9.5” off my body. I’m down a size and just a few pounds away from my 2nd! The great part of all this is that I’m sleeping so much better and feel more up during the day. The best part of all of it was when I went to a doctor’s appointment last week. My blood pressure has dropped significantly! It’s the lowest it’s ever been in my life – 103/63!! Not even when I was in high school and playing sports was my BP that good. I was pretty steady at 120/70 back then. So needless to say, I’m super pumped to keep going!

If at First You Don't Succeed....

2010-08-14T20:51:00.004-04:00

Skydiving is probably not for you! :)

Sorry I haven't been around for a while. Things have been a bit, I don't know, up and down, since I got back from my trip. Let's just say some things came to light and I'm tired of being sucker-punched. Sometimes it just doesn't always pay to believe that someone is who you want them to be and that simply listening to others came bring so much to light that I just can't ignore it anymore. Enough said on that, time to move on.

When I got back from my trip I needed to bring my car in for its 60,000 mile check-up. Of course it couldn't be that simple! What was suppose to a simple check up turned into an $1,100 bill. That was a Saturday. It should have stopped there, but nooooooooooooooooooo. Sunday my washing machine decided to visit the Golden Parts in the sky. So, Sunday afternoon I had to go washing machine shopping and dropped another $500. Talk about an expensive weekend! At this point I was just waiting for strike three. Needless to say, I didn't have to wait long! I got home from shopping to find that Frisco's automatic litter box quit too! Well, I guess I should be happy that as the incidents increased the replacements costs decreased!!

July was rather boring. I worked summer school for the whole month. I had 2 days off the whole time - 1st day was when my new washing machine was delivered and the 2nd was the day we had such a bad thunderstorm that it knocked out more of the power across the county that I work in and schools were closed! Nothing like an unexpected day off :)

I decided I needed a little help with my weight loss, so I joined Weight Watchers. What's really good is that my friend Ellen joined with me. We are going to Monday night meetings. I also joined the gym, Fitness First. The best part of joining that particular gym, is that I have a workout buddy and we are planning to go everyday after work. I have a long road ahead of me, but I have a buddy to keep me straight for both components that are necessary for a steady, healthy weight loss change of life! Here's to becoming a lean, mean, fighting machine. *I know, dorkiness at its best*

I am happy to say that despite my little funk, I have been knitting! I've managed to finished four more shawls and I'm working on my 8th toward the goal of 10 shawls in 2010!! I also test knitted a pair of fingerless gloves for the Vampire Sock Club that I am in and I finally managed to finish the granny square blanket that I wrote of in my last post. I should have put the blanket on hold till it got colder out because I surely thought I was going to melt with all that on my lap!!

1st up: Citron Shawl

I added the beaded bindoff to give the edging a little weight so that it wouldn't curl up so much.

2nd is the Traveling Woman:

3rd is the Oscilliscope Shawl. I think Frisco is trying to claim this one as his new blankie!

4th is the 198yds of Heaven shawl:

Oh! And I finally got around to finished the Boneyard shawl that I started way back in January!!

I'm currently working on the Herbivore shawl and should be binding that one off soon. Plus, I've started a baby blanket for my cousin who is due sometime in January, but I have a feeling the baby shower will be sometime in November, before the holiday season gets started. I choose the new pattern called: Lullaby Blanket.

I will try to post more regularly :)

Granny Madness Bites

2010-06-15T11:55:00.005-04:00

Granny Madness is running rampade with my knitting group. Denise introduced us all to Lion Brand's new yarn Amazing. She made this incredible giant granny square blanket and me along with several other members of my knitting group fell in love the colors and the lighteness of this yarn and soon we all chose different colorsways so we could all see how they crocheted up! I picked the Wildflowers colorway and I ♥ this yarn! This blanket is done, but for the edging. I still haven't decided what edging I want to use. This picture was taken outside in hopes that it would take a more true to life color shot, but the colors look much bright in this photo then they really are. The colorway is really more muted and just gorgeous!

Just a few finished projects.

Haruni Shawl
I just love how this shawl came out. It was a lot of fun to knit, but a real bitch to pin and block!! It was also a tad difficult doing the crochet cast-off because I'm left handed. This shawl is much more stunning in person, especially done in this color. I think the blue blocking squares detreacts from the beautiful color of this yarn.

Pattern: Haruni (Rav link)
Yarn: Fresh From the Cauldron's Silk Sock
Colorway: Sookie
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 8
Modifications: none

November Wrap
This shawl took me a while to complete. I just got bored with it when I reached the ruffle and I put it down. Then about two months ago I caught the finishing bug and finished up several UFOs, this being one of them :)

Pattern: November Wrap (Rav link)
Yarn: A Touch of Twist Peruvian Alpaca & Cascade 220
Colorway: Night & Day and Black
Needles: KnitPicks size 10
Modifications: added 20 stitches for length, added short rows before the ruffle to make a nice curve and added length to the back.

Mobius Cowl
I've been wanting to make this cowl for a while, but I could never decide on a yarn. Then I received this yarn and just know it was perfect for this project. I still have 1/2 a skein left that I don't know what I want to do with!!

Pattern: Mobius Cowl (Rav link)
Yarn: Fresh From the Cauldron's Silk Camel
Colorway: Field of Poppies
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 8
Modifications: none

Socks, socks, socks!!

Pattern: Jabberwoky Socks
Yarn: Wullenstudio Sock
Colorway: Feeling Groovey (Sprint Sock Club)
Needles: KnitPicks size 2
Modifications: none

Pattern: Pomatomus (Rav link)
Yarn: Socks that Rock MW
Colorway: Lucky
Needles: KnitPicks size 3
Modifications: none

Pattern: Lace Trellis
Yarn: Wullenstudio Sock (Summer Club colorway)
Colorway: Here Comes the Sun
Needles: KnitPicks size 2
Modifications: none

Another Original Design

2010-06-15T08:37:00.002-04:00

I finished up my 2nd design! Again, this has been created for Fresh from the Cauldron's Vampire Sock Club II. The colorway is called Lucien based on the Underworld character Lucien who is leader of the Lycanthropes. He's so yummy looking in this movie!

In the movie, Lucien is obsessed with crossbreeding vampires and lycanthropes, hence the name of the pattern: Lucien's Cross-Breeding Obsession.

Lazy Weekends and Finished Projects!

2010-04-23T14:26:00.005-04:00

A few weekends ago I went away with a few friends. We stayed at a cabin in the mountains of W. VA and just enjoyed each others company while we knitted like fiends all weekend long. The night we arrived we found out the cabin has a plethera of Stink Bugs! One of the women that came away with us immediately got out the vacuum and started sucking up all the stink bugs she could find. It was quite funny to watch her squeal as she sucked these bugs into the vacuum!

Over the course of this long weekend away, we were able to watch several movies and had numerous well rounded discussions. We also made a side trip to a LYS *well duh, where else would we go!* For the life of me I can't remember the name of the yarn shop right now, but if I ever remember I'll let you all know. The owner was super nice and helpful!!

While we were at this cabin a deviant knitting fairy visited us during the night and screwed around with Judy's (the woman in the blue top in the picture above) knitting. She was working on a Houdini Sock one night and the next morning something was very wrong with her sock. She asked the Fearless Knitter in our group, Denise, for some assistance and when Denise spotted the error and told her about it, Judy's reply was "Well I didn't do that" in a very serious manner. We all cracked up because who else would have done it? Hence the deviant knitting fairy was born!

Here are a few more finished projects since the last time I posted about knitting :)

Jonty's Bloody Red Cap - Jonty, is a Red Cap Goblin that helped Merry fight in the book Mistral’s Kiss. He sheds a tear as Merry tells him she would bring the Red Caps into their power. He’s a minor character in the book, but for some reason I really liked him and I ♥ this series!

Pattern: Esme (Rav link)
Yarn: Fresh From the Cauldron's MCN Worsted
Colorway: Carrie
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 8
Modifications: none

I LUV this yarn!! It's soft, squishy, satured with color and has wonderful stitch defination!!

Ring of Poison Flowers: named for the poisoned poppies that put Dorothy and the Lion to sleep in the Wizard of Oz.

Pattern: Mobius Cowl (Rav link)
Yarn: Fresh From the Cauldron's Silk/Camel DK
Colorway: Field of Poppies from the OZ Club
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 8
Modifications: none

This was a very nice yarn to work with. I actually have just under half a skein leftover and might make either a beret to match or a 2nd cowl as a gift *if I can part with such pretty yarn that is*

Wrapped up in the Blues:

Pattern: Sagano Shawl (Rav link)
Yarn: Wullenstudio Sock yarn
Colorway: Tangled Up in Blue
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 7
Modifications: none

I got this yarn while helping my friend, Sheila, in her booth at the Homespun Party back in March. As soon as I saw the highly varigated colors in this particular skein, I snatched it up! I just had to have it and I knew it would just have to be a shawl!!

Ruska Shawl:

Pattern: Ruska Shawl (Rav link)
Yarn: Brooks Farm's Acero yarn
Colorway: SE AC8 2
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 7
Modifications: none

3 more days till my friend Suzanne comes to visit and the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival!!

My First original design!

2010-04-23T12:17:00.003-04:00

I finally bit the bullet and put my creative juices up to designing patterns. I was offered an opportunity to design two sock patterns for Fresh From the Cauldron's Vampire Sock Club. SquibStitcher is the indie dyer and she has an amazing eye for color and isn't afraid to try new dyeing techniques to get the results she envisions for her colors.

Here is the 1st of two patterns I designed for the sock club.

1. Tara sock design, 2. Tara socks - left toes, 3. Tara socks - right toe, 4. Tara socks - 05

The colorway is one of the club exclusives and named after a character in a vampire book. I designed the pattern with the personality of the character in mind. This character always seems to walk the fine line with trouble. She avoids one encounter only to get tangled in another.

The pattern is called Tara's Trials and Tribulations (Ravelry link). It was designed from the cuff down.

I had a lot of fun designing this pattern. It is currently being test knitted for the club. Once the club is over, it will be available on Ravelry. I'm currently working on the 2nd design, this time Toe-up!

Easter!

2010-04-23T11:38:00.002-04:00

I know, I am way behind on my postings. I went home to NY for Easter this year. My niece is now 16 months old and an absolute doll to be around. She still isn't really talking yet, but she uses the necessary sign language to get her point across. She's currently the only baby in the family so she gets everyone attention and she loves it!

1. 100_2880, 2. 100_2879, 3. 100_2878, 4. 100_2877, 5. 100_2876, 6. 100_2875, 7. 100_2874, 8. 100_2873, 9. 100_2872, 10. 100_2871, 11. 100_2870, 12. 100_2869, 13. 100_2868, 14. 100_2867, 15. 100_2866, 16. 100_2865, 17. 100_2864, 18. 100_2863, 19. 100_2862, 20. 100_2861, 21. 100_2860, 22. 100_2859, 23. 100_2858, 24. 100_2857, 25. 100_2856, 26. 100_2855, 27. 100_2854, 28. 100_2853, 29. 100_2852, 30. 100_2851, 31. 100_2850, 32. 100_2849, 33. 100_2848, 34. 100_2847, 35. 100_2846, 36. 100_2845

You can see by the pictures of my father wearing the flower headband that she even has the big, bad Italian man wrapped around her little finger! Then again, he always had incredible patience with babies and toddlers, it was when we turned into teanagers that he lost all patience :)

My Favorite Martian!

2010-03-15T13:55:00.001-04:00

Restraining Order

2010-03-12T09:44:00.002-05:00

By definition:
A restraining order or order of protection is a form of legal injunction. The term is most commonly used in reference to domestic violence, harassment, stalking or sexual assault. Each state has some form of domestic violence restraining order law, and many states also have specific restraining order laws for stalking and sexual assault.

Yet when you have proof of harrassment the courts still do not grant them. I don't understand this. With all the crazyness going on and all the stalker incidents that go wrong, you would think the courts would err on the side of caution and grant them.

All to hope for now is that YOU understand YOUR crazy antics will no longer be tolerated - by anyone. YOU know who you are.

I Know Just How He Feels...

2010-02-11T22:08:00.000-05:00

Holy Snow Batman!!

2010-02-07T10:24:00.003-05:00

So, here I am walled up in my house behind some 30+" of snow. Sorry I have no yard stick to throw in the snow outside my house to measure, I'm just going by the snow totals that were announced last time I watch TV (the official measure was 33.8").

What? Did Mother Nature just wake up and realize that she had missed out on giving us our fair share of snow over the last few years and decided to make up for all in 1 winter season?? Just before Christmas we received 22-26", 2 other snowfalls in January that probably together totalled around 6" - 8" then yesterdays snow dump of 30+" and as if that wasn't bad enough we have anther storm system with snow heading our way for Tuesday & Wednesday!!

Back in Feb. '03 we got around 24" and schools were out for a week. At the amount we have now and the rate Mother Nature is dumping this stuff on out we'll be out till Easter and the kids will be in till July 4th!! Of course, when states get this amount of snow they usually claim themselves under a "State of Emergency" and when that happens school systems can appeal to to State Dept of Education to waiver the cancelled school days affected while under it. The state can, of course, deny the appeal. Of course both this and the December blizzard both came in on the weekend so I have no idea if that makes a different of not.

Anyhoo, I'm just sitting at home entertaining myself with my knitting and sewing as I wait. I wait on the guy that I called on Thursday to hire to come over and shovel me out that is. I have herniated disks in my lower back and my neck and I'm not suppose to shovel this amount of snow. The last snow we had was a good 5-6" of a the heavy snow and I cleared my driveway and walk to my front door and just in that amount I felt in my back and neck for several days after that. I really did try to obied by both the doctor's and the physical therapist's order not to. I wait till 3pm to see if a neighborhood kid would knock on my door looking to make some money. When 3PM came around and no one came a knocking, I had to do it. As much as I would have loved to have Frisco go out and shovel for me, I don't think that was happening.

Anyway, for those of you not in the DC/Baltimore/Philly area and not affected by this "Winter Powerhouse" as the weather channel has dubbed it here are some picture from my front and back doors...

This was what greeted my yesterday as soon as I opened the front door...

This it the view looking straight out. I swear to you there's suppose to be a road under all that snow there. I wouldn't lie! If I just crop out that "For Sale" sign this would be a beautiful scenery. "Pretty but Deadly"

Now out the back door...

I sent these photos to my folks in Florida. My mom really thought that was Frisco sitting outside on the railing! I laughed so hard!

New Moon - Which Team are You on?

2010-02-03T11:45:00.001-05:00

New Moon: Which Team Are You On?

More on Twilight. Created by BuddyTV

Well DOH! Did I really need a test to tell me that?

Which Twilight Character are You?

2010-02-03T11:33:00.001-05:00

Which Twilight Character Are You?

More on Twilight. Created by BuddyTV

So friends that know... does this ring true?

Christmas 2009 and 2010 Goals!

2010-01-05T12:55:00.011-05:00

Happy New Year everyone *yes Peanut Gallery, I know it's the 11th, but I can still say it* I hope this year brings good health, prosperity and happiness to you all!! I got to the spend the 1st day of the new year sleeping in, playing with my stash and dining & knitting with friends *that was the best part of the day* While I was enjoying the company of friends I also finished my first project for 2010!! I just love it when a year starts off so nicely :) The project was actually part of my niece's Christmas gift and oh there's a story behind this one too. My older sister, Mary, suggested that I make a scarf and hat for my niece as her gift. Mary said that they were in a store the other day and Gabbi had tried on several different style hats and the ones that looked best were the slightly slouchy and had a bill. So of course, I log into Ravelry and we start look at hats to find a pattern. She liked Struan and she also liked Hannah for when she was just out playing around (Gabbi is the sporty girl and wears her hair in a ponytail a lot). We agreed that I would make Struan and a scarf and she told me to make them in blue.

I managed to finish the scarf before I headed up to NY for Christmas. I went to go start the scarf two nights before Christmas and it had this special way of starting it since it is made from the top down. While I was on my mom's computer looking up the directions of how to do the special cast-on Gabbi saw the pattern and a picture of the hat and comment that she liked it and asked if I could make her one! So of course I'm thinking *SCORE!* in my head since I was already making this for her. That's when the Red Barron came crashing down!

"But Zia, can you make for me without this bill thing in the front? And can you make it in grey or bright green. Yeah, bright green would be pretty."

Me - "Bright green??"

"Yeah, I like bright green. Can you make it bright green for me?"

"Gabbi, You are definitely your father's child!" He father loves bright wacky colors. So of course I told her yes, I mean what else could I have told her!

I then go to find my sister and relay the conversation to her and of course says, "Just make it in blue. She'll be fine!"

Pattern: Struan (Rav link)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted
Colorway: Tuareg
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 5
Modifications: none

Needless to say, she loves it. She even send me a Facebook message a few days ago to let me know again just how much she likes it and that all her friends like it and that they all thought it came from Aeropostale! We all know that to a teenager that makes all the more kooler ;)

Here's a picture of the scarf that a knit to go along with it.

Pattern: Malabrigo Waffles Scarf (Rav link)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted
Colorway: Tuareg
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 8
Modifications: none

I also made a Jester Hat Maya. Here's a quick peek, because like most babies they just don't like to keep their hats on!

I just want to squeeze those cheeks! She understands so much for a 1-year old. She might not be able to talk, but she sure does understand and man does she have the should shrugging down pat!

The funniest Christmas story I have to tell has to do with Maya, of course! Here she is in her little party dress.

So, she unwrapping her gift from her godparents. You can see in that picture, I think that was the Playschool CD player that one of them got her. Her Godfather, my cousin Cesidio, bought her a Playschool laptop. Now mama didn't raise no fool, this little girl knew exactly what this was. She pulled the little laptop out of the packaging and toddled over to her little chair. She shimmied her little butt up onto the chair and pulled the laptop onto her lap. *Oh wait, this gets even better!* The little stinker leans over and hits the play button on her new CD player and then flips the top up on her laptop and starts typing!! So, ya think her mommy and daddy are on the computer too much? Just a little?

Well 2010 is here and I'm still dealing with my health issues. As you know I had a round of 3 Cervical Epidural Steriod Injection (CESI) back in November. Then in December I started physical therapy for both the herniated disks in my neck and my lower back. Unfortunately the injections in my neck did not alleviated the pain as much as it was suppose to and now my pinched nerve feels worse then it ever did! I have now started the series of injection in my lower back. Luckily my lower back is very mild. The spinal specialist is very concerned and wants me to try traction. He thinks I'm too young to have neck surgery, and hell, I'm inclined to go with him on this account. If traction in the office helps, then he is going to write a letter to my insurance to try and get them to cover the cost of a home traction device so that I can do traction on myself twice a day until the disk slips back into place. This is the most annoying injury I have ever had.

Goals for 2010 -

Lets just stick to knitting goals for now :)

I'm whole heartedly going to try an knit from my stash. I have such beautiful yarn in my stash and SO MUCH of it that it is ridiculous of my to constantly be buying more yarn. My problem is that colors call to me. I love certain colors and I just HAVE to have them. I'm going to take this in small steps my filling up my projects bags with a pattern and the required yarn and slowly work toward emptying a bin of yarn. This will take time and require me to shift yarn between bins every few months so that I can visually see the bins emptying. Maybe I should just say every 3 months (4 x a year) I will shift and hopefully by December I will have en empty bin or two! I am giving myself some exceptions because lets face it, I will buy yarn :) So, here are the exception, The Homespun Party, MDS&W Festival, and FFtC Vampire Sock Club II (if I get in). Any yarn that I receive as payment for testing doesn't count because I didn't spend any $$. I'm even going to cut back on the number of swap I participate in this year in the hopes of more skeins going out then coming in. Do I honestly, truly believe those are the only 3 times I will buy yarn in a whole 12 month period... oh hell no, but it's something to strive for :) I'm just taking it one month at a time. Some people call this going "Cold Sheep" and swear off buy yarn for a whole year. Since that is not what I'm doing I guess you can say I'm going more "Lukewarm Llama" :) *Hey, I haven't bought a single skein of yarn this year!! I'd say I'm off to a good start* Oh, and anything that I ordered back in December that arrives in January doesn't break my oath because I ordered back in '09!

I have deemed January as "Finish it or Frog it" month! I need to collect all the unfinished projects that are around my house, hiding in corners, lurking in cubbies, stuffed in knitting bags and take stock and decide to finish it or frog it. I have way to many things on my needles and I am overwhelmed with what to knit when I have so many things started! The only exception to this is my Stain Glass Afghan. Don't get me wrong, I need to determine if I'm going to finish it or frog it, but if the first it will not be done by the end of January. I requires something like 357 squares if memory serves me correctly and I think I have maybe *mublmblemuble* done so far!
I plan to start knitting my Christmas 2010 gifts starting in February. If I plan it out a little better and plan to knit one give a month I should have my family covered by the time December rolls around and I won't be knitting into the wee hours of the night on Christmas Eve to get a gift done. I'm planning smaller gifts because lets face it, I'm a single woman, on a teacher's salary trying to make ends meet with a mortgage on a 30 year old home that seems to need this or that replaced every time I fix this "other" this or that! I just can't do it all, unless God sees fit to make me a lotto winner to one of those really BIG jackpots!
I'm shooting to knit 52 items this year. Don't be shocked, this doesn't have to be a major undertaking. I'm not talking like 52 sweaters or 52 shawls, just 52 items in general. A lot of those items will be small projects like hats, scarves, and dishcloths. Items that can be cracked out in a day or two, when I need a break from knitting those more time consuming items. I've seen other people do this on Ravelry and I think this will also be a good way to cut down on my cotton stash and those one or two skeins of yarn I have floating around in my stash.

