Tangled Threads and Seaweed

I'm Up For A Challenge

Do you think I can lose about 7 pounds this month?  Do you think I can get in better shape in just 30 days?  Well, I do.  I want to be in better shape by the time we go to Alaska in August.  That's just 32 days away. 

Here's the plan:

  One of the things we'll be doing in Alaska is hiking, so I got some new boots.  They're just Columbia boots, on sale for around $65 at Gander Mountain last weekend.  I expected to pay more - I planned on getting some Merrells for around $120, but the only Merrell boots were vented for desert/hot weather hiking.  These are waterproof, which will be more practical for Alaska trails.  We've only got a couple of trail hikes planned so far but I'm sure I'll wear these boots every day as we walk the park trails with the kids' dogs. 

Plan 1 - breaking in the boots, and walking for at least 30 minutes a day.  I'm not getting that much exercise now, so that will be a huge improvement.  I started easy this afternoon by walking for 20 minutes.  I'll do another trip around the block this evening after it cools off a bit - its 96F right now!  The only problem with the walking (and hiking) is my bad knee.  I had it scoped in '04 and it was bone-on-bone then.  I took Celebrex for about 4 years and didn't really see a lot of improvement - actually that's when I really put on some weight because I quit walking - so I quit the Celebrex last year when we were on one income.  I started taking Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM about 6 months ago and my knee feels lots better, though not totally pain free. Anyway I'm going to resume walking and see how that goes. 

Plan 2 - of course its diet!  haha.  I'm doing some good things already - I eat a cup of raw broccoli and a cup of raw carrots every day, and an apple, a Lean Cuisine for lunch every day, and a bowl of raisin bran and a banana.  I'm doing some not-so-good things too - drinking too many diet sodas, eating some (frozen) yogurt, drinking beer, eating fattier meats (barbecue! grilled sausage links and ribs! sigh), and eating cookies (have you tried the strawberry milkshake oreos??? amazing!!!)  So - I'll at least log my food, and hope that will make me a more responsible eater.  I am a snacker and a stress-boredom-eater. My worst time is at work - I am used to grazing all day long.  So... willpower will become my mantra and my friend.  I'll start with limiting the sodas and drinking more water, and stop the snacking. One of the worst things I snack on is those granola bars. I don't think you're supposed to eat 3 of them every day! My other weakness is cookies, so I just won't buy them.  I am pretty good about cooking healthy - we eat a lot of chicken (baked and grilled) but we also eat mac & cheese with either ham or polish sausage once a week. We don't eat so much red meat anymore - a burger once a week on Friday nites (not a McDonalds or Sonic - a real restaurant burger) and occasionally I'll fix burritos or tacos - maybe once a week for one of those meals. 

As I've been writing this, we've had a thunderstorm move through here, and its down to 84 degrees.  Poor Gracie is hiding in the bedroom because she's scared of thunder.  I don't think Goofy even knows its raining.  And silly me, I've got the sprinkler on in the front yard! Maybe it will let up in a minute....  :)

 Gracie the 'fraidy cat.

Here's the latest on my sock knitting: 

I've actually got one & a half socks knitted - they are "Copper Penny" designed by Nancy Bush and I hope to finish the 2nd sock by tomorrow night.  I'm past the heel and working my way down the foot.  They are really nice. I've not been knitting every single day - I have actually read 4 books this month!  So that's why I've been working on these same socks for 3 weeks! I have a log of my books on www.goodreads.com - I'm scoobagirl there too.  I think the last 2 or 3 books I've read were "Salvation in Death" by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts), "Wrongful Death" by Robert Dugoni, and "From the Ground Up" by Amy Stewart (a gardening story).  I've got several books on deck - "Beach Road" by John Grisham and something by Philip Margolin (I can't read the title from here - its on the bookcase and I'm in the recliner). 

