New Shoes

My new shoes came! They are the Terrain Janes by Lands End in Concord grape. They are really pretty and they have the cushiest heels ever! I finished another veteran's scarf. My black Lambie blanket arrived yesterday and it is so soft.
I went to Wal-Mart and I didn't end up using my gift card. The movies were really picked over so I am just going to wait awhile. I did end up finding the GQ Michael Phelps issue so i bought a copy of that and I discovered a new to me color of Red Heart - Black Fleck which is a heather black with flecks of color in it.
I don't have any big plans to ring in the new year. I may or may not stay up late enough to watch the crown drop. (In Charlotte, they have a light up crown that drops in honor of the Queen City). Other than that, I'm just chilling and watching Doctor Who episodes and crocheting.

Evening update:

So it's 10 pm ET. The big question is whether or not I will be able to stay up until midnight. I did already finish the scarf that I made with the new skein of Red Heart yarn. I am working on another hat with some leftover Homespun yarn from one of the prayer shawls that I made recently. I have been wearing my new Terrain Janes all evening and they are really holding up well. I am seriously impressed with the comfort level of them. I was also naughty and bought a Doctor Who book when I was at Books A Million early today. I am on a big Doctor Who kick right now and the best part of it is that there are so many episodes so it will take awhile for me to finish watching the ones that I have not seen before.

2009 Resolutions

I think my mantra for 2009 will be simple living. Now this doesn't mean quitting my job and living in a treehouse. It is more about making positive changes in my life.

1. Be healthier. I kind of started this in 2008 but it has been up and down all over the place. Old habits die hard.

2. Actually save money now that I make money. This is directly related to the healthy living thing.

3. Be green. I am green in lots of ways but I have become really lazy about recycling and taking my re-usable bags with me to the store, so I need to be diligent about those things and think about what I am purchasing which ties back into 1 and 2.

4. De-stash! I have a lot of yarn. Not near as much as most people but I have more than I have had in awhile and I need to use it up. There is a lot of scrap yarn that could become veteran's scarves or hats for Dulaan, etc.

5. Buy a couch. Sunshine is totally right about this one. I need one. Even just a little one. Ideally it would be a loveseat with a pull-out bed.

6. Take my lunch to work practically every day. This would save me $5-7 a day and it would be a lot healthier.

I think those are nice manageable goals/resolutions. We will see how well I follow these, I think 2009 will (hopefully) start off better than 2008 did.

Black Friday 2?

Apparently, the day after Christmas is the "second black Friday." This year Target did not have dvd sales like they did last year, so I think their sales sucked. My biggest deals were my strand of LED multi colored lights for my tiny tree and the Burt's bees chapstick in the snowflake packaging (normally 2.99 everywhere) were both 50% off. Burt's Bees is my go-to chapstick and I always have a tube of it in my purse. I also bought a chocolate peppermint muffin mix at Target that was 50% off and I baked them in my new muffin tin that I got for Christmas. The peppermint gives it a nice minty taste and gives the muffin a subtle shiny texture.
I finished the shawl yesterday that I made with some Blue Sky Homespun that I purchased at Jo-Anns before I drove down to my parent's house. I bought three skeins of the Windsor Homespun at Michaels today because it was on sale and I will be at my parent's house for awhile. My mom gave me some olive green and brown Bernat Berella 4 yarn so I am now halfway done with a veteran's scarf in the brown.
I also received the news today that my friend M got engaged on Christmas Eve and is getting married in either August or September. She is still debating on the date. The interesting part about this is that she wants me to be a bridesmaid. I said yes of course, but I am not looking forward to wearing a dress, being in a churchy wedding and having my hair and make-up done. I am really hoping that Sunshine can come with me for moral support but that's kind of during back-to-school time so I don't know.
It cooled off today and rained a little this evening, but it's still nicer weather than most of the country has.