Lastly, I'd like to knit at least 7 pairs of socks and 5 shawls for myself!! I want to do some ME knitting this year :)

I think that's about it.

A Knitting Year in Review

2010-01-05T12:23:00.005-05:00

It's amazing to see what one accomplishes in a year when you put it all together like this. Flickr only allows for 36 tiles to I cut out a few of the small projects like a few dishcloths. It wasn't till I put all these pictures together that I realized I had knit 9 pairs of socks this year! I wonder if I will top that count in 2010.

1. Maddy's roll brimmed, 2. Maddy's Flapper Hat, 3. Entrelac Scarf, 4. Red Dwarf Socks, 5. Falling Leaves Socks, 6. cowl, 7. Meret Beret, 8. Lace Petal Socks, 9. Just Enough Ruffles, 10. Meret, 11. Christening Booties, 12. Christening Hat Maya, 13. Blue Blue Blanket, 14. Baudelaire, 15. Lucky Pomatomus, 16. The Classic, 17. Lacey Shrug, 18. Christening Dress, 19. Christening Set, 20. Lacey Shrug, 21. Christening Blanket, 22. Christening Gown, 23. Tudora, 24. Ocean Waves Socks, 25. Phairo Shawl, 26. Forest Canopy Shawl, 27. 100_2228, 28. Bebe Sweater, 29. Storm Cowl, 30. Horcrux Socks, 31. Juliet, 32. Entrelac scarf, 33. Ice Ice Baby Socks, 34. 100_2607, 35. Maya's Hat, 36. Scarf for Gabbi

Of course I have lots on my list of what I want to knit this year, but of course we all know that new that new patterns we inevitably come out to reek havic with my plans :)

Maya's 1sy Birthday

2009-12-30T19:33:00.001-05:00

I know, I am very late in posting this, no comments from the Peanut Gallery *yes, Ellen that would be YOU* Back in November, my niece turned the big ONE!! Since her birthday falls the week before Thanksgiving, my sister had her birthday party the weekend before Thanksgiving. I was very thankful for that! I did not want to do the drive up to NY two holiday weekends one month apart!

The party was very nice and as you can see, Maya had a blast. She looked adorable in her polka dotted party dress. For a one-year-old she has pretty good coordination with her feet. You should see her kick a ball around. I'm thinking a soccer scholarship is in her future.

My sister and BIL had a balloon artist at the party. He made this amazing rocking horse out of balloon for my niece, and of course, I didn't get a picture of it. Sorry, I thought pictures of niece were cuter, but you can see his work in the lovely panguin hat that my other nieces' are modeling in the pictures below. I keep threatening the older (in the blue) that I'm going to post that lovely picture of her on Facebook and tag her so that all her friends can see just how silly she is outside of school. No, I haven't posted it, but it's fun to watch her squirm about it.

My sister made that birthday cake!!

Hey Dominick!!

2009-12-23T18:08:00.001-05:00

Everybody Hurts...

2009-12-06T21:56:00.000-05:00

Halloween Cuties

2009-11-09T08:42:00.004-05:00

Well, Halloween has come and gone. My I bought 4 bags of candy to make Halloween bags to give out to the students at school. I put 4 bite size candies into each bag and made up 80 bags to give out to the students as the left the media center at the end of lunch. Apparently the high schoolers still love to get candy :) I also bought 4 big bags of candy for the house as I usually have a good number of kids come by the house and whatever I have left over I just bring in to work on Monday and the kids and staff tear into it. I couldn't believe the number of kids that came by my house this year! I went through all 4 bags AND had to turn my porch light off at 7:45PM! I ran out of candy!! I think kids were dropped off in my neighborhood to trick or treat! Oh well no candy for the staff this year.

Here are just a few pics of my niece and M in their costumes. My niece was a snow fairy. I asked my sister if I could borrow her to ensure that we get our four snow days this school year :) And Baby M was a pirate.

1. Snow Fairy, 2. PirateM, 3. PirateM1, 4. 4

And I just had to share this. If I tried this with Frisco he would eat me alive!

Neck Shots - Take I

2009-11-03T08:36:00.005-05:00

Two Saturdays ago I went in to get a Nerve Conduction Velocity test. It was too bad getting jolted, but at the end of the test the Doc let me know that in addition to the pinched nerve in my neck, I have a pinched nerve in my lower back, which I had suspicions about, and I have the beginning of carpel tunnel syndrome in my right wrist. I turn to the guy and said, "So basically your telling my the right side of my body is going to shit?" He laughed, I sighed. He said he would write everything up for my neurologist, but on the up side he didn't think I would need surgery for anything. So that's a plus.

Tuesday, I went in for my first epidural cortisone shot in my neck. The nurse offered me 10 mg of Valium before the procedure to calm me and in light of Valium not doing a whole heck of a lot when I had my biopsy, I asked if she could give me something stronger. I explained and she said that was all they give out, so I took it. I guess 10 mg at once was better the 5mg. I didn't seem to nervous going in, but I certainly didn't feel "ooolala" afterwards either. So, I received the first shot, the doc certainly got in the right area because he hit my nerve two because I felt two jolts go down my right arm while he was doing whatever it was he was doing back there. Afterwards, they want to know if there's any improvement, and well, I really couldn't tell. I was in any constant pain when I went it. My arm would just go all number with the tinglies when it wasn't in motion and I couldn't tell that there was any great improvement right then and there.

The nurse told me what warning signs to look for when I went home and gave me an ice pack and off I went. My sister dropped me off and I went inside to lay on the couch with the ice pack on my back and rest. When the numbing agent began to wear off, then I really started to feel the weird pain of what had happened. It was all in my upper spine area and my neck. I didn't get a fever, nor did I get a headache, but pain was certainly there. Nothing intense, but before I went to bed, I searched through my medicine cabinet to see if I had any pain killers left over from my surgery the previous summer and found that I still had a few Percocets. I took one and went to bed.

The next morning I really didn't feel any better. I felt very tight in the upper back and in the neck area that I couldn't really turn my head, so I didn't feel safe driving to work. I called in sick and stayed home for the day. It's been almost a week now since my shot and I feel as if I've gotten very little relief from the first shot. The numbness doesn't act up as much, but it's still there. Several people who have had cortisone shots in their neck or back have all said how they have felt instant relief the minute they sat up from the table. Me - not so much. Only one person has told me the shots didn't work for her and she ended up having to do the surgery in the end (HI Ellen!!) I'm still hanging on to the doctor's belief that I don't need surgery and the fact that sometimes it just takes more than one shot for some people. I seem to fall into that "some people" category.

Anyhoo, that's all for the medical updates for now. My next shot is next week as is my next appointment with the neurologist. So we shall see....

Amazing Sand Drawing

2009-10-28T22:04:00.000-04:00

Can I just say..... WOW!

Don't Let Me Go....

2009-10-23T20:52:00.000-04:00

More Medical Misfires and Weekend Getaways!

2009-10-18T21:06:00.000-04:00

Back in June I had gone to the doctor because my right arm was bothering me. I was having these annoying numbing and tingling sensations. I was pretty sure I had a pinched nerve even though I had never had one before. So I went to the Dr and told him what was going on. He asked me if the sensations were in my hand. At that time, they were not. So he thought it was probably something muscular and sent me home and told me to do some yoga. I swear folks, that's what he told me.

I was walking to me car, shaking my head because I knew it wasn't anything muscular. I danced for 15, I played volleyball all through high school, and I grew up in the northeast so I have shoveled my far share of heavy, wet snow. Believe me, I have had my fair share of pulled muscles in the back and arms, this was not muscular. But, we always want to believe out doctors know what they are talking about and I think I just didn't want to deal with yet another medical issue after being slammed with what I feel is three issues in a row. I just didn't want another one right now.

So, I went home and did daily stretches for the next couple of months. The sensations were getting more intense when they came instead of less and now the sensations were reaching my fingers. Finally, I had to face the facts that there was definitely something going on with my arm and I called the doctor back. This time he diagnoses a pinched nerve, sent me to get X-rays and to see a neurologist for the next steps. I went to see a neurologist that my friend highly recommended and she took a look at the X-rays and to what I was describing and concurred that I had a pinched nerve, that it was severe and that I shouldn't have waited this long and that I might have done some irreversible damage to the nerve in my arm, but she won't know for sure till she runs a tests. Then she referred me to go see a spine specialist that can help me alleviate some of the pressure on the nerve before we do some physical therapy because I have too much pressure on the nerve right now for PT to be able to work on its own. She also sent me for a cervical MRI.

So, last Saturday I spent the morning at an Open MRI center getting an MRI done on my neck. Even though it was an open MRI machine, because they were scanning my neck my face had to be directly under the machine. I am not claustrophobic, but I do have issues with this being very close to my face. So I had to keep my eyes closed. Then about halfway through the process, I could feel that the air was blocked in from of my face and that was started to get bothersome, like I couldn't get enough air in my breathes because an object was in the way. Luckily it was all over before I went into any sort of a panic.

Tuesday I saw the spine specialist and he says that according to my MRI, I have two disks at the bottom of my neck that are bulging out to the right, which is why they are pinching that nerve. He recommends a series of three cortisone shots into my neck to alleviate the inflammation that is putting the pressure on this nerve (one shot every two weeks). He let me know exactly what could happen if I continue to let the pressure build and push on the nerve. Eventually the nerve will die and I won't have very good use of that arm because of it. I asked him what I need to do after these shots alleviate the pressure to try and prevent this from happening again. The usually PT and because of my job he wants to me learn some relaxation stretches and he thinks possible a muscle relaxer therapy at night and then I asked the dreaded - what if the shots don't work - question. Let's just say, I hope ths shots work, and leave it at that.

Of course, I come home and call my mom and let her know the outcome of everything and Dr. Mom just has to come out. "Well, are you going to go get a 2nd opinion? You sure you can't do something else? Are you sure you have to get the shots? You don't want to take drugs everyday or your body will get use to them and when you really need htem they won't work! You know I have this things with the nerve and pain and the doctor wanted to do surgery but I didn't want to have surgery so I didn't and I still have the pain, but I didn't have the surgery!" *yeah, I'm still trying to find the logic in that last one too - if you figure it please let me know, because I'm not having any luck* My neck was probably MORE tenses after that phone call then it was while I was processing all this information sitting in the doctor's office!

Anyhoo, so the verdict is, I'm getting 3 cortisone shots in my neck starting next Tuesday. And yeah, I'm scared of a needle going into my neck!

On a brighter note, I so needed a weekend getaway! Me and a few friends did just that this weekend. We took off Thursday night for the weekend. A friend has a house on the MD bay and so we went. Four of us got away for the weekend. The weather was crappy, but we didn't care! Friday we went on a mini yarn crawl and visited Frivolous Fibers in St. Michael's and then we headed up to Island Yarn Boutique on Kent Island. Here's the loot that I got on the yarn crawl:

From left to right: Wullenstudio Sock yarn - Flying Purple People Eater (not purchased on the yarn crawl, but acquired on this trip since I came up with this colorway and named it!), Jojoland Cashmere lace in maroon, Blue Heron merino silk in Sandstone, Jojoland Cashmere Sport - 1 maroon, 1 black.

The rest of the time we spend knitting and eating out in wonderful restaurants!! I managed to get most of the body on my February Lady sweater finished!! I know the pictures not the greatest.

I also made great progress on my Halloween Horcrux socks!! I cast these babies on LAST year for Halloween, but Halloween came and went and they didn't get finished and then I stopped working on them this year! My girlfriends call these the phallic looking socks, and for good reason:

I'm trying to convince my friend Sheila to dye me a skein of her Monster Mash color so that it stripes nice and thick like this:

But I don't think I have her convinced that she needs to do this :( Oh well, I will try again next Halloween *heehee*

If at first you don't succeed... skydiving is probably not for you!

OH No She Did-N'T!!

2009-10-18T18:08:00.000-04:00

WARNING: Do not drink anything while watching this video!

The Windy City - September 2009

2009-10-15T15:34:00.006-04:00

At the end of September I went to Kansas City, MO for a workshop. Work sent me and paid for the workshop and all my travel expenses. Since there were no directly flights to KC from here and since our schools were closed on Monday for Yom Kippur I decided to take Tuesday off and plan a layover in the windy city so that I could visit with my gf, KnitRedSox, one day and Mr. X the other. I was in KC, MO from Thurs - Sun. When I purchased my plan tickets to come home I had to choose a flight that had its connecting flight in Chicago. My choices were 11AM or 6:50PM departure. 11AM meant I would have had to leave the workshop early and since work was paying for it, I couldn't. So, I took the 6:50PM but then I headed to the airport as soon as we got out at noon and put myself on the stand-by list for the 1:30PM flight. Luckily, I was able to take my luggage on board with me because if I checked it beginning the luggage HAS to go to the final destination and that would have left me in Chicago with just the clothes on my back!! But, Hera was apparently smiling down upon me that afternoon for just as I was getting to the place all overhead space was packed and they hand checked my luggage at the plane door and I was able to tell them my final destination was O'Hare and so my luggage got checked and was taken off the plane when we landed in Chicago!

KnitRedSox picked me up and we went back to her place. We hung out of the night and got caught up and we were going to plan a local yarn crawl for Monday, but I guess lucky for my wallet, most of the local shops were closed on Monday! We did find one shop, Knitches, to be open and we headed out there on Monday. It was a very nice shop! Here is what I left the shop with:

1. Malabrigo - Bobby blue, 2. Blue Sky Alpaca - purple, 3. Blue Sky Alpaca - teal

I'm sure anyone who has gone yarn shopping with me or who knows me is is no way surprised by the color selection! Next door to the yarn shop was a bead shop, but I did manage to keep my wallet and credit cards inside my purse while we were in there :)

Monday night Mr. X picked me up and I spend Monday night and Tuesday with him and Baby M until I had to catch my flight.

Unfortunately, I did forget my digital camera and the woman that I went to the workshop with stopped at a CVS and bought us both a disposal camera. I haven't used one of those in years! Then the CVS that I use all the time doesn't do photos on CD. I should have just gone somewhere else, but I was lazy and dropped the film off anyway and then spend some time yesterday scan all the pictures into the computer. So, the pictures are not the best quality, but she's still a cutey. My favorite is the one of Baby M dancing. Actually, I have no idea if she was dancing there of if I manage to get a shot off before she made a mad-dash into my lap. She seems to enjoy running towards people who are sitting on the floor and then flopping on them! But she looks like she was dancing, so that's what I titled it :) Before Mr. X took her home she gave me a big hug and said "I love you." I thought it would get easier the more I saw her, but that just about undid me this trip. I was able to keep myself together just long enough for Mr. X to close the door behind him and then the tears came. Oh well, to use a very over used phrase - It is what it is - and there ain't nothing I can do about it.

1. Madi and Me, 2. Daddy and Madi, 3. Madi dancing, 4. Daddy and Madi 2, 5. Daddy and Madi 3, 6. Madi 1, 7. Madi 2, 8. Madi 3, 9. Madi 4

All-in-all and quick weekend getaway after a business trip. Not a bad way to do it :)

She's Alive!!

2009-10-13T12:28:00.005-04:00

Can you name what movie that line is from?? I'm sure I'll more answers then the one movie I'm taking it from :)

Sorry friends, I know I haven't blogged much lately. I've been kind of busy with my house and trying to get things going at work and then trying to get my Etsy shop up and going.

So to catch y'all up, sometime near the end of August I went home for a visit. I got to spend some time with the family and my baby niece, who will be 1 year old next month! Damn how time flies!! Here are some adorable pictures of her in the outfit I bought for her and then some of her with her older cousin in the kiddie pool that Nonnie and Grandpa have in the backyard just for her! That teething ring she has in the center pictures is probably the 6th or 7th teething ring that was purchased for her and one she finally liked chewing on! She apparently hates all the others and refused to put them in her mouth.

Here is my final SP package. Another package of espresso coffee this one chocolate flavored! I can't wait to try it. A beautiful coffee cup and tray set, some chocolates that I took with me on my trip to Kansas City, MO, very pretty feltable wool yarn, a skein of a pretty hot pink yarn that I'm probably going to turn into something for either my niece or Baby M, some boxes of black licorice and she knit me a pair of socks!! Aren't they so pretty!!! I can't wait till it gets cold enough to wear them!

Thank you Hanna!! You've been a terrific spoiler!

BENIGN!!

2009-08-30T10:57:00.003-04:00

Thank Heavens! Sorry I am posted about this so late. My doctor's office called me back on Tuesday or Wednesday to let me know the biopsy results had come back benign. I thought the woman on the phone had called the condition Fibrobcycstic, but I think I must of heard her wrong. On Thursday the surgeon called me because she didn't know if anyone in her office had called to let me know the results of the biopsy. I thought that was very good of her. She said the lump was a Fibroadenoma. Still not cancerous. Since fibroadenomas are benign, treatment will vary depending on the diagnosis. If it is small, painless, remains the same size(I pray it does), and the biopsy showed no problems, I will not need further treatment. I do have follow-up ultrasounds in 6 months. If there is growth or if it becomes painful the Doctor recommends removal of fibroadenomas. The exact cause of fibroadenomas is unknown. They seem to be influenced by estrogen. There is also a good change that it could disappear over time, I like that idea even better cause sleeping in a bra for a week after the biopsy was hell!

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers, thank you to my family and friends who have very much helped to keep this off my mind these last few weeks as I waited for my biopsy appointment and then again as I waited for the results. It has meant to world to me to know that I have such a support group!

I Hate Waiting!!

2009-08-23T14:23:00.003-04:00

Friday was my biopsy and now I am waiting for the results to come in. I hate waiting! The biopsy itself wasn't bad. I do think though that Valium appears to have not have the desire effect with me. I felt no calmer after taking the medication then I did beforehand.

The nurses at the St. Agnes Breast Clinic were all very nice. This is the same hospital where I had my abdominal myomectomy last year, so I was comfortable going back there. The nurse that was with me asked me all these questions to make sure I knew what was going to happen and what I was to expect. Then the surgeon came in and talked to me before she started the procedure. I was nervous as all hell. Strange too, this procedure was so much less stressful on the body then my surgery last year, yet I wasn't really nervous at all like I was on Friday. Guess it's because the stakes are higher this time, yet had something gone wrong or if the fibroids were worse then anticipated the option of children being permanently removed would have been devastating to me.

Anyhoo, I didn't feel much except the needle going in to numb the area and then the pressure each time the doctor put the needle/gun back in to take another sample. The first sample she took - I nearly jumped off the table. No, not from pain, but I certainly gave the doctor and the nurses a scare! The nurse had warned me before hand that biopsy needle makes a clicking sound, I just didn't realize how loud of a sound it was. So she takes the first sample and I flinch on the table and suddenly I have 3 pairs of huge saucers eyes on me and all three of them asking me at once, "OMG did you feel that? You shouldn't have felt that! She numbed you up good!" If I wasn't wound so tight and if the Valium had worked the way I suspect it's suppose to work, I probably would have laughed at that point.

"No, I didn't feel any pain, a little pressure maybe. The noise just startled me." You could see all three of them exhaling at once! Like I said, I can certainly see the humor now, but Friday - yeah, not so much.

Then the nurse that was holding the sonogram wand, who was also the nurse that saw me take my 2nd Valium pill, pats my arm and says, "Oh Sweety, I guess that Valium hasn't kicked in yet has it?" Gee, Yeah think! "Well, you'll be feeling really good this afternoon then!" That 'real good feeling' never did seem to kick in on Friday.

After that first jump, the doctor let me know each time she was getting ready to pull the trigger. I don't think she wanted me jumping anymore either. Afterwards, they took some mammogram pictures to make sure the markers that were inserted, so that people know in looking at future mammograms that these two lumps have been biopsied already, the machine broke! I didn't get out there till about 2pm and I was starving. I hadn't eaten since about 7PM the night before! Not that I couldn't eat, I was just too nervous to eat, but at this point I would have eat a whole cow myself!

My sister took me out to lunch and she would have taken me anywhere else I needed or wanted to go, but I needed to keep ice on my boob for the next 5 hours and that would be a little difficult if I was out and about. Lucky for my I have several ice packs in my freezer. With my migraines, I need to make sure I can pull out a cold one when the one I'm using is no longer cold. So, home for the night I was.

