The Dog Days of Summer Have Arrived

So since we have been driving my sister's Honda around all weekend, I have no idea how hot it is outside, but it is 100% sun and really hot like nineties hot. I have spent the majority of the weekend inside reading Augusten Burroughs books because I can relate to a lot of his life experiences and because they are one of the few books that actually make me laugh out loud. My sister started reading Harry Potter 7 on Friday so I can't start reading it until she is finished and she is not actively reading it so this might take awhile.

I have also been working on Baby L's afghan. The Bernat Sweet Stripes yarn that I am using makes some interesting stripe effects that are hard to describe. I would post a pic on Flickr but then Baby L's mom might see it and it is supposed to be a surprise. I am almost done with this skein and my mom gave me a bunch of this yarn for Christmas, but they are all different colors and they don't go together very well because of the stripe effect that is created by my half double crochet. It is not a regular stripe, it's more like a stripey marblized effect, that looks really cool. So I am just going to crochet until I run out and then buy some on Pay Day which is on a Tuesday because EOM actually fell on a business day this time.

I am finally done with my stupid online Biology class. i am so glad. That was the most disorganized class ever and the tests all had stuff that wasn't even in the book, lecture or labs.

I did get dragged to Tulsa today so my sister could buy some fat pants (her words, not mine). I only went so that I could go to Barnes and Noble and buy Knit Simple and Bust. yay for me! It was worth the shopping hell. I also finished the skein on the drive to Tulsa since my sister was driving so that was another plus.

P.S. Since I didn't have any more yarn for Baby L's afghan, I decided to start another baby blanket with a blue and green version of the same yarn. This time I chained 116 which to me is tiny but that is what the pattern inside the label used. I am doing my favorite half double with my old friend Addi the I hook. Since I started with the recommended chain, it actually looks like stripes which is cool. I think they will both turn out to be awesome, I just think it is funny that I am making two at the same time.

Blankie #2

I decided to crochet another blankie, this time a pint sized one for Baby L who is technically a toddler now. This one is normal kid blankie size. I am using some Bernat Baby Coordinates Sweet Stripes. It is the pink and purple striping one and it is really soft. This is one of the skeins that I got for Christmas from my mom this year. I started it on Sunday and I have around 16 rows so far. I think it is going fairly well. I am using the Brittany H hook that I bought on a yarn crawl with my Mom in NC. I am hooked on Brittany, excuse the pun there. I like the warmth of it and the smoothness. I would say it's a tie with my Addi hooks, both kinds are close in price and not available at Wal-Mart.

I had a great time at genealogy class on Saturday. I plan on going to the once a month meetings because they are in the evenings and they don't conflict with my night class. I also read Paula Deen's autobiography, It Ain't All About the Cookin' and I absolutely loved it. I can hear her voice narrating the story. It has recipes too for those of you that like to cook and don't just read the recipes like me.

Sunday, my sister and i made a trip to Owasso because target had Sharpie Accent highlighters (2 skinny + 1 mini) $2 for a dollar and if that wasn't enough, they had 24 packs of colored Sharpies for $10. $10 usually buys a couple of Sharpies, so this was a sale to squeal for. I use colored Sharpies a lot in my art journal. They also had five star one subject notebooks for $1.50 which is almost half price. I also found the new issue of Interweave Knitting-- the felt issue. It is pretty cool. I don't felt much, but I find the process to be fascinating.

So I am one of the few people that didn't read Harry Potter this weekend. My sister and I made a mutual choice to lock it up in the trunk of her car until we were done with our summer school finals. My sis is done tomorrow and I will be done on Friday hopefully. The more I thought about it, since it is unlikely that there will be another anytime soon, it doesn't make much sense to speed through this one.

J's birthday is this weekend, so I am mailing him his birthday cd. It makes him happy and I just love to make mix cds, that is what it really boils down to.

I got my partner for the Mac Appreciation swap on Craftster. I think it will be fun. I think I will bust out some embroidery on this one.

