Saturday Sky

I did actually get out and take pictures today, though I've been busy in the house and almost completely forgot to post them.




It's so very sad to see the buds already on the Bradford Pear trees. I'm terrified that the warm weather is gonna get them leafing out, and then the inevitable cold snap will come, and it'll kill them. Not a cloud in the sky after we got home from breakfast, since Jason didn't have to work till 11 this morning, and it was warm and .. well, spring like. Problem is, it's only January.

The day before the Day Before Christmas

I've gotta say, first of all, I'm loving the knew new Blogger. I was able to easily add link lists, and have been playing around with it in other ways, and I didn't even have to lose my rings this time. Fan-fucking-tastic! I'm not yet finished I don't think, but I'm close. I'd like to see a three column template available though .. I do better with threes.

Work has, for the most part, slowed down. I've got to work tomorrow, Christmas Eve, but it'll be in the morning, and then it'll be over, and it's money, dontchaknow. Besides, I've got to pick something up for Johnny, and Miss Neely asked me to buy something for her to give to her sort-of ex-husband. She is, of course, paying me back, but since I work there and all, why don't I just make her not have to leave the house. *growl* Ahh, friends, how I love them.

I've almost finished the Booga bag for Brandon's momma. Just have to knit and felt the strap, but the body is done. It's all ratty looking though, so I need to take a sweater stone to it or something .. it's got pills everywhere cos it got out of the pillowcase in the water, and I'm a bit miffed at that. Other than that though, it's looking good, and should have enough size to it for her, once I get a good strap on it. The plan is, to fill the bag with tissue paper and have it look like a gift bag .. maybe she won't realize it's part of the present!

It's cloudy and dreary today, and were it colder I might think it looked like snow. But since I can probably walk out in shorts it's so mild, I don't think we'll get so lucky. Nope, no white christmas for us down here. But that's okay.




Well, I've -got- to get going. I have a 6' I-cord to knit, and pictures to print at CVS, and other such fun things. At least that's the -only- thing I have to go out for today. Everything else is -done-. My tree is drowning in gifts this year, and not everything is there. Jason apparently has gifts hiding in the back bedroom, unwrapped. If I weren't such a good wife, I'd already know what they are. Damn me! I'll return and post pictures of the tree once everything I can wrap is wrapped .. that way I can start loading them in the car, since we head to Brandon's tomorrow after I work and we run out to bring a gift to Mardell, the woman I went to the church concert with momma with.

Speaking of moms, my mom sent Jason and I gift cards to Best Buy, so I can buy my PS2 and he can get his stereo to be able to use the XM I bought for his birthday. She also sent us little spoon lapel pins, because she sometimes doesn't have enough spoons. You can go here to learn more about the 'spoon theory'. Mom has given us a couple of spoons to hold in reserve for her, just in case, and it's making me cry right now just to think about it. Please, read the article at least, and think about someone you know with a chronic illness, and just imagine for one day what it's like to live life with a limited amount of spoons.

Sweater and Sky

I've been forgetting to post my progress, and for a couple days didn't take pictures, so I'm going from just the border done, to having a pattern repetition and a half finished. Woohoo!


This is the progress up until Tuesday .. I was just getting ready to start working the pattern stitch, and finally got around to putting in a lifeline .. I've found they make matters MUCH easier if I miss a mistake.



These two show my progress up until now .. a repetition and a half of the 16-row pattern. I just moved my lifeline up too, so that I can keep more of the finished work in the off chance something awful happens .. like the knitting comes off the end of the needle .. which has almost happened a bunch of times.

It's coming along pretty well, I think. I'm excited now, and working really hard to get it done fast. :)

Ooh, and I remembered my Saturday Sky photos again this week. Look!

Saturday Sky

I actually remembered to take a picture or two .. on the right day!

Oh yes, and isn't this some loverly spam.

Ursula,

Thanks. Call u back,

war

Funny Friday 13th Sky

Heading out to work today I say the strangest clouds, all swirly and eddying and wierd. Being that it's Friday the 13th, I should have expected as much. Though I had to run back home to get my real camera and couldn't use the phone - which was dead *duhnduhnduuuhhhnnnn* - I was able to get a couple of okay shots and since I'm now waiting on my phone to charge, I figured I'd post a couple.