Next week the dogs and I are going to stay at my sister's house.  She and her hub are going to convention in Washington DC (they own a ServPro franchise) and I'm dog-sitting.  Her last trip was a disaster - her teenaged house sitter had her boyfriend spend the week and the house was a wreck.  Seriously, the sitter brought her own dog and let her poop all over the house and didn't even try to clean it up. She "thought it would be easier to pick up when it dried"... for real.  All 3 beds had been sexed in, the trash cans in the bedrooms and the bathrooms were full of condom wrappers and used condoms, and there were pizza boxes, drink cups from fast-food places, and dirty clothes laying around all over the house.  It was incredible.  I went over there to take one of the dogs to the vet, and the house sitter & boyfriend were there, screwing in one of the bedrooms when I showed up!  And she knew I was coming to get the dog.  It blew my mind.  I took pics of the mess and called my sister.  And the house was still like that when she got home 2 days later.  Un-believable.  Maybe I'm just a bitch (yeah, I know I am). Anyway I told her I'd take care of her dogs the next time she goes on a trip, so yay! I'm getting a little vacation in the middle of the summer! I plan to knit all week, and walk, and read, and maybe sew~!  (I guess Joe and I better behave huh, winkwink)

More next month........ oh, that's tomorrow!  :)

Not Much Has Changed...

I'm still knitting socks... having fun!

   This is my latest - a pretty lacy white wool sock designed by Nancy Bush.  It qualifies for the monthly challenge on Ravelry in the SKA group.  The pattern is "Copper Penny" from the book "Knitting With Handpainted Yarns" - funny huh since I'm using ivory wool.  :)  Here's how it looked when I used handpainted yarn:

  Lovely yarn but not for this pattern. I can't wait to use this yarn in another sock.

  Here's another sock that I've been working on.  Its a sweet simple little cable in a great striped yarn from Knit Picks.  Its a knit-4, purl-2 rib for 4 rows, then on the 5th row its a 2-stitch cable.  Very easy to knit! Did you notice this one's being knit on 2 -circular needles?  That's a lot of fun.  I thought I'd be a DPN knitter for life, but I'm digging the 2-circs and magic loop too.  :)

  These are my most recent "finished" pair of socks. These are a clover-cable stitch that I finished in May (I think).  I love these socks - they are knitted from Knit Picks Essential Tweed and I got 10-stitches per inch, so they are a really dense fabric. They're very comfy too!

Of course, its not the season for wooly knits, so I'm wearing the Birks with nekkid feet or else wearing sandals.  My office is usually 69-70 degrees, but its hot outside (98 today!)

I've been doing some quilt-piecing too.  We just had a sew day on Saturday - our project for the month was the Bento Box quilt.  I'm making mine from browns/tans/golds. Its really scrappy but a more controlled color scheme than I'm used to. 

Last month we started another ongoing project.  We are making "brown bag" log cabin blocks. The requirements are simply to put all the light strips in one bag, and the dark strips in another bag.  You pull the strip out of the appropriate bag for the side of the block you're working on, and you sew it on regardless of the color/pattern.  The only exception is that you can toss the strip back in the bag if it is identical to the strip it would be sewn next to.  :)  Fun, huh?  The other fun part is that after working on our blocks for awhile, we pass our dark/light bags to the next person and continue sewing.  This way we are sharing our strips of fabric but sewing our own blocks.  This project is going to be our ongoing UFO project for the months that we don't pick a specific pattern to work on.  I really like log cabin quilts.   (and I need to take some quilt block pictures)

Here's some new shots of the G's (Goofy and Gracie):

  That's my Goofy!

 And princess Gracie!

Mr. Scooba's job is wonderful.  He is so happy!  He's good at his work, and enjoys his co-workers and the people he represents.  The people he represents like him and he is doing good things. This job has been an incredible blessing.  I am still amazed at how it came into our lives at the perfect time. 

Things Are So Wonderful Around Here

I must apologize for not posting in what, the last three... four ... five? weeks.

All is well, in fact I really wish I'd been blogging during that timeframe. Several really good things have happened.  Well, at least one good thing.  I need to set it up for you:

We got the letter on March 3rd from SSI denying Joe's disability claim.  One of the reasons was because he didn't keep going to the doctor, and another reason was because he didn't take the (crappy) pain medication they gave him.  His reasons: first, the doctors wouldn't do anything for him.  No continued physical therapy, no different treatments; he had nerve-deadening shots in his back a couple times but they (doctors) quit doing that when it didn't work one time.  And... the drugs didn't help the pain, but it was the only medication approved by worker's comp.  The drugs made him constipated, and the doctor told him to use more drugs to address that.  Then he couldn't get away from the restroom, so he felt it was better to just not take any of the drugs.  OK. So he copes by walking and sometimes drinking too much.  :)