The Night Before Christmas

So I woke up at 5 am and loaded up the Subaru sleigh and was on the road by 5:30 am ET. Two things made this possible: Diet Mt. Dew and Kiehl's Eye Alert cream. I was actually able to drive 70 MPH an hour the whole way down basically with out all the traffic back-ups that normally occur. I'm still a little tired but I would rather be tired then deal with gridlock.
I managed to complete 6 loads of laundry for myself and the rest of the family. I also baked a pan of Trader Joe's cornbread for my mom and hauled my sister around town so that she could finish some last minute Christmas shopping.
I am also excited because my beloved Fossil watch is out of the shop. It only cost $35 to fix it which was still cheaper than buying a new Fossil watch. It stopped working in September and I couldn't find any places in town that could fix it so I sent it home with my sister over Thanksgiving to take it to the local watch shop in Oklahoma and he put in a new battery and a couple of parts and it is good as new.
I haven't crocheted anything today but I do have enough Homespun with me to make a prayer shawl and I have enough stash yarn to make some veteran's scarves so I will probably work on those this weekend. I started downloading episodes of the original Doctor Who series this weekend so I will probably watch those while I am crocheting.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Travels

Tomorrow morning (Christmas Eve) I am getting up as early as I can and driving down to my parent’s house. I could have left after work but I’m tired of being stuck in traffic hell in the dark, so I’m trying the morning thing. I managed to survive two very slow and dull days at work.
I am relieved to hear that my aunt D and Sunshine both made it home sans airplane disasters. My aunt D made it back home just in time for another snow pile. She stopped praying for a White Christmas last year.
Over the weekend, I bought a Listography journal at Barnes and Noble and I am hooked on it. There is also a website www.listography.com and it’s really cool and makes you think about your life and record the little things through the series of lists. I also liked the fact that they have blank pages in the back for your own lists.
I was bored tonight so I went to Target to get some road trip snacks and finally ended up buying a copy of Gorgeously Green By Sophie Uliano. This book is really awesome and I know I will get lots of use out of this book. I would also like to thank Sunshine for giving me a few of his cds that he was getting rid of, they will make my yucky drive much more bearable. I also took the rest of the two bite cupcakes from Whole Foods to work today and got lots of brownie points from my co-workers. Can you tell that I had my second call with my health coach last night? I managed to finish my leftover spaghetti from Sunday’s lunch at the Macaroni Grill and I managed to get two suppers out of the leftovers, which was great since I was trying to not buy groceries because of the holidays.
My hold at the library also came in yesterday, so I picked that up after work. I had put a hold on A Fool and His Honey, which was the only Aurora Teagarden mystery by Charlaine Harris that I hadn’t read yet. I am such a book fiend.

Shop Til You Drop

I'm not sure that I officially shopped til I dropped, but I did revive the US economy this weekend and probably increased the sales tax revenues for Wake County as well. Highlights of the weekend include:

1. Picking up Sunshine at the airport! We hadn't seen each other since June so I was really excited that he was finally able to come out here.
2. Purchase of Coach purse, affectionately known as Number 4. It's a satchel purse from their Coach Ergo collection and I even splurged a got a little purse scarf for it.
3. Driving to Greensboro and meeting up with cousin Bee and Aunt D. I haven't seen Aunt D since last Christmas and I haven't seen cousin Bee in probably close to three years. We had dinner at Chili's and they got to meet Sunshine and then we took holiday pics in front of the women's restroom door.
4. Gap jeans. I finally found a pair of jeans in my size, in the right wash, that actually fits and looks good on me. YAY! Never mind the full $60 price. It is so hard for me to find pants that fit that I could care less how much they cost.
5. Sunday morning Hot Bar at Whole Foods. Yum yum.
6. "I'm with Brad" nail polish from Sephora. They finally had a bottle in stock and it's this really nice gothy dark red.
7. Discovering the Kiehl's counter at the Crabtree Belk's. I was in heaven. I really need to find one of those jobs where all you do is test products all day long.
8. The tree stand arrived, so I was able to put up my Christmas tree just in time for Sunshine's arrival.

Two more days of work and then I am off to Charlotte Christmas Eve morning. Have a sunny holiday!

Holiday Craziness

Is it really December 13th? It seems like this month has just flown by. This coming week is going to be really busy with mega deadlines at work, and holiday shopping to finish. I am hoping that the tree stand parts that my sister mailed me come today but it would be my like that they wouldn't show up until Monday. My sister also called me this morning to inform me that Aunt D mailed her a flat rate box full of Christmas cookies so I am guessing that I will be receiving a similiar package soon. After much delay and a follow-up email this week, my member bag from the HRC is in the mail finally as well. So I'm excited about that.

I went to the library on Thursday and I was really excited because I found Last Scene Alive which is one of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries by Charlaine Harris. This book is currently out of print but the remaining Aurora books will be re-issued in 2009. That leaves me one book left in the Aurora series to finish but it hasn't shown up at the library yet. I just need to break down and put some holds on stuff. There is also a new issue of Knit.1 this week, so I will be picking up a copy on payday Monday.