And then some ...

First of all, I know it's Monday, but I took Saturday Sky pictures this weekend, and I just never got around to posting them. So .. here!






The top two are of a high-tension power line tower being used by vultures to cool off, it looks like. They were perched with their wings outstretched .. rather creepy if you ask me! The other two are of a house not far from Brattonsville that's in the process of being restored. It was just a really cool house, and I had to take pictures.

So, yeah. I'm alive. I'm not entirely over whatever it is that's got me coughing all day long, but I'm better than I was this time last week. I've been eating cough drops like candy, and drinking more water than a body has a need to, but I'm feeling better, so there's got to be something to it.

I've also got weight loss to report. I have, as of Saturday morning, lost 10% of my starting body weight. 20.4 pounds, to be exact. In Weight Watchers, you get a little keychain to celebrate that milestone, and mine is currently sitting on my keys, where it will stay as a constant reminder of my progress. I'm not going to let it slip now, that's for certain. I've been able to buy clothes in a smaller size, which is a delightful change, and people have begun to notice I'm getting smaller. Pretty soon, I'll be able to wear my own hand-knits!

Speaking of knitting, I have a bit more progress to brag about. I've finished the knitting on Brandon's Mini-Booga, and it's ready to be felted. I've also knitted two skinny scarves for my nieces, and finished the Mid-month KAL dishcloth from last month. I haven't yet had time to work on the 'mystery' cloth from this month, though I'm about to start working on one.

I'm spending the afternoon trying to catch up on all the blogs I read. If I've been noticably absent from commenting, it's because I've been sick and busy busy with work and school. Things have levelled off with both though, so I should be posting and commenting more regularly.

Countdown 'till the SAFF: 47 days and counting! Yay!

(SAFF, for the non-initiated, is the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, to be held in Asheville, NC at the end of October. Jason, Brandon, Larissa and I are going .. I believe we already have the house rented and everything, and she has her plane tickets. And .. shit! I forgot to send the check! Gotta Priority that tomorrow!

Busy and Hubbub

I'm beginning to get irritated with Bloglines, which is how I read the near 100 blogs I have found that I really enjoy reading. And no, not all of them post every day, but enough that it's frustrating when Bloglines is having 'issues'. Apparent;y, they did some kind of database maintenance on Wednesday and their servers are trying to 'catch up' or something. Which is just infuriating. But, I'll just have to grumble and knit and wait for things to settle down I guess.

I forgot to post my Saturday Sky photos, in all the hubub and busy yesterday, which I'll get to. It was pretty clear, actually. We'd had some rain, and so it was a little muggy even that early, but there weren't really clouds to speak of.



I just love using the Moasaic Maker .. especially since I don't have to use Flickr albums to do it. Yay!

My favorite shot from the ones I took. Just a couple fluffy clouds and lots of blue sky. And the trees outside my front door. Bradford pears and river birches .. though, we're not near a river so why they put them here is beyond me. Silly development.

The sun was -really- bright though. Can't you tell?


While I was taking pictures a plane went overhead. I followed it, trying to get a picture and wasn't having a lot of luck. Then I saw this and thought it was flying oddly. I soon discovered why .. it's a hawk. I've not seen many flying over our house. I see them around a lot, but not so close. A'course, this is a crappy picture of it, but you can at least tell that it's a bird.


Back to the hubbub and busy. Yesterday was Brandon's birthday, and on top of that we had our Weight Watchers meeting. We got the meeting done and Jason dropped off to work (I lost another .2, which I call good considering the feast I had a few days ago .. so not good for me, but cured a bad craving for fast food) and headed home. Through the meeting I worked some on the icord for Brandon's Booga, but when I got home I wanted to work on something that wasn't wool.

So instead I picked up my cone of Sugar and Cream in Ecru, and started working on the Promenade shopping bag.

I had gotten through the first three repetitions of the pattern stitch before we had to go and pick Jason up at the dealership on the way to go eat and bring Brandon home for a week.



