I'm Baaaaack

The good news: After eight long weeks I am back in the land of the walking and am finally able to make it up and down the stairs. This means that I can actually update my blog, yay! The bad news is that I am blog-blocked. I feel like there is so much to say and it has overwhelmed me into a block. In all actuality, I could have updated last week when I got my brace off and was able to get around with little incident, but I just don't know where to start...

I suppose good place would be to give you a piece of advice: never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever break your knee cap. It is painful and for such a small bone, it causes a lot of problems. So, avoid making bad bets at the horse track, mixing with mobsters and ice-skating. Just don't do it. But, if you must, please make sure you can knit, because I am sure that I would have been in some kind of boredom-induced stupor by now if I hadn't had knitting to occupy my mind and hands. I literally spent five weeks completely off my feet and the first two weeks, I was too doped up to do much besides watch tv and knit. Seriously, God bless the bedridden who can't knit. I really feel for them. But also, God bless the genius who first spun wool and then used what ever was laying around to knit it. They were probably on bed rest or something. Ok, so the scoop on the knee is this, my knee cap broke into three pieces, I obviously won't be running for a while, I will have to have the pins and wires out at some point in the near future, I am doing physical therapy twice a week for an indefinite period of time, I have a five inch scar down my knee, I spend a large part of my day exercising the muscles and tendons in my legs because there was a lot of atrophy from not bending my knee for six weeks, (except for the cpm machine that I used for six hours a day for about four and a half weeks). That is pretty much it. I could show you pictures of my scar, but I don't want to gross anyone out. Mainly, my knees aren't very pretty anyway, but the scar is ugly too.

Ok, enough of that. Onto the knitting. There is so much to tell you, and show you. But I might drag it out out over several posts just so that I know I'll have something to talk about. For now, lets just say that I can knit lace and mittens and finish up things that have been left undone for a long time.

Here is a hodge-podge of some of what I've been working on. I know it doesn't look like a lot but don't be deceived, the stole from Charmed Knits is about nine feet long. And I've been working on those green angel's rest socks for about eight months. Those are the would be raffle socks which are now the super lucky Friday spelling test socks for B. The hat is mine, I made it for me and it fits and I love it. Better pictures to come, I promise!

These are my first mittens. I used the house mitten pattern from charmed knits, (who knew that that book would be so handy??) and then I used the Subway Knitter's Amazing Charlie Card Mittens as an inspiration for the pocket. But, being from Colorado, we don't have much use for Charlie cards, so I made it into a lego transport system. See the "button" that I used? I simply harvested the head off of some lego dude who has been hanging around the house for a while. The picture is blurry, but it turned out so cute. I wish that I was the brains behind such a great idea, but all the credit goes to Colleen over at www.subwayknitter.com Genius, I tell you.And here is B showing off his lego transport mittens. He really did like them, despite being a little unwilling to pose for the blog.

There are more things to show and tell you about, but right now, I am in the middle of getting ready to leave for a trip to Durango to see my grandfather who had a massive heart attack a few days ago. I will be there through Christmas because I would like to spend as much time with him as possible and since the kids are on break, why not?

So, merry Christmas to you, whoever you are! I will post lots of exciting things when I get back to town, now that I can move around whenever I feel like it!

Oh Snap! Part 2

This week will be a guest blogger. It is J, the wonderful husband of Shamaree. I am filling in for my wife because of a recent accident that she had. On Friday 10/19 she was in Denver with B and a friend and her daughter to go ice skating. I got a call from her saying that she had fallen and hurt her knee. She was unable to come home that night and spent the night in Castle Rock with her friend. The next day she somehow got in the car and drove home, picked me up and we went to the urgent care center to find out that she had broken her knee cap! Yea, like that only happens in mobster and gang movies doesn't it? "I am going to bust both your knee caps!" So now she has to see a specialist on Monday and he schedules surgery on Tuesday. She has the surgery on Tuesday and everything goes well. Now she has some wire holding together her knee cap and cannot walk, popping pills to keep the pain away. She is not able to get on the computer, which is downstairs, but she has been able to do some knitting, although she has complained about being unable to obtain the right materials to knit.
Hopefully she will be able to scramble down the stairs shortly to update this blog with all the new projects she has been doing and to tell her side of the story. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she takes the time to heal. She will be in a knee brace for about 8 weeks.

More Cowbell

I gotta fever...

Oh-Kay Oh-Kay...