I have the dept. holiday party tonight. That should be really interesting. I am also in the process of cleaning and straightening up the apartment because I have a visitor coming next weekend. It's mainly just regular cleaning and finding a place to store all the yarn that is just everywhere while I have been working on all of these charity projects.

Holiday Disasters

Friday night I finally talked myself into putting up my Christmas tree. I found the tree and my Christmas box and dumped out the ornaments. I realized I should stand the tree up and realized that the two plastic pieces making up the tree stand were not in the tree box nor were they in my Christmas box. I also realized that I don’t have a stocking hanger to hang my stocking up on the fireplace mantle. Crap. So much for being festive. I was able to set out my mini tree which is about 10 inches tall but that is all I have up.
I went to Trader Joe’s and discovered their “Oreos” that have peppermint bits inside the center. They smell and taste delicious and I absolutely love them. I love any type of food products that have peppermint in them.
I also attempted to make star shaped sugar cookies but apparently I cut them out too thick because they turned out to be deformed pentagons (but still tasty). I also made another loaf of cranberry-orange bread.
I mailed off some Christmas presents to my Mom today. They are for my cousins and if my aunt doesn’t get called back to work she is coming out here for a week. If she gets called back to work, then my Mom is going to send a big box out to them. I also sent a magazine to Sunshine (long story- but I have better access to reading material then he does). I am personally in love with the automated postage machine that they have at the big post office in town. There is hardly ever a line for it and basically if you have small packages or padded envelopes, this is the way to go.
I went to the library today and checked out four books. Apparently the Coffeehouse Mystery books that I am hooked on are very popular too because I was only able to find one of them that was checked in and didn’t have any hold requests. Here’s what I checked out:
1. Decaffeinated Corpse – Cleo Coyle (from the Coffeehouse Mystery series, you will learn a lot of useful information about coffee by reading this series – I am a wiser coffee drinker now).
2. Here If You Need Me – Kate Braestrup – I ended up reading this memoir today and I really enjoyed it, so I am not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading this book. She’s not your typical widow nor your typical chaplain.
3. Alfred & Emily – Doris Lessing (07 Nobel Prize Lit Winner)
4. Poppy Done to Death – Charlaine Harris – This is one of the books in the Aurora Teagarden series. Anything written by Ms. Harris is hard to get at the library and a lot of the Aurora Teagarden books were out of print and are in the process of being re-released.

I did finish reading Alice finally. It’s the biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Teddy’s oldest daughter and quite a character). I also read The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling and The Duggars: 20 and Counting! By Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar. Honestly, I will read practically anything, as evidenced by my double-stacked bookshelves.
Sunday is knitting group at the big mall. I am planning on getting there early so that I can score a parking spot in the garage and not get attacked by shitty drivers. The only bad part about our meetings that fall on Sunday is no Chick-Fil-A. I have no clue at all what project I am going to take because I finished the big brown veteran’s scarf the other night and I am over halfway done with my holiday scarf which I am crocheting using the sparkly white Wool-Ease. It reminds me of freshly fallen snow glistening in the winter sun. I don’t do holiday knitting or crocheting, so I can pretty much make whatever I want to.
On my ipod:
1. Uh Huh Her – especially like Dreamer and Not a Love Song from their latest cd Common Reaction, the whole cd truly rocks.
2. The Killers – Human
3. Shontelle – T-shirt (this song has a really catchy hook)
4. You Found Me – The Fray
5. Kanye West – Love Lockdown and Heartless, I am really loving his new album but all of his cds are really good
6. Gavin and Stacey - I love this show from the BBC. Why does the BBC put out all the cool shows?

Where Did the Weekend Go?