As you can probably tell, something got screwy in the pattern. I'm fairly positive I started with the right # of stitches, but it wasn't working right, and I had to fudge around until I got it looking and working right, so the first three rounds of the pattern stitch stack in the wrong direction before I got the hang of it and made it work. I don't think it'll look bad, so I'm not bothering to rip out the progress.

The reason I got -so much- done was we went to get Jason at work at 6pm. He'd told us he might be a few minutes late, which was fine. We figured we'd knit in the car, and all would be good. About 5 minutes after we get there, a couple drives up in an ancient Chevy Silverado, walks in, and wants to buy a new (well, used, but new to them) truck then and there. Jason was the only other salesman on the floor, so he took them and got things moving. No big deal, shouldn't take too long. And we had our knitting!

An hour and a half later, they were still there. Not because they were being slow or obstinate or anything. Hell no. These folks with almost 800 Beacon scores were waiting very patiently for the couple that was in the finance manager's office .. who had by then been in there for 2 hours, and were reading every word and checking every term in their paperwork, and using their calculator to check numbers, and wanting this taken off and that taken off, and basically being every finance manager's worst nightmare. Poor Eddie.

I knitted through all of this. Sat with Brandon in the car, waiting. Knitting, and listening to my XM radio. Thank the goddess for XM radio! Somewhere around 8pm, we got really thirsty, and went to the gas station next door and discovered two new flavors of Diet Pepsi - Diet Pepsi Jazz, which comes in Black Cherry & French Vanilla and Strawberries and Cream. Zero calories, and incredibly yummy flavor, though if you don't like DIet Pepsi you might not like them. I love them. Yummo!

We headed back to the dealership and waited some more. Eventually, the annoying couple came out to start inspecting the car. And I mean inspecting. This woman was checking every miniscule thing .. finding barely perceptible flaws in the paint and shit. And this went on for an hour. An hour!!! Eventually, and by this time everyone was ready to leave but couldn't because of these idiots, they called the GM out. Will explained that he had a sick wife and three boys at home and that he really needed to leave, but the woman made him come out anyway and showed him every miniscule thing that she felt was wrong with the car. What a bitch! I realize that you want your new car to be perfect, but good Lord and lady, lady. She'd already nearly given Eddie a stroke with her behavior, and now she was pulling this with Will. I about wanted to get out of the car and scream at her to just take the car already.

But instead, I knitted, patiently waiting for Jason's customers to sign their paperwork so he could hand them their keys and shake their hands. Which he eventually managed. At 9:10pm. Now, I remind you, he was supposed to get off work at 6pm. So, I got a bunch of knitting done on the bag before we headed to dinner at Sakura, our favorite Japanese Hibachi Steakhouse. After a wonderfully enjoyable meal with a very nice family sharing our table, we headed back to Brandon's momma's home for cupcakes and ice cream. We finally got home lastnight around 2:30 am .. being followed by a damned drunk driver all the way down our street. This jerk was driving so recklessly Jason called 911 to report it .. only for the jerk to pull into our neighborhood! I need to remember to go drive around and figure out what car it was behind us, and leave a nasty note on their door. Tied on with i-cord. Just because I can.

Strange Sky, UFOs, Reading and Knitting

Feh. Flargle. Blogger, play nice!

I'm trying to post pics of the sky tonight as the sun was setting, but Blogger's not playing nice at all. What's the dealio!? Grrr!

Anyway, the sky tonight, just as the sun was setting, was incredibly strange. Outside had this odd red cast to it, it was reflected on the cars in the parking lot and such. And the clouds to the east were reds and oranges, but the ones to the west were white and fluffly. Wierd!


Sydney said that Scout asked us to confess our UFO's. So here's my confession.

I have this yarn. Caron Simply Soft. I bought it for an afghan, because it's yummy soft, even if it is acrylic, and because it's in simply gorgeous colors. The problem is, I started one block, and am now stuck. Painfully and impossibly stuck. I cannot bear to keep knitting the same color in the same dull pattern for row upon row. And so it's been sitting, unloved and nigh forgotten, in my knit-tote for months now. I suppose I should pick a different pattern for it. I've considered making the tesselating fish blanket, but I'm not sure I want to do that. Recently I've fallen in love with the patterns from the Mason Dixon girls, especially the log cabin, but also the mitered squares .. but will I love them long enough to finish this beastie!? ('Ello, beastie....)