It was devastating. He's got a broken back with 3 fused verts and nerve damage in his back, legs, and torso, yet he can't get disability.  Of course, he keeps saying he would rather work than be disabled, yet he can't do anything heavily (or even medium) physically strenuous. (his official disability rating has been rated at 42-48% disabled)

Two days later, I swear this is the hand of God in action. Joe got a phone call (woke him up from a nap) with a job offer.  OUT OF THE BLUE.  He's been in the electrical (power line construction) business for 35 years, and had been asked a couple of times to take a leave of absence from the company to go to work for the union. He never did it because he liked building power lines.  The union called, on the 5th of March, and offered him a job - a PERFECT job for him!  He's the utility business rep, and he represents all the union members that work for the electric company that serves our area (Texas Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico).  Its perfect because he knows all these guys, he knows the company management, he taught a lot of these guys in apprentice school, he was on the executive board of the union local office for over 20 years.  Its a perfect job for him.  He has a company car, goes to every group's union meetings and meets with the company management whenever its necessary. He's got a laptop and can work from home, he has a cell phone and is always on call, and he will travel a couple days a week.  He's getting paid really good money, and he is HAPPY! The union business manager also told him he should stay on the hospital board of directors and on the United Way board of directors, so he'll be able to attend those things and schedule his work around that. 

Hope you can tell, I'm ecstatic. The year of poverty/living on one income has come to an end, praisethelord. We could have continued if we had to, but its sure nice to have a cushion again.  And we learned a LOT during this past year, and we are even closer than before.  + + + insert happy dance here + + +

So what else can be happening?  Well, yesterday 3/29/09 was my 1-year sockiversary.  Just one year ago I knit my very first sock.  I'm pretty proud of my knitting accomplishments in the past year.  I've completed 27 pairs of socks, and have 3 partially knitted single socks.  (Yep, there's UFOs in knitting)  My current projects are: Jigsaw Lace (the yarn is koolaid dyed by me - pretty huh?)

Kew (a leafy lace pattern) This is a different one than the one in my last post.... that one didn't work so well with the yarn. The leaves didn't show up, so I unravelled that one and found this yarn instead - I love how the leaves pop in this yarn, its called Lemongrass.

Wasp Woman (longtime UFO since October - one sock is done)

So I'm finishing these 3 pairs up as soon as I can. I hate having unfinished knitting projects. (Quilting UFOs don't affect me this way.... *grin*)

Next month's sock projects on my Ravelry group knit-a-longs: the SolidSocks group color of the month is purple.  In the Sock Knitters Anonymous group, the challenge is to knit an under appreciated pattern OR knee high socks.  I'm not a knee-high kinda gal, so I've been combing through the pattern library on Rav to find a project that's been worked less than 15 times.  Um. Not a problem.  So far I've found over 100 free "underappreciated" patterns and I'm not even halfway through the sock listings.  Of course, I'm going to do a "two-fer" and knit the underappreciated pattern in purple, right?!

What else.... we had a blizzard on Friday.... and it was in the 50's Saturday and high 60's on Sunday!  That's about par.  We already had apricots, peaches, and roses budding out!

Next post, I'll show you the yarn I've been dyeing.  I've been playing with Koolaid, Rit, Dylon, and easter egg dye!  Its a blast, and I really needed another fiber addiction, right?

Its a New Month!

It sure felt good to rip that page off the calendar this morning. I'm ready for some March. I was getting pretty tired of February. Today we have sunny warm weather, which goes very well with March.

I'm feeling a little punchy today. I've got a bit of a headache, and the stuffy nose, but that did not keep me from starting a new sock, or from going to the grocery store.  Which one do ya wanna hear about first?  Sock, right? Me too.

This is Kew, which was published in www.knitty.com in the Fall 2006 issue (its an online knitting mag, you can go get the pattern if you want to).  Its a lacy leaf design. I am enjoying it - I just knitted a couple hours this morning and I'm already to row 12 in the pattern.

It kinda looks like feather and fan but its not, it will be LEAVES. I have a feather-and-fan sock pattern I want to try someday. This is some soft, yummy yarn too. Its called Forest Edge and I got it from www.bbknits.com sometime last year - its from the same dyer that I got The Great Pumpkin yarn from, which I used in the 2 pairs of orange lace Pulsations socks I made for me and for Tara. Very nice yarn!