So, I've been negligent, I've been a bad blogger, I've been a big loser. But I have an excuse...and you know what they say about excuses. I'll not repeat it, this being a G-rated blog and all, but really, my excuse doesn't really hold any water. No, I haven't been running so much that I can't blog, I haven't had my hands tied up in wool, I've been doing nothing that would restrict me from keeping you updated on my life, it is just that there is NOTHING going on right now that is blog-worthy. Nuthin. I haven't fondled any yarn in weeks, I haven't knit much more than a few rows on the Angel's Rest (I'm about half way through the foot) and I haven't gotten started on anything else. See, aren't you wishing that I had waited until something really noteworthy happened before I went and blogged. I'm just wasting your time right now. But how about some pictures of my fabulous kids to make you feel like you tuned in for a good reason? Will that do?

Flap Happy

Or My Best Pick-Up Job (since my husband)

Or As The Heel Turns...

Huh, how about that, if I spend a little bit of time knitting on something, it actually grows. How about that?

goal and rest

Today is the last day of summer...and...Well, I am so happy that I can hardly contain myself. I actually met a goal today, and then went above and beyond the said goal. I ran a mile, then another and finally a third, and for good measure, I ran another quarter of a mile. That makes my three miles by the end of summer officially met. Isn't that exciting? Now, I need a new goal, any suggestions?

In knitting news, I have been working on the angels rest sock here and there, but I am waiting for a certain pattern to come out to knit for a friend. I am a bit preoccupied with finding just the right wool for that certain pattern which will remain nameless, because in case she checks in, I don't want to spoil a surprise...now everyone is going to be expecting a knitted surprise, and thinking that it is for them. I'll tell you that it is for a friend who depends solely on public transportation. There, if you thought it was you, and you don't ride a train to work and the grocery store, you were wrong. Sorry, you'll have to wait your turn. Anyway, back to angels rest, I have been plugging away somewhat inconsistently since the beginning of time, but I am actually using the entire swim team hour to work on it. And by George if it isn't growing. I should be done with it by the end time if I keep up the hard work. Part of the reason that I am so bad about working on them is that they are for me, and I obviously don't need any socks at this moment, if I were in dire need of socks, it might put a fire under my feet. The other thing is that I really don't enjoy knitting lace that much. They will be beautiful when they are done though, maybe I'll wrap them up as a Christmas gift to myself, if they're done, that is!

We (the progeny and myself) went to a garage sale down the street this morning. I am a garage sale junkie, and would waste all my money on other people's crap if J would let me, but I have not been to any lately. Anyway, I got Mimi the cutest little dress up outfit, and a Robin Hood hat for Jack that is actually from the real Nottingham. Only, I can't take any pictures because my camera is on the Arkansas river today. J has definitely earned a few fishing days, in between the Bose speaker and working his tail off in the office, going in at 6:00am on your day off qualifies you to take a day to your self.

I have been reading some of the "classics" lately, and I have to say that I think I am enjoying them more now than I did in college. I am not sure that I really read as thoroughly as I was assigned to. Many great books were merely skimmed to get through them. I finished Pride and Prejudice the other day. What a great book! I started Emma yesterday, and next in the queue is a re-read of Moby Dick. I am having fun reading them and then discussing them with my literature buff friends. Ahh, nothing to make me feel so smart as to have some scholarly discourse about a classical text...I feel smarter just saying it, now where are my schoolgirl glasses to complete the illusion...

You've been warned...

Never trust a face this cute, cause while she is chaming your pants off, she is also ripping the pages out of all your library books and doing this to your walls:


That is permanent marker, people, on a rented wall. So long deposit.

One happy birthday

What can I say? I'm a spoiled little brat, but I am really, really happy. My poor husband got so tired of being ignored when he called to me and hearing me sing at the top of my lungs while I listened to my iPod that he got me the best birthday present ever. EV-AH. He got me my Bose SoundDock which I have been coveting from nearly the moment that I got my iPod. You may remember. I have the best husband ever. EV-AH. Now, how to repay his kindness...

Something that might make you smile today. I know I can use it.

(You might have to turn up the volume because the car is so loud. B was on his second straight week with out his allergy medicine, so his nose was itching, he normally doesn't rub it so often. They were watching the Muppet Show. )

Because I didn't want to.

I didn't post yesterday even though I had plenty of fodder, because I didn't want to. I just didn't like the thought of talking about anything happy, because I still feel weird about all the unhappiness that surrounds 9/11. It was the saddest day in history, it was the saddest day in my life, a sadness that fell over us all for weeks and months. There isn't a way to commemorate it properly, and I won't try.