My sister left for the airport this morning. There is also a slow steady cool rain slamming the east coast. I don't know why it always has to wait to rain until the day I have to leave to drive home.
I was playing around this weekend and my ideal MacBook Pro is $2300 ish. this includes adding the remote, making it 4gb of RAM and 320 gb hard drive and adding the special airplane power charger in. Because if I am going to upgrade I might as well get what I really want and I still have a $400 computer claim coming to me from my Insurance claim last Christmas that I hadn't used yet. I would also like to state for the record that Mackie still works perfectly, she just has a nearly full 80 gb hard drive and the older operating system. I am 97% sure I will go ahead this and buy it in December when my bonus is paid out and this would be the first fancy thing I have purchased since I upgraded my career. As i pointed out to Sunshine last night, I would rather have shiny electronics over a couch any day. who can resist a speedy, reliable laptop with a BACKLIT keyboard?
I am not really looking to my 3.5 + hour drive back home. Traffic is usually better on Sunday then it is coming down on Friday night or the eve of a major holiday. The dogs are fussy this morning because it is raining and they can't play in the backyard and because my sister left and they know I will be leaving soon too.

P.S. The scarf count is 4 for the weekend.

Black Friday

It's just after 8:27 am ET and I have officially survived Black Friday. I set my cell phone alarm and my sister and I drove down the block to Target which was opening at 6 am. Neither one of us really had "have to get" items, I mostly wanted to go for the novelty of actually being able to go to Target at 6 am since I am an early riser. Here is the breakdown:

Target Stop 1 - They win the prize for fastest checkout, most civilized crowd and they give you a map showing where the "hot deals" items are. Purchases included:
1. deodorant (i was almost out)
2. August Rush on dvd for 5.98
3. Cars - for my sister - 11 ish
4. Padded envelope
5. Small box
6. Jelly Bellies
7. Secret Present for Sunshine

Linens N Things Stop 2
1. Fiestaware gusto bowl
2. Fiestaware salad plate
3. Byo 15 inch laptop case - it's so bright and cheery and it will be perfect for Mackie the Second which I will buy when my bonus pays out in Dec.

Books A Million Stop 3 - received free tote bag
1. Secret Present for Sunshine
2. Anne of Ingleside
3. French Pressed - one of the Coffeehouse Mysteries

Panera Bread Stop 4
Hey, I needed a bagel! I was hungry

Dunkin Donuts Stop 5
My sister hates bagels so I used a coupon to buy her donut. I also ended up with the world's nastiest latte and the world's cutest little coffee cup ornament

In other non-shopping news, I finished two scarves for the veterans. We also delivered the turkey and fixings to my mom's church's program for shut-ins without spilling turkey all over the trunk of my mom's Toyota Rav 4.

Afternoon Update:

The Book Rack Stop 6
My sister and I went to this local used bookstore because I had seen a bunch of commercials for it on HGTV. I ended up buying two more books. It is one of the larger and cleanest used book stores that I have been to in awhile.

I also forgot to mention that I finally made the Trader Joe's Cornbread mix yesterday for Thanksgiving. It turned out so nice and moist. Even Mom was impressed with the mix.

And Miles to go...

I hate holiday traffic. It sucks a big one. Driving to Charlotte sucks a big one and I have tried three different routes now.
Now that I have vented, onto the good stuff:
1. Load #2 of laundry is now in the dryer. this means I might have something clean to wear over the holiday
2. Mom has fixed the V in the Victory scarf.
3. I love my new North Face purse
4. Free wi-fi at my parent's house
5. My mom bought me a 2 liter of Diet Mt Dew, what a lifesaver after the holiday traffic
6. My doggies and my sister (she had no delayed flights, how lucky!)
7. The IKEA Charlotte now has a light up IKEA sign, so hopefully that means it is getting closer to opening?
8. Two whole glorious days off work. YAY!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving! I promise I will have an update after Black Friday to break-down how much I ended up spending.

Shimmer

This has been a hectic weekend. Saturday, I ended up going to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert, which was really awesome. I loved all the lasers, and pyro and the platforms and all the stage effects. The musicians were really awesome and you could tell that they were really passionate about their performance. I would definitely go to one of their shows again. I will probably end up a couple of their cds.
I was able to mail off three scarves for the Knit Your Bit campaign @ the National WWII Museum. It worked out well that way because the only box that I had left would only hold three scarves. The post office was a zoo so I ended up using the automated postage machine for the first time, which is really great if you have a small, normal package to mail.
Today, I went to the 11:15 am showing of Twilight. I am very pleased with how the movie turned and I will probably end up going to see it a second time in the theater. I have read the entire Twlight saga and I am pleased with how it transferred to the big screen. Hopefully, they will do a sequel, but that would only be good if they could get the other actors on board. It was also cool to figure out where they used certain songs that I had heard on the soundtrack prior to the movie. I loved Edward’s house and his bedroom. It was so cool and I really wish that I had his cd collection. I would talk more about the movie but I would hate to spoil it for anyone that would actually be reading this blog and wanting to see the movie.
I finally finished the knitted shawl from hell this weekend, so I ended up starting up some more veterans’ scarves out of some Vanna’s Choice yarn.
Anyways, this week is Thanksgiving week so it will be crazy because I am driving down to my parents’ house and my cranky sister is going to be flying in for the holiday so hopefully she doesn’t have any delayed flights.
In between all of that, I have been reading and crocheting mostly.

