Teaching Mom to Knit

Remember how I was going over to mom's house to bring her yarn and needles so she could try knitting??? Oh geezzz.......it didn't really go well at all. I was trying to teach her to do the long tail cast-on. I know, I know, that is a terrible introduction but that's what she picked out of my lesson to try and learn. So we fiddled with it for a while and it just didn't really go very well. I was trying to convince her that it really is fun if she would be interested in learning it. Then, you are not going to believe what she said to me. She told me this "I don't want to learn to knit because you can't really make anything that is USEFUL.". What?!?!?! Are you KIDDING me?? I could now enterain you with a LONG list of "useful" things that you can make from knitting but, since you are knitters (which is why you are reading this crazy blog) I am simply wasting my time and boring you. Of course you realize the lack of knitting education in that statement. I have decided that my mother is getting the most fabulous sweater for Christmas. 2008 Christmas that is.........something that will blow her away. Here she is "trying" to knit. Don't let the smile fool you folks, she's totally a muggle.

Hubby and I spent the day today at Emory. We went to the Carlos museum to see the exhibit on Jewish and Christian history which was pretty interesting. Then we walked through the rest of the museum. Then we walked to the other side of campus and went to one of my most favorite places to eat (besides Provino's I mean) Doc Chey's! Then we walked BACK to the other side of campus and went to check out the new building at Egleston. I hadn't seen the new building since they opened it - actually the last time I looked at it it was simply a GIANT hole in the ground. It's very impressive and now we join the ranks of our other hospital - Scottish Rite! Since I have been working for the outpatient centers, I rarely spend time in the hospitals anymore. I saw a few folks I haven't seen in a long time and even saw someone I trained when she was a new grad! Time flies.

Then we went walking at Lullwater and then finished up our trip at these two places. We walked about 12 miles today!

Here's where I got my bachelor's degree and my master's degree in nursing. I know, the picture is blurry but the sign says that it is the nursing school, trust me I spent A LOT of my life there in that building!!

And here's where I got my master's degree in Public Health. Yeah, I spent A LOT of time on the good 'ol Emory campus but it was good because it is such a beautiful campus! I loved it there!

Then, we topped off our evening by going to eat at, you guessed it, Provino's!! YAY!!! For those of you out there who don't know, that's my dad's restaurant so I have been eating that food since like before I was born. We have to limit our trips there to about once every 2-3 months or so because otherwise we would weigh about 500#!!!

It was GREAT day and we had lots of fun. Have I mentioned how much I love my wonderful husband lately??? It's great to be able to spend so much time with my best friend! :)

By the way - Congratulations to AMY for finally posting on her freakin' blog!

WHY do I log onto Knit Picks???

Geeezzzzz.......I really should know better. I logged on to buy THESE and then of course the shipping is free if you bump your order up to $45. So I bought more innerds for my knit picks set - which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (thanks hubby!) but then you think, 'well, if I'm going to spend $45 and get free shipping I might as well get some yarn'. Then you look at the yarn and think "well, since I'm already getting free shipping I might as well make it worth it so I don't have to make another $45 order.". Then you think "Well hell, that yarn is on sale so I should definitely buy some of that.". Until finally it is a downward spiral and you have spent well over $100. Just damn. I know every single one of you have had that same conversation with yourself in your head!

Now, let me explain something. I am NOT a shopper. I actually hate shopping. I buy stuff if and when I need to for the most part. I am not an impulse shopper, I do not like to go places just to "look around" and I definitely do not have a spending problem when it comes to shopping. Mr. Man is the one who like to shop in our house!! I swear we should have stock in Sam's Club. Anyway, I have no idea what comes over me when it comes to yarn! It's like all bets are off and I have a hard time controlling myself!


On another note, my mom is not a knitter. Not a wanna-be knitter, not a wowishouldreallylearnhowtodothat-knitter, not a wowwhatyouaredoingisreallyneat-knitter - nothing. However, she is always immensly supportive of me and all my endeavors - always has been. So, she has offered for me to bring her two sticks and some yarn and work through my first lesson to see if she can learn how to knit from the lesson. Wayne and I are heading over there in an hour or so for wine, dinner and knitting lessons. Something tells me I should be sure to bring the camera. More on that later!

Here's my eye candy Friday shots:

This was taken at Grassy Pond in Valdosta, GA on our way down to the Okeefenokee Swamp.

Here's a pic we took while canoeing in the Okeefenokee. Yep, that 5 gators and a turtle in the middle. Do you think that turtle is thinking that perhaps he has made an error in judgement? If you have never been to the Okeefenokee it is truly one of the most beautiful and amazing places I have ever been. Don't go if you are scared of gators though because gators were EVERYWHERE. Seriously, I bet we saw over 200 of them in a 3 day weekend. I think they like to eat feral hay hens too. If you want to see all of my Okeefenokee pics from that trip, go HERE.

Husband on a Rant

Yep, that's the story around our house today. Hubby (aka weenie warmer model) is on a rant today against people who do not recycle. Now that we actually have curb service recycling here in DeKalb County AND you don't even have to separate it (just throw it all in one bag and set it on the curb) it is SO EASY that there shouldn't be any excuse for not doing it other than you simply don't care. We actually picked up people's newspaper they had bagged and put on the street (which goes goes in with the regular trash though they can't seem to comprehend that) and brought it home to recycle it.

So, he posted a big thing on our neighborhood website today about how people should take more environmental responsibility and do their part - especially when it is so easy! Everyone wants to drink bottled water because it is "more pure" (which is a lie by the way - if you read the labels many of them say they are from a "municipal source" - uhhhh, that's CITY WATER folks) but then they don't want to do things that help keep our water, land and air clean. Don't get me wrong, recycling has it's own problems and isn't the end all be all for planet health but at least it is a start. Basically we need a total redo on the way we live and a bit of control over our voracious consumerism, materialism and status seeking.