Luckily, I did have a little pick-me-up just before going in! On Thursday, my 2nd Secret Pal package was delivered and what a package it was!! First off, the box was just too cute! I may try to reuse it. It's a share we don't have cute shipping boxes like that here in the states. I opened the box and I was instantly enveloped in the wonderful aroma of coffee! My pal send my some Espresso coffee from Finland! I find had a cup this morning and it was DE-Lish!! Yummy!! Next up was some organic espresso chocolate and some jelly candies from Finland as well. Haven't tried the chocolate yet, but the other candies are yummy! There was also two bars of handmade soap that smell yummy, and a pamphlet of Finnish to English translations of some knitting terms that my come in very handy for me since I have several shawls I'd love to make that need to be translated from Finnish to English before I can do anything! AND!!!! She send my Wollmeise yarn - not 1 BUT 2 skeins!! I've never knit with this yarn, but I have heard good things about it and boy is it soft!!! Two skeins of Wollmeise - Twin. This is one of the best perks of International swaps, getting yarns that I can't easy get in my area!! I have no idea what the colorways are because the label has it listed as "We're Different", but but when I check that colorway on Ravelry there are lots of variations for it. I think this happens to be We're Different - Aquarius:
one is a beautiful deep aquamarine/teal and the other is turquoise and green. GORGEOUS!! My pal has certainly taken the time to learn my color likes!! I'll try to get a nice outside picture of the skeins to really show off the colors! These skeins are a generous 510 yards each!! I am defiantely making a shawl with the more aquamarineish one. It's just too beautiful a color to hide under pants and inside shoes!

I'm so excited about this yarn that I would love to wind it up and cast on right now, but I have way to many UFOs flying around my house and I have to finish test knitting a pattern for Fresh from the Cauldron's - Oz Club, which I so regret not signing up for, but money was tight and too many house emergencies were happening for me to risk spreading my finances too thin. Besides, I have to find a shawl pattern!!

Thank you Secret Pal!! I love my 2nd package!! And it was just the little pick me up I needed before this weekend!

Tomorrow is the Day

2009-08-20T23:29:00.000-04:00

Well, my waiting time is has just about come to an end. Tomorrow I go in for my breast biopsy. I'm relieved it's finally here and yet I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I'm not exactly afraid of needles, but the thought of one long enough to get to where it needs to get to *shiver* and I will be awake for the procedure. I get to take a Valium before hand to calm my nerves and they will numb my breast so that I will not feel anything, but still. I've never had Valium before so I have no idea of what effect it will really have on me. Some of those drugs that are suppose to have a "calming" or "this feels good" side effect doesn't always seem to be the case with me.

My sister is taking me because I'm not allowed to drive if I'm going to take the Valium before the procedure. The surgeon says the procedure will only take about 20 minutes - hospital paperwork will tack on two hours I'm sure. They will numb the breast and then find the lump on the sonogram and then use the sonogram to guide the needle toward the lumps to remove tissue samples from each. I have no idea if I'm going to be able to watch, or if I should bring eye covers with me!

Luckily the lumps are right next to each other they sort of make a little dumbbell shape. *Apparently my right boob was secretly lifting weights* So they will take both samples from one little incision. Afterwards she will insert a mark at each lump so that in future mammograms they will know that those two have already been biopsied. A little butterfly band aid to close the incision and an ice pack in my bra and they will send me on my way.

Then the real waiting game begins. The results should come back in about 3 days. I'm guessing that means three business days, so I'm not expecting to hear anything till next Wednesday or Thursday. I think I can hold it together for one more week, or course I'm going to have the migraine from hell when those test results finally come in - no matter what the results. Just the release of the pent-up worry is going to trigger it, what can I say, I know my body and I know my migraine triggers. At least this way I can prepare for it.

Anyhoo, I need to get some sleep now, before I think of this anymore and worry myself into a bout of insomnia. Not what I need tonight.

One Thing at a Time

2009-08-12T21:33:00.003-04:00

That's all I can do, and now I can happily cross one more house project off my list! My front walk is now complete and whole again. I was able to get 3 different estimates, two coming in at exactly the same price and the last three times higher!! I couldn't believe it. So I highered one of the construction companies to repair my sideway and I came home to find to entrance to my house roped off. Guess the guy didn't realize that this was the only way into my house.

He came back the next day to remove the frame and and bring the dirt level up some, but he left me room in the flower bed for topsoil to plant new plants. He did a good job.

Now I just need to price out topsoil for the front lawn and plant grass come mid-September. Slowly, one step at a time.

Goodbye My Lover...

2009-08-01T23:30:00.000-04:00

Mammograms, Sonograms, Breast Exams Oh My!

2009-07-30T09:25:00.008-04:00

About 6 weeks ago I had my first mammogram done. I know lots of women complain that it is painful experience. Carleen, my assistant, who's more like a sister to me, warned me as well. She also gave me a tip to take 1000 IU of Vitamin E starting 1 weeks before the exams and that will help with the pain. I don't know if it was the Vitamin E or the fact that I was just well blessed was amble cushioning in that area, but it wasn't too bad. The woman who took the pictures was also very quick, so the pressure wasn't on them for very long. Anyway, I left think that wasn't so bad.

About a week later, maybe not even that long, I get a call from one of the nurses in the office. They found two small masses on the mammogram and they want me to come in for more pictures and a sonogram as soon as I can. After I get the sonogram the doctor wants me to make an appointment to come in for a breast exam exactly 4 weeks late. The nurse stressed that it was very important that my appointment be exactly 4 weeks after the sonogram. Yes, panic attack sets in. She's trying to tell me not to worry, that is probably nothing, but they want to be sure. So there I was in my office at work, taking deep breaths, trying not to panic and get my blood pressure up and trigger a migraine.

I call the radiology department and set up another appointment, it was the days before my trip out to Chicago. I go in and the woman taking the x-rays was trying to tell me not to worry. This is my first mammogram and they want to get a good baseline to compare to for later mammograms. Then she goes on to try and explain all the "other" non-worrisome things these masses can be and that these more direct pictures and the sonogram with help them determine if it's just a simple cyst or something other such non-cancerous mass. She was really pleasant and I felt somewhat put at ease, but there's still that little something in the back of mind that says "what if."

Let's face it, I had just spend two years dealing with a gyno who just kept switching my birth control when I was complaining of certain female problems instead of examining me. Finally I had enough and switch insurances and had to go to a different doctor to know I even had fibroids and yet another doctor who was willing to do the surgery to remove them. And I went through 2 Orthopedics before one could diagnose my knee issue correctly. Can you blame me for being a little weary when it comes to medical issues.

OK, so 2nd mammogram done, sonogram done, 4week appointment made. I can relax now. You would think right. No, the morning I am to fly out to Chicago I get a phone call from the radiology department - they wanted me to come down that day for another sonogram. OK - Now panic sets in. I'm suppose to leave for Chicago in 4 hours, I have the A/C man coming out the house in 30 minutes to clean the unit and get it running for the summer heat and now this. I'm flustered and furious and panicked and can't think straight. My first reaction was to tell the woman there was no way I could come in today - that I was leave for vacation in a few hours and I would come in as soon as I got back.

After I got off the phone I laid in my bed and just let the thought run ramped through my head as I went a little numb. After about 30 minutes I got dress and packed everything I needed for the airport into my car. When the A/C man arrived I let him get to work and then I called my sister and talked to her about it all. She sounded concerned that they called they that as well and asked me what I was going to do. I told her that as soon as the AC man was done, I would head to the clinic, get it done and then head to the airport. I should make it in time since I wouldn't have to wait at the clinic. They said they would take me as soon as I got there.

So, that's what I did. The A/C man left at 10. I went to clinic and was done and out of there by 11Am and on my way to the airport for a 1:20PM flight with plenty of time. I asked the woman who was doing the sonogram why did they call me back in and if they found something yesterday that alarmed them. She said that they didn't catch the masses on the sonogram very well and they just wanted to make sure. Then she said don't be surprised is they request to see you back here in 6 months. I thought that was a little strange if it was "nothing."

I tried to put this out of my mind till the 4 week appointment. No use in worrying till you know, right? *So instead I did a breast exam on my right breast every other day trying to feel these two lumps* I get the radiologists report during this time frame. One report states 2 small masses in the right breast and then another report states the left breast. Talk about mixed messages! But all the extra pictures and the sonograms were done on the right breast, so I was pretty sure these two masses were in the right one or the radiologist needs more then writing lessons. I'm sure we all know how well that works. It wasn't that this was exactly at the forefront of my mind all the time, but you know how it is. I was good, I didn't go surfing the net to try and find any and every article on breast lumps and cancer and false alarms.

Then the day of my appointment comes. My doctor reads over the reports and does another back-asswards way of trying to calm a patience's fear. "It's probably nothing, just Fibrocystic breasts, but I do want you to get a 2nd opinion and see a specialist. Someone who does nothing but breasts and can really tell. After all you are in a high category for breast cancer since you are overweight and haven't had any children." Then he was explain how it was funny that they even messed up when they wrote the reports and pointed out how on one report they stated it was the right breast and on the other report they stated it was the left. I mean he was actually laughing over it. Me, yeah, not so much. I didn't think it was that funny. I never did figure out why it was so imperative that I wait 4 weeks to make my appointment with him after having the 2nd mammogram. Didn't make any sense after that appointment.

So, on my way home from that appointment I immediately called my gyno, the one that finally really listened to me about my other issues, and left her a message about what was found on my mammogram and that I would really appreciate her taking a look at the results and her opinion of what I should do from here, and if she could recommend a specialist to go to for a 2nd opinion. I left a message with all the details and waited. In the meantime, I contact the breast clinic the my doctor suggests and made an appointment with someone for this Friday.

I spoke with my gyno yesterday and said that the masses are very small, but that she wants me to get a 2nd opinion. I told her which clinic my regular Doctor recommended and asked her if she recommended any of the doctors that worked there and she gave me two names. The appointment I had was with one of the doctors she recommended, but when I looked up both names today, the other one had a focus on breast surgery, so I switched my appointment to her and now my appointment is on Monday. What's a few more days of trying not to worry, right?

Finished Projects Updates

2009-07-26T16:52:00.007-04:00

Yikers! I have been a very bad blogger when it comes to posting my finished projects. I just scrolled back and realized I hadn't posted a finished project since May!! Bad me!! (Sorry Ellen!! - have to say that before she chastises me at knitting group ;) )

OK, first up is the Gail shawl. I loved knitting this shawl as it was very different from any of my other previous shawls. I may actually knit this one again as a Christmas gift for someone else, but this one I am definitely keeping for myself!

Pattern: Gail (Nightsongs) Rav link
Yarn: Fresh from the Cauldron - Silk Sock
Colorway: The Volturi
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 8
Modifications: completed 7 repeats and then the edging. The pattern called for a double YO at the center stitch. I thought that made to large of a stitch and changed it to a single YO.

Here's a nice close-up of the motif. Believe it or not, the yarn is a variegated colorway. The dyer blended the colors so smoothly and the changes are soft enough that it worked beautifully in this lace pattern. I couldn't have been happy with the results!

Here's an outside shot so you can see the colors a little better.

Next up are just a few dishcloths. I was on a kick. I had made one for my sister a while back and last time I was over her house I noticed that it was seriously on it's last life! So I gave her the top two that are pictures and I kept the bottom two for myself. I'm thinking of making a whole bunch more and giving them as part of family Christmas gifts this year.

Next up, I test knitting a baby sweater pattern for my friend Sheila over at Wullenstudio and Sheila Rovelstad Designs. What a fun knit and you can knit the smallest size with one skein of her sock yarn!! I made this sweater to give as a baby gift for my cousin's wife, who is pregnant, but they are holding out till the baby is born to find out if the child is a boy or a girl. Since the sweater design really leans more toward a girl I"m holding on to it and going to start a more boyish sweater here soon.

Pattern: Bebe Sweater (test knitted the pattern for Sheila Rovelstad Designs)
Yarn: Wullenstudio Sock Yarn
Colorway: Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys
Needles: KnitPicks size 2 (30 mm)

Lastly is a birthday gift for my friend - KnitRedSox. OK, so she's a July baby and a wool cowl isn't really ideal - BUT there's a good reason for this. She has just recently moved back to the Chicago area and the winters up there can be brutal, so it will be put to good use in a few weeks I'm sure ;) Plus, her favorite color is purple! (Miss you Girl!!)

I cannot tell you how many times I frogged and started this cowl over because it just didn't look like it was coming out right. I looked on Ravelry on other people's project pages and no one had any comments about errors or anything, so I casted on again and worked through one full repeat during at a knit night. I showed some of the gals there the directions and what was coming out on my needles and it wasn't looking like the picture on the pattern. Finally I gave up for the night and decided to give Ravelry another look-see in the morning. On the actual project page is where I saw a more explicit explanation of the pattern directions and finally understood the pattern, but thought the pattern directions could have been written more clearly to reflect that! Well, I was finally able to get the cowl finished and the birthday package put all together and shipped out :)

I just may have to make one of these cowls for myself as well!!

Pattern: Darkside Cowl Rav link
Yarn: 100Purewool
Colorway: Storm
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 8
Modifications: none

House Projects Crossed Off the List

2009-07-26T14:45:00.004-04:00

Well, one-by-one I am slowly crossing off projects on what seems to be the ever growing list of house projects. As you may recall from Plumbing Disaster No. 2, my yard looked like a tornado had come through. Literally. I walked out each morning for work expecting to see two stripped stocking legging sticking out from under my house. Frisco thought I was crazy when I asked him if saw the Lollypop Kids. Anyhoo, one thing at a time - right.

Project no. 1:
Well, I called around and found a handyman that would haul away all the roots and stumps and for me. He even went around the yard to get the roots and sticks that didn't make it into this nasty pile. Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Now I just need to figure out what to do from here. There are still lots of chips lefts from when the stumps were ground down when the tree were removed last summer (summer '08) and I the ground needs to be leveled off some to make mowing easier and I need to bring a whole bog load of topsoil to plant new grass properly - cha-ching. I just don't know how I'm going to afford all of this right now. I was talking to a friend, Ellen, at knitting yesterday and she made a great suggestion of having what she calls a "Garden Party." Apparently her church has them. You invite friends over to help you landscape and when all the work is done you have a party afterwards as a thank-you. I told her I would have to talk to her more about this because this sounds like an idea :)

At least this little guy is enjoy my backyard even if I am not!

Project no. 2:
I can cross off my list is the nice hold in my basement slab that the plumbers left behind as well! This was a lovely reminder of what needed to be done every time I went down into my basement to clean the litter box or do laundry.

Yesterday, I went straight home after meeting up with my Saturday morning knitting group because Kozykitty's husband, David, was coming over to help me patch up my basement slab. Actually, he did most of the work, while I asked all the questions and watched and be very grateful. Two hours later, the hole looked like this:

Afterwards, I gave KK a ring and told her to come over for a late lunch or an early dinner. While we were waiting David was giving me some suggestions for the backyard. All it cost me was a Miller High Life, a Chinese Dinner, and time spent with friends - well worth it. Thank you David!!!

Project no. 3:
After KK and David left, I decided to start tackling the front yard. You may recall that the plumbers left it in quiet a mess. They really did a very shitty job with the yard the 2nd time around. There were rocks every were!

And rocks are not good if you intend to plant grass. The rocks are good for filling up hole that is in front of my porch though. Not that these rocks were going to be enough, but they would be a start and someplace easy to put the rocks :) So, I got out the rake and tackled the front yard. Looks a lot better doesn't it?

I raked the rocks all up and pushed what I could under the piece of blue plywood and next to the ramp to fill up the hole. I'm calling around to get estimates for replacing the concrete walkway now.

My mother keeps trying to suggest that my father will come down and do it, but I don't think she understands that this isn't a small project, nor is it really a one man project. Of course when I try telling her this her response is, "well you and I will help him." and my thoughts to that are *great and I'll be in jail for man-slaughter because I'll end up killing you both before the day is over* That is just a disaster waiting to happen. So you can see the rush in getting the estimate for the concrete work. How do you tell your Mother - "Mom, if you really want to help, just write me a check for the contractor."

That is it on the house projects for now. I am sure more will be coming :)

Secret Pal Goodies

2009-07-20T14:38:00.002-04:00

I recevied my first Secret Pal package last week. I must apologize to my pal that it has taken me almost a week to blog about it, although I had send a thank email immediately. My camera batteries were dead and couldn't take pictures till yesterday.

I came home from work to fine this package from the Loppy Ewe sitting on my front porch. It threw me for a loop because I didn't remember placing any orders in the last week. I racked my brain and then thought I must be losing it! When I saw the Secret Pal note inside understand washed over me - and relief that I hadn't lost my marbles :)

I received this beautiful skein of Handmaiden Seasilk!! Yummy!! And look at those colors, teal, turquise, hot pink - hubba-hubba!! Now to find the right pattern!! Along with this yummy yarn was a handy-dandy keychain to check needle sizes and guage! Yes that FOUR letter word G-U-A-G-E ;) and a packet of SOAK. A knitter can never have too muck Soak!!

Thank you Secret Pal!!

If anyone has a pattern suggest, I'd love it if you would leave a comment :)

Chicagoland Visit

2009-07-05T15:50:00.002-04:00

So, after the sewer fiasco I needed a getaway. Granted, I had purchased my plane tickets back in May when I thought everything was fixed and done and over with. Never in a million years did I think I'd be leaving my yard in such disarray, but as the saying goes - "Life happens when you make plans."

Baby M was hitting the 18 month mark which means Mr. X was getting his first official full weekend with her and he planned for it to be during the week that I was going to be in town. I can't believe how much she has grown! She looks just like her daddy. On Saturday, we went out to Plainfield and visited with my friends Suzanne and Conrad and their two kids. It was so nice to see them again! I know it's only been two weeks since they moved back up there, but I feel like it's been two months since she's moved away. I miss not having my girl around the corner from me!

It was really neat watching the kids play together. Baby M got all excited when Suzanne brought the dogs out. She just loves dogs, or as she says "Pup-Ies!" I think the funniest part of the afternoon was when Baby M would pretend she was sleeping and she would make these snoring sounds likes like she was asleep. I had heard her do this Friday night and early that day, so I didn't think anything of it. I actually thought she was immitaing her father sleeping but, shhhhhhhhh I never told him that. Apparently he had never heard her do this before so I think he was slightly embarrassed and Suzanne was cracking up everytime she did it! I thought it was adorable! Here are a few pics from my visit. Regretably, I didn't take very many pictures this time. Saying Goodbye gets a little harder with each visit *sniffle*

I know Suzanne is hoping I could make it back up there for the weekend of July 17th so that we could go to the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair, and I keep checking the airlines every few days, but I don't think it's going to happen this year :( . It's a shame too, because I'd really love to see everyone again and that fair just sounds like it would be so much fun. Maybe not up to par with the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, but I sure just as much fun! I'm hoping to maybe get back up there in August when I have a break between summer school and regular school, but we shall see. There's always Stitches Midwest in September - not exactly a festival, but yarn overload just the same :)

Plumbing Disaster no. 2

2009-06-28T07:28:00.006-04:00

I know, I've been a bad blogger lately, as my friend Ellen has pointed out to me (Hi Ellen) but as you can see from the title of this post, I have good reason for being behind. Back in January, you may recall reading of my water woohs on my basement. Then again in April when "The House Strikes Again" I had my front yard dug up because the main sewer line needed to be replaced. Basement water problems all solved right! You would think. Right?

WRONG!!

Picture this, Sunday June 14th (this is now about a month to 6 weeks after the sewer lines has been replaced) I am getting ready to go out to lunch with my sisters for our birthdays - mine was the 8th of June and my older sister's was the 9th and my younger sister was taking us both out to eat as her gift to us. I was just going to throw some clothes in the laundry and head over to my older sister's house. I head down to the laundry room in the basement, turn on the light at what do I see but a small puddle of water on the floor! Immediately, I look in the basement bathroom and sure enough the water in the toilet bowl is very low and it looks like there is some sediment in the bowl, but there is no water on the floor in the bathroom. BAFFLING! I'm at a complete loss at this point and trying really, really hard not to just completely break down. I didn't know what to do except call my big sister.

I was absolutely positive the water came up through my toilet - AGAIN - and that somehow the plumber had not fixed the problem. For whatever reason, my sister wanted to believe it was a different problem *I think she wanted to try and see if she could push me over the edge by creating another problem for me to think about with my house* She had me checking the foundation walls for cracks, the sump pump, she was thinking it was rain water coming in because we had so much rain the last few days - which to her credit would have all been valid reason, but none of them connected to, nor explained how there was dirt in my toilet bowl. The only logical explanation was that the clog was still there and that water had come back up through the toilet. It's the only thing that made sense, and yet - they had replaced my whole sewer line. So maybe I was going crazy.