Monday

Sunday ended up being a pretty uneventful day. I went to Starbucks and read the morning paper and then ended up going to Target to buy a couple things that I had forgotten to buy when I was there on Friday night.
I finished my scarf that I made out of the Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Purple #024 that I had purchased on Saturday morning. It’s just so soft and a rich deep purple, that I just crocheted it up so fast. I think I am going to make the sushi wallet next from the kit that I bought at A.C. Moore Friday night.
I am really excited because I purchased gas for $2.09!!! That is awesome for my area because we have some of the highest gas prices in the nation. I put in ¾ of a tank for only $22. It just makes it so much more manageable.
I also baked another loaf of cranberry orange bread. I know it’s not fat free but it is a seasonal item so I am going to enjoy it while it lasts. Plus, I had one last foil loaf pan that I needed to use up because I when I purchased the foil pans they came in a 3 pack. I plan on making the cornbread some time this week or maybe next weekend. I also got to use the cake tester and the mini spatula that I bought at Crate this weekend.
Music of the Week:
1. Twilight soundtrack – OMG this soundtrack rocks. I can actually listen to the entire cd without skipping a track. Such a rarity for me and I think the songs were excellent choices for the movie and fit in well with the series
2. The Magic of Lang Lang – I really enjoy Lang Lang’s style and it was the perfect cd to listen to after finishing his autobiography earlier in the week.
3. Songs of Joy and Peace - Yo-Yo Ma and Friends – Technically, this is a holiday cd but I think you could honestly listen to this cd year-round.
4. Heartless single - Kanye West – Love Kanye! I really like this single and it has catchy words and a nice beat.
It was really hard picking music to listen to in the car this weekend because I had purchased 3 cds in one weekend and they were all awesome. It was budgeted though because I had felt like I was in a music rut recently and listening to the radio really annoys me because it is always talk radio on my way to work in the morning and every station has like 20 songs that they always play so it gets boring for me.
I’ve started reading Charlaine Harris’ Aurora Teagarden mystery series. I don’t know what I am going to do when I run out of her books to read. I have read all of her Sookie, Lily and Harper series, plus her two non-series books and so Aurora was the one series I hadn’t read yet. I’m not reading them in order either because I just went with the two they had at Borders when I was using my coupon. Usually between Borders and Barnes & Noble, I can complete a book series. People always ask me how I find the time to read so much and I have two explanations. One, I am a fast reader. I have tried to read slow and it just doesn’t happen. Two, I make the time. Honestly, I read every day whether it is 30 minutes or 3 hours (on the weekends). If it’s something you love to do, you can make time for it, even it is just a little bit every day. Books + Yarn + Music = My Bliss. I could do a books of the week list but then I would have like 20 books on the list and then I would have to confess to how much I actually read. LOL. Reading is Sexy (and fun).

Monday Update:
I did end up registering my shiny new Starbucks gold card. I had forgotten what my Sbux user name was so i had to call Sbux customer service today and they were so friendly! Anyways, now I am all registered and life is good. Also, I had to go to the library after work because I ended up reading all the books I purchased this weekend. Does this mean I need to get out more? I couldn't help it that they were all so good that I didn't want to stop reading them. :)

P.S. SQUEEEEEEE!!!!! The Twilight movie comes out this week! Finally!

Fierce!