And here's a daylight picture of me wearing the Eleanor socks I just finished last night:

Yes I'm wearing these today. That's the rule - you wear new socks right away! No saving them for "someday".

I spent $128 at the grocery store today.  It was about time I bought some food. We've been eating mac 'n cheese with alarming frequency around here. Hey, its 50 cents a box at Wal-Mart. That's a bargain! Its very good with picante sauce stirred into it, by the way. 

I didn't really get any great bargains, except pork chops (bone-in) for $1.19 per pound. There were 11 chops in the pack, so I got 3 meals worth for less than $5. I'm fixing 3 pork chops tonight, fried in the skillet, with some mashed potatoes and real gravy. I baked a cake today - don't get excited, it was a mix - and we'll have that for supper too. Joe's going to be pretty excited to be eating some real food.

Some of the other things we'll be eating this week:  I bought a ham steak, which I'm going to serve with gnocchi and alfredo sauce and green peas.  I got 3 packages of ground round, one of which will become burritos.  The other two will go in some skillet casserole dishes. I also got some polish sausage and a jambalaya mix. I have those two packs of pork chops, plus I bought some boneless chicken breasts (got 2 meals worth out of that package too) which I can grill or bake and serve with rice, potatoes, or pasta. And veggies and salad - I got that healthy stuff too, and yogurt and lunch stuff.  There are still a couple things on my list - Joe likes a certain brand of bread and they were out of it, so he will have to go to the other supermarket. I also need contact solution which is tons cheaper at Wal-Mart. But I'm done getting out and running around today. I need to do a load of laundry but that might wait till this evening.

Joe's got a new dive class going on right now, so he's been at the pool nearly every day this week.  He tries to accommodate anyone that can't make it to the first couple of classes - one is classroom and book stuff, and the other is the swimming test and the snorkeling class.  He works around everyone's schedule to get those done. When its time for the regular skills classes, he tries to get them all there together since it takes several hours. He was at the pool all afternoon yesterday and is there again today. I think there will be another "all-weekend-long" class next weekend, then they'll be ready to go to their open water certification weekend.  He takes them to a warm spring near a place called Balmorhea down in west Texas, about a 5 hour drive from here. They will spend all weekend and do 5 dives before they're finished with the class.

OK then, you're all caught up on my exciting weekend. More tomorrow!

Bloggie, I've Missed YOU.

I really really really have missed writing on my blog this last week.  I've discovered that  the daily post (at 8:30 pm) was a big part of my life and I need it.  I guess my blog is really a little taste of my everyday activities; hope that's what you come here for because that's what it is.

First: Saturday sewing on the 21st!

This is T's flag quilt, a UFO from a group project we worked on a long time ago.

This is T's bullseye quilt - another UFO from a group project.  She's thinking of bordering this to make it bigger and quilting these 2 tops together - for a 2-sided patriotic quilt for one of her grandsons.  Cute, huh!

This is B's 1930's baby quilt with hand embroidered bunnies in the border! Is this too cute or what??? Here's a closeup of the embroidery:

Amazing, right?!?

Here's the coolest thing.  Remember we did the tumbler quilts from charms that we swapped every month for a year?  Here's how B cut her 5" squares and how she used every bit of the 5" square:

 

The main tumbler piece - #1

This quilt made from the piece cut off the right side of the charm square. (piece #3)

  This little quilt is from the piece off the top of the charm square (piece #4).

The frog, bird, journal cover, and needle book were made from the piece cut off the left side of the charm square (piece #5). These fabrics were fused to a base to facilitate construction of these pieces.

The little strip #2 from the bottom of the charm square became this:

 

called "The Proof is in The Pillow", this is a clear vinyl pillow stuffed with the #2 pieces! Isn't this incredibly clever? She used every piece of the 5" charm squares! The rest of us were just overwhelmed.  We thought we did good to just make the tumbler quilt!

Our project last Saturday was "UFOs with a Twist" which meant - we worked on each other's projects!  I drew B's name, so I worked on her fused 30's applique blocks:

 These blocks were all fused and ready for a machine blanket stitch (or buttonhole) so that's what I did:

  I used the blue thread that B provided, as it matches the sashing fabric she's got for this little quilt.

T worked on my UFO, which is a log cabin quilt called "Tossed Salad".

