Happy New Year!

Today, the last day of 2007, was good. Got up early (for a holiday, 7:30), had good breakfast, sewed the seams of Peter's sweater (finally, yes it's finished!) and got 2 repeats done on the straight section of my Clapotis while watching Kelly's Heroes and 1 1/2 of the Planet of the Apes movies. Did some gaming (Jake is now 51 and climbing), did some laundry, and just had a nice relaxed day with Peter.

Tomorrow we are starting the New Year right with some cleaning and organizing, and some more relaxation before we both head back to work and get our routines (re)-established. I'm looking forward to getting back but I have SO enjoyed this holiday break.

Pictures of the finished sweater and socks tomorrow (need to find batteries for the camera - again). Happy New Year everyone!

Insomnia sucks

I went to bed at 8, read 'til 9, slept 'til 12, and have been awake from 12-2. My head hurts, my back hurts, and I have heartburn on my heartburn (thank you very much "mild" BBQ chicken wings). And I have to be at the store in 7 hours. Time for T1 and (hopefully) some sleep. Otherwise I'm gonna be mainlining caffeine tomorrow... ah well, 2 shifts to go.

Time to go "gently nudge" my snoring hubby. Yes, that's what woke me up. No, it's not his fault. However, this does not lessen the urge to either (a) kick him in the shin or (b) cover his face with a pillow, when he's buzz-sawing so blissfully. Now I'm past the violently-awake stage, I shall try again.

Goodnight!

One down! (and one to go...)

Finished my Wedgewood Socks - just needed the toe decreased and Kitchener'd shut and voila! However, also found Yumi's Fleece Artist shawl-in-progress, so the list changes slightly. Great morning of movies and knitting, now time for some gaming. Balance in all things!

Happy Friday!

Getting ready for 2008

So, as I was saying before, I've got some plans for the upcoming year:

1. No more weekend work at Michael's (2 more to go, that's it!) so I have more time for home stuff.
2. Training to walk the National Capital half-marathon at the end of May.
3. Finishing UFO's from 2007 before starting anything new for 2008 (yes, I tried this in the fall, but I have made a list and it's now manageable).
4. More and better rest / leisure.
   
5. More and better time with family / friends (see #1).

That's pretty much it. Nothing grandiose, just small steps (lots and lots of them, for #2) to make me happier and healthier this year. Things that make me feel good, including (because I am that kind of person), making plans and lists and working my way through them.

Now, I have to figure out how to put my 2007 UFO / 2008 WIP list in the sidebar. Wish me luck, and Happy New Year!

24th

Twas the afternoon of the night before Christmas, and having just polished off a FABULOUS sandwich (using up the last of the pre-Christmas deli meat, ha ha), I am about to do the family and friends cookie-baking. (Funny, I just typed cookie BANKING. Maybe I need to keep a reserve of cookies?)

And merriment will ensue. I love the holidays. Probably no blogging until boxing day or later, when I am planning a big revamp of sidebars and things. stay tuned.

Happy holidays, be safe and warm and loving.

'twas the something before Christmas...

And all through the house, was a pile of dishes, unwashed by my spouse.

Ha ha, clever rhyme. TOTALLY not his fault - we have been without hot water for 48 hours. Heat - yes. Water - yes. Heated water - no. And since all the natural gas contractors are busy with people with no HEAT, we have 'low priority'. Argh.

Fortunately, I can shower at the gym at work. Which I would have done today had I not woken up with a raging migraine (that's 2 in less than a week, and I have no migraine meds. Must see doctor in new year). Spent half the day in bed and half on the couch finishing the Christmas knitting. No pictures, not because the gift-ees read this, but because I cleverly wrapped all the presents this evening whilst watching "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and "Rudolph". Nothing like stop-motion animation to make a person with throbbing brain pain feel festive.

And now there are two days of office work left, and two days of Michaels work left, before my Christmas holiday break. I can do this. Things have been a little more "interesting" than is strictly good for me, lately (long stories - family stuff mostly), and to be honest I really REALLY need the extended break. I have from suppertime Sunday the 23rd until the morning of the 29th with no (employment) work. That's the longest I've gone without working since... well, the fact I can't remember should be a clue I need the break.