Saturday, I tried to make a compromise with my fishing-obsessed husband. I said "Let's hike into a fishing place, then you can fish with the boys, and we can all hang out as a family, doing something outside. You fish, we hike, everyone wins. " Uh, we may have forgotten that we have a quarter of a dozen kids. (3, if you're math challenged), we also may have forgotten that two of the three kids have legs that are grossly shorter than our own, meaning that we would have to carry them. We also may have forgotten that we are not entirely used to hiking at 9,5000 feet...We are a forgetful couple. It also seemed to slip my mind that I had a cold. But, we actually hiked for (I think) about five miles. Jack galley-lagged until J finally picked him up. I carried Mimi on my back or front the whole way, and B, made me carry his water and hip pack so he could carry a rock to throw in the stream. We never made it to the stream, the park closed at four and we had to get back to the car before they locked the gates, but we did have a good time and were all sufficiently worn out. Next time, I think we will have to look more closely at the map and pick a more kid-friendly trail. I love hiking and it was fun to get out of the house and see something new.

In knitting news: My friend finally had her baby, after many, many hours of labor. I am pretty sure that the baby was waiting until I got the package in the mail before she made her appearance. I finished the it Monday night, but needed to get a ribbon to call it 100% done. Last night I got a call that she was in labor and they were expecting the baby before midnight. At nine this morning I got another call saying that she was not progressing quickly, but they expected a baby before noon. I ran out and picked up some ribbon. 2:00 came, and still no baby. I walked to the post office at about 3:00 and mailed all three hats and came home. It turns out that she had the baby at 4:30 this afternoon. Ugh, what a labor. I just hope that the smallest hat fits her! She was bigger than they expected. Well, here the third and final instalment of the hat trio:

Stats on all hats:

Upside down daisy hat from Itty Bitty Hats. I used size threes on a cotton yarn that my mom got me when I was pregnant with Mimi. I have no idea what the name or size of it is. I can tell you that it was bright and had a beautiful color, and that it knit up wonderfully with a sort of light catching sheen. The white came in the same batch of unknown origin. The pale pink was my own desperate attempt at hand dying. I used red food color and rinsed, and rinsed and rinsed to make sure it would hold. I tried the same hand dying technique for the stem, but apparently yellow and blue food dye is a different chemical configuration and refused to stay in the yarn. I got extremely creative and tried microwaving it with a salt bath (like Rit dye) but no go. So, I used the Cascade Fixation and it worked beautifully.

The little green hat is a knock off of one that was made when Mimi was born. I stole her basic format. I used my own creative license on parts, but basically it is Sadie's. The flower is from Stitch and Bitch Nation. The yarn is some 100% acrylic Caron or Red heart. (In case you haven't noticed, I can't keep a ball band around here to save my life, the kids seem to think that they are meant to be ripped off and shredded.) I used size three for it too.

The purple creation is all of my own. I used size three needles for the brim, and after several rows, I reduced enough stitches to take an inch out ( eight stitches over all) and then switched to size twos (removed from a work in "progress"). The yarn was a sock weight cotton. I don't really know where it came from. Probably from the same batch that I used for the daisy hat. It turned out just how I hoped it would, though it may have to be blocked every time the little dear wears it. But it is so cute and I am pleased at the way that I was actually able to execute a creation from my own vision. Let's see it one more time since it's so cute.

By the way, those are my tomato plants growing there, bearing fruit. Yay! I can't wait, there are some that are actually almost ready.

in which I am humbled by someone great

This morning, as I was running, I was mentally blogging about how hard it is to run with a jogging stroller and how Jackson talks to me the whole time, making it hard to keep my music going because I can't hear, and how I can't talk to him and run at the same time because it uses too much oxygen etc. I had my whole list of complaints about how hard it is on this mom to get out and run when I would much rather be eating and watching tv, but good for me that I do it because it always does make me feel better blah blah blah.
Then, I remembered this video that a friend sent a few months ago, which was really moving and everything, but I didn't run then, so I couldn't possibly appreciate how moving it really is. He runs and swims and bikes and parents and doesn't even complain about it., he actually enjoys it. I run/walk 2 miles a day people, a mere warm-up for these guys. Check it out, after you grab your box of Kleenex, of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gm7XwtIJdM

Is summer over yet??