The blocks are actually going to be set in a straight furrows setting, turned on the diagonal. The strips are all shades of green, pales yellows, and a cabbage purple and a chard red thrown in here and there. 

B worked on T's project, which is her "forever" project. She's making a foundation-pieced "Strip Diamond" quilt that will have over 500 diamonds. This is the UFO T works on every time we work on UFOs. B completed 32 or 33 diamonds on Saturday:

 Aren't they cool? I love strip quilts.

We had Papa Murphy's pizza for lunch, and some killer Nutella Brownies that B made. yum....  Next month, we're making a group quilt (9-patch and hourglass) project - turquoise, brown, and green fabrics totally from our stashes. I think we're going to swap some of our cut pieces before we begin assembling our quilts. And we're going to have salads for lunch.

OK, next update - I've been working feverishly on these pink socks, and was hoping to finish them by today.  Um. Well. I've got the second sock knitted just past the heel flap, so I could possibly be done tonight, but its acrylic yarn and it cramps my hands to knit it for very long.  So, maybe I'll get done, or maybe not. When I'm done writing this post, its gonna be full-blast knitting until the day is done (unless I stop for a nap).

 

 They are just beautiful, and I LOVE the pattern. Its extremely easy (even though there are a couple of mistakes in the first sock).

 The only other thing that's happened lately is I had to run over to Amarillo to take my sister's dog to the vet yesterday afternoon.  He's had a cough and been taking medicine, but its not really improved.  The house sitter called my sis (she's out-of-town on business) and told her the dog wasn't doing well, so my sis made an appointment with the vet for Rascals.  The house sitter "couldn't find" the vet's office and missed the appointment, so I went over after work and got the dog, and drove across town in 5:00 traffic to get to the vet's office. (the house sitter was AT THE HOUSE taking a bath when I got there!) The dog got some different cough medicine and a steroid to reduce the inflammation, but he's really just fine. I think he and the other dog are/were just lonesome. When I got back to my sister's house, the house sitter was gone.  I filled their water bowl and they drank it dry in about 2 minutes, so I filled it AGAIN and they drank more! I checked the bowl outside and it was dry too.  Then I fed them and gave Rascals his new meds. I also left the house sitter a note about the new meds.  Thank goodness, my sis will be home Sunday afternoon. I wasn't impressed with her house sitter's skills. (the house was a mess)  

And I'll close with my new quote:

"I'm not a bitch, I just have a low tolerance for bull crap". 

Weekend Catch Up Post

This going to be a quick one - I am absorbed in my sock knitting.  I have a pair I want to finish this week so I'm cutting back my computer time temporarily.

We had a great time sewing on Saturday. I'll post pics and tell about it tomorrow. OK?

I finished the black Crusoe Socks this afternoon - here's a picture:

love them, love them, love them!  Today has been a lovely, lazy day. I have been doing laundry and knitting, and petting the dogs.  I'll have more tomorrow....

Quick Wednesday Update

Crusoe continues to progress... I'm halfway through the heel flap. It will be done by the time I go to bed, and perhaps the heel turn completed as well. At this point I would ideally want to get the gusset stitches picked up before stopping for the night, but I'm not going to push myself. I won't get much (if any) knitting done tomorrow night, since I'm going to my bunko group. Saturday is sewing day with my girlfriends. More on that in Friday's post.

My boss... I've mentioned him before.  Today, he asks me (out of the blue) if I thought we (the three billing clerks) could move some stuff out of our 3 cubicles and make room if we needed to (he has an office).  I'm like, make room for what? He said that "some people" had noticed our 3 cubicles were "pretty spacious". Um... we've been in that area since the first of August. So I just pointed out that if we moved the file cabinets out, it would use the same amount of space for them to be somewhere else, while forcing us to work less efficiently. We each have our own files in our cubes so we can easily pull files when there are questions about orders and shipments. We don't have to leave our cubes to go file in a central file area (which we can't watch over 24/7) therefore we can stay by our phones and not miss calls (and we are all 3 on the phone with co-workers at the plant and at headquarters all day long). One of the girls has 6 printers in her cubicle - two are big huge monsters that print vinyl labels for drums and other containers. Seriously, you cannot lift them - it takes two guys - they have several feed trays and get HOT. She also has a separate set-up to ship Fedex packages which entails a computer & monitor and 3 more printers. It also requires a phone line drop which we waited till the end of September to get installed.  He thinks we could move that "somewhere else" too.  I'm wondering what he's up to.  We don't have any other people in our group. Whether we consolidate files into a cubicle and make ours smaller, or leave everything where it is, it will take the same amount of space.  I don't get where he's going with this, but something seems to be up.

