Friday, May 30, 2008

Where have I been?

Where have I been? Uh, nowhere really. Just too lazy to blog these days. It is a vicious cycle really. I haven't been knitting, so I feel that I can't really blog because this is supposed to be a knitting blog, but if I wait to blog until I knit, well, then it won't be much of a blog at all, will it? So the guilt keeps me frozen. To blog, or not to blog, to knit or not to knit? Both good questions. I'm taking the middle road tonight. I can't sleep, so I thought it would be a good time to knit, or blog. I guess blogging won out this round.

So, what has been happening around here? Well, first, I'll throw in some obligatory knitting content, for those keeping track. I handed off the dayglo slippers and hat to a very hugely pregnant forth grade teacher well over a month ago. She actually really like them, and then quickly gave birth to a baby girl so she could try them out. I hear tell (tale?) that the baby has already outgrown them, after only wearing them a few times, which is probably for the better, now that the weather is getting warmer...not. Anyway, I started the other fingerless glove on a trip to the Arkansas River a while back, but since I hadn't worked on it for so long, I forgot which needles I was using, and now I have to start all over again. This will be the second time, since one ill-fated morning, Mimi drank my cold coffee,(while I was showering, under the watchful eye of her four year old brother) and in a caffeine-fueled rage, ripped out the entire thing. So, I can't remember what I did to achieve the darn thing in the first place. I'll need to play around with that...

What else, what else? My new gym opened up, and I was going a lot at first, then our entire family (excluding B, but it is early yet) got way-laid by a nasty stomach flu. I really wanted to blame J for it, but since I can't very well trace the origins before it hit him, I guess I'll let him off the hook. Luckily it goes through a person rather quickly, so only an entire productive week was lost. (there are five of us, twenty-four hour bug, you do the math) And since I have a rule that no child of mine will set foot in any kind of nursery within forty-eight hours of vomiting, there goes my whole week. But we are all feeling better by the minute, and hopefully B will be spared. I was really hoping to miss this one, since I signed up for a 5k on Sunday. Yes, you read right, I am running a 5k, or at least part of it. I got some new running shoes and I have been running a little on the treadmill at the gym. They have TVs, so I get a little excited about hanging out on them, especially since they also have cable. The other day, I ran right through Beverly Hillbillies. It was great! And my knee was fine. So, I am going to participate in my first ever race, with my friend from Denver. I am a little excited, and I was worried I was going to miss it because I felt so badly yesterday.
We (as in J and I) watched the new Rambo tonight. Don't worry if you haven't seen the first eight, I never have and I was able to keep up with the plot just fine. Although, to call it a "plot" may be a bit of a stretch. There was maybe three seconds of dialogue and then there was about fifty-five minutes of fantastically gory fighting scenes and then it was over. J and I both agreed that a good fighting flick shouldn't try to be too deep, just blood, guts and vomit, thank you very much. There are some edgy-artsy-type scenes where blood and body parts actually come flying right into the camera lens. Genius, I tell you. Ugh, not really. I gather that Rambo hasn't really transcended his past, and that there may be another movie in his future...Maybe they will show it in the cardio-cinema. That would probably get J to join me at the gym.

We took a nice trip to Springer for Memorial day. The kids love going there so much, it is always so much fun to see them play with their cousins and enjoy their grandparents. Except for the wind, it was perfect.
Yes, that is a giagantic mud pie, and here is the mastermind behind it:


We had a lovely dinner on the fine china, we got to drag stuff around with a tractor, and I even made a gate, which was strangely satisfying. I might take up metal arts...stay tuned. Anyway, I love to see my husband do farm-type stuff. He knows so much and it is attractive to see my life-long companion using his brawn, as well as his brains. It makes me remember that I chose an alfa male. No wonder he likes Rambo.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Trojan comes full circle

Back when I was a smallish-type child, there was a book in my local library that showed a picture of a big wooden horse on wheels, and then in a little side picture, it showed that the horse was full of men, waiting to sac a kingdom once it was pulled inside the castle gates. It was a trick, the trojan horse. It was bad and you didn't want it.
Then, when I was a lot older, trojan meant something totally different. It meant protection, and you definitely wanted it. The trojan was good and it worked. Trojan was your friend.
Now, a few weeks ago, I got a little window on my virus scanner that said it had detected a trojan. This trojan is bad, you don't want it. End of internet, end of word, end of e-mail, myspace, blogger, facebook, msn. Beginning of major headaches, worry (Who has been reading my bank statements? How will I know if my identity has been stolen before someone buys a yacht in my name?) irritation, frustration. This trojan is a real pain in the patella, and I don't say that lightly. Trojan is bad again.