Oh, the Dave Matthews Band tickets for my birthday blow-out in Dallas arrived yesterday. My sister and I had a moment of silence/drool to bask in the moment. Then I put them up on my bookshelf for safe keeping, so they would not get lost in my sister's piles of crap. Sunshine is going with us, so I know this is going to be a shitload of fun.

$7 Shoes!

So wal-mart has these $7 ballet flats that I have been coveting for awhile but I kept passing them up because all i could find was shiny, gold or camo and i don't do those colors in a shoe. Well tonight, i was making a most desperate Claritin-D run and I had to pause to look at the flats and they a secret stash of non-shiny ones. Normally I can't wear ballet flats because I have flat feet, but they were sturdy enough to keep my feet from rolling out, so they came home with me.

I finished my biology labs tonight so I just have to take my exams this weekend and then I will be done. I am stoked about that, because I really didn't like my professor and I did not learn one thing about biology.

I have been naughty this week. When i wasn't half asleep from my congestion woes, I bought Kathy Griffin's My Life on the D-List Season One and the movie London. London was a steal at less then $6 on the clearance rack at Hastings. Otherwise, I have been doing awesome on the budget front. I hardly bought anything while I was with Sunshine this weekend.

On the literary front, I am currently reading Evening by Susan Minot and I finished reading Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs. Augusten Burroughs is like my new favorite author. He makes me crack up like so bad! I can relate to a lot of his life experiences.

On Saturday I am going to a genealogy class at the library. I am curious to see what kind of info will be presented. My mom has been doing genealogy my whole life so I am familar with it. It's a free class, and it will keep me out of the mall, since I also gaved and bought a new American Eagle purse there.

So I did visit Sunshine this past weekend and I had an awesome time. We watched two of the Friday the 13th movies because AMC was having a marathon for obvious reasons. There was shopping involved and he cooked for me. He's a really good cook too, cause I have a tendency to day dream and burn the shit out of everything. We also watched Kids and that movie is a lot more messed up then I remembered in high school. However, most of the time when i watched movies in high school, there were boys present, so I was usually distracted with other activities. For the most part though, Sunshine is a really good influence on me because he makes me eat healthier food and he makes me laugh.

I caved

So I finally sucumbed to peer pressure from some of my closest friends and joined Facebook. That site is like crack candy, and I am not even that addicted to it yet. I also added myself to the wait list for Ravelry, because I know that site will be awesome for keeping track of all of my knitting and crochet projects. If all of that wasn't enough, i also joined the Mac/Windows Love Swap on Craftster.

I trimmed the rose bushes in our back yard with no help from my sister whatsoever. She wouldn't even hold the trash bag open for me. I can't wait until she goes out to SC to visit our parents for the week, I am getting tired of her temper tantrum.

The heat wave is here now. The rain stopped and out came the sun in full force. That is why I haven't tacked trimming the mystery bushes on the other side of our driveway. I also think I need like a bigger hedge clipper to whack those over grown things off.

I haven't really crocheted much because my current projects use wool and that is kinda hot to crochet with in 100 degree weather. I have also been a little bookworm lately. I tried reading the new Einstein biography this weekend, but I quit because it was too academic and i have to read enough academic type books for my accounting classes. So I ended up reading Rue Mc Clanahan's autobiography, My First Five Husbands, which was hilarious. I would recommend it for any Golden Girls fan or anyone that is a fan of TV or theater.

Staples has started some of their school supply specials up. I had to go buy pencils for my sister's classes because they had 8 packs of pencils for 1 cent each and there was a limit of three per person. She has a lot of kleptos in her classes (high schoolers) and is constantly running out of them. I also got some of the mini Sharpie highlighters that I love because the ink doesn't bleed on thin paper, they don't smear, and they fit in the tiniest of purses.

I also took a trunkload of stuff that I had been cleaning out of my room for like the last two weeks, so now my bedroom looks a lot better.