I bought Project Runway Season 4 on DVD this weekend and I have been saying fierce! a lot without even realizing it. It’s such a fun word to say.
It has been a stormy weekend. It was pouring a ton Friday evening after I got off work and people tend to drive like idiots when it is dark and stormy, so I didn’t do as many errands Friday night as I normally would have.
Saturday morning I slept in until almost 9 AM, which is a big deal for me. I went into the big city to go to a LYS to get a skein of yarn for the Starbucks & Yarn swap. I don’t want to say what kind just in case my spoilee reads this before the package arrives. I went to the Whole Foods next door and ended up getting a couple of Christmas presents for friends from their Body section. I also went to Quail Ridge Books & Music, which is this really awesome independent bookstore. I ended up purchasing two books from them and I just find it really refreshing to go to their store and browse through their selection and their staff is really nice too.
After my trip down indy-land I went to the big-a** mall. I needed to pick up some Christmas presents at Crate & Barrel which I HEART very much. I made it to the mall at 10:30 so they hadn’t been open very long and it was already hell. I am so over holiday shopping. I told my mom that I was ordering everyone else’s presents off the internet. I did order her an extra set of Denise cords and an extra 13 inch tips for her Denise circular set like she wanted. My dad is getting a gift card to BN because that will make him happy and I’m not finished with my sister’s yet, but I did buy her some goodies at Crate today.
But, I did get a box at Crate so I was able to mail my swap package off because Target was out of the tiny sized boxes when I looked Friday night. I was really proud of myself because my only purchases at the mall were lunch at Chick Fil A and my Crate goodies.
Then I came home and packed up my swap goodies, mailed them off and then went to BN to look for a magazine for my Mom that she had asked me to find and I lucked out because they had it.
This evening in between the rain storms, just as the sun was setting there was a really fierce rainbow, clear as day, that spanned the whole sky and it was the coolest thing in the world to see because it was so natural and you don’t always get to see the full rainbow and Sunshine and I have this thing about rainbows. Unfortunately, I was out shopping sans phone and camera, so I didn’t get to take a picture.
This week is going to be exciting. Twilight the movie comes out and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I am looking forward to seeing my sister and having time off from work but the drive down to Charlotte is really going to suck with all the traffic.
While I was at the yarn store, I fell in love with Mission falls 1824 Wool and ended up buying three skeins of this deep purple to make myself a simple scarf with. It is so soft and I just loved the color and the price is nice. I am almost finished with skein 2.
I’m not really sure what my plans for Sunday are. I know I will make my pilgrimage to Starbucks. It’s more fun going now that I have my Starbucks Gold membership. I will probably also be reading some of the FIVE BOOKS that I purchased this weekend. Oops. At least I share my books with my friends (well the trust worthy book lovers only). Reading is the perfect activity for crappy weather and I had some coupons this weekend to use at Borders so it was all good.

Happy Birthday Sunshine!

Today is Sunshine's Birthday. Happy Birthday Sunshine! I'm not really sure if he still reads my blog but I'm going to say happy birthday anyways. Unfortunately we live in two different time zones, otherwise I totally would have bought him some birthday coffee at Starbucks tonight.

I'm at Starbucks again. the peppermint mocha twists are horribly addictive, more so then the pumpkin spice because the peppermint mocha is like liquid chocolatey goodness.

I also downloading a lot of performances by Lang Lang, the famous pianist. He has his own Adidas shoes! They are really cool and if they weren't $125, I probably would have bought them on sight. Anyways, I had gone to the branch library last night to return my one week books. Lang Lang's new autobiography was on the shelf and I was like why haven't I heard of him before? Anyways, I stayed up really late last night reading that book and The Soloist by Steve Ayers which is about a reporter's unlikely friendship with a cellist. As a result, I ended up spending like $10 on Lang Lang and Yo-Yo Ma downloads through itunes. I really do love all kinds of music and I tend to listen to classical music more in the winter time.

I also found two more of Charlaine Harris' earlier books that aren't in a series, so I will have those to read this weekend. I am also really close to finishing a scarf I made with some yarn I received in the Starbucks & Yarn swap earlier this week.

It's supposed to be rainy this weekend. yuck. that just means I am going to get soaking wet when I am running all my weekend errands.

Musings from the bottom of a Starbucks Cup.

Sunday Musings.

