Still Here

I am almost over the Plague otherwise known as the really bad cough/cold that I had. It would probably have helped if I would have taken off a day or two but I didn't cause I am stubborn like that. The sickness was so bad that i didn't want to eat, shop or even knit or crochet really. All i worked on was making more plarn and I did crochet a condom amulet out of some of the Vickie Howell Love yarn that I had leftover. I think I am going to finish plarn bag one, start the plarn bag for Sunshine and hopefully start the socks up again. I also have some yucky homework that I need to do before Sunday night too.

My sis and I bought The Tin Man on dvd at Wal-Mart tonight. I was also naughty and bought the new issue of Knit Simple. I plan on watching it while my sister visits some old college friends in Stilly on Saturday. I think it will be a good backdrop for my craftpalooza weekend. It is kind of strange because I will be staying home this weekend and I won't have Sunshine around. I have been spoiled rotten by his visits the last two weekends in a row.

Today is my mom's birthday, so I listened to Flogging Molly on my commute. I think they are a perfect combo of my mom's love of Irish music and my love of punk rock.

Cough Cough Cough Cough

Cough Cough Hack Hack. That would be the loop from this weekend. I think I'm on the turn around, but there is only so much cough syrup I can take and still function. I need one of those little biohazard shirts to wear as a warning for people. I try to be good and hold my coughs in or cough away from people. I hope I didn't give my cough back to Sunshine because he just got over a similar thing. I think I'm starting to feel better but right now it is hard to really tell.

So Sunshine decided to spontaneoulsy come down to visit Friday evening. YAY! We had a lot of fun. He fixed our dryer vent that was blowing down into the wall (scary!!!) so now our clothes dry a lot better. The best part is that he installed the new replacement lock on my hope chest. It was my mom's old hope chest and I primarily use it as a window seat and storage for my journals, bad poetry and ex boyfriend momentos. Anyways, during the break-in, the lock was broken and the lovely people at Lane sent me a nice replacement lock. I think my mom will be relieved now that the hope chest was fixed.

We did a little shopping on Saturday in town. I know I'm sick when I don't feel like power shopping so we just stayed in town. Sunshine is working on his genealogy right now and he got a giant sack of clippings from a relative so we spent most of the Saturday afternoon sorting out the obituaries from the bible verse clippings and Dear Abby articles. I think we found several gems in the bag and he bought a couple of nice looking storage boxes to keep them in. Then we went to Garfields and Sunshine got to have his mudslide finally (they blend theirs which I think makes it taste better). Then we went to American Eagle and Sunshine bought a new pea coat and two shirts which were all on clearance. The pea coat was under $40 which is insane and it matches his favorite shoes better.

Sadly, Sunshine had to leave early this morning so that he could make it home for his Mom's birthday party. My sister won't admit to it but she had fun too. She even made scrambled eggs for Sunshine yesterday morning and she never does that. Ooh--I almost forgot, Sunshine and I split a black bottom cupcake at Starbucks yesterday. Basically it is a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese filling in the center and it is soooo good and one of the few things this weekend that I could actually taste.

I did get a tiny bit of crafting done this weekend. I stitched up the sides of the bag I am making for the Going Green Swap. I need to cut up a few more bags so that I have enough plarn for the handles. I think I might have agreed to make one for Sunshine too but I have to get bags from him first because I seriously have like two bags left. the only reason why I might have enough to finish the handles is because I have the bags from our shopping this weekend. If I have any left over, then I will put it towards the one for Sunshine. The nice thing about plarn bags is that they are pretty sturdy and it's a good recycling project and they look cool. The key to making plarn is having a good pair of sharp scissors. It will speed up the process and your pieces will be more even for the plarn. I will post pics when it's finished and my partner receives it because I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

I actually had a really productive weekend but I am way too lazy to blog about any of it. After all the darn rain this week, the sun finally peaked out. I think I am going to have to get a SAD lamp to sit under because it bothers me not seeing the sun shine for a few days and I think I am during a lighter shade of pale if that is possible. My nose is congested but my ear is still okay for now.