So within the hour my sister, who is an architectural engineer so she knows a little something about something when it comes to construction, come over and took a walk around the house to check the drainage flow from the house. She came inside to check the cracks in the foundation, which were all normal settlement cracks and now allowing water to come in. She was still thinking it was the sump pump pump though, but she couldn't explain the sediment in the toilet.

Then my younger sister, BIL and the baby came by. My BIL was telling me all these other things I needed to do in my basement, which really were not things I needed to hear right then. I had just spend $3G removing all the trees from my property last year, and another $3G replacing the sewer line, I am tapped out in the money department and he's talking about redoing my basement. I told him, unless he won lotto and hasn't told the family, there isn't much I can do right now. Then he pointed out the black mold that has started to grow in some spots due to the repeated flooding, so I might have no choice be to tear down my basement to the bare studs to get rid of that mold, but I can't replace anything right now.

And of course, every time I talk to my mother she's telling me to just sell the house and get something better. What she doesn't seem to grasp is that if I put my house on the market right now I would probably lose EVERY DIME I put down on the house, not to mention EVERY DIME I put into this house to make improvements since I moved in.

Can I just run away and hide??

So, getting back to basement. Later on that night, stupid me, went ahead and did a load of clothes and when I went downstairs to put them in the drier... *squish squish* I turned on the lights and there was water all over the freakin' floor. All the water that had drained out of the washing machine had come back up through the toilet, I was sure of it this time. People, I can't even explain to you the emotions that racked through my body at that point. I completely lost it and the flood gates opened up. Once the tears dried up then the dam bursted and I let out a string or curses that would have made a sailor blush! I marched right upstairs at 10:30 PM and called the damn plumber to let him know something was wrong.

Of course, he insisted it had to be on the county end since they had just replaced the line. Called the county the next morning. OMG! Talk about dumb things people do and say....

me - Yes, I had water back up into my house and I just had my sewer line replaced a month ago, so I really doubt it can be on my end, can you please send someone out to check the county lines.

county person - is the water still backing up into your house?

me - no, I turned the water off

cp - well we can't determine anything if the water isn't flowing when we come out and look

me - *stunned* Excuse me??

cp - the water needs to be runner in order for the guys to look down the pipe to determine if there is a blockage on out end, they need to see of the water is back flowing.

me - are you kidding me? what idiot is going to continue to let water backup and flood their basement waiting for you people to come out an take a look??

I couldn't believe this conversation. Anyhoo, turns out, the blockage was not on the county end. I filled up my washing machine again to get ready to show the plumber exactly what was happening. Then he finds it necessary to tell me that if they find out the problem isn't connected to the first issue and is not connected tot he work they did, then they are going to have to charge me to snake and camera the line. NO SHIT, but I have water backing up into my basement and I would like to figure out where it's coming from and fix the problem so that it doesn't happen again!! When he got here, I showed him the toilet and ran the rinse the cycle at the point were it was starting to drain the water. After a few seconds, they heard the water bubbling in the toilet and this time it was ever backing up in the sink in the bathroom. We turned it off before too much water overflowed and then he snaked the camera down to take a look. He still didn't think they did anything wrong. He was thinking something happened to the pipe at the foundation wall when the house settled.

I'm thinking, this house is 30 years old, this house should be done settling and I'm not buying this load of bullcrap! Something inside me just knew it had to be something on their end.

They snake the camera down and they find the blockage, tree roots.

plumber - There's you problem, tree roots

me - *just looks at the pictures on the camera screen*

plumber - you must have a cracked pipe and the roots have gotten in and their catching the toilet paper and causing the blockage

I'm taking a closer look at the screen when it hits me - "ummm Joe, that's the same shots from the first time you guys came out. That's the exact same things that was there when you first came out and snaked my line with the camera that you were suppose to have fixed when you fixed my sewer line!"

plumber - huh?

me - That is the EXACT same picture from the first video tape that you guys recorded when you came out here the last time.

plumber - do you still have that videotape?

me - I sure do!

And I go running upstairs to find the tape and of course I can't find the tape. Here I am look through my stack of tapes "Shit!" , "FUCK!" , "Frisco where did I put that tape?" *yeah, the cat looked at me like I had lost it* I found the tape and brought it to them and they popped it in and sure enough it was the same! Thank God I kept the tape for insurance reason, even though insurance doesn't cover tree root damage.

So they had to come back out and dig up my front yard again, and this time they had to jackhammer the foundation in my basement because with Donald Duck installed the plumbing they somehow zigzagged the lines and 28' hit just underneath my house. I measured it out myself several times the night before, 28' at closest should have been underneath my front porch, but somehow it was underneath my foundation. Go figure!

It turns out that there was a crack in the pipe. There was also a tree root growing right along next to the pipe and at the point of the crack all the little rootlings that grow off the root were growing into the pipe and those damn rootlings had actually almost filled up the 4" diameter of the pipe!!

That sucker in the middle was the root that was growing next to the pipe! It's almost as think as the freakin' pipe!!

And there are all the damn rootlings that were growing inside the pipe causing me all the problems! Damn trees. And the freakin' HOA thinks I'm going to replant trees to replace the ones I cut down?? Hell no! Not in my yarn. I'll be happy to buy seven trees and give them each on they can plant in their yard!

The plumber then I think felt sorry for me knowing that I am a school teacher with like ZERO extra cash, so when he was done with the sewer line asked if I wanted him to take the backhoe to the backyard and pull up and roots and tree stumps I might still have back there. I was like sure! Not thinking of all the work this would leave for me!!

So this is what my front yard looks like again, and still because I am still waiting for them to come back and finish!!

And this is what my backyard looks like now:

Here are all the roots and stumps he pulled up from the grounds and if you can bleieve it, there are still some in the ground - I didn't want him getting to close to my house. Now I have to figure out how to get rid of all this. Unfortunatley, I don't know anyone with a pick-up truck that help me take it the county dump, so I may just have to cut it down and put it out a little at a time with the yard recyclables once a week. Once things at a time, right?

This portion of the fence fell over when that tree fell and just missed my car a few weeks ago in that bad storm that we had.

It looks like a tornado circled all the way around my house, and left my house intact!

Since this piture was taken, I have removed that portion of the fence and placed all the side beams under neither my back deck till I figure out what I am going to do.

But, in looking on the bright side, when I finally get all this shit done, I'm going to actually have a beautiful, usuable backyard!! I'm just not good with patiences, I want it NOW DAMN IT!! :)

Friday Night 80's

2009-06-05T17:35:00.002-04:00

Furiously Frustrated!!

2009-06-02T16:33:00.003-04:00

I am so furious with the county that I work for right now that I could spit fire! Back in November, I achieved National Board status. As a "Job Well Done" all Nationally Board Certified Teacher in my county get a county bonus added to their normal pay AND we are suppose to received an additional bonus paid out by the state. The state bonus is added to our paychecks in one lump sum toward the end of the school year. Now, just a couple of weeks ago we received a notice from our joke of a union letting us know that the state made a decision to cut these bonus by 50% for next year. To borrow Gomer Piles infamous line:

this was done very quietly so that no one could raise the red flag in the educational community to try and find this decision BEFORE it occurred!

Anyhoo, getting back to this year and the county underhanded: that state bonus is going to be in my check come Friday. Today, we can view our pay stub to see what will be directly deposited into our accounts on Friday. Imagine my surprise when I got barely more than 50% of that bonus in my check - BEFORE TAXES are taken out!! Well, the emails started firing off wondering what the hell was going on. Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, I started calling around the all the county office wanting to know where the rest of my money was! Two hours and four different departments later, I come to find out that some bigwig of a jerk at one of the school county office (NOT the state department) just up and made the decision to this year prorate the bonus from the date that we actually received our official scores stating that we achieved. Again, no prior notice was sent out through the county's National Board department, nothing was received by any of us "newly achieved" telling us that - "oh btw, you aren't really getting you whole bonus this year either."

It is now six hours after I received this wonderful news *dripping the angered sarcasm* and still NOTHING is officially being said about the change to our bonus for this year. How frustrating!!

It's the Final Countdown!!

2009-05-26T08:03:00.004-04:00

No, not the song, but it is the countdown to the end of the school year!! I'm trying to firm up my plans for the summer and plan some getaways when I can. I was kind of hoping to spend my birthday and a few days before summer school starts up in Chicago with Mr. X & Baby M, but I don't know if that's going to happen. At least maybe not the birthday weekend trip. He's been stressed lately because he's been laid off for about two and a half months now. He had a great interview a few weeks ago and it seemed very, very likely that he was going to get an offer, but then there was a hiring freeze. A real bummer.

He hasn't been sleeping well lately either and I'm sure that all ties in to the stress over the job hunt and worrying about his little girl. Usually when he is stressed like this he doesn't really want to be around people, so needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when he said yes to my visiting (provided that I go my Masters +30 salary increase and that these trips wouldn't hinder me financially). I didn't talk about the trips again for fear of stressing us both out, but when I go the salary lane change I let him know and he asked about the trip. He also mentioned that his mom had offered to let him stay at their vacation home in Santa Clause, Indiana (think it's in Indiana at least) and he asked if I like to go there when I came up. He warned me though that there was no cable and therefore no television and no Internet access.

So, I thought about it over night and sent him some dates of when I could come up and visit. I also let him know that if he had ulterior motives for wanting to go to SC while I was there that maybe it would be better for me to not to come up. Reasons being that 1. I didn't want him to miss his visitation with his daughter while I was there and I enjoy spending time with her as well, and 2. Baby M's mother just moved in a few miles down the road from him and he's trying to keep as much of his private life away from her as possible, so I didn't know if he was just trying to avoid us from accidentally crossing paths. Not that I am all that interested in meeting her, but from what all he's told me about her, I have no idea how she would react to realizing that he's not actually "pining" over her. The last thing I want to do is add anymore stress to his load right now with how she might react. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he read that email, but it apparently threw him off. Anyhoo, I think everything got cleared up, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet on the dates. I figure when he's ready he will and if he doesn't then I guess I'll make other plans.

Sorry got a little sidetracked there, getting back to school. Technically there are 16 official student days left in the school year. Things get a little wonky at the high schools in the school system I work for around this time of the year. Seniors are taking their finals this week and once they take their final they are done with their class for the year. Seniors will be done with their classes on Friday, May 29th, but graduations isn't until Friday, June 5th and technically the last day of school is Tuesday, June 16th! It just boggles my mind how things are so different. My senior year, I was in school taking finals until the 2nd to last day of school and then the night of the last days of school was graduation. Oh well, gotta go with the flow right?

Today is for Remembrance

2009-05-25T07:34:00.002-04:00

Please takea few minutes to send a prayer up to your creator and ask him/her to watch over and protect our brothers and sisters who are in the military.

What a GREAT Start to the Weekend

2009-05-24T12:47:00.006-04:00

This weekend started of with, none other than....

HAPPY HOUR!!!

Several of my friends and I went into D.C. Friday evening. We took the metro down and our first stop was the Chocolate Moose! What a funky store! My friend Naomi loves this place. Talk about eclectic! This store ran gammet from $2 gadgets and gizmos to nice martini glasses *very hard to resist not buying myself a set of 4* for gorgeous jewelry! We had a blast walking around and checking everything out.

Next stop was Hello Cupcake, sounds like a strip joint doesn't it? But in fact, it is just that, a cupcake place. I don't know who comes up with these ideas, but places like these certainly show me that Americans just have money to burn! The cupcakes are $3 EACH!! Sheeeet, for $6 I could have made a dozen at home! But, we all bought cupcakes while we were there. Kathy was the only sane one to buy 1 and just try it. The rest of us crazy gals, we bought either a box of four or six. I knew I was having company Saturday night so I bought a box of six. *Bellview called and they're looking for me* What the hell was I thinking??

Last stop on this crazy train was Happy Hour!! Finally!! Our final destination was just down the street from Hello Cupcake. We went to Cafe Citron for food, drink, music and laughs. My friend Sarah found this place on some "Hot DC" Happy Hour list. Just as we sat down at our table Sarah remembered we were in DC and that the Power Ball Lotto could be purchased in DC. So we started asking our waiter, who was oh so hot!, about Power Ball and if anyone had won and where we might be able to buy some tickets. It was quite amuzing. I'm sure the hot waiter thought we were all nuts when we played the number that corresponded to his name and then we asked his age. Oh if I was just 10 years younger! Of course Sarah said he was the perfect age for me *laugh*

We had pitcher after pitcher of Mojito *hell, no one was driving! We metroed it!* we shared several different appitizers, had great music playing the whole night and laughed it up. It was the perfect start to the weekend!

Saturday was nice and relaxing. I cleaned up a bit since I was having company and then finished knitting my Forest Canopy Shawl. It took me all while to find the right pattern for this skein as there are many colors through out and I wanted to create something that would show off the gorgeous colors without the colors detracting from the pattern. The FCS was the perfect match. This shawl was such a quick knit and with a great yarn. This dyer has a real eye for mixing colors together. This was one of the skeins I received in my first shipment from the club. The dyer's Etsy shop is called Fresh from the Cauldron and the club is the Vampire Sock Club. The shawl only took me 5 days to knit.

I wanted to use as much of the skein as possible. so I just kept repeating the main pattern. As the skein was dwingling down, I would put a lifeline in at the end of the repeats. I put one in after repeast 12 and then 13. This was if had misjudged how far I could go with what's left, I could just rip back to the lifeline and be safe. Turned out I was able to get 14 repeats out of a skein with 440 yarns. It was such a gorgeous day that I was able to take pictures outside when the shawl was dry.

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl
Yarn: Fresh from the Cauldron - Silk Sock
Colorway: Debbie Pelt
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony size 8
Modifications: completed 14 repeats of the main pattern and then completed only 4 of the 8 row edging.

Here's a close up of the stitch pattern. Just look at those amazing colors!

Here's what little yarn I had left after binding off.

Saturday night I had my good friends Kozykitty and KnitRedSox over for dinner. We had a blast. KK brought the fixin's for Pomatinis and a broccoli slaw salad, KRS brought roasted red potatoes and I grilled up some T-bone steaks for us all. We drank, we talked and just enjoyed each others company. At one point we started talking about 80's music and before we knew it, it was 1 AM! Now that's what I call a great night! When time just flies by like that.

It's nice to have good friends you can hang with on a long weekend like this!

What a great was to start off a long weekend!!

Special Deliveries!

2009-05-22T16:23:00.004-04:00

I've received two very special deliveries this last week! Last Saturday I hung out with my friends Kozykitty and Sheila all morning long. We actually met for breakfast and knitting, but suprisingly none of us knit a single stitch that morning! Sheila was mailing out her latest sock club shippment, but since we were meeting, I got mine hand delivered! Sheila asked me to be the test knitter for all the patterns in her club, so I already knew what the pattern and new colorways looked liked. Here are the socks I knit up and were used in the photo shoot for the pattern. *Girl, you better work!*

Obviously the pictures that Sheila took were a lot better than mine :) I love the colorway and how well the pattern went with it. The funniest part - I had no idea what Sheila had or was going to name this colorway, but when I saw it I had to send a little teaser out to the rest of the club members telling them to think:

"Aruba,Jjamaica ooo I wanna take you
To Bermuda, Bahama come on pretty mama
Key Largo, Montego baby why dont we go”

Little did I know she called the colorway - Kokomo!! You just can't match it better than that!

Pattern: Ocean Waves Socks
Yarn: Wullenstudio Sock Club yarn
Needles: size 1.5 on 32" circulars knit 2-@-A-time
Modifications: Cast on an extra 8 stitches so they would fit me

In this seasons sock club shipment was this awesome project bag that my friend Kozykitty made! She matched the colors so perfectly!! KK also has her own Etsy shop and you can check out her bags there. I love 'em!!

Next up in special deliveries is my swap package from the Eclips Swap. Check out this loot!! My partner, GirlyWithATwist, sure does know how to spoil me! I was delighted with everything in my Rosalie & Emmitt themed package.

Here's what was in the box: a book (Dark Side of the Moon by Sherrilyn Kenyon), a cool bookmark, 6 different pins with Rosalie and Emmitt, a needles and hook gauge, KnitPicks circular needles 40" size 1 (2.25,,), Rosalie glove pattern, 2 bars of Endangered Species chocolates (yummy), a set of 5 great Twilighty stitch markers and the awesome items pictures below.

Check it out, another great project bag!! Two awesome project bags in one week! SCORE!! And this one so delights my hidden macabre side!

Here is a skein of Perfect Peds 100% Merino Superwash in the colorway "Emmitt & Rosalie." Suprisingly, even though I took the picture outside the colors in this yarn didn't come through so well, but trust me it a gorgeous skein of jewel tones!!

She also sent me a skein of StitchyJones Glam socks in Garnet! So my color!! You can see the gret stitch markers she made me attached to this yarn.

And lastly, is this gorgeous knit Rosalie scarf!! She must have had ESP when she was picked this pattern to knit for me because about two weeks ago I bought enough yarn to make this scarf for myself!! I love it!! Too bad it's like 85 degrees here right now. A tad to warm to wear it.

I didn't take a pictures of all the goodies I sent to her, but I did manage to remember to take a picture of the cowl that I made for her, so she could cover those bite marks! ;>=

Playing Catchup!

2009-05-22T13:44:00.004-04:00

So, I went through my spare room to take stock of all my UFOs and well, I have a few! Not suprising. I took updated pictures of the ones I really would like to complete before starting a new project *LAUGH* Oh I cracked myself up on that one! Anyhoo, here's the current listing of projects that I am hoping to complete by the end of June? Maybe? Hopefully? OK, so that's at least that's the game plan!

Then again, I did just find out that my cousin's wife is pregnant and her family is having a baby shower for them on June 12, while they are in town visiting, so right there I will be casting on for either a blanket or baby sweater. Considering that they currently live in Colorado, a sweater will be well used I am sure. I just have no heard if they know the sex of the baby yet. There are also three co-workers who are pregnant. One of these women worked with me a lot and wrote me a great recomendadtion letter for a summer position, so I would definately want to knit her a baby sweater and she knows she's having a boy so that makes it easy! And there's project no. 2 that will need to be casted on :) *as they say, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions"*

OK, not on to the UFOs. First up Juliet (Rav link). This is my second attempt at Juliet. The first was almost finished when I tried it on and it was swimmingly big!! And before you even ask, yes I did swatch and yes I did get gauge. After looking around on Ravelry and reading others people's project pages, I understood that the pattern ran big and attempt no. 1 went to the frog pond and the yarn was put on the Naughty Step, or rather the Naughty Bag *ok, so I've watch the Super Nanny a few times* So, after being in the Naughty Bag for almost a year. I brought it back out and cast on two sizes smaller. It's turning out much better, so far. Sorry the pictures a little dark. I did not cast off the sleeve stitches as I'd like to add a little more to the length of the sleeve. The garter portion is almost under my bust line and just about an inch away from starting the lace pattern. I'm sort of going back and forth between increasing just enough stitches to complete the repeats or making the numberous increases the pattern calls for and having the extra bulk. Oh decisions, decisions!

Next, I found my cashmere cowl. Just a simple 2x2 ribbing. Not suprised that this project got lost in the stash mound. Ribbing is so boring to knit, but with the colorway, I didn't want to knit something to elaborate and have the pattern get lost in the colorway. Even thought this one is boring to knit, it would be a perfect TV watching project, expecially since all my shows have ended for the season and all that's on now are reruns! It's nice that the yarn is super soft too!

Here's are the Horcrux Socks Take Two. The first time I started these I was a relatively new sock knitting and didn't cast on enough stitches. So, these too went off to the frog pond and were recast-on with more stitches. I think these have lapsed to the bottom of the pile because there were suppose to be my Halloween socks and then Halloween came and went and the socks were put on hold.

Here's yet a third "Take Two" project. Only the first were actually completed. The socks were just a tad too small to get on my feet, so I gave them away and started another pair for myself and went up two needle sizes. I think these will work out much better for me :) The STR yarn is medium weight, so it makes for a nice thick sock. The pattern is a lot of fun to make and it makes a stunning sock in the end. Well worth the effort of a "take two"

Oh my, look, another "Take Two" *anyone see a theme building in my UFOS?* I have actually completed a pair of these socks earlier in the year. I was test knitting a pattern for my friend Sheila's sock club and I knit straight according to the pattern without making changes as that was the assignment - test knit the pattern to make sure there were no errors. So, again the first pair were too small for my feet and are on the "Gift" pile for my sister. They'll either be her birthday gift or her Christmas gift. Since the first ones didn't fit, I went ahead and cast on for another pair for myself and added a few stitches to the cast-on. These should fit nicely when I finish.

Finally, a first draft! *laugh* I took a yarn dyeing class about a year ago at Lovelyarns in Hampden, MD. I was aiming for a purple and brown colorway, I had not realize the range of colors that came out until I wound up this skein and started knitting with it. I just LOVE how the colors are coming along on these socks!! Makes me wish I could somehow reproduce this colorway and make a shawl with it!! Because the yarn is so thin, I went ahead and cast these socks on size 0 needles. I must be crazy, but I really like the tightness in the stitch and the feel of the yarh is FAB!! Of course, knitting on such small needles, these are taking me longer than normal, but I think they will be well worth it in the end!