I ended up having the busiest weekend that I have had in a long time. The weekend ended with knitting group at the mall and a trip to Crate and Barrel. I didn’t end up buying anything there because pay day is this coming Friday but I did get their holiday catalog and I saw a couple of things for Christmas gifts that I will pick up for this coming weekend.
This morning I ended up finishing the Covered Bridge Red shawl, so now I can go on hiatus from shawl making. I started Veteran’s Scarf Number 2 just before knitting group and ended up finishing it when I came home from knitting group. I will finish Number 1 once I have my mom diagnose what I did wrong so that I can start it over and do it correctly. It has an open work V on each end of the scarf and would look really cool except for I think I have a counting problem or something. I ended up starting Number 3 while I was listening to vintage episodes of Lime N Violet. For Number 3, I am using Plymouth Yarn Encore in a light heather gray. I had impulse bought it at my LYS the other weekend because I liked the color and it was only $5.50 or something like that with a lot of yardage. I brought it home and I was basically like what in the hell am I going to do with this? Well, then I decided that it would make a nice Veteran’s scarf because gray is a nice neutral, manly color. I am using my size L Brittany hook so it is working up fast. I think I have about 12 inches done right now. I will probably have it done by the end of the week.
I’m not really sure where the time has gone this weekend. I wasn’t really home Friday night, Saturday was a blur and Sunday flew by because I had my Sunday morning Starbucks run and then knitting group. Let me state for the record that I enjoy getting up early on Sunday morning for the sole purpose of going to Starbucks and drinking coffee and reading the morning paper. It is my bliss.
I am really fortunate because I don’t have any holiday crocheting this year. We finished the prayer shawl quota for the nursing home Christmas project early so I don’t have to hurry to make those. I mailed off my scarves for the Special Olympics projects and the Red Scarf Project. So now, I think my holiday crocheting is going to be making scarves for the Veterans as part of the National World War II Museum (in New Orleans) Knit Your Bit campaign.

Monday Evening Update.

Work was lame today. My boss had her head stuck in the clouds and people were taking "vacation" so it was ask Shoegirl Stupid Questions Day. However, it was all worth it when I came home and found a Starbucks and Yarn swap package on my doorstep. Yarn, candy, a cup cozy and a new Columbus city mug. How exciting is that! I have a pic of the loot on my Flickr page. I was so excited, I ended up going to Starbucks and getting a Peppermint Mocha Twist that went straight to my big butt.

I am also halfway done on Veteran's Scarf Number 3. I might have to have a finishing party for myself sometime this week.

I am going to have to dig through my bookcase for a book to read. I have read my library books all ready but I have a hard time finding epic novels of 500 pages or more to read that don't put me to sleep. More pages = lasts longer.

No More Rain Please

Yesterday was the perfect Fall day and then this morning I woke up to a downpour. I had such a busy day yesterday. We had our department picnic at the lake. There was games of catchphrase and cornhole (a bean bag toss game). Chicken and steak kabobs. Chocolate mousse cake. Accountants might not make it out of the office much, but when we do, it’s in style. Later that night I went to an Asian Bistro in town with some co-workers and we saw the movie W. Disclaimer: All of us who attended the movie were liberal Democrats. The movie was good, Oliver Stone movies never disappoint me but this movie was 2 ½ hours and I think it could’ve been at least 30 minutes shorter. It also didn’t help that we went to the 9 o’clock showing.
I am still on a Charlaine Harris kick. This week I read the first three books in the Harper Connelly series, which was also really good. I just wish her books didn’t have such a long waiting list to read them at the library. I also finished reading Gregory Maguire’s A Lion Among Men which was very good. I really hope he writes another one and my vote is Glinda for the next one.
I finished the Colonial shawl. I am almost finished with skein 2 on the Covered Bridge Red shawl. This is Homespun, of course, and the shade of red does reminded me of the faded red covered bridges back in my home state of Iowa. This will be the fifth shawl I’ve made since I last visited my Mom back in October. We have all the shawls made for the nursing home Christmas party but we are making extra in case they have more residents or in case they need to give some to church members.

Weekend Tales

Saturday Tales

Last night was Halloween and I had some kind of stomach problem and so there was no candy eating at all. I stopped at Target after work to get some medicine and I had purchased a bag of peanut butter M and Ms which was a good thing because I ended up with 5 little trick or treaters knocking on my door at 8:15 pm ET while I was watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show on dvd. Since they said trick or treater and were actually little and dressed in costume, I gave them half the bag of candy. My sister had 0 trick or treaters and my parents had 68 but they live in a subdivision.
Yesterday we also had a sample sale at work for charity, so I finally got a light pink t-shirt with the company logo on it for $5 (these shirts always sell out first) and then I got two more shirts for my cousin’s little girls little K and A-dolly. Their shirts are mini-versions of mine and are so CUTE!
I had a 40% off coupon to Borders so I was able to buy the new Cobain Unseen book. It was nostalgia for me because I was only 14 when he died and we used to listen to Nirvana all the time and tape their music videos at sleepovers when I was in middle school and early high school. I have worn out my In Utero and MTV Unplugged copies of their cds and my sister was able to find me used copies over the weekend because Target was selling Nirvana cds for $15 and I’m not paying $15 dollars for CDs that came out in my YOUTH!