I am over 50% done with my bag for the Going Green Ravelry swap. I need to add more loops on to my plarn ball because I just have a few rows left and then I will need to stitch on the handles and lace up the sides. I thought about using something else to stitch up the sides to add something different to it but I haven't found anything yet, so we will see. If all else fails, I will just use more plarn.

Once I am done with my plarn project, I am getting serious and attacking the socks project. i want to learn how to make socks that look cool so that i can wear them with my low top Chucks.

Hell has finally froze over. the factory manager has agreed to let us wear jeans this Friday as a Relay for Life Fundraiser. Since I don't have any jeans that aren't worn out, I sent my little sister on a mission to the GAP to find me a pair and she actually did and they fit and they are the right size and wash. I am really stoked because every time I go they are either out or I end up with some wonky pair that doesn't fit so I have to return it.

I have been re-reading my David Sedaris books and I am in the midst of reading Born on a Blue Day by David Tamment which is really good. I found a hardback copy of it on the BN bargain books rack so I was excited since our library was closed the whole weekend plus today for president's day and i was book deprived.

Happy Valentine's Day!

So VD is tomorrow and most people would be dreading it but for some sicko reason it is one of my favorite holidays. I have auditing class tomorrow but maybe it will be short or he will cancel it. Once I get home, I am going to eat Cheerios and watch the movie Across the Universe. For the record, Across the Universe, When I'm 64 and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds are my all-time favorite Beatles songs.

Now that I am hooked on the Crystal Light Citrus Splash flavor packets, I have only had two Mountain Dews this week. folks, that is almost unheard of, however i will state for the record that this kind of Crystal Light does have a lot of caffeine in it, so that is why I am still happy and not experiencing caffeine withdrawal shakes right now. I am not trying to quit pop on purpose but my sister is quitting pop and hasn't had any since last Wednesday so I am trying to be supportive and not drink a lot of it around her cause i figure it is probably good if i can cut back a little.

The bag I am crocheting out of plarn for the Going Green swap on Ravelry is coming along awesome. I am close to half-way done, so I think I deserve an A + for that. However, I get an F minus in sock knitting. I haven't done any actual hand knitting in quite awhile and then I got this crazy idea to learn how to knit socks. I watched videoclips and read online tutorials and a couple of books and I attempted to cast on and somehow in the midst of it all, I ended up with some kind of yarn mess and possibly forgot how to knit even. I honestly don't know what happened. It was so bad, I frogged it and stuck all the stuff in a big ziploc bag and hid it under my bed. :( I know that at some point I will be able to knit fantastic, glorious socks, however, I think I need some remedial knitting lessons. It was bad. Anyways, I gave up and went back to crocheting the plastic bag. For some reason, crochet comes effortlessly to me and I really don't know why.

Anyways, I hope everyone has an awesome Valentine's Day tomorrow, full of lots of yarn, love and mudslides in no particular order.

Ice, Ice, Baby!

I woke up this morning with an ear infection and freezing rain. I left for work even with the ear infection and then got north of town and turned around because freezing rain started and there were reports of an inch of ice on the ground in the county where I work, so I turned around and came home. I just get tired of having my commute take 3 plus hours to get to work when it should only take 45 minutes because I get halfway there and find out that it is worse than I expected on the other side of the border. It is only Feb 10th and this is the fourth day this month where I have either had snow or ice or both to deal with and this ear infection is the last straw. I've had chronic ear infections all my life, so getting one this weekend was the last straw. I still have medicine from the last time so I put some of that in and if it doesn't clear up then I am going to drag my ass in to the doctor's office.

So what does a girl do when she has a yucky day outside and a yucky ear infection? Well, I am going to curl up on the couch and read my sock knitting books and listen to Amy Winehouse on my laptop. No ear buds with my ear infection. That would not be cool. I don't think I am going to cast on the socks yet, I might wait until this afternoon.

I did have a good weekend though. Yesterday afternoon it was warm enough to walk to the library so my sister and I walked over there and I checked out Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski which was a National Book Award Finalist. It seems like it has a mystery/thriller element to it but just from reading the back cover, I think it is going to be different than anything else I have read in those genres.