Ok, enough whingeing. Stuff to look forward to (other than six days without working):

1) Christmas breakfast at work - we go to the buffet breakfast and have a good feed, then go back up to the office and goof off the rest of the day Friday before going home for the holiday break.

2) Dinner and movie at Bundy & Kid's - after 8 hours at Michaels' on Saturday, this is going to be HEAVEN.

3) Dinner and a good long visit with Peter's family - the non-evil brother and his lovely wife are kidnapping us from Sunday evening to Monday lunchtime, to spend at their new home. As a guest, I get to do NOTHING! I look forward to this an unimaginable amount.

4) Christmas Eve at Bundy & Kid's - the moms, the friends, the festivity, not to mention the food. All it lacks is my dad reading the pop-up "Night Before Christmas" but really, that tradition is kind of gone by now. Besides, B&K are 15 minutes from our house, so we can stay later than we would at Mom & Dad's anyway.

5) Christmas Day - yup, I'm a big sucker for it, and trying SO much this year to not stress about stuff. We have found a Starbucks that will be open Christmas Day that is (sort of) enroute from our house to the folks' place. We have gifts (mostly ready and wrapped, even). All I need to do is make my spiked cranberry sauce and a couple of pies, which I can do in the morning before we leave. Then we can have a nice relaxed afternoon of gifts, a good dinner, and still be home at a reasonable hour. And then...

6) THREE DAYS OF WHATEVER THE HECK I WANT TO DO!!! Boxing Day Peter and I will probably hibernate and/or visit with the neighbours. But then he goes back to work Thursday and Friday, and I don't. WoW and books and knitting and movies. And lots and lots of sleep.

And, after New Year's, well - a new year. I have some plans percolating. Well, actually they're at the "beans have been picked and roasted but not yet ground" stage, so not QUITE percolating. But they're in there.

Happy holidays all!

Snow Day!

20 cm on the ground, another 20 cm forecast to fall through the day. I am not going ANYWHERE! And, it's Peter's day off, so he's not going anywhere either. SNOW DAY! Books and knitting and hot soup and putting up the Christmas tree.

Woohoo! Snow Day!

It's cookie day!

Or rather, it's "bake the cookies for cookie day, day." Also known as "I haven't updated my blog in three weeks day." What can I say? Things haven't been all that interesting lately. Frankly, that's kind of a nice change!

Life is continuing to be life. Peter's new job is good. My jobs are good (office is winding down 2007 and I've got a decent head start on 2008, store is in the midst of holiday insanity but I only work Saturday/Sunday days so I'm not really suffering the full brunt of retail hell). I've even been knitting! Made an adorable pair of mitts for a co-worker's little boy (black with neon green random lightning stripes, and a STRING no less!) and am about halfway through a new toque for Peter to match his new coat (black and navy, double-thick).

I was sick a few days last week (to the point of one day, lying in bed completely unable to do anything - not even knit, not even crochet!). But I'm better now. Glad to get that out of the way early... of course, the irony was that I was home sick in bed on the day our company had its Flu Shot clinic. Argh.

So today, as mentioned, I am going to bake cookies. I do this every year (last year of course didn't happen due to Peter's mom's sudden illness and death), make a whack of homemade goodies and distribute them to the people with whom I work - consultants, city staff, etc. They are a gift FROM ME, not from my company, so no one gets in trouble for accepting gifts (the rules on that kind of thing are stupidly rigid in some places). However, this year (at last!) my boss said I could take a day to 'work from home' and make the cookies instead of trying to squeeze them into a couple of evenings and exhausting myself. Good boss. He may get a cookie or three. :)

The plan, as it stands now (by the way, I'm already about 2 hours behind schedule, but MAN did I sleep well!) is to make 4 batches of gingersnaps (6 dozen per batch), an equal amount of sugar drop cookies, a tray of Rice Krispies squares, and two cake mixes' worth of mini cupcakes. Then sometime next week, do the cookie exchange baking (another batch of gingersnaps and a batch of nut-free toll house cookies). Finally, the evenings of December 21, 22, 23 do the "family" baking (another two batches of gingersnaps, a suet pudding, a lemon pie, a punkin pie, and maybe another batch of the sugar drop cookies).