Something other than socks!! Here's the Tiger's Eye Scarf. I wasn't thinking at the time that I cast this on, but this scarf is make in two halves and then grafted together in the middle so that the "eyes" are all facing in the right direction on both halves of the scarf. So today, I went ahead and cast on the other half and I'm knitting that half until I'm up to the same repeat as the first and then I can knit them at the same time. I really like this colorway with this pattern.

Last up is actually a FO! A bread basket liner. I followed the pattern, but I think the basket would have to be pretty small for this liner to work. I have more of this yarn in this colorway and other and intend to make more of these bread liners as Christams gifts, but I think I will knit the center square larger before I start the edging pattern.

I think I'm all caught up with projects now. Would I swear to that, well no. There could still be a project or five lurking around my home!

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, It's off to work I go....

2009-05-19T08:57:00.006-04:00

*pretend you hears the dwarves whistling their part here*

I have to say that switch jobs or rather switching schools this year was very much what I need to releave most of the work related stress that I've been dealing with at the other school for the last two years. Is it 100% better, well no. Every school has its quirks, every staff has its quirks and something never change no matter what school one works in, but I won't go into that. I am happy to have my job in this economy and I am pretty much happy with where I am right now.

Several family and friends have not been so luck during these economic times and I pray each and every day that something will come along soon. Mr. X and my BIL are the last two people in my daily prayers that I hope will be getting jobs soon. Mr. X is in the IT field, so I'm sure something will come up soon. My BIL has taken this opportunity to go back to college and get a degree.

Well, here's more on the Sheep & Wool update *I did my part to stimulate the economy and it wasn't a raise to my own paycheck!*

Stopped by the Cloverhill Yarn Shop booth as they always a wide selection of Indie Dyers at their booth. I picked up this little lovely green skein from Neighborhood Fibers. This rich green color just called to me. It told me to buy it and knit it into a Top-Down Baby sweater for my niece, Maya. She looks really good in green. Must be the wee bit of Irish in her ;)

Then, I came across this pale green yarn at Tess' Designer Yarns booth *yup, more Tess' yarn*. It was the only skein left. I walked around in the booth for a good half hour with this yarn. I kept going back and forth between getting and putting it back. I have not a clue as to what I will knit this skein into, but I bought it anyway. It's a hefty skein of 560 yards, so I should be able to come up with something.

Better Late than Never...

2009-05-13T09:03:00.008-04:00

...but never late is better
- Anonymous

I try, but certainly things in my life have just been SO crazy this past week, that I hadn't thought about bloggin'. I know, bad girl.

I went to the MDS&W Festival both days. Saturday turned out to be a really nice day, even though it didn't start out that way. I saw lots of sheeps, llamas and alpacas. I had an awesome Lamb Kabob (Sorry, KnitRedSoxs) and bought skeins of yarn and even bought some roving this time. No, I do not have a drop spindle, nor do I have a spinning wheel, but my friend Sheila has more than one wheel and I asked her if she would teach me (and yes, I asked BEFORE I spent money on the roving). She said she would teach me after she got her next shipment for her Sock Club in the mail and after she finished up with a few other personal matters. So maybe one day after school is out I can go over there and she can teach me :) In the meantime, you can drool over the lovely different rovings I purchased!

I purchased both rovings from the Cloverhill Yarn Shop booth in the Main building. This booth had tons of stuff from several different indie dyers - especially my friend Sheila's yarn!! Here is the first roving from Dragonfly Fibers- it's a merino and silk blend that was just oh-so-soft to touch!

Next up is Fat Cat Knits - merino. Squishy soft!! I can't wait to see this one all spun up!

I bought a 3rd bag of roving, but I can't post a picture of it because it's for a swap partner and I don't want her to see it before she gets it. I had a very specific idea in my mind of what color rocing I want to get her for her swap package and I was getting discourage when I couldn't find any! I finally came across one, but it had mohair and I didn't know if she liked mohair. I know some people have a real aversion to it. So i kept searching. Finally, just before the end of the day, I finally found exaclty what I was looking for!! I was exstatic!!

I don't have a picture of everything I bought, but I will share a few more things with you all and some things I may need your opinions on :)

Had to stop at Tess' Yarns. I had some ideas in mind for baby/toddle items with their Superwash Merino. I had this Child's Poncho in mind to make for Baby M and I knew I wanted to make it either hot pink or a nice purple.

First trip into Tess's I found this pretty hot pink skein and I bought it.

But then as I was searching patterns on Ravelry for some of the other yarns I bought I came across this cute Little Red Hoodie Cape pattern.

Then I started thinking I would use the hot pink for this pattern and then use this colorway, supposedly Tess is calling this one the Unofficial Poodle Skirt, for the poncho.

Soooooooooooooo, I'm thinking Little Red in the Hot Pink colorway and the Girls Poncho in the Unofficial Poodle Skirt colorway. What do you all think??

TOO FREAKIN' FUNNY!!!

2009-05-07T09:28:00.000-04:00

The House Strikes Again!

2009-04-30T20:51:00.006-04:00

It seems that I have purchased a certifiable Money Pit! As you all know, back in January my drain line got clogged and water backed up into my basement and created one hell of a mess. The plumber warned me that he thought it was tree roots and that it would probably happen again and if it did, he would need to put a camera down the pipe to confirm his suspiciouns and take it from there. Sure enough his predictions came to fruition last Friday. My line was clogged and I found water in my basement again.

Since it was Friday and I knew if I called the plumber for an after hours call or a weekend call it would be more expensive, I held off till Monday. He came out and did the camera thing and sure enough the pipe was infested with tree roots and the roots were catching all the toilet paper going down my drain which was blocking more of the pipe and causeing the water to back up into my basement. *sigh* You know what that means? Cha-CHING! Cha-CHING!

The main drain line of the house needed to be dug up and replaced. So, Tuesday Ms. Utility came out and marked up all the lines, and wouldn't you know it - the damn cable line was installed smack-dab in the middle of my yard!! I had never seen anything like it. I thought all utility lines were suppose to run along the perimeter of the property! So, needless to say - the crew tried really hard to avoid cutting that line, but because of how that line laid across my yard the way it did there was no way that big back hoe was going to be able to avoid it! They almost made it too, but the line got snagged when they were back filling the trench. I called Comcast immediately and there was someone out here mid-morning fixing it. That's the fastest Comcast service call I have ever had!!

Now, I don't know if I've shared with you all how I am convinced that Mickey Mouse wired my house and that Goofy did the drywall, but apparently they were not the only Disney characters to have a hand in building my house.

The back hoe finally arrived around 11 AM and the crew started digging. My friend Stacey came over to help me keep my sanity during this event. The plumber told me that I didn't need to be home for them to work because all the work was outside and when they had finished laying the new pipe they would call me to come home to run the water and test the pipes. I don't know what, but something told me to stay home anyway, so I did. Anyhoo, getting back to the story, the main drain line in the basement is right against the wall between my side and my duplex neightbor's side, so you would think that the drain line would come out pretty much in the same general spot in the outside. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo, that would be too easy.

The guy started diggin at about 11:30 AM, Stacey took me out to lunch and we returned home about an hour later and they had a good 8' deep trench dug. About 1: 30 PM we hear the guy on the machine - "Dude there's no pipe here."

Other dude - "Wha'dya means there no pipe?"

1st dude - "I'm about 10 feet down and there's no pipe here. I don't wanna keep digging here if there's no pipe!"

OK, so now I'm starting to panick. That's when the guys started to come in and out of my house to verify wehre the pipe was in the basement to judge were the pipe sould be on the outside of my house. Slowyl they started more to the left. And a little more till about 4 feet later they finally hit the pipe!! But inorder to get to the joint and replace the line they were going to have to take up a block of my walkway. So cha-CHINK more money out the door because now I need to find someone to repair the walkway.

Whe they finally had the whole pipe exposed the plumber was topside standing next to me and he was shaking his head because it apparently didn't make any sense to him as to why this pipe was so far off the mark. That's when I said to him "And you thought I was crazy when I told you that Mickey Mouse and Goofy build my house" and he retorted rigt back "Yeah, and it looks like Donald Duck put in the pumbing. You certianly do have the Disney House!"

*insert a little comic relief*

So, here you see the trench. It's a good 15' down and 4' across. See all the lovely tree roots that are crisscrossing across the top of the yard. Lovely aren't they. Now, there were only 3 tree on the front between my and my neightbor's lot. I had SIX trees removed from my back yard, can you image what the root system must look like back there?!? Holy shit, I don't even want to think about it! And my sister thinks a little sweat equity and a tiller is all I need. HA!

When they had to dig inside my walkway and into the flower bed, they dug up my Hostas and got them out of the way. I laughed at that. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice of them to do that to save my planets, but my father has Hostas gallore at his house and he could bring me down a bow of them every fall.

HOLY DIRT BATMAN!!

So there is the damn pipe that has been such the problem and see that lovely oragney thing next too it? That's a freakin' tree root almost as wide as the pipe!!

The crew managed to back fill the hole that night and then someone came out the next day to do some hand grading. We are expecting rain over the next few days so I went ahead and spread some grass seed down. Now, Home Depot didn't have any straw to put down but they had this other stuff that claimed it was better then straw. So I went ahead about bought several bags of that and spread it all over the lawn. Hopefully grass will start growing!

Maya's Christening

2009-04-28T21:25:00.005-04:00

As you all know, or most of you know, my newest niece had her Christening two weekends ago. *I know, I know - what the hell took me so long to get the pictures up* Most of you also know that I made the whole Christening outfit for her - dress, bonnet, booties and blanket.

Dress: We decided to add the ribbon at the last minute and luckily JoAnn's still had the same ribbon that I bought for the bonnet!!

Blanket:

The whole kit-'n-kaboodle:

Of course Maya was the best dressed baby in church that day. There were two other Christenings during mass that day and I swear the other babies were jealous of Maya's outfit *laugh* Anyway, the service was beautiful, unfortunately we weren't able to get great pictures inside the church because there were three babies, three sets of parents AND three sets of Godparents crowded around. That ok, we got plenty of pictures before and after :)

My cousins Cesidio and Felicia were chosen as the Godparents. For years I had know that when I had children those two would have been my first child's Godparents. I'm still hoping for this one day. Felica and I were very close growing up even though she is four years younger than me. We had some of the same struggles with our fathers and we were such a support for each other.

As for my cousin Cesidio, we were inseperable when we were growing up. We were born two days apart, me being the older, but boy we were cut from the same cloth. We were tit-for-tat and thich-as-thieves and always got in trouble together. When we were 13 his mother up and decided that she was moving her family back to Italy. We were devistated! I didn't see Cesidio or his brother Domenico for the next 14 years. Not till I asked them both to be in my wedding. They both came back over to the states in September of '97 and Cesidio decided he wasn't going back. I think my aunt still blames me for that, but Cesidio just never felt at home over there. I'm glad that he's back over here and he's worked his ass off to make a life for himself sinces he's been back.

Cesidio is the kindest, most selfless, most generous man I know. He would literally give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. I've always thought that we were cut from the same cloth, but I felt that he has always outshined me in those areas. I've always been awed by how we were so intuned to each other and how we were always able to be a comfort to each other during trying times. Just a couple of years ago we were once again coming to the same crossroads and came together - I was dealing with my break-up and reconnection with Mr. X and he was dealing with a similar situation with his girlfriend. Different circumstances as his gf was ten years his juniors and immature and my Mr. X was just plain stupid and running from committement. Circumstances didn't matter - we both understood were each others hearts were and why they were where they were. Him and that connection is what I turn to when it gets really tough to deal with - still to this day. Felicia and I always joke that it's a shame Cesidio is our cousin. We now say that we "need to find our own Cesidio" and I thought I had, but I guess there really can only be one. I pray that one day he will find a woman worthy enought for him, because he certainly deserves one very special woman.

And it looks like Maya already has him wrapped around her little finger.

Here are a few other pictures from the Christening Day. She was such a good baby the whole day!!

1. 07, 2. 14, 3. 18, 4. 19, 5. 20, 6. 21, 7. 22, 8. 23, 9. 24, 10. 25, 11. 26, 12. 28, 13. 31, 14. 32, 15. 37, 16. 40, 17. 43, 18. 46, 19. 47, 20. 49, 21. 51, 22. 52, 23. 54, 24. 55, 25. 85, 26. 87, 27. 88, 28. 86, 29. 89, 30. 90

Dedicated

2009-04-13T15:28:00.000-04:00

to Mr. X

The Bunny Dance

2009-04-12T10:42:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter !!

Spring Break: Day 4

2009-04-08T21:53:00.002-04:00

OK, finished painting the porch today!! I also painted these two small wooden benches that I usually put my house plants on over the summer (if I take them home from work that is). I didn't want to paint the railing because they are aluminum and it never looks good painted unless you have a spray painter. I also didn't want to be spray paint on the front porch (just ignor the little spill of paint on the porch - I'm working on getting that out now). So instead, I got me some hot water, a little Greased Lightening (this stuff is AWESOME) and cleaned the railings and my screen door. I think it looks pretty damn good!! I sort of keep going back and forth on whether or not I should paint the gutter.

Untill I tackle the yard situation, I think I'm done with the outside of my house for now. Now to move indoors!

Spring Break: Day 3

2009-04-06T22:00:00.001-04:00

Took a much needed break today! Spend most of the day knitting with friends and had a few people come out to my house and give me some estimates about my back yard.

Spring Break: Day 2

2009-04-06T21:32:00.001-04:00

So, here it is the day after I power washed my house and I have muscles aching in placed I didn't even know I had muscles!! I never realized just how much you used your stomach muscles to keep your balance on a ladder! I hurt!!

But I was on a mission to get work done over break so there was no resting for me. Sunday I had to make a quick trip to the Home Depot to pick up a good stiff bristled brush to clean my deck and some paint for the porch. I forgot to take a before picture of my deck, but I found this from back when I was having the trees cut down in my back yard. See all the icky black and green on the wood.

I filled a pail with some hot water, bleach and a little dish soap and got to scrubbin'! Then I used the power washer to remove all the soap and can you believe I found some wood under neither it all?! There are still black spots, but it's certainly not from mold. I purchased a nice indoor/outdoor rug for the porch. As soon as I get it out there, I'll take another photo.

You would think "Ahhhh a major task accomplished. Now I can rest." Nope, I apparently don't know when to quit. I went right around to the porch and started scrapping off the paint that was peeling off the ceiling, sanded it down, and primed the porch. My arms were screaming at me for the brutality I was inflicting upon them.

Spring Break Day 1

2009-04-05T10:18:00.003-04:00

Day One of Spring Break I went right to work on my house! I borrow a power washer from my friend Tulabug. I also stopped off at Home Depot to pick up some bleach solvent to help break down all that ugly green mold that was on the side of the house. I borrowed a ladder from my neighbor KnitRedSox, the ladder her DH dropped off wasn't going to get my anywhere near the top of my house. So, Tulabug went back home and picked up her 16' ladder and we went to work. For a while there Tulabug and I traded off the washing wand cause niether of our arms was prepared for this. Then my older sister came by to "help." She is an architectural engineer and is use to giving out the orders and supervising and that is exactly what she did. She also know more about safety on ladders then I do, so I was happy she was there. She gave the encouragement I need to go higher up on the ladder then I ever would have gone on my own. There is also a stronger sense of saftey knowing that two women are holding the ladder that is propped up against the house than one. And so, with the two of them holding the ladder I did manage to go up high enough to get rid of most of the glaring mold that was up there. There is still some stubborn molding that is sticking deep inthe the lines etched on the siding, but it should pass the damn HOA inspection. I might consider going to get another bottle of the outdoor bleach cleaner and getting back up on the ladder to spray and let it soak in a few miinutes before attempting to powerwash again. Depends on how anal I am about letting it go. You have to understand, I tend to be a perfectionist and see all the things that are "wrong" or "not-quite-right" in my own work. I can thank my fahter for that crazy fault of mine. It drove my ex-husband crazy sometimes.

Anyhoo, sometime around 6:30 ish PM I called it quits. I managed to powerwash the siding on the back, the side, and the front porch. I still need to do the siding around the windows of the second level on the front, but that will need ot wait till I have someone here to help me again.

What on the agenda for day 2?? Scraping, priming and painting the front porch!!

I Won't Let Daddy Nap!

2009-04-03T15:38:00.004-04:00

My BIL is just too funny sometimes. My baby sister had her 1st child back in November and in February my BIL lost his job :( On the up side, he is now a stay-@-home Dad and has re-enrolled in college courses. I think he's lovin' the Daddy part more then the studying.

So today my sister gets this email:

Hi Mommy,
I woke up in my crib and decided it was so fun I couldn't go back to sleep. I usually nap with Daddy this early. Boy he must be upset!

Anyway thought you would think this was cool HA HA No NAP For DADDY!!!
HEE HEE!!

I LOVE YOU,
MAYA

They start getting tech savvy younger and younger!!! *giggle*

Spring Break!!

2009-04-03T08:24:00.005-04:00

I remember when those two words use to cause such excitement in me. It used to be a week of being lazy, hanging with friends or someone special. This year though, "Spring Break" translate into "getting shit done around the house" and I'm not talking about a normal spring clean where we pack away our winter stuff and bring our the spring/summer items. I'm talked about an overhaul to the house. *sigh*

Here's what I have on my ever growing list of what needs to be done to/in my house that I know will not all get done this week, but I have to start somewhere -

power wash the siding, porch and maybe my deck (big maybe there since the former owners really didn't maintain the deck very well and it really needs to be torn down and replaced, but that's more money that I don't have right now)
paint my front porch
have a landscaper till up my back yard (cost pending of course)
replace fence posts in by backyard
plant grass - front and back
replace the current rotting wood retaining wall with stone (cost pending) and around the flower garden patch in the front
paint all the interior doors of my house
replace handles on all interior doors
replace the handrail for the stairs inside
touch-up paint some walls inside
replace all the electrical outlets upstairs
clean out and organize the basement (haven't touched it since the cleaning crew came in to take care of the water damage back in January!)

Yeah, just a few things on my list.

My parents want to come down and help - actually my mother offered my father's help. Although my father is very good with things around the house and especially so in the yard, his temper fuse is minuscule and his patience is even less. I'm not sure my stress level can deal with that right now. My BIL had offered to come down and help out with some stuff, but his request is that my father be working on something far away from him, so you see, it's not just me :) Anyhoo, I don't think BIL is coming down and Dad is currently battling a bout of Shingles he got down in Florida last week.

Oh, and somewhere in there I need to do my regular house cleaning, laundry and of course knitting! Can't forget knitting - especially since I have a Christening blanket that I need to get finished before April 19! Although that is being crocheted, so that will be done a lot quicker!

Now, ask me what I would RATHER be doing on my Spring Break??? Well DUH! I'dather be spending it with two certain someones, but that's neither here nor there.

Still Here

2009-04-03T05:24:00.000-04:00

I Found Big Bird!!

2009-04-02T10:02:00.002-04:00

Srsly??

Severe Weather Testing Protocols During HSA Testing

2009-04-01T08:09:00.004-04:00

Please read, sign and return to Ms. _____________ asap

Severe Weather Testing Protocols During HSA Testing (HSA = High School Assessments)

Should a severe weather situation occur during testing, please remain calm. To display any kind of anxiety would be a testing irregularity and must be reported.
Please do not look out the window to watch for approaching tornadoes. You must monitor the students at all times. To do otherwise would be a testing irregularity and must be reported.
Should students notice an approaching tornado and begin to cry, please make every effort to protect their testing materials from the flow of tears and sinus drainage.
Should a flying object come through your window during testing, please make every effort to ensure to ensure that it does not land on a testing booklet or an answer sheet. Please make sure to soften the landing of the flying object so that it will not disturb the students while testing.
Should shards of glass from a broken window come flying into the room, have students use their bodies to shield their testing materials so that they will not be damaged. Have plenty of gauze on hand to ensure that no one accidentally bleeds on the answer documents. Damaged answer sheets will not scan properly.
Should gale force winds ensue, please have everyone stuff their test booklets and answer sheets into their shirts being very careful not to bend them because bent answer sheets will not scan properly.
If any student gets sucked into the vortex of the funnel cloud, please make sure they mark at least one answer before departing and of course make sure they leave their answer sheets and test booklets behind. You will have to account for those.
Should a funnel cloud pick you, the test administrator, up and take you flying over the rainbow, you will still be required to account for all of your testing materials when you land so please take extra precautions. Remember, once you have checked them out, they should never leave your hands.
When rescue workers arrive to dig you out of the rubble, please make sure that they do not, at any time, look at or handle the testing materials.Once you have been treated for your injuries, you will still be responsible for checking your materials back in. Search dogs will not be allowed to sift through the rubble for lost tests. Unless of course they have been through standardized test training.