Monologues, Mudslides and Major Stash Envy

I went to see the Vagina Monologues performed at my alma mater last night and it was great. Before the show, I went out to eat with a couple of English professors, so I finally got my mudslide but I forgot that this restaurant makes shitty mudslides so I made a vow never to order a mudslide unless I was eating at Applebees because I am convinced that theirs are the best. The one I had didn't have any whipped cream! Anyways, after the show, I went back to the professor's house that I was staying at and she is a knitter and was showing me all the yarn stashed around the house. WOW. I thought I had died and gone to yarn heaven. She has the good stuff, and I got to touch and see it all, including some really pretty Ozarka Handspun and some Manos de Uruguay. Then she mentions to me that there is a yarn store downtown, so before I left today I made a little "yarn stop" because it was on the way to Starbucks. It's a year old and has a pretty decent but small selection of yarn. The best thing about it was that I bought three Addi hooks for 4.85 each. I about squealed, because I had never found a local store that sells these so I have to order them online and end up paying close to $7 a hook before shipping. Sadly, they only had three left otherwise I might have blown my yarn budget for the rest of the month. I also picked up a Magic Loop leaflet and two skeins of yarn.



Then, when I got home, my Knit Picks order had arrived! This included two size 2 Harmony circulars, and Cat Bordhi's book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. I am stoked about this because I plan on learning how to knit socks this year.



As you can see, there was a little bit of stash excitement this weekend. When I got back, I did manage to shovel out all the dead leaves that the previous renter left behind. I would have done it sooner, but this was the first warm day we had since Monday. It was a good thing I bagged it all up because it was in like stage one of composting. EWWWWW...

I got a silver one!

the little town that I work in had an 80 gb silver ipod classic, so I bought it. I was tired of driving around looking for one and all that jazz, and once that I looked at it out of the box, the silver is more of a subtle sparkly silver and it matches Mackie my powerbook and then I just knew in my heart that my search was over and this one was the ipod that was meant to be.

I named her Elphaba, after my favorite character in Wicked the Musical and I just can't believe the differences between her and Spanky my 3rd generation ipod. Wow. It's sort of like going from the Original Nintendo to the Wii. I just love love love it!!!!! I am happy to report that I am nowhere near close to filling it up, but give me a year and we will see. The sound, the color and all the cutesy features are great for this little music buff.

It might have taken me a couple years, but I finally got my video ipod and I couldn't be happier!!!!

Yucky Weather

I am just asking for one week where I can drive to work without snow, thunderstorms or ice. Luckily, the snow and ice this morning melted off before I drove home this evening.

On the ipod search, good news. There is a small town on my way to my alma mater that has TWO of the ipods that I want. If they are all gone on Friday, then I am just going to break down and order online through Apple and get something cool engraved on it. I guess we will see what kind of mood I am in on Friday. The first ipod cozy turned out so wide I could almost stick my foot in it, so I started a new one and measured it with A the co worker's ipod and it fits so this one should work. all ipods need a nice warm cozy. I think I will name my new ipod Elphaba.

My sister replaced our Sony DVD/VCR that was stolen today. In celebration, I purchased a copy of The Jane Austen Book Club on DVD. I loved the book and I love the movie.

I have been watching a lot of Rob and Big on Mtv lately. they are best friends and they make me laugh. I am guilty of downloading several of their episodes on itunes. I think 1.99 is a steal considering how much they make me laugh.

Waiting for my ipod

So we got insurance check number 1 last night and I was thinking that I could go out an buy my 80gb black ipod classic (video), the ipod that I have finally decided on. WRONG!!!!! Every Wal-mart and target within a two hour radius of me is either out of stock or has limited availability (does that mean they only have one left?).

It will probably be at least a week before I can get one which is okay because I am going back to my alma mater this weekend for a showing of the Vagina Monologues (i was in the first production held at my school). It will be fun, cause I can wear whatever I want to, the money goes to an awesome cause, and I will be able to see a bunch of my old college friends. I checked and their Wal-Mart is currently out of stock too. My Wal-mart has a silver one, but I refuse to buy any more all silver colored electronics because the silver chips off really bad or it looks dingy after awhile. Anyways, since I have to hold onto my ipod money, I am making a new ipod cozy for it out of the Vickie Howell yarn that I bought this past weekend. I am about half-way done, and there is a possibilty that I might finish it tonight.