The upside of all this is while a quality control sample is necessary for each batch, beyond that I have not much interest in actually eating the cookies. I am trying to stick to my tradition of actually LOSING weight over Christmas, which I've done the past few years. Portion control, careful selection of treats, etc. All the usual tactics. And not eating all my own cookies. :)

So now, I must finish my coffee (mm coffee!) and make my list for the grocery store. Which I intended to do last night but I was playing WoW with Peter instead. Quality time comes in many forms. :)

I send you all virtual cookies. Have a lovely day!

It's NovemBRR! - and, call for help!

Despite the fact that today's forecasted high is 10 degrees Celsius, it's definitely winter (or at least, late fall) now. This is evidenced by the fact that in the midst of all the things I have to do for work and home and other projects, I'm knitting (and crocheting!) myself a new hat/scarf/mitten combo that will go with both my late-fall navy football coat and my deep-winter red parka. The hat is done, one mitten is done (except the thumb), the other mitten is at the cuff stage, and the scarf is about halfway. I'm crocheting the scarf, partly for practice and partly for speed - using a Q-hook with Shetland Chunky yarn certainly does go quickly! It's lacy and open which means I need to make it long enough to wrap around at least twice. Two balls oughta do it.

Also in the works are Christmas-tree ornaments of my own design, sample demos for the Yarn Event next weekend at the store (more on that, please keep reading!), and other odds and ends.

Quick Personal Note: Peter is NOT going out driving long-haul after all. He's found work with a local company that has him home every day. We're very VERY happy about this!

Back to yarn. A week from today (that would be Sunday November 11), from 1-6 p.m., Michaels is having a Yarn Event. Lots of yarn on sale, knitting and crochet demos, and a Blanket Joining Party for Blankets for Canada / Warm Up America. As I am the designated "Yarn Lady" at the South Keys (Ottawa, ON) Michaels, I am in charge of this event for our store. I've taken up the crochet hook to do the demos. I've laundered the squares that were donated for blankets last year that no one did anything with. :( I need HELP! I need people who can sew or crochet to help join all these donated squares into blankets to give to homeless people, because it's NovemBRR!

So, a call for help - if you have an hour or two or five to spare on the afternoon of Remembrance Day next week, I would really REALLY appreciate you stopping by the store to lend a hand. Of course, if you don't live in Ottawa, this will be going on at Michaels' stores all over Canada and the States, so visit your local store and pitch in there! And if you want to contribute squares, visit this link for some easy patterns.

And now, after a blissful extra hour of sleep (yay time change!), it's time for me to haul my ... squares ... to work and get some yarn downstocked. This week's yarn sale is not nearly as massive as next week's but we do have Patons SWS and Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick on for $5/ball!

Three WEEKS?

Holy crap on a stick, I did not realize I'd gone three weeks without blogging. I am SORRY, world who reads this - I did not fall and hurt myself again or anything, just been insanely busy with work, work, and work (yes, I'm up to THREE jobs now, but only for a few weeks more), and trying to squeeze in time with Peter, and keeping food in the house for us and the cats, and... well, life, you know? And I've barely had ANY knitting time, so the "Knit Spot" side of things has kind of fallen away a bit.

I have, however, learned to crochet. *GASP!* I know. But I had to, for work - we're having a "Yarn Event" at the store on Nov. 11 and there are crochet demos and we didn't have anyone to do them, so since I'm the designated Yarn Guru of our store, I said I'd try to learn enough to do the demos. It's actually not as hard as I remembered it being when I tried before, and while not as fun as knitting, it's another fiber skill and that's all to the good. It does really REALLY eat yarn though. I don't know if it's the whole "3x as much" that the Harlot claims, but it is more than knitting uses for the same area. Ah well. I'm just doing squares for blankets with some Bernat Supersaver, so it's not like burning through stash or anything. I'll post a picture on the weekend maybe.