Ok, anyone want to take a guess at how many teachers saw the dreaded "HSA testing" and went ahead to sign and return this document without even reading it?? *laugh*

My doll of an assistant actually DID read the whole thing and signed it and when I asked her if she got the HSA form she says, "Yes and I can't believe it. These folks are more worried about these darn tests then the kids!" I completely lost it and howled with laughter.

Happy April Fools Everyone!!

The Dreaded House Guest!!

2009-03-27T10:34:00.003-04:00

Just kidding! Yes, I did have a house guest all of last week, but it was a welcomed guest. Mr. X came down and spend the week with me and Frisco. I think he felt more like a Show & Tell puppet then a guest. He came in Monday night. Tuesday night he met my friends Tulabug and KnitRedSox - I think Tulabug gave him a tad of a hard time, but he seemed to have taken it well. Thursday night we had dinner with my sister and her family. Him and my BIL talked computers the whole time. Friday night the State Dept. of Ed. had a dinner for all those who achieved National Board Certification and he got to meet two more of my friends (Naomi and Pam - below)

The dinner was at the Marriot down on Annapolis. The food was good, the company was great. It was a good night :)

Apparently, all you have to do is feed Frisco a few treats and he's your friend for life.

While he was here he tried to fix my dryer, but it was beyone repair, so I had to buy a new one. He did a few other things around the house for me as well. We had planned to power wash my house while he was down, but it never seemed to be warm enough to be playing with water outside, so that didn't happen.

Mr. X went back home on Monday and when I came home from the airport and for then next 2 days, each time I came home Frisco would sit and meow at the door waiting for his friend to come in after me. Wednesday night he actually huffed at me and then gave me a look that asked "Where is he?" Then he sulked off to his bed. I know exactly how he feels. *sigh*

Homespun Party

2009-03-27T10:11:00.003-04:00

Two weeks ago I went to the Homespun Party that was held at Savage Mill. A bunch of local dyers and crafters got together to sell their goods to the masses. I was there helping out my friends Sheila (KnitsWSithSticks) and KozyKitty (Etsy shop) along with my friends Tulabug and KnitRedSox!

Here is Sheila and her lovely yarn (I picked up 4 more skeins in her gorgeous colorways!!)

Here is KK with her gret project bags! (I picked up one of these!!)

I also picked up 2 skeins from Sanguine Gryphon! Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the yarns before I added them to my stash :)

Afterwards, several of us had dinner at the Ram's Head Taven at the Mill. It was a fun, filled day!!

This Weather is Killing Me!!

2009-03-16T08:01:00.003-04:00

Ugh! I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind and decide that Spring should be here and stop with this crazy up and down weather! All these drastic temperature drop, front and barometric pressure ups and downs are recking havoc on me and triggering migraines like crazy! I don't know what percentage of the population actually gets migraines - and I'm not talking bad headaches here - I'm talking about debilitating, super-sensitive, mind shit. I had a really bad one last week and not my usual kind of off-kilterness when it comes to migraines. I was in bed Monday night and I had a slight headache. I didn't take anything because I was going to sleep and usually sleep will help get rid of it. I was just finishing up a chapter in a book when BAM I had a full force migraine come on. I've never had one hit me like that without one of my triggers. So, I got out of bed and took one of my prescription medications and crawled back into bed. I was up again at either 2:30 or 3:30 AM, my vision was blurry so I couldn't read my clock, and my head was pounding! It was time for the ice pack. I went down stairs and only by the grace of God did I make it down the flight of steps without falling and breaking my neck because my balance was soooooo off whack! I grabbed the ice pack from my freezer (I keep two in my freezer for just such times) and crawled back up the stairs *and I do mean crawl because I was afraid I might fall if I tried to stand up*, took another prescription pill, crawled back into bed, pulled up the covers, placed the ice pack on my head and drifted off to the blackness. I was up again a few hours later. It was like my body just knew that it could not handle the loud alarm clock because I woke up again, literally two minutes before my alarm went off. My head was still pound and when I got up to head to the bathroom, my balance was still off. There was no way I could drive into work. Called in sick, took a 3rd prescription pill *I know, not good* made sure the sun blocking shades were closed *I have those heavy light blocking shades for days like this that turn my usually bright room into the Bat Cave* and went back to bed. I didn't get up again till about 11AM. My head was still bothering me, but not as bad. I had something light to eat, took a 4th pill and started to make a mental list of who I would call to take me to the hospital if this pain didn't go away. I knew I couldn't take any more of my prescriptions. I shouldn't have take 4 in less that 24 hours, but thinking kind of is non-existent when you're dealing with pain like this.

I was straightening up a few things, staying off the computer because that can be a migraine trigger for me. Usually it's when I'm working on the computer a lot, but when I'm teetering on the brink the slightest thing can trigger a full blown migraine instantly. That's when I saw it....
the one bootie....
the one Christening bootie....
ONE...
on the floor in the spare room. The other was no where in sight! *don't panic, don't get hysterical, and whatever you don't - don't let your BP go up or you'll definitely be calling someone to take you to the hospital for another migraine*

I had both booties sitting on the top of the bookcase, drying. They were stuffed with plastic baggies to shape and stretch then just a little. The other booties was not on the bookcase. The other booties was not on the floor near the one bootie that I found. *know, this is where you can officially call me the crazy cat lady* I'm shaking the one booties that I had while demanding that Frisco, yes that's my cat, tell me where the other one was. I have no more of this yarn left, so I could not make another bootie. I needed to find it! Frisco, of course, is looking at me like "Uh oh, mommy's losing it again." I went searching all through the upstairs, looking under the bed, in the closets, in his little bed, went downstairs, moved the couch, moved the china buffet, searched high and low for where he might had swatted this bootie. It was driving me crazy, because Frisco doesn't usually play with things that don't make noise, unless it's a long piece of string or yarn or a measuring tape. I'm am soooo trying not to panic here. I went back upstairs to plead with Frisco to show me were the other booties was. This time, something apparently sunk in with him and he walks over to the chaise lounge that I have in the spare room, flops over and starts pawing at something under there. I go over and get on my knees and take a look *oh thanks the gods!* There under the chaise lounge was the bootie with half the plastic bag pulled out of it. The little stinker was playing with the plastic bag that inside the bootie *told you, he likes things that make noise* I snatched up that bootie and put them away where he couldn't get his paws on them again!

Disaster averted, cat still have his skin in tact.

In other knitting news. I finished two projects since I last posted. First up is the baby blanket. This was made for one of the big wigs at the Panera's that my knitting group meets at every Wednesday night. The pattern was easily memorized and fairly easy to knit up.

Pattern: Elegantly Simple Baby Blanket by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer
Needles: Addi Turbos size 9
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Encore Worsted (4 skeins)
Modifications: none

And then, I finally finished my Valetine Baudelaire socks *ok, ok, so it's no longer Valentine's Day, but who cares!* And I love them!! It was a perfect marriage of yarn and pattern!

Pattern: Baudelaire by Cookie A.
Needles: KnitPicks Circulars - 3.0 mm 32"
Yarn: Yarn Love Marianne Dashwood - Summer Sangria
Modifications: I made the socks 2-@-a-time and in the larger size, but without the larger instep. The larger instep would probably have aided in getting the socks over my heel a little better, but then they would have been to big on the calf. I like them just how they are.

I would definately make another pair with this pattern. It was lots of fun. I have another pair of Cookie A's on needles and can't wait for her sock book to come out! I've already ordered mine on Amazon and it says it should be delivered on April 3rd!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

See Ellen, I posted before you could yell at me :)

Swamped in Swaps!!

2009-03-01T11:25:00.006-05:00

And lovin it!! I know folks outside the swap world just have no clue as to why people would be in swaps.

"What? You buy stuff for someone you don't know??" Is the usual response I get when explaining a swap, but I've gotten some pretty neat things from a swap.

I will admit the very first swap I joined was a Secret Pal swap (a while back) and my partner completely flaked out on me! It was very disappointing. I had a lot of fun putting together a package for her and couldn't wait to see what she was putting together for me. Plus it's always fun to shop for yarn and goodies!! When I realized my partner had flaked out, I contacted the coordinator and she found an "angel" for me. An angel is a generous someone who is willing to put together another package for a swappee who hasn't received anything.

I did not let this one person taint my hopes for swapping. I was reading all the other swap posts and how other people were getting all these great package and though everyone must get a "dud" everyone once in a while. So I've tried a few other swaps and lucky have not been disappointed again.

I also think that Ravelry has helped to really cut down on the swap flakers because there is "Naughty Swappers" list that people can check.

Anyhoo, I was in 3 swaps this past month. I don't know what I was thinking in joining three of them, but I did and it was a lot of fun. One of the three I was even a co-hostess of.

First up in the Valentine Vampire Swap. *yes, I'm a vampire lover and have read and seen many vampire novels and movies*

Here’s everything that was in my package from LadyMay (Ravelry profile):

4 patterns: Thermis, Boo the Bat, Sweetheart Glovettes, Loves Bites fingerless gloves
4 skeins of yarns: Wool-Ease, Wiggles, Cascade 220, Classic Elite Alaska
Loves Bites music CD she made for me
A TY beanie Spider
Pretty stitch markers
Hand lotion
The Cursed by L. A. Banks
The Love Voodoo kit Vampire in a Box
Tootsie Roll lip balm
Choclate covered nuts and a few Hershey Kisses

And as if that wasn't enough - she knitted two items for me!! The first is a pair of fingerless gloves with Classic Elite Yarns Lush (50% Angora/50% wool) YUMMY!! I think I have worn these almost everyday since I received my package!

The second was Boo the Bat! Isn't he just too cute!!

The next swap I was in was from the Caffine Addicts Ravelry group. Pinky23 (Ravelry Profile)put togheter this great package for me.

a pound of Irving Farms "Gotham" coffee - I just love that name!
a bag of dark chocolate heart candies - yeah that package didn't last too long ;)
a cute Valentine mug from Starbucks (a coffee lover can never have too many mugs, can she??)
hand lotion (don't all yarnie people love their hand lotions!)
a small package of SOAK
two candles
and of course yarn!! Malabrigo Sock yarn!! I have been dying to get my hands on some of this yarn! Look at that rich purple colorway!! *No Lavlaurie you can't have my purple!*
and the card she semd me was so cute!! The cover reads "And now for the final word on knitting socks" and you open the card up and it reads “Whaddya MEAN, you’d kinda like one for the other foot?!” *laugh*

Luckily, I make my socks 2-@-a-time so I never worry about the dreaded 2nd sock syndrom.

My final package for this month came from the Knitter's Coffee Swap 4, which I was one of the hostess for. This terrific package came from Pennala (Ravelry profile) in Canada.

Here's what was in my goodie package:

Knitscene Winter 08/Spring 09 (I almost bought this magazine on Monday!)
The Sculptress (she apparently found my weakness for mystery novels)
A French Press travel mug (now I can make GOOD coffee at work!)
two different coffees that just smelled heavenly when I open the box - I tried the Cuzco this morning - YUM!
a pouch of kitty treats for Frisco (which he absolutely loves!
Avon goodies (hand lotion, hand sanitizer - perfect purse size, bubble bath, nail files)
a keychain flashlight
a little coffie cup candle holer (so cute)
And of course and beautiful skein of Araucania Rance in a gorgeous Victorian pink and green colorway *no Tulabug, you can't have it, it's all mine!!*

I couldn't resist, here are a few pictures of Frisco eating the treats Pennala sent him! As you can see he was impatient for his treats. As I was trying to take pictures that he was trying to pull my hand holding the treat down to this mouth!

Now I am all caught up on my sharing :) .... At least I think I am for now!

Catch up!!

2009-02-28T10:18:00.005-05:00

OK, so I've been a bad blogger, but at least I realized that before my friend Ellen has to tell me that I've been a bad blogger! (Hi Ellen!)

So, lots to catch you all up on!! First up, my sister came down with my new niece last weekend. Isn't she just precious!! I could hold her all day long!

Apparently, my sister and DH forgot the Pack 'n Play in Florida on their last trip and my other sister wasn't thinking clearly when they first came down. There was no place for Maya to sleep so they had to think fast and make a bed that was the right size for Maya to sleep in....

Tada! Baby-in-a-basket!

And just the perfect size too!! :)

As you all know, well those of you that have been following my blog for a while now, I earned my National Boards Teaching Certificate this year! The county that I work in had an official pinning ceremony for us were we received our official NBCT pins. It was a nice, although at times boring, ceremony. The pin is now officially collecting dust in my jewelry box :) My gf in the middle there called me up the day after the ceremony to inform me that her pin never made it home that night! I laughed so hard when she told me that. She apparently lost the name tag and the pin was on her name tag. She called me up just last night to let me know she did indeed find her pin in the back seat of her car on the floor board.

The state is having a formal dinner for all who have achieved in the state sometime in March and shortly here I should be received my official certificate! I can't wait.

I have several projects on the needles, but these are the three that I am currently working on. Back in December, I decided I was going to match up patterns and yarns so that projects were all ready to go this year. I bagged up about 16 skeins of sock yarns in hopes of getting more socks completed. My official goal is one pair a month, but the more the merrier! I picked this yarn out in February because there were suppose to be my official Valentine's Day socks. Needles to say - I just finished turning both heels last night and starting to work up the leg. I am loving this pattern (Baudelaire by Cookie A.) and the yarn! The yarn is Yarn Love's Marianne Dashwood in the colorway Summer Sangria. This colorway is just luscious!

I'm also in a March sock contest in the Sheila Rovelstad Design group on Ravelry. We had to cast on a pair of socks with green yarn (minimum 25% green in the colorway) so I pulled out my BlueMoon Fiber Arts - Socks That Rock in the colorway Lucky and cast on for Pomatomus by Cookie A. *yes, that's two Cookie A patterns on needles at once* These socks have to be finished by March 31st, but I'm aiming to wear them ON St. Patty's day - St. Patty's Day 2009 that is!! :)

Lastly is a baby blanket my gf asked me to make for another friend. I will have this blanket done before Wednesday rolls around! *I swear it Tulabug!*

Here's a little yarn porn for ya. This is the first installment for the Wullenstudio sock club. Isn't this gorgeous!! This is actually my 2nd skein of it.

The first skein I received was to test knit the official pattern for the sock club! Didn't they come out beautifully!! I just love how the colors blend together so well!

Apparently Frisco thought this pair was for him!

Here are just a few projects that I have finished since my last post.

First we have a simple cowl that I made for my Valentine Vampire Swap partner.

Pattern: Simple Cowl (Rav link)
Yarn: South West Trading Company Gianna
Needles: KnitPicks size 11
Modifications: None

Next up the Christening bonnet for my niece. She doesn't look to thrilled to have this on her head does she? *she sure does have the Billy Idol snear coming along there*

Pattern: Feather & Fan Bonnet by Larissa Brown (Rav link)
Yarn: Patons Silk Bamboo
Needles: KnitPicks size 6
Modifications: None, I did add a wide satin ribbon around the bottom to tie a nice bow on the side and keeo the bonnet on her head.

Just couldn't resist sharing this picture as well :)

Last up are the Christening Booties.

Pattern: Mary Jane Booties by Lucie Sinkler (Rav link)
Yarn: Patons Silk Bamboo
Needles: KnitPicks DPN size 3
Modifications: None.

Next up - something for ME!!

Pattern: Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau (Rav link)
Yarn: 100purewool.com Worsted Merino Single (love this yarn!! Just like Malabrigo, but less expensive)
Needles: KnitPicks size 8
Modifications: None

Had another skein and a half of this colorway, so I made a beret to match and looking to make some fingerless gloves with the remaining yarn.

Pattern: Meret (Mystery Beret) by Woolly Wormhead (Rav link)
Yarn: 100purewool.com Worsted Merino Single
Needles: KnitPicks size 8
Modifications: 4 repeats before decreasing.

What a Wonderful World...

2009-02-06T14:20:00.001-05:00

A New Hobby??

2009-02-03T06:07:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday I took a glass blowing workshop with some friends, Naomi, Racheal and a friend of Naomi's Joe. Not something I would have scoutted out on my own, but I figured what the heck. The lesson was only $40 and I get to take home the piece that I make. For the life of me I can't remember the instructors name, but he was a good teacher. He gave a demonstration of the three different things you could make at the workshop; you could pull a flower, blow a glass ornament, or make a necklace pendant. After we each finished out pieces, we talked about taking the 4 week course. Unfortunately, my basement fiasco happened the very next day and the money I would have spend on the class went to the plummer instead. So, no class for me right now. I am thinking that I might take the workshop again - I mean for $40 and I get to take home what I make - instant handmade gifts!

Anyhoo, here are some photos from that day. There's apparently a video of this out on facebook somewhere too. If my girlfriend ever gets around to sending me the video I will post it.

And here is what I made that day. I call it my Twlight Flower *yes, after the series* I'm really happy with how it came out and right now it is front and center in the china cabinet, mainly so Frisco doesn't bat it around and turn it into a shatter glass.

I so would love to put a sink like this in my bathroom! Is that not the coolest! Yeah, those are the wacky girls I took the workshop with.

Water Whooos

2009-01-30T10:23:00.002-05:00

I have not had a very good start to my year when it comes to my house. First, I had issues with my heat pump, AGAIN. I got an outrage electrical bill in December - almost as bad as the bill from last year. So, my immediate thoughts were that something is wrong with my heat pump again. After numerous phone calls to my home warranty company (shopping around for a different one this year) and numerous house calls from a heating & air conditioning company - turns out the HWC screwed me and I'm stuck with crazy electric bills.

What happened it that technically the warranty company created a mis-matched unit in my house. The indoor portion of the heat pump is a 10 SEER unit and the outside unit that was replaced last January is a 13 SEER unit. IF the units were matching the 13 SEER system would be much more energy efficient, but they didn't. Instead they replaced the outside unit with a PAYNE, which is turning out to be a Pain-in-the-ass or rather wallet, and the installed some little gadget to the inside unit that lets the warranty companies get away with creating a mismatched unit and sky-rockets my bills.

So, I bought myself a Delonghi oil-filled space heater. I put that in my bedroom and I still have one of those blowing space heaters which is in my computer room. The thermostat now stays on 60 and the space heater generates enough heats to warm up the upper floor of my house. So when I am home in the evening, I pretty much live upstairs. Hopefully the January will be a LOT less for me efforts.

OK, so I had my upset for the year right off the bat - so I thought. Sunday I was doing laundry and when I went downstairs to change out the loads this is what I encountered:

The culpret was that toilet in the basement. Apparently there was a clog in the main line of the house and all the water that was draining from house hit the blockage and then came back up from the toilet and all over the basement floor. I lost it. All I saw were the dollar signs it was going to cost me to fix this and knowing I just didn't have it right now. The one thing I am grateful for is that it was sewage that came up through the toilet! Thanks goodness for small favors I suppose.

This was like the straw that broke the camels back. I just lost it that morning. So after I cried out all my frustrations and got myself semi-together, I called my sister for help. I called the county first to see if the blockage was on their end. I prayed that it was! From there I called my insurance company, who inturn called a cleaning company to come out and clean up the water in my basement. County called me back and basically said "Nope. Not our problem." Soooooooooo, the plumber came out on Monday and snaked the main line. Nothing really seemed to be caught to create a blockage, but the toilet now seems to be flushing without incident. The plumber isn't sure what happened. " Could be rooted damaged the pipes." He said, "If this happens again he'll snake a camera down to see what is going on and to start saving money because I may need to install new drainage pipes." *WHAT?!?!?*

Can I catch a break.... PLEASE!

Sock it Two Me

2009-01-30T08:15:00.001-05:00

Well, really three, but that wouldn't sound right. I finished three pairs of socks this month!! I can only show you two of them. I am a test knitter for my friend Sheila. She put together her first sock club this year and she asked me to test knit all the patterns before the shipments go out! Her yarn is FAaaaaaB - U - lous!! So go check out her sock club. I promise you won't be disappointed!

So, getting back to my socks!

First up.... Smeggin' Red Dwarf Socks...

Pattern: Red Dwarf Socks (Rav link)
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Two's Wick
Needles: KnitPicks size 4
Modifications: None

Next up are my Psychedelic Falling Leaves Socks

Pattern: Falling Leaves (Rav link)
Yarn: Colinette's Jitterbug
Needles: KnitPicks size 1.5 (2.5mm)
Modifications: None

I ran out of yarn while making these socks and looked around on Ravelry to see if anyone was selling this color. I found two people, but only looked like it would be the right color match. As you can see the colors in my skein were deep and rich and lots of the dark purple. I was careful when matching the new yarn to the old and you can't even tell where the new yarn starts!! I love it. Of course, now I have a little more that 3/4 of a skein left that I have no idea what to do with!

And my 3rd pairs for the month.....

Well, you'll have to check back mid-February to see those pictures :)

KCS4 Questions!