I had to make a quick run to the grocery tonight for some lunch fixings and a bag of dry dog food.  Our dogs usually eat prescription food from the vet (Science Diet W/D) but I ran out yesterday and I worked late tonight.  Joe was busy too, and so the dogs were out of dry food. Joe can stop by the vet's office and get a bag of food tomorrow.

Anyway, I got sidetracked - while I was unloading my groceries in the kitchen, the tip of one of my acrylic nails popped off. Before I could even pick it up (because could glue it back on, I've done it before) that danged Goofy ate it right off the floor! Aaaargggghhh.

I Like Bloglines

Remember me talking last week about putting my fave blogs on bloglines? I like it. Its easy to do, and if I want to go leave a comment, its a click away. I still have some links to put up but its sweet. I'm still ticked off that blogrolling is still down. I'm getting geekier by the day...

I'm putting in some steady work on the Crusoe sock. I'm about an inch away from starting the heel flap. I was wearing my Maizy Monkey socks today, and got two compliments on them.  One girl was all like "I can't believe you can knit socks! That's so awesome!"  Yeah, I was kinda proud...

These are some comfy socks.

Monday Holiday

It was great to have the day off today! (Although I gave absolutely no thought to the Presidents, dead or otherwise)

I slept in, and then got up and started doing some laundry. I had wool socks to wash, as well as my other clothes and a load of sheets. 

The dogs barked all day long, because this was going on outside our front door:

 

Yep, the gas company is digging up our street now.  I don't know if this goes along with the pipes in the alley two blocks down from us that are dug out. They're making an incredible mess. The jackhammer is mounted on some kind of tractor or backhoe kind-of vehicle. And it banged all day long....

Here's the sock progress as of just after lunchtime today:

 

  I knitted all day long and now have about 5" of leg completed on the 2nd sock. Yay! I'm at the point, as you probably guessed, that I just want to get these done. Its really pretty yarn, and I like the pattern, but I'm getting tired of these and am ready to move on to the pink socks. This is why I should never give in to second sock syndrome. I feel like I have to finish what I've started or I'll never return to it. OK then. Back to my knitting!

Sunday is for Snoozing

Actually, we didn't sleep in today. We took Tara (DIL) to the airport to catch her 10:30 am flight back home to Alaska. She had 2 plane changes (Houston and Seattle) and won't be home until nearly midnight Alaska time (3 am in the Central Time Zone). She'll be tired tomorrow... 

I went back to bed when we got home, and did get about 3 more hours of sleep. I think Joe dozed on the couch for awhile.  After I got up we puttered around in the kitchen making late lunch/early supper (my mom would call that "slunch"). We had skillet burgers made with chopped onion, hamburger meat, and lots of garlic and pepper and some worcestershire sauce. We fixed some Indian-style rice with vegetables to go with it. Yummm.

Tomorrow there will be pictures - I finished my first black Crusoe sock. YAY ME!!!! I've cast on sock #2 and have about an inch done already.  Tomorrow is a holiday from work, so I am sleeping late, then knitting all.day.long.  Except I'll do some laundry and change the bedding too. I love having a day off!

Happy Sweethearts Day

I'm sure everyone realizes today is Valentine's Day. My sweetie and I didn't do anything special - finances being what they are - but we did have a nice day at home.  We listened to music (we get Sirius on our dish network TV) on the Coffee-House channel, which features mostly acoustic singer-songwriters.

I made Potato Soup for lunch today.  Not as time-consuming as you might think, as it was a mix.

You stir it into 8 cups of boiling water and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  I added a couple cups of cubed ham to the soup this time, and it was really good!

  The soup mix was $3.50 at the supermarket, and the ham was 99 cents per bag, and I didn't use all the ham. So I think it was a frugal meal, without all the fuss of making it from scratch.  And honestly I think it was nearly as cheap as buying all the ingredients to make it from scratch.