What else? Well, work work work. Office work is at an odd point - we're winding down 2007 and simultaneously getting ready to roll out 2008. This week and next are going to be totally In-Sane. But then things should even out a bit. Store work - well, Christmas is 2 months and 3 days away. Which means a ton of freight in, most of it covered in glitter and with U.S. price labels affixed that have to be removed before it can go to the floor. FUN way to spend a Saturday/Sunday morning, I can tell you... thank heavens I'm not vain about my nails like some of the girls! And store classes are going pretty well, wrapping up Socktoberfest tomorrow night and then November will be "Knitting Circle/Project Help" which I don't have to prepare anything for, just show up and knit and chat and help. That'll be fun. And this week is the last week of my school board class for the Fall - then I'm on hiatus until February, when I will be teaching 2 classes for them on Mon/Wed nights. Probably a good thing, because in February I tend to want to just crawl into fuzzy PJs and hide until April, and this will get me out and being social in the evenings.

Home - yes, I do TOO have a home life! Moush (our older cat) had to go to the kitty hospital last week, she's 15 years old and (was) full of crap. Digestive issues of the blocking kind. She's home and better now, got some better-quality kitty food (both the girls are loving the new food) and has had a personality transformation! Before, she was totally anti-social, and particularly did not like me one little bit. If our house were a street she'd jaywalk to get away from me, you know? Now, believe it or not, she's sleeping ON ME at night, or between Peter and I. Bizarre. I think it's because he took her to the vet and therefore is on her s**t list, whereas I did not and am hence the good one, at least for now. Squeeky is fine, out prowling and howling at night having a fine time with her harem of boyfriends. She's fixed, so it's just for fun. Bad kitty! :) She comes in at breakfast, naps all day, goes out after dinner. I swear, we've got a teenager on our hands, in kitty years.

Oh, and my hubby... yes, I still have him too. :D
However... well, things are going through a transitional period right now. (WE ARE FINE, this is not a relationship issue!!!) Peter's changed careers, closed his business and is now going to be driving long-haul transport truck. Which is great, the pay is amazingly good and it's work he's really enthusiastic about (what little boy doesn't want to be a truck driver, right?). But - there's a but, yes. This week he's on training so out of town until Friday. No problem, he'll be home on the weekend. Next week, though, he starts his three-month "break-in" period, where he will be on the road for two weeks at a stretch and then home for three days, then gone again. This rotation goes for three months, then he gets a regular route and shorter trip lengths.

I feel weird about it, to be honest. One, the money is GOOD, and we need it. Realistically after Christmas the Michaels' hours will fall off again and it will be nice not to be pinching pennies for a change. Two, we're both pretty independent and it's not like I will fall apart with him away. I will eat, the cats will eat, the house will be cleaned, the bills paid, etc. Knitting will be done, I can play Warcraft and blog and Ravelry and whatever. I'm also not a fraidy-cat about weird noises in the night or anything, and I do have some good friends and neighbours close at hand. BUT - (there's my but again!) I will miss him. Terribly, in fact - I know this because I miss him now and it's his first night away. However, we have phone and email and this is a TEMPORARY situation. And there's that little voice that says "Hey, he's not in the Forces or anything, he'll be home often, don't worry, it'll be fine." In fact I'm much better off than my sister, who only sees her hubby 2-3 times a YEAR, for a week or maybe two. (Of course, my hubby is better than hers, but that's a long story we won't get into).

So, we live, and we adjust, and we carry on. And if, after three months, we really HATE the long haul, he can always drive local for less money but more home time. And we can adjust to that too. Believe me, we as a couple are nothing if not adaptable. Hell, we dated for 5 1/2 years before moving in together, and for most of that time we only saw each other on weekends. Then when his mom got sick he was at her house more than ours. Then she died, and I finally got him to myself, but we've both been working such crazy hours to pay the bills sometimes we only see each other to fall into bed and sleep. So really, we can hack this.

And wow, was that a lengthy blargh of blogging! So now you're caught up. Miss me?

Working from home...

So in my gimpiness, and with the marvels of technology at my fingertips, I spent my first day working from home. Got some stuff done. Not quite as productive as I'd hoped but it's still better than letting things pile up for a week while I veg on the couch, yes? (ok, no, but it's better for the company).

I did get some knitting done during my morning and afternoon "elevate and ice the leg" sessions. I will probably finish N8an and Dan's afghan this week - woohoo!