2009-01-29T19:17:00.003-05:00

Round 4 of the Knitters' Coffeeswap is up and running. I am co-hosting with KnittyMama and Dawn. Here are the answers to my questions and I can't wait to read my partner's!!

1. Whole bean or ground? I prefer whole since Ihave a grinder

2. Fully-loaded or decaf? FULLY-loaded - a must!!

3. Regular or flavored? definately regular

4. How do you drink your coffee? usually I make a soy latte. If I'm running short on time or soy milk and I French press it with a little sugar and creamer

5. Favorite coffee ever? LaVazza or Jamacian Blue Mountain Coffee

6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? I tend to be a bit fussy about my coffee

7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Since I'm losing weight, usually just yarn and needles to keep my hands busy. Every once in a while I cave in to temptation and I have what are called Dunkers. They are chocolate chip cookies that are long instead of round and have chocolate on the back side. When you dunk them in the coffee the chocolate melts a little into the coffee give the latte just a hint of flavoring. Yum.

8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? hmm, not that I can think of right now.

9. Yarn/fiber you love? Merino, Suri, silk, cashmere, I definately lean more towards the natural fibers

10. Yarn/fiber you hate? scratch wools - my skin is sensative and if a wool is scratch I simply cannot have it against my skin. I'm not a fan of the fun furs either.

11. What's on your needles? OMG, I have to list this?? OK, here goes - 3 pairs of socks, 3 scarves, 2 lave shawls, a cashmere cowl, Juliet, and I think I have another cardigan aw well. That's all I can remember off the top of my head.

12. Favorite colors? I find almost all colors appealing. I personally lean more toward the jewel tone colors, black and red. I rarely knit with yellow or orange unless it was specifically chosen for a knitted gift. I never wear those colors.

13. Allergies? It's not an allergie, but I can't stand the smell of smoke and I'm an ex-smoker!

14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? I love my Italian heritage. I collect fairies. I love knitting socks 2-@-a-time. I'm an avid reader and I have a kitty called Frisco who always thinks I don't give him enough attention!

Twitches with Temptation

2009-01-21T23:15:00.004-05:00

Help!
I'm an addict!!!
I need a 12 step program!

"Hello, my name is Pheelya and I'm an addict....

Hello Pheelya...."

I just cast off 2 pairs of socks and swore I would not cast on another till I finished 2 more pairs of the remaining 3! Yes, I had 5 pairs of socks on needles! FIVE! For someone who swore when she started knitting she would never knit sock I had, yes count them - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - 5 pairs of socks on needles!! 2 down - 3 more to go. And, what did I do today? Can you guess?? Uh you guessed it! I cast on ANOTHER pair of socks! I need therapy!

BUT - O! M! G! I LU-HU-HUV this yarn!! I couldn't resist the color any more. Even thought it was wrapped up in tissue paper - I knew it was there. Lurking.... calling to me... I swear I heard it speak to me every time I opened my closet of yarn... whispering.... "knit me.... you know you want to.... come on, cast me on...." *oh the temptation* It's been calling to be ever since I bought it at Stitches East.

Today, I just couldn't take it anymore. I tried to resist. I did. Really. I swear! HONEST! *Don't mock me because you KNOW you've all been there!* But the force was strong today. If you were in my house today you would have heard it too, the yarn, call me, mocking me....

"Resistance is Futile!"

*yes, yes, I know I just cross referenced Stars Wars with Star Trek*

And then, I thought I had resist. Really I did! Then I heard it again on my way to Knit Night...

"Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile."

Uh oh, now I was hearing it in the car. Can't be. Am I going crazy? I must be. *hey, no comments from the Peanut Gallery over there* That yarn is at home... in the yarn closet.... wrapped in tissue paper.... So I thought.

I heard whisperings as I walked into Panera's to join my knitting group...

"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

I sit down and open my knitting bag and right there, right on top of all my other projects, mocking me... was THE yarn! And I heard it again....

"I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service... us."

So, I gave up trying and cast on another pair of socks :)

Oh, the yarn? You want to know about the yarn? And here I thought you had read through all of that because it was entertaining! *grin*

The yarn is Yarn Love's Marianne Dashwood in the colorway of Summer Sangria (Wine, burgundy, maroon, claret. Kettle dyed) The picture below just does not capture the intense richness of this color. Oh so nice to work with!

"Resistance is, and always has been, futile." -- Locutus to Captain Picard

Returning from a Hiatus...

2009-01-17T18:54:00.005-05:00

Sorry folks, I know I have fallen behind in my bloggin' and haven't caught you all up date with what's been going on *see Ellen, I'm writting* and sharing pictures of my two little cherubs *enough picture for you KK??* I was off work for just about two weeks and my whole schedule has been thrown off.

First off - I'd like to let you all know that I have resolved my transmission problem with my Honda. I sold the sucker!! Gone, it's probably up on some auction block right now or some high school kid is rebuilding it for auto-mechanics class! But, it is no longer my problem :) I now have a Toyota Corolla. My parent's were buying themselves a new car, so they sold me the Corolla. It's smaller then my Honda with the most annoying alarm system. I'll have to take a picture and share with you all another time. Feels so strange being able to sleep in an extra half-hour in the morning now that my car doesn't have to heat for 50 minutes!! The only think I hate is the color. Seems like everyone has a silver/light grey car and finding it in the parking lot is not so easy anymore! The first day I drove it to work, I completely forgot and I was looking for my red Honda that afternoon! It was a good 10 minutes before I remembered *DUH, you have a new car* But it felt good to be able to leave the work parking lot at exactly 2:30 PM that day and not have to wait 45 minutes for the transmission to warm up. Wow!! and whole hour and a half back in my day!!

For Christmas, I went home to NY. I spend several days there knitting, relaxing and playing niece Maya. She's such a little peanut of a thing. While I was up there I finially finished my Christmas Money socks!

Pattern: Monkey socks (Rav link)
Yarn: Wullenstudio Sock Yarn
Needles: KnitPicks size 2 fixed circulars
Modifications: None

They were finished the day after Christmas, but I wore them anyway!!

And here are some pictures of the little peanut at Christmas.

1. Christmas Eve 2008, 2. Nonni & Maya, 3. Nonni and Maya, 4. Grandpa & Maya, 5. Grandpa's the baby hog!, 6. Mrs. Maya Clause, 7. Felicia and Maya, 8. Felica and Maya sleeping, 9. She's a little peanut!, 10. She doesn't like the camera flash, 11. how peaceful, 12. I could have held her all night, 13. One pooped Ms. Clause, 14. Santa's little helper, 15. Christina, 16. Soon-to-be Godmother, 17. Are you talking to me?, 18. Hangin' with Zia, 19. Chillin' in the Boppi, 20. checkin' everything out, 21. Hi, 22. What's over there?, 23. She's trying to say something, 24. Wha' you say?, 25. Are you still talking to me?, 26. oooo fishies!, 27. Maya in her Santa's Helper PJ's, 28. Did that move?, 29. I can reach..., 30. Felicia babysitting, 31. Peaceful moments, 32. A steady heartbeat, 33. I'm not sure about you, 34. Oh, just gas :)35. Not available36. Not available

So, I was in NY for about a week, drove home Saturday, about an hour after arriving home I was picked up by my friends Stacey and KnitRedSox and we all went of to KozyKitty's for a graduation celebration for her son. We hung ou there for a few hours and then I returned home to unpack and pack for my trip to the Windy City.

I spend the next week chillin out *and it was chilly* hangout with Mr. X and Baby M. I have to say I was rather shocked that Baby M seemed to remember me from my last trip because as soon as her father put her down she came over to me for a hug. She so cute when she hugs too - she runs up to and then falls on top of you to hug you. Aside from saying Dada and Mama she now says Pup-py! Baby, Bye-bye and Thank you *it's sounds more like 'tank YOU' - so cute*. She will give you something just to take it back and say "Tank YOU!" I had her saying penguin a few times as she has this penguin today that she likes alot. Here are a few pictures from my trip.

1. Baby M unwrapping her presents, 2. Baby M with Dr. Suess, 3. A book, 4. Not sure about that, 5. Baby M, 6. Checking out the knitting accessories, 7. Tastey row counter over the cheesy poof, 8. She luvs this puppy., 9. Showing off her teeth, 10. Not sure what to play with next, 11. My cuddle toys!, 12. All mine!, 13. Baby M's House, 14. Daddy acting goofy, 15. Now how do I open this again?, 16. Mmmm Cherrios, 17. She loves her penguin, 18. Baby M's laptop, 19. The little doodlebug, 20. You can't have my laptop!, 21. No, this button Daddy, 22. That, that over there!, 23. Juice!, 24. more juice, 25. Hugs with Daddy, 26. Smiles, 27. Diabolicale!, 28. Cuddles, 29. Kisses just for Daddy, 30. Baby M's dress, 31. Baby M loves her laptop, 32. more smiles, 33. Her Puppy!, 34. Daddy and Baby M, 35. another hat!, 36. Doodlebug!

While I was that the airport I casted on for the Ruffle Hat with the leftover yarn I had from the Baby Bolero I made her on my last trip there. I wasn't sure if I would have enough, and sure enough, I didn't. So it was turned into a rolled brimmed hat. Still looks cute on her though and she seemed to like it. Mr. X warned me that she tends to pull her hats off, but she didn't. Soft, squishy, warm yarn tends to make a difference ;) I still want to make her the Ruffle Hat because it's just so cute! Here's a pic of her in the Roll Brim.

Pattern: Ruffled Hat (Rav link)
Yarn: Wullenstudio DK Yarn
Needles: KnitPicks size 6 16" & size 6 DPN
Modifications: Didn't make the ruffle. Kept knitting till I ran out of yarn

I had also started the Cat-Eared Baby hat for her with the yarn that Mr. X picked out on my last trip. I followed the directions, but the hat looked awefully small to me. So before I cast-off, I packed it and brought it up for her to try on. Sure enough - too small. She's got her Daddy's big head. So the first hat was frogged and I started over casting on something like 20 more stitches. When I finished the hat I decided I didn't want to make cat ears and started searching around on Ravelry for some idea when I came across these flowers and thought "oh, I like those!" So I made three flowers and Baby M now looks like a baby flapper in this hat:

I have also finished 2 more pairs of socks, but don't have pics yet. I will post them soon. I hope you had a wonderful holiday!

A Year of Review - 2008 Knitting

2009-01-13T11:03:00.003-05:00

1. Madelyn's blanket 2, 2. Wave Scarf, 3. 2nd pair Fetchings, 4. 100_1040, 5. 100_1518, 6. Impressionist Cowl, 7. MD Moss Grid Hand Towel, 8. 100_1211, 9. Swiffer covers, 10. Chinese Waves Dishcloth, 11. Birthday Cowl, 12. Thumbelina Hat, 13. Baby M's Berry Hat, 14. 100_1033, 15. Baby M's Beanie, 16. Shetland Triangle, 17. 100_1000, 18. 100_1547, 19. 100_1316, 20. One Row Scarf, 21. 100_1203, 22. Moss Bark Short Sleeve Cardigan, 23. Cherry Garcia cowl, 24. Luna Moth Shawl, 25. WhoDuKnit Mystery KAL #1, 26. Neck-down Childrens Bolero, 27. M lacy, 28. Just Ducky, 29. 100_1377, 30. Gabbi's ocean blanket, 31. monkey, 32. Crosshatch Lace Socks, 33. 13, 34. Cowl'd and Frosty Outside, 35. Christening Gown, 36. Fetchings

New Year's Resolution

2009-01-12T22:11:00.000-05:00

More Wine Please!!

updates with pictures coming soon

Holiday stuff

2008-12-15T21:20:00.000-05:00

The first snow of the season!! Doesn't it look pretty.Last Friday evening it snowed and this is what my yard looked like Saturday morning :)

On Tuesday, Frisco's Christmas gift was delivered. What is it with cats and cardboard boxes? He just has to check it out.

Frisco is getting a bathroom upgrade for his Christmas present. :)

Wednesday night was my knitting groups 2nd annual Cookie Swap! We each had to bring 7 dozen cookies because there was suppose to be something like 35 people there. I have no idea if 35 people were there or not, but it was a good time and I came home with some great cookies. I have been so good too! I haven't eatten any of the cookies yet! I'm being a tad lazy this year, since I'm not going to be here for Christmas. I'm taking most of these cookies home to NY with me so that Mom doesn't have to bake. She's having the family over for Christmas dinner so that will be enought cooking for her. I will also pack a small tin of cookies to take with me to Chicago for Mr. X. Oh, I baked Triple Chewy Chocolate Cookies, and can I just say OMG they are rich! I got the recipe of a friend of mine who loves to bake. I can only eat one cookie and I have to have a HUGE glass of ice cold milk to wash it down.

OH! I finished my cardigan just in time to wear to the party!!

I also received my Winter Wonderland Swap package this week from my pal in Las Vegas! Check out the cool things she sent me!! I love the snowman ornament. It won't be in the tree this year because I'm not putting up a tree since I won't be here over the holidays. I know, depressing. Never really feels like Christmas to me without a tree, but if I'm not going to be here to enjoy it then why bother?? Anyhoo, check out that yarn! That color it sooooooo me!! Thank you Alexis!!

Christmas Classics!

2008-12-13T19:39:00.002-05:00

A new twist on an old classic!

Just Precious

2008-12-03T10:05:00.003-05:00

Pictures from Thanksgiving! Unfortuntely, I don't have too many because the batteries died in my camera, but my sister was nice enough to send me the ones her DH took. Because Maya was only a week old, she wasn't able to leave the house, so we dropped in on the new Mommy and Daddy about once a day. Maya mostly slept and when she woke up, she was fed to get her weight back up. While I was there Friday afternoon I got to feed and burp her. I don't think Nonni or Grandpa's even had the chance to feed her yet :) Luckily she had just been changed before I got there! *hee-hee* Maya's a little peanut. I think she is the smallest baby I've ever heald.

Since no one knew if it was going to be a boy or a girl I held off on my knitting. Once Maya was born I had a field day looking for patterns and yarn for all the little goodies to knit for her. First up is the Just Ducky hat and booties. My cousin Cesidio, who was also asked to be Maya's Godfather, was appauled by this outfit... "My goddaughter is NOT going to wear a duck on her head!" but the rest of my family out voted him - including the Mommy & Daddy *hee-hee* Right now the hat and booties are a tad to big for her.

Pattern: Just Ducky from P2Designs
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK & KnitPicks Merino Style
Needles: Lantern Moon DPN
Modifications: None

I also had to knit her first sweater! Complete with tag and all :) I had bought those tags years ago and I can't remember from where. The tag reads "Made with Tender, Loving Care by Dorothy" I found them again as I was rummaging through my stash to find yarn for this project. I need to remember to pack one to put on Baby M's sweater next time I go up there. This shrug was knit up in just a few hours!

Pattern: Baby Shrug from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby
Yarn: Berroco Lullaby
Needles: KnitPicks, size 8, 16"
Modifications: None

Yenta or Shadchan?

2008-12-02T12:55:00.001-05:00

No, I'm not Jewish, but apparently my assistant, R, must have been in her former life. She is contently asking me this or that about my love life and if I'm not giving her answers, which I hardly do because I don't really know her all that well, she's trying to get the information out of my assistant, who I've worked with for the last seven years. Much to this woman's chagrin, Carleen doesn't tell her anything. Carleen and I find it humorous that she will ask us each about the other, but will hardly ever directly asks us those question. It drives Carleen absolutely batty!

Anyhoo, getting back to the Shadchan part. *For those of you that do not know, yenta is the Yiddish word for busybody and shadchan is the Yiddish word for matchmaker - if I am incorrect in my translation please correct me!*

So, a few weeks ago, my team (minus Carleen because she was out that day) and I were sitting down eating lunch and just chit-chatting away. Another co-worker, Ms. P, comes in to shoot the shit with us and she wanted to show us pictures of her son. Her SINGLE son *you see where this is going yet?* This co-worker is a little Italian woman that is tickled pink to have another Italian to talk to at work.

The light bulb went off in R's head and she ask "Is you son single?" Of course he is. Then, before I really know how it happened P was telling me all about her son. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. Oh, did I mention the fact that he's teaching English over in Korea! He's not even in the states! Yeah, just what I need. Luckily, just as I think P was trying to actually get a firm answer out of me of if I was truly interested, my cellphone rang. *saved by the bell, literally* The humorous part of that was that it was Mr. X calling.

The next day, I was telling Carleen the story and I don't think she could believe it all, but when Ms. P came by for her morning coffee and referred to me as her "future-daughter-in-law" I thought Carleen's eyes were going to pop out of her head when she looked at me. I had to leave the back office.

I think Carleen must have said something to R because it was never mentioned again, until today when Ms. P asked me what I was doing over winter break because he son might be coming home for Christmas. ACK!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2008-11-25T08:51:00.000-05:00

Winners and more

2008-11-25T07:46:00.004-05:00

OK, first let me post the winners to the contest. I let Frisco dig into the bag and which ever piece of paper came out was the winner. Unfortunately, when I went to go take pictures of this the batteries died *ugh* So now I have to write myself a note and stop at the store on the way home to pick up batteries so I can take pictures of my new niece this weekend!! I'm heading to NY tonight, so this will probably be my last post till I get back.

Getting back to Frisco... It probably wasn't the best idea to let him pick, but since I don't have any kids at home to use as prize drawers I had to improvise. As he was playing around in the bag TWO pieces of paper fell out, so there are two winners. Congrats to Kati Mae and Heather! I have contacted you both and awaiting your response :)

In knitting news - I had finished the Baby Bolero for Baby M a while ago, but I haven't posted about it till now. I would have waited till I got a picture of Baby M wearing, but I still haven't received a picture of her wearing the dress or the hat. So, I'm not going to hold my breath on this one either. I'm very pleased with how this came out and I'm stash searching for more DK yarn to make an even smaller on for Maya.

Pattern: Children's Neck Down Bolero from Knitting Pure and Simple
Yarn: Wullernstudio DK Merino (1.5 skeins) specially dyed for this project
Needles: Knit Picks Options, size 6
Modifications: I went down in yarn weight and needle size to make a smaller sweater since Baby M is wearing size 18 months. Beatrix Potter button

I have also start to really buckle in on my holiday knittings. I cranked out 2 gifts this weekend. First up is the Impressionist Cowl for my younger sister. She will also be getting some baby things - obviously. The pattern was easily memorized and knit up in a day! I want to make a second on with just the top pattern and leaving off the waves at the bottom. I like the colorway of the yarn too!

Pattern: Impressionist Cowl (Ravlink)
Yarn: Reynolds Harvest Tweed (1.5 skeins)
Needles: Knit Picks, size 10
Modifications: none

Nexy up is the Birthday Cowl for Zia Franca. This was an easily memorized pattern as well and knit up in a day and a half. This yarn is super soft! I have a few more skeins in my stash in other colors, so I may be making a few more of these :)

Pattern: Birthday Cowl (Ravlink)
Yarn: Frog Tree Merino (1 skeins)
Needles: Knit Picks, size 8
Modifications: none

2008-11-23T08:24:00.004-05:00

The new happy family :) I still can't believe my baby sister just had a baby!

Isn't she precious! I know, I'm slightly prejudice toward her. She's my niece :)

My sister just looks so serene in this picture.

I can't believe she found her thumb already! Isn't that too cute!

I can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving and hold her!

I want one *sigh*

Contest!!

2008-11-21T10:38:00.002-05:00

In honor of my achieveing National Board Certification I think a contest is in order!!

Leave a comment about a teacher who affected you positively and if you are a teacher you can choose that or to leave a funny teaching story :)

Mention the contest and your blog - let me know that in your post as well, and you will be entered into the number pot 2X!!

Contest will close at 8pm on Sunday :)

I PASSED!!!!!

2008-11-21T10:24:00.002-05:00

For those of you who remember my struggles with the National Board Certification process for teachers that I was trucking through the last two years - my journey has ended!!!

About 5pm last night, I got the official email that said scores were being released mid-morning on Friday, November 21, 2008. "CRAP! That's tomorrow" is what ran through my mind when I read that.

Got to work this morning and realized I had forgotten to bring my candidate ID number! *FUCK* I can't check my scored without that!! I rummaged my office to find old copies of the entries because I knew the ID number was all over those entries. Thankfully, I found it.

Went to the site and of course, tried to log in at 7:15 this morning. *Well, that could be mid-morning somewhere!*

I then contact my two girlfriends who also went through the process to see how they were holding up.

Every time I walked by my computer, I tried to log in. Till at 9 AM when I got it! I dropped down in my chair and said a little pray and hit button. First thing I saw:

"Congratulations!
You are a National Board Certified Teacher®!"

I screamed! I have no idea what the rest of the letter said, hell I still haven't even bothered to look at what score I got - I PASSED!!! And that was all that mattered to me :)

*continues to do the happy dance around my office*

It's a Girl!!

2008-11-19T22:27:00.002-05:00

Maya Grace
Born Wednesday, November 19, 2008 and weighing in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. She entered this world in 20 minutes flat!