It's so Pretty!

The townhouse looks a lot better now. Sunshine was able to come down this weekend and we were able to find nice looking cheap curtains for my bedroom at Super Target that are a ruby/cranberry red. My sister found curtains for the living room that are a light french blue with suiting stripes and then some brown curtains with gold-esque suiting stripes which really tame down the bright orange counter tops. Sunshine is my handy man for sure. He fixed our front storm door, the porch lights, the vent filter, my light fixture on my ceiling fan and he hung up all the curtains in the house. It helps that he is tall and quite handy with a screw driver. Thank-you!!!!

It wasn't all work though. The three of us headed south to T-town and went to Super Target, the mall, Barnes and Noble and Loops. I bought my curtains at Super Target and a heart hand towel for my bathroom. I didn't buy anything at the mall. However, I did go to the Apple store there and I pre-shopped for our insurance money that is coming this week. At Barnes and Noble I was a good girl and I only bought two magazines and one of them was something I was picking up for a co-worker. I was even good at Loops. I bought two yarn nail files, a Laurel Hill size J hook and a skein of Vickie Howell Love in "June and Johnny" which is of course, jet black. It's a bamboo silk blend, that is so soft, I just want to hold it. i did pet some Tilli Thomas yarn that has the crystals in it. i also looked at their Louisa Harding yarn that is made out of sari ribbon. So many pretty colors. I just love yarn. all kinds and colors and weights.

Anways, I had a fantastic weekend, the house is looking even better and things are getting A LOT BETTER!!!! YAY!!!! It might be Super Bowl Sunday, but I can tell you for sure that I won't be watching the Super Bowl. Most likely playing on my mac or with a new project.

Blogger's Silent Poetry Reading

This is the 3rd annual Blogger's Silent Poetry Reading and I think it's the first time I have participated, although poetry is always in my heart every day. I present to you, a link to one of my all time favorite poems, "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop. The first and final stanzas are my favorite.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212

I also like "Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson. Her poetry never ceases to inspire me or comfort me.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19729

This is another poem I can practically recite by memory, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by W.B. Yeats. I like to imagine that I am visiting when ever I am having a difficult day.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15529

One last poem, in honor of forthcoming Valentine's Day, "somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond" by e.e. cummings

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15401

Close your eyes, imagine and enjoy my little silent poetry reading.

Socks

I was slightly naughty this weekend and ordered two pairs of circular needles and a Cat Bordhi book so that I can learn how to knit socks. I need a portable project and I need something to hold my interest. Since I discovered that it is impossible to find two pairs of circular needles in the same size small enough to knit socks with in my town, I did what anyone in my situation would do and ordered it all through Knit Picks. I got the Harmony wood fixed circulars. I prefer wood to metal and I don't think I'm responsible enough yet to have interchangeable circulars yet. Especially when I keep having to move, I would be upset if I lost a piece! Anyways, this will be my first online order since the move, so hopefully it goes smoothly. It's a small enough package, they should be able to just shove it in the door or through the mail slot.

I'm excited because Sunshine is coming to visit this weekend and we are going shopping with my sister in T-town. I put myself on an allowance for this trip, but if my current trend continues, I have either had problems finding what i am looking for or it doesn't work/fit right and I end up returning it, so I should be okay.

My knees are still killing me from the stairs and all the moving this weekend. Unfortunately for them, it is really hard for me to be imobile long enough to give them a rest unless I am sleeping.

Mission Accomplished!!

We are officially moved all in one day! It only took five chicks and one dude! My sis and I are really lucky to have awesome co-workers. I took us all out to the Pizza Hut downtown as a thank-you and we ended up with the most perfectly cooked pizza and breadsticks. We still have some leftovers in the fridge. Mackie and I are online again and the only issue we have is that the cold water hook-up in the utility room has a leak but we called the property manager and she is sending a plumber over on Monday. My new room is so big is makes my double wide futon look like a twin bed even when it is folded flat. I can put like all my furniture in there and still have loads of floor space to sprawl.