However, my back is shot and my eyes are developing little floaters from being at the computer all day. Blargh. Time for a movie - Chicago, maybe, I'm in a Queen Latifah mood - and some KD easymac with pizza sauce, then a hot bath and bed.

I so want chocolate. We have none in the house - like, NONE, except ice cream which I can't eat. I want a double-tall-hazelnut-soy-no-whip-mocha. And an espresso brownie. *sigh* And I will have to wait until tomorrow because I'm not allowed out today. *pout* Argh. Dinner. Yes, dinner. And I'm not even unloading the dishwasher, either! HA!

Return of the gimp

So it was around this time last year that I pulled my ACL (MCL? I can't remember) and was gimping about with a cane for a few weeks. This year I went for an upgrade - full crutches! See, Tuesday evening I was heading out to teach my knitting class, and had loaded all my gear in the car and had just locked the front door. I turned, put my right foot down - through the porch floor. Up to mid-thigh. And fell on my face (well, belly actually, no damage to the face!)

Then - I hollered. I may have hollered on the way down, but I know I definitely screamed HELP HELP HELP MEEEE! HELP ME I NEED HELP AT # XX! For about 10 minutes. No one came. So I pulled myself out of the hole in the porch (wrenching and scraping as I went), dragged myself down to the car (where my cellphone and everything was already, and the door open), and drove to the hospital, calling (1) the store, (2) my husband, (3) my Yumi, and (4) my parents as I came to stoplights.

Hospital emergency parking - park the car. By this point I can hardly move the leg, but nothing went SNAP! so I'm pretty sure it's not broken. Got out of the car. Nearly fell down, held on to the car and the adjacent car and started dragging towards the door. Nice policeman sitting in his car directly across asks me if I need help. (um, duh?) He gets me a guy with a wheelchair, guy (who's name is Gordon, and who I have to find out who he works for, he's a freaking angel) gets me into the wheelchair, into emergency, into the triage station, gets me a box of Kleenex and tells me - repeatedly - that I did the right thing, I'm in the right place, and I'm not an idiot. This helped much, because I was pretty much hysterical by this point.

Nice triage nurse checks the leg out (I was wearing a long skirt, so easy to look), takes my BP/temp and asks me to rate my pain out of 10. 10 is the worst pain imaginable. I'm feeling eight-ish. She gets me Percoset and something else, which I take, and then I get wheeled down to Urgent Care. And I sit. And I wheel over to the payphone (fifty cents for a freakin' pay phone call now!), and call my mommy, who is enroute, and call back my Yumi, who does not now need to be enroute because Mommy and Daddy are coming (see, someone was going to have to take my car back home for me - smart, yes?)

And I talk to the nice lady waiting at Urgent Care, and I try to read my book because I'm too stoned off the Percoset to knit. (DAMMIT!) And I feel sleepy, and I read, and then Mom and Dad are there, then I go get checked (nice nurse D'arcy looks after me), and then I go for x-rays (nice x-ray lady Diana), and then I come back and Doctor (what's her name? dunno) says nothing's broken but no weight for 72 hours and go see my family doctor on Thursday. And by then Peter is there but by the time we get home we've missed House. Damn.

Yesterday I did basically nothing. Go pee, ice the knee, take the pills and sit and try to knit. It takes 10 minutes to get from the recliner in the living room to the bathroom and back. Today (it's Thursday now) Peter drops me at the folks' for the day and Mom takes me to the doctor. Congratulations! It's not the knee, the knee is (surprisingly) ok. But Surprise! I have a torn hamstring. TORN. Yeah, that would explain the searing pain every time I sit down. No going in to work until after Thanksgiving. No driving. Start physio tomorrow.

So tomorrow (and next week), Peter will drop me at mom & dad's on the way to work, I will somehow get into the corporate network from their place (tomorrow morning I talk to the IT guys) to get work done, I will go for physio in the afternoons and in the evening I will sleep. And I will get better, and it could have been much much worse.

So, how's your week going?

Mmmmonday!

I just ate a really sticky cinnamon roll with a lovely cup of ginger tea, I feel fabulous. :) And so, a happy post! (but no pictures, my camera has gone into hiding, dammit!)