World - meet Baby Maya

The New Daddy

The proud Grandmas

The proud Grandpa (I was told my father cried the minute he laid eyes on her)

I cannot wait to hold her in my arms.

Christmas with Achmed

2008-11-17T21:31:00.000-05:00

Back from Chicago!

2008-11-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

I am back from Chicago, and missing them both so very much already. I was able to visit with Baby M several times while I was out there. She was a hoot to watch and play with! She took a few minutes to warm up to the crazy lady that was in Daddy's house, but a few short smiles later and she warmed up to me. She is such a happy, playful baby! And he is so good with her. I mean, do you know of any man that would stick a baby bottle nipple on his forehead just to get a laugh out of his child? (third picture in the top row)

This was her first Halloween so Mr. X carved a pumpkin that she had picked out the weekend before when he took her to a pumpkin patch. She was so curious about the jack-o-lantern. It was so cute watching her be curious about it. When she was getting excited she would lean on the pumpkin and wiggle back and forth on her toes.

She seems to have this thing for climbing up and down the stairs. She just finds them so entertaining, though she nearly gave me a heart attack because there were several times she tried to climb down the stairs instead of crawling down backwards! I thought she was going to go tumbling head first. She's also learned to clap so all you have to do is smile and start clapping and she returns the favor. Anyhoo, I could go on and on about how cute she is.

There was a point in the weekend where I thought things might go a little more along the lines that I am hoping. In all the time that we've been together Mr. X had never cuddled up to me in his sleep. It's usually the other way around, but Friday night he reached for me and pulled me closer to him while he was sleeping. It was so out of the ordinary that it startled me awake. I thought this was a good sign, so I just snuggled closer and went back to sleep. Saturday morning we did some talking and well that thought was blown clear out of the water. I would have thought that things would have gotten a little better after all this time. *God sure is having a good laugh at my expense*

Saturday we did a little shopping. I dragged him kicking and screaming to a yarn shop. OK, so he wasn't really kicking and screaming. Actually he was pretty good and he picked out a skein of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a pretty fuschia color for Baby M. Now I just need to find a pretty hat pattern for it. Afterwards we went to Michaels to find a box of Precious Hands. We went looking for this on my last visit, but they were all sold out. I had made two of these for my older sister - one for each niece. I think it's a neat way to rememeber just how small the cherubs were, especially when they start driving you nuts asking for the car or sneaking out of the house *grin* That reminds me, I need to pick up another one for when my baby sister has her little one :)

After Micheals we swung by Joann's to see if I could find a button for the Neckdown Bolero jacket I was knitting for Baby M. I didn't find one. I found these four and I cannot decide which one I like best. I think I'm leaning toward the Beatrix Potter ones. What do you think?

Speaking of the bolero, I did not get to finish it on my trip. Turns out I had more fun playing with Baby M :) I did get to try it on her when I was at this point:

Just a tad bigger then she is now, but she should still be able to wear it. I managed to finish one whole sleeve before I left. I did, however, manage to finish this hat for Baby M before I left. Of course, Mr. X just had to try it on - oh I so wish I had my camera out when he did! He looked like such a Dork! *laugh*

The highlight of my whole weekend was right here:

Back

2008-11-06T10:05:00.001-05:00

I'm back, just waiting on some pictures, hopefully, then I'll post an update :)

Blame it on My Niece!

2008-10-28T19:02:00.001-04:00

*LAUGH*

Too many things on needles!

2008-10-27T00:08:00.003-04:00

I know I said I would get updates posted on Thursday, but you all should know me by now! I'm a little late when it comes to bloggin'.

First up is the Moss Bark Shirt Sleeved Cardigan. It's all sewn together, but I can't seem to get the collar band right. I may have to rip it out and knit it again. Finally a piece of knitting that I can wear!! I have been making things as gifts for year that aside from 2 pairs of socks, I do not have anything that i have knit for myself! I want to get this collar right so that I can take this on my trip to the Windy City on Wednesday.

You all know I made the Fairy Blanket for niece Jules. Well she has an older sister Gabbi and I promised her that I would make her a blanket this year. So, here is Gabbi's Ocean as I have dubbed it :) The pretty blue-green teal colors of a clear Caribbean ocean *not that I have ever seen one YET in my life, but one day* At first she told me blues and I thought - perfect! I have several blues in my stash! Thank goodness I didn't start right away, because my older sister went our shopping and found a beautiful comforter for Gabbi in the Teal and Seafoam green colors you see below. I was shocked when we found the exact matching colors in yarn!! I am on round seven on this crochet project. I should be working on it more that I have been, but Christmas is still 57 days away *HOLY SHIT!!* OK, so I better get to hooking or I'll still be crocheting this blanket come Christmas Eve!!

Apparently, Frisco is trying to claim this blanket as his own. What he doesn't seem to realize is that Gabbi is bigger than him and solid muscle. She's built like a brick house just like my father. Man, I wish he had passed on those genes to me instead of the boobs!

This skein of yarn was a gift from my friend Stacey for helping her out with a group on ravelry and for my limited tech savvy skills when it comes to graphics. It's a skein of Sheila's yarn, KnitsWithSticks, in, at the time, her newest color! The colorway is called Woolly Bully in purples and greys. Sheila knew these were my colors too and tempted me with a skein of this at one of our Wednesday night S'nB nights. Stacey saw my reaction to color and bought one for me, and then Sheila dyed a deeper color skein for me since she knows I like the darker colored skein. Aren't friends great!!

I love her yarn and this colorway so much that I just had to cast on with it. Since I already had 4 pairs of socks on needles, I decided to make a lace scarf with it. The pattern is the Tiger Eyes Scarf. These colors are perfect!! I'm farther along then this photo,but I don't have an updated photo yet :)

OK, so remember that Christmas list I made up of what I was going to make for everyone? yeah, well they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions! That list will be changing - A LOT! I guess I was a little over ambitious when I created it. Now I'm thinking I'm going to make my family all new Christmas stockings. I have no idea how long my Mother's had the ones she's been using, but it's about time for new ones. So, I cast on and I'm about 1/3 of the way down the leg of this stocking.

Here are the socks that I've been mentioning. First up are the Red Dwarf socks. Ever watch that show on BBC?? Smeggin' hysterical! I can't seem to find it on my cable guide though :( I was going to purchase the DVD box set of the show till I saw the $140 price tag. Not right now!! I just realize I goofed when I was knitting up the toes, but oh well. These are just for me so they don't have to be perfect, just as long as my toeseys are warm!

I have also been fondling this Jitterbug yarn since the night I bought it at the Elenganza Midnight Madness sale. So, I went ahead and cast on the Falling Leaves socks. Because the yardage of Jitterbug is so skimpy, I went Toe-up, 2-@-a-time. I am lovin' how this yarn knits up. There's a bit of pooling going on. What I think is funny is that because I am doing 2-@-a-time and knitting from both ends of the skein it's pooling on the top of one sock, but on the bottom of the other! Well, there will certainly be no mistaking these are hand made! I just sooooooo Lu-huv this colorway!!

Rember these Horcrux Socks??

Well, they now look like this! I went to go try them on again before I started the heel flap and they were too small!! *CRY* So, to the frog pond they went, rip, rip, rip and cast on a second time. That's OK though. They knit up pretty fast, but I doubt I'll be wearing them on Halloween this year. Oh well.

My last pair of socks are the Classic Sock for my dad. These have been on my needles forever! The yarn is so thin and the direction call to cast on 96!! But, I have knit the heel flap, turned the heel and just about done with the gusset! Now I'm worried that I might not have enough yarn!! The pattern called for 1 skein, so that's all I have! The leg was suppose to be 9", but I stopped at 7". I still don't know if I have enough to finish the feet though!! YIKERS! These will be Dad's Christmas present along with some Benny Hill CDs I found for him.

As much as I love Sheila and the yarn that she dyes, it can be very dangerous for me to be her friend! *laugh* I want to make this Children's Neck Down Bolero Jacket for Baby M when I go visit Mr. X. I couldn't find a colorway that I really liked for this pattern, so what does one do when they have a friend who is in the dying business? Well DUH! I asked Sheila if she could dye some of her DK weight yarn to the colors I wanted. I know that pink and lavender are really good colors on Baby M, so I pointed out the shades that I liked from the colorways that she already creates and asked her to mix those specific shades of purple and pink together and this is the gorgeous yarn that she created for me! This is yarn is sooooooooooooooooooo soft!!

My knitting group was having a class/KAL for this Bolero jacket, so I signed up and Sheila had my yarn all dyed up for me by Wednesday. I swatched and was ready to go! The pattern called for a worsted weight and the smallest size on the parttern was 2T. Baby M is only 10 months old, so asfter talking to Sheila, and very experienced knitter, we though a think weight yarn on smaller needles would do the trick. Hence the DK weight. I cast on and followed the pattern for the 2T with the DK weight yarn. By the time the class was over I have knit up to the point of the sleeve divide. When I took a look at it, I knew it was going to be too small. When I talked to Mr. X last night I asked what size Baby M was in and he told me she's in 18 months already. So, to the Frog Pond went all the knitting I had done today and I will need to recast-on one of the larger sizes. I think I will knit as far as the sleeves again and then wait to try it on her Thursday night before I try and finish the whole thing. If I try it on her on Thursday I should be able to finish it by Sunday.

While I was on the phone with him, he maded the suggestion that I knit her a new hat since all the ones I had knit for her last year are too small. He suggested a dark pink. Can you believe that I don't think I have any dark pink wool in my stash! *GASP* So, I just might have to drag Mr. X to a local yarn shop up there and he can pick out the perfect shade of pink and I'll whip up a hat while I'm out there :) Hopefully, I won't hear too much groaning out of him when I drag him there *giggle*

You know it's funny. I can get the feeling that people appreciate the things I make for them, but sometimes I can never really tell if they truely appreciate it or just being nice. Of course when people ask me for things, I know. So, if felt good when he asked.

Friday night I went out to dinner with my friend Stacey and then we hung out at my place. She brought me these sock blockers that she made!! Aren't they adorable? I keep telling her she needs to open up her own business and sell these!

We went to Five Guys for burgers. YUMMY!! Talk about a hamburger that's good enough to give you a heart attach - no joke! Which is why I go there VERY infrequesntly :)

We had a really good talk and she gave me a lot to chew on.

Stacey,
Thank you so much for the talk/advise on Friday night. You are so right about what I should do and about the fact that I'm scared to do it. Of course, knowing and squealching the fear to do it are two completely different things. Maybe we'll have to have another chat when I get back.
*HUGS*

14 Months!!

2008-10-23T11:22:00.000-04:00

Yeah for me!! It's been 14 months since my last cigarette. *does a little happy dance - careful not to twist her knee*

Now, if I could just get Mr. X to quit too! Speaking of, all is getting better slowly. The few days of a liquid diet seems to have settled his pancreas without having to be admitted to the hospital. *phew*

Oh, my knee. Well, the MRI came back clean. The orthopedic couldn't see any tear in the meniscus on the MRI. Apparently that doesn't take it out of the running completely. He said there could be a little tear that just isn't showing up, but he doesn't was to go head on into arthroscopic surgery just yet. He'd rather we try a less evasive approach, which I am ALL FOR! So, I am on anti-inflamitory drugs and in physical therapy for the month. If that works, GREAT. If not, he want to try a cortisone shot and then if that doesn't work he'll go in with a camera and take a look-see. Personally, I want to be done at the PT level :)

Knitting updates will be posted tonight :)

Uh-oh, Slap Happiness Setting In...

2008-10-21T08:48:00.004-04:00

I've had little to no sleep for two nights now and what little sleep I did get was not very restful. Now my usual slap-happiness is setting in and silliness is on the horizon. Ever get that was, just total silliness setting in because your brain just cannot function with such little rest? *Oh yeah, I'm there and it's only 9AM!*

Sunday night Mr. X took a trip to an Urgent Care facility because he's been having some pains in the abdominal for a couple of days and it seems to have gotten worse instead of better. The pain was now beginning to bother his back (he had back surgery several years ago). He also had a really bad gall bladder infection about two years ago and it had to be removed. I can only guess that the pains seemed similar in nature and location which triggered something in him to look further into it. That and the fact that he is now a daddy and can't afford the luxury of putting off.
So, I guess while baby Maddy was napping, he went online and looked up his symptoms and came to the conclusion that it was his pancreas that was bothering him. He called to let me know that he was going to Urgent Care after he brought Maddy home.

Urgent Care didn't have the equipment to run further tests on him, so they gave him a shot for the pain and sent him to the ER. That's when anxiety starting to set in for me. I know that his father died from pancreatic cancer and that this heightens his risk (among other risk factors he either doesn't know or chooses to ignore - knowing him, it's the ladder) I'm not very good with staying calm when it comes to these types of things. I tried to be calm on the phone with him with all this knowledge flooding my brain at once, but I guess I don't do a very good job of keeping it out of my voice because he seemed to be trying to calm my anxiety by saying something along the lines of - I'm sure it's nothing serious, just an infection that antibiotics will clear up. - Or maybe his repeating that out loud was a way to keep his anxiety down. Didn't think of that till just now, but could be.

Anyhoo, I tossed and turn and woke up every half hour or so till he called me around 1:30 Monday morning to let me know that he was done at the ER and they couldn't say conclusively what was going on with him, but his sugar levels were crazy. He was to see his regular doctor in the morning. Since they couldn't pin-point exactly what was going on with him, his sister brought up the pancreatic cancer and the ER doctor told them that his regular doctor will need to run tests for that. So, yeah, my anxiety went up a few notches after that phone call. I so wish I could have been up there with him.

Then yesterday, since I didn't know what time he was going to the doctor and didn't know if he was sleeping in after all that, I sent him a text to let me know about his appointment and all else. I turned up the volume on my phone and left it on my work desk, but I still didn't hear it when it rang. Of course I heard the beep that let me know I had a voicemail. He called to let me know he was at work and that his appointment was around noon and that he would definitely call me afterwards to let me know what was going on.

When I got home from work it was around 4PM and I still hadn't heard anything. When I worry, I eat. I tossed around the idea of calling or texting him, but he said he would call me when he was done with the doc and I didn't want to call while he was in with the doc. When he didn't call me by 6:30 pm, my anxiety had peaked and I called. When I got his voicemail I was stunned, thinking he must still be with the doctor. I ate anything I could find in my house from the about 4 till he finally called me 8:30 PM. Thank goodness there was no junk food in my house last night!

When he finally called I was relived to hear that he was home, but then threatened to beat the living shit out of him when he told me he left the doctor's around 3:30 PM. He pretty much crashed as soon as he got home. I was just so relieved that he was home that I just couldn't stay mad. I'm soooooooo not good with holding grudges. Turns out he had pancreatitis and has to be on a liquid diet for a day or two days and hopefully that will settle down his pancreas and then he can slowly start to introduce solids back into his diet again.

He was a little punchy last night as well. Probably stress relief. I had worried myself right into a migraine. Wow, did it hit me about half an hour after I got off the phone with him. I guess once the tension left my body the migraine felt that it could take over.

You know your in bad shape when the first thing out a a co-workers mouth when they see you is, "You look like shit." So, two night will little sleep, lots or worrying and now I have a day of the giggles. My poor coworkers.

My New Spread!!

2008-10-12T18:34:00.002-04:00

OK, so it's really a quilt. I have been wanting to change my bedding for a while, but it's been hard to find something that matches the red accent wall in my room. I also knew I wanted a quilt and not a comforter. It's very hard to find a quilt that is black, white and red colors without being too country looking. If I knew how to quilt, I probably would have made my own, but I don't. So the hunt began. I came across this quilt set in TJ Maxx last time I was in NY. I bought it. For $30 it was a steal. Not sure I'm totally crazy about it, but for $30 it will work until I find exactly what I am looking for OR until I feel like repainting the accent wall in my room to another color :)

What a Week!

2008-10-11T22:21:00.000-04:00

What a week this has been! Between the the weight of the decision to take a trip to the Windy City, the pressure to knit a baby blanket in a week, high school assessment (HSA) testing all week at work, and two doctors visits in a week... I am so glad it's the weekend! I need a drink!

The media center was closed each morning this past week for HSA testing. The ESOL students and students who had extended time as accomodations were taking the test in the media center. We hung a sign, big as day, in the door window that announced the media center being closed for testing. Can I tell you what I discovered this week about my high school students? THEY CAN'T READ SIGNS! The sign was 24" X 36" and it covered the WHOLE window in the door. The doors were also locked so that people couldn't wander into the center. (Test confidentiality is such a huge deal). Kids were still raddling and banging on the door to get in - completely ignoring the sign on the door! Unbelieveable!

The blanket is finished! The pattern was quick and easily memorized, but when you are under a deadline it kind of takes the enjoyment out of it. Here it is

Pattern: Zig Zag Eyelet Throw (Ravelry)
Yarn: Berella So Soft (2.5 skeins)
Needles: Knit Picks Options, size 9
Modifications: The pattern calls for double stranding the yarn. Since I wanted a baby blanket and not a full size one, I simply did a single strand of yarn and it worked out perfectly.

I went for the MRI on Friday. Now that was a crazy day for me! I went into work in the morning. Put in 2 hours of work and then headed back home for the MRI appointment and then I had to head cross county to get tot a work meeting for the afternoon! I will get the results of the MRI when I see the Orthopedic on Wednesday.

My knee seems to be so-so. It has it's good and bad days depending on I don't know what! Getting up from a sitting position has gotten a bit tricky. I kind of have to prepare myself to try and avoid the "stuck" feeling when straightening my leg and that helps to avoid the sharp, shooting pain that accompanies that if I try to move to fast. It would appear, from all the researching that I've been able to do so far, that I most likely have a torn meniscus. What I did or how I did it, I haven't a clue, but the more I read up on it the more I think that's what is wrong with my knee. And since I have the stiffening and the popping, it looks like I didn't do a half-ass job in tearing it. *sigh* You know, there are some things in my life that I really, really wouldn't mind doing half-assed, and injuring myself would be right up there. But no, when I do something, I have to do it all the way. Depending on where exactly that tear has happened will probably be the determining factor between PT and surgery. Not particularly thrilled with that concept. From what I could find, if the tear is on the outer edge of the meniscus (where there is more of a blood flow) then with proper treatment, the tear can heal itself, but if the tear is more in the center of the meniscus, then I am pretty much shit-outta-luck. There is little to no blood flow in that area and the meniscus cannot heal itself. I am so praying the tear is on the outter edge.

Either way, it looks like my excercising at Curves will not be returning anytime soon. I will also need to start looking aroung my area for water aerobic excersise. That's about as low-impact as you can get, I think. Once I've dropped the weight I've gained back from the surgery imobility and strengthened my knee a little more then I can think about getting back in to a gym for weights.

I spent most of today cleaning the upstairs floor of my house. You know, one of those really "good" type of cleanings. I had all the windows open upstairs to air the place out. I was a gorgeous day and now one that should have been spent indoors, but I haven't been able to really clean my house the last few months and it really needed it. It was one of those cleanings where you actually move things around to dust and wipe down all the things that stay out on the furnture. It was one of those cleanings where you moved the stationary furtinure around a bit so that you can vacuum up all the dust bunnies, or in my case Frisco hair, that you normally don't get to in the weekly vacuuming routine. Heck I even cleaned all the dust on the ceiling fans! My tummy area is now telling what a stupid idea it was to move all that furniture around myself. I think I'm going to have to give the GYN a call on Monday. She cleared me on all accounts and said I could return to exercising and to just ease into it - or course with the knee situation I haven't had the chance to make it back to Curves yet. But there are days when that area just just feel up to par. There are some days I get these little pangs on the inside. The best way I can describe them - if I were pregnant I would swear the little guy was pinching me on the inside. Just quick little zingers that don't linger long. Pressure still bothers it too. Frisco can't lay on my stomach for very long before it starts to bother me. I have no idea if this normal, if the inside portion takes longer to heal then the outside. All my gf that have had abdominal surgery have all had hysterectomies not myomectomies. Well, no sense in frettin' till I talk to the doc :)

I've hemmed and hawed and tossed the decisions around in my mind all week about what to do about Mr. X's invitation to visit. When he didn't ask for my decision right away, I made the conscious effort not to bring it up again myself. Over this past year and half that we've been talking again, I've come to realize that he tends to say things or offer things that are what I call "spur of the moment" thoughts. When I let him back in my life last summer I became aware of this. I think he said things because he was lonely and depressed about the choices he had made and the turn his life had taken. If he brought something back up a 2nd time then I knew it was something he was really thinking about. If he never brought it up again then I chalked it up to a spur-of-the-moment thought and left it alone. In some ways this helped keep me in check to not expect anything or to hope for something just to be disappointed. So, when he asked me again on Thursday if I had given his offer any thought or made a decision, I knew I really did need to make the decision. I told him I would see what I could do about some time from work on Friday and then let him know. So, I now have a plane ticket to the Windy City for Halloween weekend.