Dammit, Blogger, post my damned pictures! It's not -that- hard!

*grumble*

Chris is having a contest to celebrate her new blog. She wants people to write haiku inspired by her darling Chaos.

I've joined the Knit the Classics KAL. This month they're reading Lolita, by Vladimir Nabakov. I'm not sure I will be able to start this month, what with the new job and school likely starting, but I'll know more soon. They're also taking votes on the books for September, October and November. I'm torn between a few of them, but have a while to vote, which is good.

SEPTEMBER:
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Little Woman - Lousia MayAlcott
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

OCTOBER:
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Evelina - Frances Burney
Candide - Voltaire

NOVEMBER:
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Emma - Jane Austen
The Last Man - Mary Shelley


Aha!! Pictures .. see, the sky was so oddly red!

Friday Five & Saturday Sky

Many areas of the United States are having a heat wave. Global warming, anyone? Look on the bright side of melting glaciers and enviro-destruction by taking a crack at the Friday Five:

1. What's the high temperature today where you are?
Actual high for Friday, July 28: 96F

2. Favorite way(s) to beat the heat.
Going to the beach and sitting with my feet just in the water. Going to the pool and not getting out (with waterproof sunscreen of course!). Going to the mall and walking and knitting. Sitting inside with my remote control and some diet soda and fresh fruit.

3. "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." Evaluate this statement.
Actually, I find it to be kinda true. Down here it gets extremely humid, and walking outside when it's humid is like walking into a sauna, it kinda takes your breath away, and it's harder to breath.

4. Discuss one or more of the following: sauna, hot tub, sweat lodge, warm-stone massage.
I had a hot-stone facial once, and I have to say, it was about the most incredible feeling ever. It was incredibly relaxing .. I can only imagine that a hot-stone massage would be even more incredible and relaxing. I still remember the girl that did it .. Cricket. And she reminded me of one a little .. she was oddly shaped .. large hips and thighs, but small everywhere else.

5. Hottest you've ever been in your life.
Uhh .. very likely the time I went to school with a temerpature of 102F, though I claimed I 'wasn't sick' ... I had strep throat and it was lucky I went to the school nurse when I did.

Non-temperature related bonus: In your opinion... who's hot?
Besides my husband, who is the hottest thing ever .. Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Janelle from BB All-Stars. (I'm sure there's more, but I can't think right now.


I've eaten now, and I can finally post my Saturday Sky Pics.

Saturday Sky

Didn't have a very fun Sky morning, sadly. We got a hell of a storm lastnight ... one thunderclap was so loud it shook the house, and I buried myself under the covers with Isis. But the storm seems to be cooling off the high temps for next week, so I'm not going to complain. Not to mention, the plants really can use the water. One of my clematis might be dead, it's been so damned hot. I'm hoping it'll bounce back, but not holding my breath.

For some reason, this picture isn't showing how bright it actually is outside. It's not so dark, really.

See?!

I took this shot because a plane was going overhead. See? Top center of the shot .. it's a plane!

Saturday Sky

I forgot to post this, but here's just a few of the pics I took yesterday of our sky.

This picture is soon after I got back from Bringing hubby to work. Must have been before 10am or so, I figure.


The next picture is as the stormclouds rolled in sometime around 5 in the afternoon. I looked out my window and saw suddenly heavy gusts of wind, and knew a storm was coming in. I went outside to take a couple shots, and didn't get many before the rain started.


The following three were taken on my drive to pick hubby up from work, around 7pm. (Yes, I took them as I was driving. Yes, I know I probably shouldn't drive and take pictures at the same time. Yes, I was safe. Yes, I wear my seatbelt.) But aren't they pretty!






I also took some video (not from my car of course) of the storm as seen outside my window. I forgot my camera had a video capture feature. Short clips .. which will be great next time I get a chance to try taking lightning pics. Let's see if this actually works, shall we?