I love my new closet. All my clothes and coats don't even fill up half of one side. I am still working on unpacking. Our first project this morning was finding the power strip so that we could plug in the router and the printer.

Somehow in the midst of all the crazy, I snuck away to have lunch with S from Tempted Yarns. Seriously, she is one of the coolest chicks ever! We had been messaging back and forth on Ravelry for weeks and finally had the chance to meet. She is going to teach me how to knit socks and probably a ton of other stuff. Her yarn is gorgeous in person too. I definitely came away with a good dose of knitting inspiration which is good because I am in between projects. Once I unbury my yarn stash I am definitely going to start a new project.

Hitch Up the Wagon, Ya'll!

That title sounds really cheesy, but too bad because it is the truth. We are moving to the new townhouse on Saturday. My sister and I have recruited some of our co-workers to help us move. I recruited some man muscle by bribing them with pizza and beer. The beer will only be distributed after all furniture and boxes have been delivered to the townhouse. I can't help it if I am a control freak. A the co-worker came over this evening to help me pack up the kitchen. We have enough cups and plates for a family of ten, but most of the kitchen crap is actually my sisters. I am only really guilty of my est. 60+ Eskimo Joe's cups in a variety of colors. Anyways, A the co-worker is a super packer and we had that all packed up in about 1 1/2 hours. It seems to me that we are basically down to the odds and ends stuff that you just throw in the back of your car or in a laundry basket.

We still don't have our mail. The post office is blaming it on the Monday holiday and claims that we should have it tomorrow. I just want my stupid paycheck that was mailed to me so that I have some cash flow again.

I am excited about Saturday, it's just a little nerve wracking thinking about the logistics of it all. I just have to relax a little and trust that somehow it will all work out. My sister has to play hooky tomorrow so that we can get the utilities turned on over there. Half the places insist on someone being there which makes sense but if they won't come out past 2pm how in the hell are working people supposed to be there? Hence, my sister taking a personal day.

Anyways, I'm really tired from everything that has been going on, but I thought I would give a little update. Crafty news probably won't occur until sometime after Saturday.

EDIT TO ADD: I just found out that Apple has released a HOT PINK NANO VIDEO!!!! OMG I have died and gone to electronics heaven. This might be the one I pick. I heart hot pink soooo much.

Weekend Update

After a trying day on Friday,I must say I am having a fantastic weekend. I have spent the weekend at my best friend Sunshine's house for some much needed R & R. When I got here, my shoulders had so much tension in them that made it really uncomfortable to do much of anything without taking some Rapid Release Tylenol. I am happy to report that the tension has left and even with a couple of drama calls from my sister I still feel more relaxed then I have felt since before the robbery. I'm not really sure what it is but Sunshine has this quality about him that just makes everything crappy going on seem less crappy. Even when he makes me watch scary movies like Joy Ride, it's still not as scary as it would be if I was by myself or with my scaredy-cat sister.

Anyways, before I describe my shopping trip, I have to give Sunshine a BIG THANK YOU FOR EVERTHING that he has done for me this weekend. Did I mention that he gave me the coolest presents ever? When he was in Chicago he was fortunate enough to see one of our all-time favorite musicals, Wicked and he brought me back not only the fancy tour program, but he book me a copy of the Wicked Grimmarie(sp?) which gives all the behind the scenes info about Wicked the Musical and it is just an awesome book. It's the kind of book that you put on your coffee table and every one picks it up to start looking at it. Wicked is coming to Kansas City and we are going to try and get tickets.

The shopping. Well since my sister and I are moving into the new townhouse this weekend and my stupid paychecks are still being mailed to me, I have been on a semi-strict shopping budget. I did get a new pair of Clover bamboo straight needles (size 10 1/2), one skein of chocolate taupe LB Cotton-Ease, an issue of Simply Knitting (British) and the first book that Wally Lamb did with his writing group from the York Correctional Institute. Sunshine bought a really cool new laptop bag (his current one is pretty beat-up) that is kind of like the new one that my dad bought my sister for her new laptop. I want to get one that is a similar size and slim like theirs but I don't want the exact same one and I need a different color scheme as in not black. I don't like to buy black laptop bags because everyone gets black ones and I wear enough black clothes without adding to it. While I was at Books-A-Million, I did read through the new Anticraft book and it has some really sweet patterns in it that I could and would actually make, so after I have moved and etc., this will be ordered.