Library Day

Today was definitely Library Day. I needed something to do, so I decided to go back to the library this morning. I ended up with a fairly decent haul. Highlights include 25 Years of Vogue Knitting, Book Crush by Nancy Pearl, Teach from the Heart by Erin Gruwell. I checked out a few others but I don't feel like typing them all in. I checked out a lot of them because I need entertainment for this weekend, because I have already completed my typical weekend activities like laundry and cleaning. I am going to crochet more, but i can't do that 24-7 otherwise i will end up with tennis elbow and that sucks.

I get to go back to work tomorrow. It should be interesting. I am definitely bringing a huge thing of bottled water with me. It feels odd going back to work for one day and then having it be the weekend, but that is just how things go some times.

I am on my 7th or 8th day of using Proactiv and it is definitely worth the price. It has worked better than any prescription stuff I have ever used, and I have logged a serious amount of hours in the dermotologist's office. It also smells decent. It doesn't have that medicinal bleachy smell, so I might be adding this to my routine because I like having a clear face.It's not really a vanity thing or something to do with self-esteem, i have just realized that I won't be young forever so I should take better care of myself.

I have been listening to the new Maroon 5 cd a lot today. Sunshine brought me a copy this weekend and I have been been listening to it a lot today because it is upbeat without being annoying. Some of the tracks remind me of old school Police songs which is a good thing and funny because Maroon 5 is opening for them this summer. I think it will be my commuting cd tomorrow. Happy Adam Levine thoughts.

Bottle Rockets Galore

Skater Boi is at it again. It is only 8pm and he and his posse are launching bottle rockets. I would like to note that it is still daylight! It just disturbs me because we live on a very small cul de sac with a lot of overgrown trees. At least Skater Boi's mom is outside with them "supervising." I wouldn't care so much except for the mere fact they have been doing this every sunny night for the last three weeks until the wee hours of the morning. Man, I sound like a cranky old lady. I miss living out in the boondocks.

My sister and I tore apart the living room again trying to find the dvd player remote. It has been missing for a week and we can't find it anywhere. It's really annoying because some dvds automatically play with captions and you need the remote to turn it off. I seriously have no idea where it could be. we have uncovered an entire family of dust bunnies and in today's search we found a melted yellow skittle stuck to the floor under the couch. I made my sister scrape it off because I typically only eat skittles at work and she has this tendency to drop all kinds of shit down the couch.

I am happy to report that the scarf is now the length of two couch cushions. I am too lazy to get out the measuring tape out to see the actual inch length.

I finished reading Fargo Rock City this morning. My next book will be a very quick read, it is the junior movie novelization of Hairspray. I have ordered another book from Amazon but it is probably not going to be here until Friday or Monday, and I could possibly be back at work by Monday at the latest. I will be glad to go back to normal work life, but I don't want have to work under chaotic conditions, so we will see what happens.

Song of the day: Rocket Man by Elton John. I feel this is a very appropriate pick for today's festivities.

Anxiously Waiting

It looks like I will officially have the whole week off. We can't re-open the factory and the offices until the water is cleaned up and turned back on. There is also the small matter of the oil spill that is trickling down into Oklahoma now. My boss has been giving us 3 pm updates every day to let us know if we can come in the next day. I asked my boss if there was anything I could do and she said that our first day back I could bring chocolate chip cookies. So I will be bringing in some Soft Batch cookies because my sister and I still haven't figured out what is going on with the temperate settings on the oven part of our stove.

Since I have this abundance of free time, I was able to finally trim the rose bushes that were like two feet taller than they should be. I found a Fiskars 21 inch hedge clipper at Big Lots for 9.99. It did the job well. It was a really good stress reliever. The roses look perkier but we still have the damn wasp like things. I don't think they will go away until the rainy season is over or it frosts. I give up on that battle.

I have been working on my online biology homework. That is the most disorganized class ever. It helps to give specific instructions for completing labs at home. This is the first time I have ever had to email a professor for a homework specific question. I try to avoid teacher contact because I like to figure things out on my own but my sister couldn't even figure out the instructions and she has an honors biology degree. LOL. There was a lot of F-words mumbled this afternoon.