Things are going to start getting busy(busier) around here for me as I kick off my five-week learn to knit class with the school board on Wednesday night. Store classes are still going strong, with next month being SOCKTOBERFEST! (Yeah, it's cheesy. Tough!) I even got a compliment from our district manager recently on how well the knitting classes / yarn sales have been lately. Yay me! Seriously thinking about launching a class schedule / student help site for my class people, but I want to make sure I've got the time to update it before I get it out in the world. In the meantime they can email me, or phone when I'm home, it's all good!

I have been knitting, and even finished some stuff. The Rosewood socks are done, but I can't post a picture because one of the pair is hanging in my Socktoberfest display at the store. The 2nd of the Wedgewood socks is nearly done also, just need to do the toe decreases and Kitchener it off.

Got the back and front of my "silk" sweater done and shoulders joined, and I picked up for the first sleeve but it's supposed to have 79 picked up stitches and I only had 51. Oops. Knit bravely on until I could actually see if the thing would go around my upper arm - no dice. Rrrip! Thinking about picking up the 51 and then doing a whack of increases on the first row to get the number right... either it will work brilliantly or look like crap and I'll rip it out again. Either way I'm going to try it because I really don't fancy redoing the back and front to make the armholes deeper... they're deep enough when there are no sleeves attached so stands to reason they should be correct with sleeves - we shall see. It's in timeout until next weekend.

What else? Ah yes, started knitting up the lovely handspun that Kraftie sent me for SP10 - it's deliciously sproingy and the colours are striping up in nice muted tones. I'm making it into a simple triangle shawl on 6mm needles, which is a loose but not floppy gauge with this yarn. Going more for warmth than size - a shawl'ette, I guess. May be gifted, may be kept, I haven't decided yet. Still lots of UFOs in the bin, working slowly through the pile. I'm trying to reduce stress (who isn't right?) so I'm not pressuring myself about WIPs and finishing anymore. They won't go bad.

Well, I must go prep my student packages for Wednesday and get samples and things together... so excited for this class, I get these nice folks for five whole weeks!

Have a lovely rest of the week!

Meme-time Friday!

Picked this one up from Yumi...

1. Do you have a tattoo? Five of them.
2. How old are you? 36.
3. Are you single or taken? Taken happily (and often, heh he he...)
4. Eat with your hands or utensils? Depends on the food...
5. Do you dream at night? Vividly and weirdly.
6. Ever seen a corpse? Yup.
7. George Strait or Jay Z? George Strait.
8. How did we meet? Either at the GLBTC or a party... I don't actually remember *blush*
9. What's your philosophy on life and death? Life - I'm for it. Death - not so much.
10. If you could do anything with me, and have no one know, what would it be? If I told here, they would know! Nothing illegal. Probably a trip somewhere.
11. Do you trust the police? Yes.
12. Do you like Country music? Yes!
13. What is your fondest memory of me? Probably in the early days of you and Mr. B., when you stayed over at the house for the first time and were in our living room in PJs on a Saturday morning.
14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be? Give up my automatic guilt reflex.
15. Would you cheat? On hubby - never. On taxes - maybe. On tests - used to, not anymore.
16. What do you wear to sleep? PJ pants and t-shirt, fleece PJs in winter.
17. Have you ever peed in a pool? As a child, probably.
18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to? Yes, but not in my bodily cavities.
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? Breakfast of homemade everything, and no dishes to wash. Early morning walk through the Market. Lunch somewhere expensive, dressed to the nines. Afternoon drive to the Hershey's factory. Pizza dinner on the couch with a classic movie. Crowd show, drinks and dancing until wee small hours. After-bar breakfast at Elgin Street Diner. No tears.
20. Which do you prefer - short or long hair? On me? Short. On you? Hell, anything works on you, you've got good hair.
21. Do you sing in the shower? At home, not at the gym.
22. What's your favorite color? Blue, especially watery-oceany blues.
23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be? Grampie Thurber. I think I missed out on knowing him, I'd have a lot more to talk about with him now.
24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you? I am obsessively organized at work and the exact opposite at home. And I'm occasionally afraid of the dark.
25. What was your first impression of me? Damn. I wish I could wear my hair in braids like that - it's beyond cute.
26. Have you ever done drugs? Yes.
27. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you? Yup!