I have made three child-sized hats on my knifty knitter (red loom) this weekend from some LB Homespun and RH Supersaver that is from my stash.

Happy Birthday to baby L! She's turning two today and I can't believe it and I'm sure that her A her mother can't believe it either. L is a sweet little girl and a very well-behaved child (which is quite rare these days).

Songs on my itunes:

Closer by Joshua Radin
What If You by Joshua Radin

These songs are so beautiful and were brought to my attention by Sunshine. So of course, I listened, got hooked on the melody and then proceeded to download them through itunes. For statistical purposes, What If You is the 409th song I have downloaded since purchasing my Mac Powerbook (Mackie) in March 2006. Yes, I am contributing to Steve Jobs' retirement fund very heavyily, but the Apple folks have always given me superior customer service and provided me with products that are pretty, functional and low maintenance.

Setting Forth

I have been on a roll today. I got all the vacuuming, dishes, laundry and recycling done. I returned my sister's book to the library for her and walked out three books that had been on my "to-read" list for a long time. I saw the movie No Reservations, which is so good!!! I will definitely be watching it again. I even watched the series finale of Sex in the City (I am counting the days until the movie comes out).

I am excited because the PACK IS BACK!!! My all-time favorite football player Brett Farve and the boys won the big game at Lambeau Field and the snow was falling and it was just so pretty....His wife's new book was one of the books that I checked out at the library today.

I also found the world's most perfect Valentine's Day card for Sunshine today at Walgreen's. I am so proud of myself because it is one of the coolest cards I have found in awhile and it just really describes us perfectly.

Tomorrow the big Masterpiece season kicks off on PBS and I am so excited because they are doing "The Complete Jane Austen." Six of the movies based on her books and one Jane Austen biography movie. The first one they are showing is Persuasion. I am really excited about this because one of my goals this year is to read all of her novels, so this series could not occur at a more perfect time. Plus, my cousin gave me the BN complete Jane Austen edition which is really heavy, but it is handy to have them all in one book. I printed off the teacher's guide and the Jane Austen bookmark from the Masterpiece site too. I am stoked.

More book talk. These are the three books I checked out today:
1. Slash - the audiobiography by Slash (Velvet Revolver and Guns n Roses guitarist amongst other accomplishments). He was one of my musical idols growing up.
2. Don't bet against me! - Deanna Favre's new book about her life and overcoming breast cancer. I love stories that inspire and talk about overcoming the odds.
3. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain- written by Oliver Sachs, who wrote Awakenings (remember the movie version with Robin Williams?) I am a total sucker for music and books about music. This book looks like it will be really good.

I know it seems odd to be checking out books when I haven't read the ones I received for Christmas yet, but my library is a really nice library and they order a lot of new books and since there are apparently a lot of readers in my town, sometimes there is a long wait list to read some of the more popular books, so if I see it on the shelf, I check it out. Plus, I like to save the ones I buy for trips because that way I don't have to worry about losing a library book or racking up a fine if I don't make it back in time.

I did download the Into the Wild soundtrack last night and yet again, Eddie Vedder has provided me with hours of blissful music. It's a good cd to chill to.

I did sleep in until 8:34 am today, so I am really proud of myself because I am one of those sickos that functions on 6 hours asleep every day except on the weekends when I might get 7 or 8. I did get my oil changed. Sunshine would be so proud of me. I took my Mac and my new issue of Vogue Knitting which was a good thing because I sat there for over an hour. They are always busy on Saturday mornings and you pretty much have to get there when they open or else you will sit there forever. I just had my external door lock re-keyed, but that key is at the bank because I am lazy and just use my keyless remote. I watched the mechanic go outside to get my car, and he didn't click the remote right so my car didn't unlock, so he tried using my ignition key (which no longer unlocks the door) and that didn't work so he came inside and got me and I had to tell him the abridged version of my sob story and then I unlocked the car with my keyless. My car is low-tech and you have to hit the remote twice until you hear a click. No clickie, no unlockie. This dude was really embarrassed, but there's no way he could have known my car's quirks. anyways, my car received some new oil and a clean bill of health, so I am happy about that.