I have made more progress on the scarf. Crochet is like the best therapy. I like patterns that are very repetitive so that I don't have to think or count and I can just lose my thoughts in the stitches. My crochet music lately has been The Flaming Lips, which is one of the greatest bands to ever come from Oklahoma.

There has also been a lot of tv watching. My sister has been watching a lot of Charmed when she is not at one of her grad school classes. I watched Dante's Cove Season 1 today while she was at class. It was highly entertaining, but it is not for everyone. It's a little saucy. I also watched High School Musical twice, the original Hairspray movie, Reality Bites and Sideways (these are my movies that I watch when i am feeling blue). I am also guilty of watching re-runs of America's Next Top Model and Charm School.

My bed time story this week is Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman. Where have I been? Chuck writes about his passion for heavy metal and growing up in rural North Dakota, two things I can definitely relate to. I find myself laughing out loud or thinking "holy shit, i totally agree." Long live heavy metal!

Note to Sunshine: I am sending a rainbow your way and lots of happy thoughts in a sincere and non-cheesy way.

Frank and the Flood

There has been so much that has happened in the last 48 hours, I am not sure where to start. Sunshine arrived early Saturday morning so he got to go with me on my Saturday morning errands. We went to the library to pick up The Natural Knitter by Barbara Albright, because I had put a hold request on it because all the new/good knitting and crocheting books are always checked out. Then we headed to the post office because I had one craftster swap to mail off, my final Secret Pal 10 package, a package for A-dolly and Baby K, and a box containing 37 hats I had made for the Dulaan Project.

We also stopped by wal-mart because there are the wasp-like creatures that have been driven from their old habitat and are now burrowing holes in my marigold planters and buzzing everyone that tries to walk in the front door. I forget what Sunshine said they were but they are a PAIN IN THE A**! Attempts to kill them all were mostly unsuccessful. we did get a couple but until this awful rain goes away, I have no hope on the bug front.

We also went to the Price Tower (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) and I must say that was the most glorious hotel suite (we got the 2 story) that I have ever stayed in. The views outside on the balcony were just as impressive as the architecture detail on the inside. I bought a lot of postcards that I am going to frame in a floating picture frame at some point, when I have a non-rental establishment (i hate spackling holes in the walls). I have no idea really how many pictures I took, but I took pictures of damn near everything there. It was just so nice to be up on the 11th floor, away from my world and all the chaos surrounding it.

Speaking of chaos, I am home from work today because the town I work in has flooded on the east side of town and the roads getting into town are shut down, and half the town has been evacuated. So in light of all that, they closed the factory, so no accounting for me today and it looks like it will be closed on Tuesday too. I might not have to go back until after the 4th. Isn't that crazy. I feel for all my co-workers because most of the little neighboring towns are flooded too. My town is flooding but so far it is limited to the parts of town that typically flood anyways during big rains. I luckily live in a part of town that doesn't typically flood. My sister and I checked on that when we signed the lease because we are survivors of the Flood of '93 back in Iowa, so we refuse to live in flood plains.

Yesterday, Sunshine and I went shopping in Tulsa. we went to the new Apple store. I didn't buy an iphone because I refuse to pay that much for a phone and I refuse to switch my cell carriers. The iphone is really cool though. We also went to Barnes and Noble, but they didn't have any of the books on my list, so I made it out with just of couple of magazines. I did find a beautiful purple wrinkle-resistant shirt at eddie bauer that I bought for the clearance price of $20 dollars. These shirts are typically $49.50 but they are high quality and will last way longer that stuff you can buy at typical stores. I also got a princess cookie at Mrs Fields that had rainbow sprinkles inside and it was the best cookie I have eaten in ages.

I did crochet more on the scarf while at the Price Tower. It looks so pretty. I took pics for my Flickr site.

Anyways, stay dry folks. I stocked up on Mountain Dew and bought High School Musical on dvd last night for my entertainment for today. I am not used to having time off from work.

Thanks for making this weekend so awesome, Sunshine. I had a blast hanging out with you.