And now, back to my Excel Intermediate course. Yay.

And we carry on...

So it's Thursday night, and life has continued / is continuing to be ... life. After that incredibly harsh start, the week has actually shaped up to be not too overwhelmingly evil. I did (a bit) of knitting. I read one really terrific book (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - I know I'm late to the bandwagon, but DAMN that's a great book!), and started another (The Great Gatsby - yup, I'm 36 and never read it. It's a boring plot but incredibly well-written so I don't care it's a boring plot). I've cooked some meals, done lots of work, watched some hockey, played some WoW, and even paid (most of) the bills. Of course, I got kicked by an IBS attack this evening but nothing I can't handle. Tea and a bagel is a perfectly acceptable dinner.

Tomorrow will be a Good Day! I'm going in to the office ungodly early to get my day's work cleared off in an hour and a half before I traipse off to Excel-2000-Intermediate training for the day. Woot! School day! And me with a half-knit sock, woohoo! And then, and then - BLISS - I'm spending the evening with Yumi. Yumi is like the original Coca-Cola of friends - life is better with Yumi (also mildly addictive... ok, that needs a side note).

Side Note: Coca-Cola is made in part from coca leaves. Nowadays they extract the cocaine part and just keep the flavouring. For more information on this and other neat ethno-botanical stuff, read "One River" by Wade Davis. It's cool.

And then it will be the weekend, with all that entails. And we carry on.

Last words...

"That was some good steak," she said, and went into her room. 15 minutes later her heart stopped. The paramedics came and then neighbours drifted over to gather on the lawn, to offer support to the family and each other. We needed sweaters; we wore sandals. Tomorrow I will walk the dog while her brother and sister-in-law go do the things that have to be done. I'll make a casserole; that's what we do. That was some good steak, she said.

Damn. When did I get competent at dealing with death? We lost a neighbour - more, a friend. Nine months ago we were the bereaved, now we are the support system, but still bereaved. I keep thinking, at 36, I'm too young to be at this stage of life, where people die. But the truth is that they die all the time. They're just dying closer, it seems.

I will, in all likelihood, knit a shawl, as much for my own comfort as for theirs. But it's what we do.

I'm still here...

Vacation was swift and now I'm back to work and work and work... ah well, it was fun while it lasted! I did finish two pair of socks and got the back and front of my sweater done, but the sleeves require picking up stitches at the armholes so that will have to wait for the weekend. Loads of teaching coming up, I have a class at Michaels the next three weeks for sure and then I'm starting the Wednesday night evening class through the school board on the 26 - eeks, that's two weeks from tomorrow! I need to plan and prepare. I also need to eat dinner.

Bye for now!

Vacation Time!

As of 1:00 this afternoon, I'm on vacation from my day job until September 10. WOOHOO! I'm still working Sat/Sun days at the store but that doesn't really feel like "work" at this time of year, besides it's stress free, so all good.

I have many plans for things I want to do, a few things scheduled, but I'm also going to keep a fair chunk of time for just plain RELAXING. Mmm. Naps, movies, books, naps...

And to kick it off, I got a new haircut. Pixie me, baby! Maybe I'll get Peter to take a picture of it over the weekend. It's short and easy and I love it.

And now, it's time for Friday night gaming. Think I'll take my Night Elf hunter out for a run, see if I can get him up to the teens.

Knit stuff and other things later. VACATION!

A wee post - an idea!

Hello, it's Monday, and I'm feeling finish-y. I've started a separate blog for this because it's not just knitting (I know, this isn't just knitting either) and I want to try a "group blog" like I've seen around.

Interested? Go check out http://fif-2007.blogspot.com/

And, spread the word! Share and enjoy, if we all encourage each other there's nothing we can't accomplish!

He Knits!

So tonight, finally, we got around to Peter's knitting lesson. In five minutes he got the long-tail cast on. In five minutes more he was knitting WITHOUT LOOKING. And five minutes more (with a bit of confusion), he could purl.

Dang, my man's a Knatural Knitter. I am beyond impressed. However, he does not want to finish for himself all the half-pairs of socks I've started for him... I don't know why. ;D