I need a vacation from summer vacation. We are so tired and over-traveled that all I can dream of is laying in bed till eight o'clock on a Saturday and not having to be anywhere at all. Since July, we have only been home for one weekend that I can think of. We keep saying that we will settle down now that school has started, and then we run off again. I plan to stay home until Thanksgiving, and maybe even longer if neither of our families are around for turkey-day. In the past, we have spent every other Christmas with my family or J's, and Thanksgiving at the other place, but then suddenly, my parents started a new tradition of flitting off to here or there and abandoning us all together. So for the last five or more years, Thanksgiving has been with friends or at J's parents. Then, suddenly, they started traveling on Thanksgiving too. And since moving, we really don;t have many friends who are willing to feed us. Poor us, I've never even baked a turkey, and if I live a hundred years, I probably never will. All of my childhood memories surrounding this holiday consist of a turkey being put in the oven at some ungodly hour and the host of the dinner being so tired by the time the dang bird is ready that she can't even keep her eyes open and nods off into her mashed potatoes. Well, maybe not that tired, but you get my drift. Sooo, unless someone takes pity on us and decides to cook for us, we will be eating turkey sandwiches and watching football (well, J will, I'll probably read a book or knit.)

Speaking of knitting...

The nice thing about itty bitty hats is that they are knit for itty bitty heads and they are quick to make. Even with all the traveling and stuff going on lately, I've managed to complete two whole hats and I am casting on another one this morning. I've got to get a move on, because my friend is due pretty soon, and tends to have early babies. But, just for fun, I'll give you a preview of two of the trio and when I'm done with the other one, I'll take a picture of it too. For some reason, my kids have been obsessed with these hats, especially the upside down daisy hat. Mimi tries to wear it and cries when I take it away from her.

Right now, I am reading Jane Eyre and nursing a smallish head cold. I am not necessarily blaming the book, she is a very descriptive author and I am a highly suggestive personality. The descriptions of freezing rain and drafty halls may have gotten to me...

I am also trying to catch up on the pile of laundry that is taller than my eldest child. How does that happen?

One more thing to update you on...Now I know that I had a goal of running three miles before summer ended...So, I am trying to get out and run more. I ran a little over two miles with out even dieing on Saturday, and I have been running with the jogging stroller when I can. I have a little less than three weeks till the fall equinox and I am still trying to make it. So there you go.

Testing, Testing 123

Yay Blogger...You make me happy. I was trying to figure out how to upload videos to vimeo because I wanted to add them to my blog and someone at blogger read my mind. This is from the other week when we went to Denver and rode the little train in a circle. I wanted to put a better video on, but it keeps getting to the end of uploading it and then says there is a problem, so this will do for a test run.

no clever title.

I envy the knitting blogger who actually makes an attempt to knit. I haven't been doing much of that lately. My angels rest socks are languishing on the needles for the second month in a row. The raffle socks weren't finished in time for the raffle and they have been cast aside only 55% done. Nothing in the queue has even been cast on or looked over or thought about since the weather turned so beastly hot that I can hardly move, let alone knit. I haven;t even blogged about knitting in over a month. Then...then, I went down to Holly Berry house and picked up a pair of turbo-knits to try enticing the sleeping knitter out of me. Nothing will wake a sleeping monster like the promise knitting at mock speed on the turbo knits. I love all my turbo knits, and I wanted a pair to make baby hats. So I bought them for the greater good, otherwise, I will not get my knitting mojo back until first snow. I also pulled out the Itty Bitty Hats book. I cast on for the upside down daisy hat because I have a friend who has a little girl due in September. So, that is what I am doing, knitting. And it is good.

I also read a book. I forgot to sing the glories of HP7 over a month ago, when I walked right into Sam's and bought it with out any ado. I thought there would be fist fighting and name calling, but no, I just picked it up off a stack that was larger than a small Zigarat and brought it home and read the whole book in about a day and a half. It was good, no, great. She is an amazing storyteller, and you either love her or you could care less. You know where I stand. But the book I just finished is Life of Pi. Uhhh, this book is haunting me. The author claims that it will make you believe in God. Well, I already do believe in God, what it made me more willing to believe in is vegetarianism. It was a great story though, and even though I already picked up another book (a lighter affair by one of those British authors that everyone loves), I can't get Life of Pi out of my head....

We went to a company picnic the other day and everyone had enormous fun. The kids really loved the rides and especially the miniature golf. I enjoyed spending the day out of my house and not having to pay for all the fun that was being had. Here a few parting shots to keep the grandmother happy! Happy Monday.

outlaw mimi
B in the "race" car

Bumper boats
The little tiny train
B, Jack and I on the scrambler. ( you can't see jack, but he is squished in between B and I and he loved every second of it.)