Our new back door (all metal) is supposed to be installed on Monday and my sister talked to State Farm on Friday and we should hear back in about a week on the results of our claim. The bank stuff is resolved but the payroll dept at work screwed up and left off my holiday pay for New Years which annoys me because I could use that money and I have email confirmation from them that my holiday pay was supposed to be on that check. So that's what I will have to straighten out on Monday. Things are starting to get back to normal. We are making the best of a really shitty situation and the messiest stuff has been taken care of.

On the yarn front, I started another hat using RH Lipstick. It is a multi with red, magenta, and purple in it. It kind of makes me think of Valentine's Day. I organized all my new yarn into two 1 ft tall totes and my antique Budweiser wooden crate (it has a hinge lid that is really handy). One of these days I will enter it all into Ravelry, but that will happen later on because I am tired of taking inventory right now.

All in all, it has been a quiet yet productive day. My sister is in Dallas and since I haven't received any phone calls since she arrived I am assuming that she is busy having the time of her life. Which is good, she needs a little break and some fun.

Driving Around in Circles

Not literally, but it seems like it. I have been to T-town twice in the last two days plus my regular commute to KS. I plan on staying in town this weekend with my yarn and some Eddie Vedder music (as in the Into the Wild soundtrack). I might also watch some of my dvds that I got for Christmas, I don't know for sure. I have some cleaning chores that i want to tackle while my sister is away. It is easier to clean when she is gone because then I don't have to clean around her and her piles of papers. LOL. I am also going to try really really hard to get an oil change Saturday morning so that my car likes me. I am "slightly" over on the mileage sticker. Oops. I am really bad about that but in my defense, I drive an average of 70 miles a day, so that adds up faster then it would for most people, but they are mostly highway miles so that is good.

My box of yarn that my Mom gave me for Christmas arrived this week. I am really stoked because now I can start working on my Vanna afghan again. We will see, I have a really low energy level now so I find it hard to focus my attention on things.


Songs of the Week: Guaranteed by Eddie Vedder

P.S. Sunshine, I'm sending a rainbow your way.

Another Week

Last week when I came back to Oklahoma, it was a butt-numbing 20 degrees in the mornings. Today it was in the low 70s and we had to turn the heat off in January and turn on a couple of ceiling fans. How crazy is that? My sister and I managed to clean up a little today. I took the Christmas tree down and cleaned up a bunch of scuff marks on the walls with a Magic Eraser. We shredded a bunch of stuff and the rest is a manageable pile that I think I am just going to take to work and use their industrial sized shredder if I have some spare time. LOL.

I made three child's sized hats on my knifty knitter since they didn't steal those. I think what happened is that my "notions bag" was inside of my brand new Green Day tote bag that I had found on clearance at Wal-Mart for $5 before Christmas. So they must have just carried the whole thing off. One hat is hot pink (in honor of the L-Word Season 5 premiere) and the other two hats are RH Zebra (black/white/gray) and RH Mexicana (primary colors). In the spirit of finishing things this year, all three hats already have their ends woven in.

We ordered pizza tonight and ended up with Pepperoni Sauce Pizza. I am not sure what they did with the cheese, but it wasn't on our pizza for sure.

I'm not really sure where the weekend went. I feel like I accomplished a lot of things but I know that there is a whole lot more I wanted to accomplish.

In Rainbows

I heart Radiohead. I have been just hanging out and listening to their latest cd In Rainbows and I just love love love it. The hyper sneezing seems to have slowed down so I was able to get like 10 hours of sleep last night. I didn't wake up until after 9 am this morning which is unheard of for me. I am one of those freaks that naturally wakes up at 7am or so. For some reason though, my fever is back and I have been really sluggish all day, so I just went out this morning for a brief Kleenex run. I love the ones with lotion. they are the best. I used my Christmas gift card from Aunt E since my new debit card hasn't arrived yet.