Here's what Joe brought home from the coffee shop this morning:

Yep, chocolate covered strawberries. Yummmmm.  They were awesome!

We also sat around drinking wine and I knitted.

Those are my Eleanor socks knitted from cheapo Bernat acrylic sock yarn.  The color of the month in SolidSocks (Ravelry group) is pink, so I started this sock today. I needed a break from the black Crusoe sock I'm knitting.  The pink was a pick-me-up, as well as being easy enough that I felt I had accomplished something. That wine was pomegranate, which we were mixing with an Asti (sparkling white) wine from Italy. It was something we sampled recently at World Market, and liked it. It was perfect for today. 

We're taking Tara to the airport tomorrow morning to go back to Alaska. I can tell from talking to Kevin that he's really missing her alot. It probably sucked for them to be apart on Valentine's Day. (we're old enough that it doesn't matter to us anymore) I spent about an hour on the phone with Tara last night, just chit-chatting. She's getting by, but is missing her mom something fierce. I was glad I called her, because she sounded like she needed someone to talk to. I don't think they'll be having kids soon... she was babysitting her two nieces and they were making her crazy. I remember that feeling!

Better Later than Never

TGIF! I am so glad to see this day come to an end. 

First of all, things are actually better at work. Business is picking up, so I'm busier. Yay me. So that is a big relief - my boss isn't driving me crazy like a couple weeks ago.

Second, we did have Fruitcake put to sleep today.  Last night was crazy - she pulled out a claw and the point was embedded in her paw-pad.  Yuck.  Blood everywhere.  However it wasn't a big emergency - I took her to the vet this afternoon. The vet just cut it loose and pulled it out of her pad, and she didn't even flinch.  He said she was suffering from renal failure, which was causing her to pee all the time, and drink and eat a lot.  Actually (geeky info alert) the renal failure causes the body to slough off protein thru the urine and through the digestive tract instead of absorbing the protein and nutrients, so they are hungry all the time yet becoming emaciated. This results in irritation in the digestive tract which is likely why she was passing bloody poops. At the same time, she was dehydrated (part of renal failure) and had lost from 8 lbs. in September to just 5 lbs. today. He said she probably had anywhere from a week to a month left. I told him we had been discussing this all week and felt like it was really time to do it now, before she began to suffer.  So it was done.  I cried a little, but I absolutely know it was the right thing to do.

Third, happy thing!!! I talk to my son all the time, but today I decided to call Tara just to say hi. (she is so used to talking to her mom every day.... and I thought I'd just call her) (not really trying to take her mom's place, but just being there for her). She's still here in town until Sunday, and was babysitting her 2-yr and 3-yr old nieces tonight. I left her a message and she called me back later and we talked for over an hour!!! It was really cool. I enjoyed it a lot.  We will do this more often from now on.  I <3 (heart) Tara.

Fourth.... the Crusoe sock is slowly progressing.  I think I knit 6 rounds tonight Tomorrow I will be knitting full-force.  I have GOT to get this sock finished. 

Ok, time to go to bed.  Huggy love, hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow!!!

In Which I Nearly Faint

OK, we are on the verge of the apocalypse. Just so you know... Mr. Scooba and I have been married 31 years. Today he went to the store, without a list (written by me) and without me knowing he was doing it.  OMG. He bought groceries and refilled a prescription for me because he noticed my bottle was almost empty. Seriously, what the heck???

Do you think he's angling for a valentine?

Bark, Bark, Bark

Its a little after 9:00 pm, and Gracie is outside barking at the moon.  You've noticed the full moon, right? Last night she was out after midnight, bark bark barking. I hope she's getting it out of her system early for tonight....

We had a slight bit of excitement this afternoon. I headed home after work, and couldn't get into my neighborhood. The police, sheriff's office, and fire department had roadblocks enclosing the area in this map. On the news tonight, they said over 100 homes were evacuated and over 500 homes had electricity turned off for the duration of the "event".

  

View Larger Map

I hope this embedded map works right - click on the plus sign to zoom in - when you can see the area I've enclosed, the upper mark is my home and the lower mark is the leak.

Oh, yeah, I DO feel a little bit geeky because I embedded the map!  I just wish I could save it zoomed in like I wanted it.