Dear Laundry Fairy,

In the past, I have complained about you and the response has been somewhat minimal and short lived, so I will now put my complaints in writing, addressed directly to you, which my therapist has advised.

Laundry Fairy, There are ups and downs in every relationship, I know this, I'm married for heaven's sake, but lately there seem to be more downs than ups. Often, you do a great job and I may have taken that for granted. I realize that you are not in a payed position, that I am allotted one laundry fairy in my life time. According to Wikipedia, my life expectancy is about 74 years. That means that we have approximately 43 years left together, and it disconcerts me that I will have to live with your un-laundry-like behavior for all those years. We must commit to working on our problems before another 30 years go by.

I think it might be helpful to give you a few pointers that may make our laundry-marriage more satisfying:

1. It is not helpful if you repeatedly move clean folded and separated clothes from the bed (staging area) to a basket or the floor, (or open suitcase as I found it this morning). What is helpful is placing each pile into the drawer that it belongs in. That would help.

2. Taking all the clean laundry out of the dryer and throwing it anywhere with out folding it makes life harder. It is better not to move dry laundry at all, unless you can fold it and place it neatly in baskets.

3. Anything that is labeled 100% linen or Rayon or cotton that seems to fit me shouldn't ever be moved into the dryer. It shrinks and I can't wear it anymore, and it forces my husband to have to spend more money on my clothes. This is money that could be spent on fishing and eating out, if you would quit ruining my clothes.

4. Laundry baskets are for carrying clean or dirty laundry from one place to another. If your passage to anywhere in our home is obscured by a laundry basket full of clothes, it is customary for laundry fairies to pick up said basket and deposit it in the proper place.

5. If my husband is out of any piece of clothing, it is your responsibility to alert me to this. Then I can remedy the situation. If you wait until he is searching for his socks at 6:00 in the morning, it is too late.

6. If you notice that my husband is out of any piece of clothing and you are anywhere in the vicinity of a laundry device, perhaps you can place the laundry into the washer so that it will then be ready for the dryer.

7. If you move laundry from the washer into the dryer, please refer to suggestion (read RULE) #3. If you move laundry out of the dryer, please refer to suggestion (read RULE here too) #2.

Thank you Laundry Fairy, I know that if we try to work this out we will all be much happier, because anyone who lives with me knows that when I am mad at the laundry fairy, no one gets to be happy!

Who needs sleep? I do!

I guess I shouldn't have been ringing my own bell about posting so much last post, because I went and let a whole ten, (er eleven, almost twelve in 9 minutes) days go by with nary a word. Well, I have a good reason. I've been busy. Yeah. Busy.

We went to Durango for a five day mini-vacation and to host a family reunion. Remember? The reunion was fun and we had a pretty darn good time except that Mimi kindly shared a nasty little gastro-intestinal virus with every member of my extended family. I so wanted to blame the church nursery for this one, but alas, I think it is shopping-cart related. I seem to remember her chewing on a seat belt in a Wal-mart cart the day before we left...(go ahead, go throw-up just thinking about it, I'll wait right here. Better? Me either.) Seriously, why did God make children with mouths? We should just be able to plug them into a wall and recharge them...AI anyone?? Ok, maybe not, but still, the day I forget my shopping cart cover is the day that she rides in a cart infected with the worst strain of stomach flu known to the human race? And then mouths it!? Oh yeah, she was feeling it too, and it wasn't pretty. We all got to enjoy how poorly she felt, right before we all succumbed to it. It isn't surprising that people are so freaked out about avian bird flu, this stuff can move!

(Look how innocent and adorable she looks, who could guess that she is a carrier!?)

So, the long short of it is that while I have been home for three days, I am still only feeling about 89%, so I have nothing, nothing to report on any front. Except the insomnia front. Yep, I can;t sleep, this is night number two. I am not good with out sleep, so this must end, and end now. I suppose that if I really wanted to tire myself out, I could clean house, but then I wouldn't be able to post on my blog...priorities!

5

I must be on some kind of blog roll this week, because this is the fifth day in a row that I'm posting. It is because Rae made me an awesome schedule that gives me more time to do the things that I actually like doing...like blogging.