Sadly, I realized today that one very important thing was missing. I had this little zip top Dickies case that I had bought a couple of months ago to keep my hooks and needles and scissors and such in. THOSE FUCKERS STOLE IT!!!! My Brittanys, my Addis, my Chibi darning needles and all my Titanium sewing scissors are all gone. I've been so sick and at work non stop since I got back and didn't even thinking about crocheting or knitting until this afternoon and I looked through everything for it and it was all gone. All I have left are my plastic knitting needles and some of my old Susan Bates crochet hooks (which is just not the same!!!). Totally ripped the wound right open. I was so upset that I called my Mommy. The irony is that I got a TON OF YARN for Christmas. I know it's replaceable and everything, but I don't feel like I can have nice things anymore, because they could be taken away from me again and I hate having both of those feelings but I can't help it.

My yarn is supposed to arrive on Tuesday. Mom had to mail it to me because there was no way it was all going to fit in my suitcase especially with all the stuff that Aunt E sent us for Christmas. Thank God she sent the presents to my parent's house.

I haven't read hardly anything this week other than some magazines. It's hard to concentrate when you are sick and I've been really distracted this week so I would doubt I would remember what I actually read anyways. LOL.

All the Small Things

Okay, so since I am up sneezing like crazy and I went to bed at 8:30 pm and am now awake mostly to the sneezing part, it sounds like a good time for an update. Our cars are getting re-keyed and the keyless entry stuff re-programmed. My Subaru is going to be the cheapest because I only have one external door lock and I don't have a microchip key, unlike my sister's Honda which has multiple external door locks and a microchip key. Tomorrow my sister will be filing our renter's insurance claim and following up with the police to get the police report. I also managed to get a start on straightening out all the bank stuff but having to change my direct deposit really sucks when I get paid weekly because they might have to mail a check to me and sometimes I don't end up getting it until Saturday and they haven't been delivering the mail lately until like late.

Somehow I managed to make it through my first day back at work but it really sucked because of my runny nose and uncontrollable sneezing that seems to be a result of all that congestion I had last weekend. Oh joy. I want my 60 degree weather back. I left for work at 6am Wed and it was like 19 degrees! Yuck!

I don't think I mentioned this but my Mom did teach me how to make the blocks for the crochet afghan that I had mentioned like back in November-ish. It's using 8 colors of her new Vanna's Choice yarn from Lion Brand and it's a variation on a granny square with the center of the square being a round of cluster stitches. The cluster stitches turned out to be a lot easier once I was able to watch my Mom making the stitch. Their directions aren't really geared towards newbies or people that really suck at reading patterns, but it was one of their free online patterns, and it's working out now that my Mom decoded it for me. I do better with charts which is funny because a lot of people think that is harder.

I think I mentioned that I saw the movie P.S. I Love You while out in the Carolinas (I am obviously very scatter-brained right now. Anyways, before I left I went to the Best Buy by my parent's house and bought the soundtrack. Shocking! I haven't technically purchased a cd since Fergie's solo album that I bought in late June. Anyways, it was so worth paying the insane Best Buy price because there are a lot of Irish bands on the soundtrack including one of my favorites, Flogging Molly. Irish music is actually really soothing to me. I can honestly say that I actually listen to all of the songs in the car which is not something I normally do.

Things are starting to put themselves back together slowly. I will be really glad when I can get back to my normal work schedule next week and maybe some normalcy. I'm going into work early this week so that I can leave early to go do all of the stuff that isn't open later in the evening.

I thought about doing a music recap of what I liked best but then I read the latest issue of Blender magazine (with Fergie on the cover) and I actually agree with their choices (as voted by their readers). They listed Umbrella by Rihanna as the Song of the Year, and anyone who has heard that song knows how catchy it is and probably secretly hums the chorus while sitting in their cubicle. I have mixed thoughts on reading Blender. It seems like every other issue is good but I do like their music trivia and this issue also did a piece on Led Zeppelin which made me very happy because I am a big fan of their music.

Anyways, I think I am going to crawl back in bed and try to get a couple more hours of sleep before I have to go into work.