Anyway, I called Joe, who was at home (but they let him leave). We went to the bar to have a beer and a burger, saw several peeps from our end of town there, and eventually someone got a call that the leak was fixed, power was back on, and we could go home. The incident lasted from around 3:00 pm until nearly 7:00 pm.

Woohoo, that's excitement in our town!  :)

Miscellaneous Madness

A variety of topics today....

Margaret had a good idea involving my Geeky Stuff dilemma - I can't believe I haven't GOOGLED the techy blog questions I've had come up.  I'm a Google-meister at work. Seriously, y'all - everyone is always coming to me asking questions and I just go to Google every time.  I honestly never tried googling my stuff - I spent all that time reading the FAQs and Help files on my blog hosting site and just not getting it. Big DUH there.  :) Margaret, thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I hope you'll see some improvements on my blog layout soon. (can't help so much on the content... it is what it is...)

This is Fruitcake.  She's about 15 years old....

She's been in our household since she was about 5 or 6 weeks old.  When Kevin was 10-11-12 (we can't remember) he and his best friend Derrick, who lived around the corner, crawled under Derrick's house (through the crawlspace, yo) to see the wild cat and the kittens she had there. Every day they crawled under the house to mess with those kittens until one day the mama cat abandoned them.  The boys brought the kittens to our house in a laundry basket, and I gave in and let Kevin keep one. They gave the others away around the neighborhood. (how they got away with that trick, I don't know - who would take a kitten from a couple of kids going door to door???) Anyway, she's named after a Jimmy Buffett song/album.  She's been a pretty entertaining cat throughout the years. However, she was not impressed when the dogs came into our home about 8 years ago. She's tolerated them, but she spends a lot of the time sitting in the window in the spare bedroom (Kevin's old room).

Now, she's sick and I have a feeling this will be the last week of her life.  She's always been a skinny little thing, 7 to 8 lbs. at her best. She has recently (in the last week or so) begun to have bloody poops several times a day and she sometimes does it on the floor, rather than her litter box. She's also been vomiting on occasion. Otherwise, her behavior is the same, and she still has a good appetite and runs and jumps on the furniture like always. Nothing has changed (same food, litter in the box) and her shots are current, but she's having this problem. This will sound terrible, but... she's so old... I can't see paying the money to have her diagnosed when I know I'm not willing to treat it - such as buying prescription food, medication, or even more if its cancer. (yes, I did google this - it is likely an infection in the lower digestive tract or a tumor) Am I a horrible person?  Joe and I have discussed this, as have Kevin and I, and we all seem to agree that its probably time to have her put to sleep.  I hate this, but I don't want her to go along getting worse and die a painful death, or live a painful remainder of her life.  Anyone have any ideas??? Do you really think I should have her checked out first??? Ugh. I feel like a jerk.

okey dokey. I haven't touched my knitting in a couple of days now. I've been busy working on the bloggy stuff. I need to get back to the yarny goodness. It'll only take a day to finish the Crusoe sock.

Tonight I took the easy route and fixed a frozen Di Giornio pizza for supper.  It really was ok, especially for $6. I'm thawing out some chicken to grill tomorrow night, and will make either mashed potatoes or couscous to go with it, and maybe some corn. I ran to the grocery at noon today to pick up some things for lunches at work. Usually I've got sandwich stuff or maybe a dish of leftovers to take, but I'm out of sandwich stuff and haven't had any leftovers lately, so I bought a bunch of frozen boxes and three cans of Chef-Boyardee (also a bag of apples, some yogurt, and some Diet Coke). I'll probably run to the grocery tomorrow or the next day to re-stock the house groceries. We're out of bananas, sandwich stuff, beer, and salad stuff. After eating all the good pot-luck funeral food last week, I'm hungry for some different veggie salads and some brisket or pork roast. (we had the best brisket at the Oklahoma church after the burial - it was awesome) We had some really, really good home cooking last week. We had a good broccoli-onion-raisin salad and a yummy hash-brown casserole, Texas sheet cake (chocolate cake with a boiled chocolate pecan icing), and the cabbage slaw with ramen noodles in it too. And.... pies. Lots of pies. Whew, I probably gained 3 lbs. last weekend (all the more reason to eat Lean Cuisines, apples, and oatmeal for the next week, right?)

OK, that's all for tonight. I need to get some sleep - been staying up late the last few nights and I'm paying for it now.  Y'all have a great Wednesday!