Yesterday, in the afternoon whilst Mimi was napping, Jack and I were hanging out in the living room. I was knitting the raffle sock and he was playing with his trains when he suddenly stopped and watched me knit for a few stitches and then told me that he could knit. "Really?", I asked and he came over and "helped" me knit a row. Then he lost interest and went back to the trains. Fast forward a few hours and I'm in the kitchen making dinner (see below) and he is again playing in the living room. Then he says "See mommy, I can knit your sock." Uh, what!? Not what a person wants to hear when they are nearly halfway through the foot of someone else's sock. I ran into the living room and he was indeed holding my sock and working the needles. Of course, he wasn't really knitting, and he had only lost a few stitches, so no harm was done. I asked him if he wanted to knit with his own needles and he was so excited. So here he is doing his best to cast on. After a while, he moved on to simply stabbing rice checks with the needle. Good boy.

I don't usually do much gourmet cooking in this house, but yesterday I made my own version of the Black and Tan soup from Lady Falconburg's in Durango. It consists of black bean soup and beer and cheese soup served together in the same bowl. I It is one of my all time favorite meals and I was really craving it, so here it is. (Sort of)We couldn't use the beer because of Jack's wheat allergy, so he got rice with his soup. He also cannot abide any type of bean, and I have long since stopped trying to make him eat them (even though they are a major staple in this house), so he just went with the beer-less cheese soup. Mimi, on the other hand, loves beans more than any other food, so she ate her weight in beans and barely touched the cheese soup. J and I both ate it all and it was darn good. Not quite as good as Falconburg's, but good anyway. The biggest challenge that I have for cooking is that I can't use wheat or corn, so it is hard to thicken stuff. I tried potato starch, and it does an ok job, but nothing really compares to the old processed, all-purpose white flour.

Anyway, you would think that after eating out of a bread bowl, there would be little clean up...not hardly. Here is what I got to do after dinner...Well, not all by myself, J helped, because he's awesome.

The Real Reason We Have Three Kids...

Turns out, the more kids you have, the more chores you can delegate to them...right now, Jackson is upstairs refinishing the hardwood.

Ant Bully?

You decide...

Since early spring, I have had ants in my kitchen. At first it was one or two here and there, then they picked up numbers, and by now, I see and remove about fifty or more ants a day. I vacuum them, I sweep them, I sprinkle cinnamon on their trail to confound them and drive them away. And it is always the same story, they are gone long enough to make me think I've won, then as soon as the vacuum is up, the broom is hung and the cinnamon is back in the cupboard, they are back. For a while, I thought that I was really making progress against them, but they had actually made progress against me. They went underground and would seemingly appear out of thin air to cart off all the crumbs that accumulate in a house with two toddlers. Normally, its not my style to wage war on anything, least of all small harmless pests, but they make me feel like my house is dirtier than it usually is (and their sheer numbers are frankly alarming me, we've all seen A Bug's Life, for heaven's sake!)) so "my live and let live" attitude changed today. They slipped up and led me to their entrance. They are amazingly smart, for something no bigger than a flea. They have devised a system of getting around the kitchen and dining room unnoticed. I had suspected they were getting in near the front door, but couldn't ever find a definitive start point to trace them back to. Today, after eating breakfast, I came down to recharge my precious, er, I mean my iPod, and when I went back to the kitchen to do dishes, I found about a hundred ants flocking to a piece of pancake with syrup on it. It was a good sized piece, otherwise, I don't think they would have been so careless to blow their cover. But blow it they did. I was patient. I waited while they loaded up their little ant jaws and made a line back to the baseboard, which has about a 2 cm gap between it and the floor, (and which is how they've been getting around by the way). It was easy then. They ran back to their entrance, I just watched the ones with pancakes, they were all going the same direction, right to the door...then, out came the vacuum, and the big guns, the caulking gun, that is. Yup, I sealed up their entry point, I even pulled back the carpet in the corner and filled the gap there. I don't want to get too haughty, but I really think that is the end of my ant problem. Time will tell.

As promised, here are some pictures of the raffle sock. Just your basic sock pattern, nothing too exciting since it is for a raffle, so I am happy enough to make them and since I have no idea who it will go to, I don't even have to put any kind of thought into them.

Sync or Swim

This whole iPod thing is pretty consuming...I spent a whole afternoon arranging playlists and downloading every last cd in our collection onto the computer today. The kids ran wild through the house while I marveled at the sheer amount of work that it took to figure it all out and get it all onto my little nano. It seems that while we were all being wooed by Bill Gates, the folks at Mac were conceiving of ways to incapacitate the entire world by making us while away hours a day downloading music. Genius, I tell you, genius! For years, I have labored under the delusion that Mac computers were made for really nerdy people who only cared about seeing things in black and white and who had freakishly small hands. (I am still not convinced that they don't all have small hands, it seems like my some-what large hands just stumble all over those keyboards.) But the scales have been removed from my eyes. Anyone who can figure out how to fit five hundred songs on a little radio the size of a matchbox car can't be bad, can they?