Sunday Tales

I have started the second skein on the Colonial shawl which I accidently called the Barrington shawl in my previous post. I know own all the Sookie Stackhouse books except for the most recent one that came out in May because it is in hardcover still and all my copies are mass market paperback so I thought that would be weird.
I made Pumpkin bread and Cranberry Orange bread from the mixes I bought at Trader Joes. They turned out really good but the mixes aren’t for the same size bread pan so my Pumpkin bread is really tall because I didn’t realize how many different sizes of bread pans there was. I might have to buy some more of the Cranberry Orange mix because it was really good. The pumpkin bread is good too but it has a LOT of cinnamon in it for my taste. Both of them are really easy to make and I have a cornbread mix that I will probably make next weekend.
I also finished reading The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story by Julia Reed and two of the books in Charlaine Harris’ other series, Shakespeare’s Champion and Shakespeare’s Trollop which are in the Lily Bard mystery series. I had checked those two out from the library because those were the only two Charlaine Harris books on hand at the branch closest to me.
I made a little trip to the local LYS yesterday. I got a Noni bag pattern, another crochet Cabbage Patch Kids vintage booklet, a Brittany K hook, a skein of Plymouth Encore in light gray and a skein of Cascade 220 Heathers in a nice deep red. I was hoping to find yarn for the Starbucks and Yarn swap but I didn’t find anything that just jumped out at me and I am always afraid that I am going to bump into something and get smothered in an avalanche of wool there.
I mailed off Sunshine’s birthday present (even though it is like a couple of weeks early), the Special Olympics scarves, the shirts to K and A-dolly, the Project Runway 5 Pool yarn for the winner, and the baby hats for the Knit One, Save One campaign which sponsored by Save the Children. The local post offices have cut out or cut back their Saturday hours but luckily the one near Whole Foods is still open on Saturdays until noon.
I bought the world’s cutest reusable lunch sack at Whole Foods yesterday for $1.99 and they have a new reusable grocery sack that Sheryl Crow designed that is really pretty so I bought that too. They are good for yarn storage in a pinch and pretty much anything that you would need to haul around.
I still don’t feel 100% great, but I still managed to salvage this weekend and get a lot of things done.

Quick Thoughts

For Halloween this year, I am going as myself. I will do boring things like payday errands and hole up in my recliner with a book, some yarn and maybe even some candy.

I am almost done with skein one of the Barrington shawl. I re-read Twilight this week and now I am reading A Lion Among Men - the third Wicked Book. I really love it. I am not disappointed at all. Gregory Maguire definitely ranks high on my list of favorite authors.

It has been a long week and I am just glad that tomorrow is Friday and Jeans Day and Pay-Day all rolled into one. I also need to work on my swap packages this weekend. I am going to attempt to be creative with them. We will see.

Crap Weekend

Well, it all went downhill Saturday afternoon. Mom got the call from Aunt D that her Yorkie Molly had passed away so that was very very sad. I am comforted that Molly is no longer in pain but I feel for my Aunt D because Molly was her companion and she got Molly the summer her middle daughter died which was 12 years. My aunt D says she is going to get another dog but they are waiting until next summer so that she can train the dog when it is warmer out (aunt D lives in Northern Iowa which equals cold).

Sunday night my sister called with the news that she had fried her wireless router so she was all worked up about that and I had to arise from my peaceful slumber at 11:43 PM ET to find my old wireless router manual with the tech support number so that she could call and find out if it was really fried. Did I mention that this was our third wirelss router? First one died in a thunderstorm. The second one was stolen in the robbery. The third one was fried this weekend. My sister is cursed with electronics.

I finished the Tudor shawl and started one with the Barrington Homespun and I crocheted so hard this weekend that I finished the Barrington shawl Sunday afternoon. I only have one bag of homespun left from my Mom. Oops. I should have let her give me more because I thought four sets of homespun (3 skeins each) would last me until Thanksgiving. Oops.

I also finished my library books (I only checked out 2 books and a cookbook). I also finished the last Sookie Stackhouse book that I had purchased at Borders. I ended up staying up late Friday and Saturday night just because I could.