Anyway, I finally got all my music onto iTunes and then the ones that I wanted onto the ipod (I actually had to prioritize because I had so much music, weird, I guess all those cd's were hidden under the eleventymillion Disney movies in the entertainment center), and then I happily knit about five rows on my raffle sock. It was nice to actually have something going on in my ears while I was knitting, something other than screaming kids that is. I'll have to post some pictures tomorrow (of the sock, not the screaming kids).

Nano Nano

(Nanoo Nanoo... Love that show...)
Well, I got it, I got my ipod nano.

Now if I can figure out how the spank to take off all the songs that I didn't want on it when I plugged it in, I'll be happy...for the moment that is. Then I want a Bose SoundDock to go with it. Those ain't cheap baby, so J is going to have to tie a lot more of these to pay for it!

*^/+rant~"rave*/talkstoo^much

The older that I get, the more weird things that I worry about. Seriously, things like thyroid function, and cholesterol and retirement. Things that ten years ago were a distant, unbelievable possibility are creeping up and becoming reality. Some of the things that I've worried about in the last months: will I grow older gracefully, or will I dye, tighten and suction into my middle ages? Are those blondish highlights or is my hair turning white? Am I too old to wear shorts? Am I the "too old to wear shorts" lady? Where did all this flab under my arms come from? I thought those were up here not too long ago. Is 8:00 too early for bed? How did a hair grow that long in that spot without me noticing?...The saddest part about this all is that I'm only thirty, I know, a thousand years ago I would have been considered elderly, but still, I'm still young-ish. I guess I know why no one took me seriously when I was twenty, they were all jealous, they were all just jealous thirty-somethings realizing that they were never going to be twenty again. That is why thirty somethings make it their mission to make young people feel useless and stupid. It sure happened to me a lot. Now I know why, they're young and beautiful and they all think I'm old! Ah, irony is a cruel mistress, youth really is wasted on the young. And if I'm this cynical at thirty, I can't imagine how I'll feel at sixty.
But enough of that. I'm not that old, and most of that is just jesting anyway. Mostly...

We went to the rancho again last week, after watching fireworks in Castle Rock. I started a sock for the raffle at my family reunion on the way to NM. I can't believe how fast the straight knitting goes, that angel's rest sock will never be done. I know that now. And I went ahead and broke "rule #2". I bought a new set of #2 needles so that I didn't have to try and take angel's rest out and find my spot later. It seemed to me that when I read the comments on that post, there was a sort of frown on the purchase by my spousal unit. I was willing to overlook it and buy them anyway, that is why I called it rule #2. When I told J that I broke rule # 2, he asked me if I ate in the shower. Just a thought, but if you are planning on spending the rest of your life with someone, you might want to discuss what they think is really important. I wonder what his rule #1 is...

Ok, they have changed the format of blogger and it is beginning to annoy me. I can handle the autosave, even though it makes me look down and lose my place about once a minute because the button changes colors (those of you who don't have a blog won't know what I'm talking about, but bear with me here). Then, they moved all the icons to the other side of the screen, annoying again, but I think I'll be able to adjust. The thing that is really irking me is when I put in a link, it adds all the computer language to my text now. And I can't see what the link is until I preview it. This may seem little, but if I accidentally remove one tiny bit, the link won't link. I hate stuff like that. They also changed the spell check to turn the whole screen blue. What is going on! Why wasn't I consulted? Maybe this has something to do with it:

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Of course, to me my blog is priceless, because it is like writing my own fan mail, but still, how can I expect the whole world to appreciate my genius...I am, after all a feeble old woman, right??

Let's not point fingers...

You Are a Pinky

You are fiercely independent, and possibly downright weird. A great communicator, you can get along with almost anyone. You are kind and sympathetic. You support all your friends - and love them for who they are. You get along well with: The Ring Finger Stay away from: The Thumb

What Finger Are You?

I'm not sure that I like being the finger that I could most easily live without...but whatever. What are you? I am afraid that J might be a thumb, but I guess I'd better find out, just so that I can justify our next big fight..."If you weren't being such a THUMB, we could work this out!"
**Posted much later** It turns out that J is a pinky too, now there is one pinky I KNOW I couldn't live without!

Dy-No-Mite!

I've had the theme song form Good Times stuck in my head since last Thursday, which was the official start of my mini-vacation to Chicago. I had so much fun...good times indeed. Me after 1 martini. I think I'll stick to the beer. Looking a little toothy, don't you think. It looks like my friend is holding me up, no?

Just a cool building, not as spectacular as some of the ones that we saw on the architectural boat tour, but I like the name, and I really find the fire-escape fascinating. Would you rather take your chances in a fiery inferno or try to come down off the top floor of that bad boy?

Holding up the big bean (or the cloud gate) at millennium park Hard work!

On the "magnificent mile." I only bought a soccer ball at Nike town, cause I was all out of money by then.

We had a great time, and I am already ready to go back. There are some really good deals on airline tickets, and a girl can't ever see too much of the city, at least this girl can't. I love urban living and I like to imagine myself as a savvy, sophisticated city dweller, riding trains and navigating busy boulevards...in all actuality I've nearly been hit by a taxi cab and a tour bus, in two different cities. The driver of the tour bus actually flipped me the bird, along with most of the tourists...and there were two different times where I nearly hyperventilated because I missed my stop on trains...and there was that group of senior citizens that I plowed over because I was afraid of missing the subway...and I have no sense of direction when I can't orientate myself toward the mountains...pathetic really, like a babe in the woods. Ah, but I love the thought, and don't they say it's the thought that counts??

So guess what I went and did, I purchased Charmed Knits. I am so excited! I am planning to make a Harry sweater, but I think I'll put a B on it instead. There are also some extremely cute mittens that I want to make, I've never made mittens before, but I can't imagine they would be much harder than socks. But in all honesty, I really just wanted the book for the novelty of owning it. It is so up my alley and all the better that it actually has patterns that I want to make. Now if I can just afford the yarn!

I really thought that I would be running everyday now, but I haven't had much time to spare, so you'll excuse me if I have no progress on my three mile goal. Actually, that isn't totally true. I did run one day in Chicago, and I did a pretty good run, two miles. Let's just not count the fact that it was on a treadmill, with zero grade at a lower altitude! Pretend that it was my best ever, that's what I'm doing.

Zis is vhy ve never, ever mix zee sex vid zee knitting...

I'm sure Freud would have a lot to say, I, however am rendered speechless. (even the camera didn't want to be part of such an embarrassing display)

Before I was born

I am in the throes of planning a family reunion, it is a lot of work, but one of the best things about it is that I get to learn so much family history. I am amazed at the way that our early generation lived and made their way in the world. It is truly fascinating. These people were living breathing humans and with out them, I wouldn't be here at all. I am putting a book together of photographs and I keep being taken aback by the fact that most of these people are gone, and some of them (like my grandmother, most of her sisters and two of her brothers) are still here, just much older. As I look at each picture, I want to know more and I am somehow nostalgic for a time and a place I never knew. Maybe because I can see the resemblance in some of the pictures to me or my kids, or because I have heard so much about most of these people that I feel that I know them. Who knows? But I have to say it is haunting work. What happened after these picture? Were these people happy? Are these babies dead and gone now, and how did they live their lives? The other haunting thing is that I know some of the stories and how things turned out. I look at a picture of my grandmother's sister when she is young and I know that she died of breast cancer, or that my great grandfathers twin brother drown in a stock pond when he was five. What will our children and grandchildren learn and know about us? Will we leave enough behind to put the pieces of our lives together? A little deep, I know. Especially for someone who puts all her photos in an acid ridden shoe box and positively quakes at the suggestion of making a scrapbook. But still, I can't help but wonder.

This is a picture of my great grandmother and her daughters (I think the baby is my grandmother). Doesn't it look all dust-bowlish in this picture? My great grandparents on their honeymoon in 1925

And these are my grandmothers siblings before she was born.

I am leaving tonight for Denver and then bright and early for Chicago tomorrow. I am pretty excited, but I think I might be in some sort of guarded excitement, because I am waiting to make sure that I am out the door before I believe that I get to go...

I am taking the angels rest sock with me, but I doubt there will be much knitting because I will be busy shopping. Yay! Not that the sock will mind, I haven't touched it since the temperature reached the mid eighties and I decided it was too hot to knit. I am still trying to find my other size two needle, but I have a grave suspicion that it ended up in the trash, because the last time that I saw it, it was perched atop a stack of papers and junk that was leaning precariously toward the trash can below it. It isn't too far outside the realm of possibility that it may have fallen over and landed there in the trashcan. Now the question is, do I get a new set of needles to finish the sock or do I reap the natural consequence of not putting it away in the first place?

Ok, I'm off to pack and get out of dodge! See ya when I get back.