Anyhoooooooooooo...................I guess I should get off my soapbox before everyone quits reading. No knitting to report today so far. Know that sock that I have been working on? The one I brought to the Yarn Harlot event? Yeah, it has totally pissed me off and I seriously considered frogging the whole froggin' thing last night!!! Apparently, one time, in my infinite wisdom and disability to pay attention, picked the darn thing up and started knitting THE WRONG WAY around it!!! UGH!! How do I not notice that I am doing that?? I picked it up last night to work on it and I was like "What the hell??" So, I spent about an hour frogging back a few rows which always is so much fun when there are lots of yarn overs involved. I threaded a tapestry needle, went down a few rows and threaded the yarn through the right half of each stitch and THEN frogged. Then I had the stitches on my yarn and just picked them back up with the DPNs. I know, it sounds like an easy process but it still took me almost an hour to get it back to "knit ready" status. So now it is knit ready but I'm pissed off at it so I should probably find something else to do for a while.

I spent some time last night knitting a REALLY EXCITING garter stitch swatch for my online lessons that I am writing. Brace yourselves, here comes the picture:

I know, it's boring as hell but it kept me from doing crack on the streets, ok?!?! The first online lesson is looking really good and it is going to be WAY BETTER than the other "correspondence lessons" that are out there. Anyone wanna read it over for me when it is written? This is a basic, basic lesson for someone who does not know anything about knitting so it won't be any new and exciting information for ya!

FO

WARNING - if you are a member of KAC (knitters against crochet) stop now and do not finish reading this post.




I was in need of a quick project for some FO satisfaction. I can crochet MUCH faster than knitting so I whipped up a cute little hat for my son's girlfriend. The pattern was in Knit Simple some issues ago. I, of course, had to make the obligatory slight pattern changes but this is what I came out with.

I think it turned out pretty good! Great for a quickie. Sorry about the pottery pet urn modeling technique. I'm sure my husband would have modeled it for me but, you know him....he would have wanted to take all of his clothes off to model the hat. :)

Thanks to everyone for the great Christmas ideas! I better get started. Thanks to everyone who saw my post and added me on Ravelry!! I gotta spend some time sitting down and figuring that darn thing out.

Ravelry!!

Oh boy - I just got my invite for Ravelry!! My husband, silly man, said "Wow, that was quick!". I reminded him that I signed up like SIX FRIGGIN MONTHS AGO! He said "oh".

Anyway, I'm there, I have no idea what I'm doing as of yet. Someone tell me how you got those pics of your website on your profile! I have 12 friends so far - that's all I could find from the Knitch group. If you know me and you are on there add me!!

Christmas Ideas.........

Oh, I'm totally buying THIS for my husband for Christmas!!! I found this on the Yarn Harlot blog today. The only problem is that he reads my blog so as soon as I post this he will be wise to my efforts to turn him into a knitter - hahaha!! No, actually that would be BAD. I think that would mean doubling your stash if you have two knitters in the same house, right?? We simply can't afford that. No, I think he needs to keep with his idea to learn spinning from Hockey Mom. Then he can supply my habit. Yarn is kinda like crack right?????

On another note, anyone who has an "open minded" husband/boyfriend/buddy/gay male friend in Atlanta that would not mind being photographed nearly nude for charity puposes needs to contact me. I'm not putting all the tantilizing details on here so if you want to know more then EMAIL ME.

Coming Down from a Harlot High

Well, life is starting to get back to normal for the Atlanta area knitters I think. I have had fun reading everyone's blog today! Jen had a fun pic of me and the hubby on her blog and Hockey Mom has a great picture of me and my "warlock" on it! It's great to see everyone's pictures. Some people were LAME and forgot their camera.

Today, I have been working on writing knitting lessons and my eyes are sore from looking at the computer so long. So I decided to go work on some knitting. I started a hat the other night and I tried something last night that simply isn't going to work so I had to make a decision - go back and change all the knit stitches to purl stitches on the last row or just rip the whole damn thing out and find something else to do. I decided to change all my purls to knits so that is what I have been doing for the last 1/2 hour. Yeah, that really helped relax my eyes from being on the computer so long.

So, now it's just going to be a plain 'ol boring knit hat that I as of yet don't even have a purpose for. Why am I knitting it then you ask?? Well, because silly - I'm in DENIAL! Yep, I said it. I'm in denial. Folks Christmas is THREE months away and I have knit NOTHING. NOTHING! Not one single thing. I have all kinds of yarn around here but I just can't seem to find anything that is inspiring me. How completely aggravating is that???? Sooooooooooo - everyone mail me some yarn! Haha!

I have no interesting photos to post today I don't think. Oh wait, here's a picture of some roses I took today in our backyard. After all, it IS eye candy Friday, right??

And some gardenias AND a lily (not taken today though obviously)............OK people - send me some Christmas inspiration.

The Yarn Harlot Strikes Atlanta

WOW - we had SUCH a good time last night! A group of us met at Dark Horse Tavern before the show and we just sat around for hours chatting and knitting and having a great time. I must tell you that when Wayne and I walked out onto the patio everyone that was already sitting there, looked up at us as we approached the table and simultaneously most of them said "WAYNE!". He turned BRIGHT red since he realized immediatley that the reason he was so famous simply because he had so graciously modeled the weenie warmer on the website! Those girls were having a blast passing around the picture that is on the website so that many people in the audience were able to take a gander and the scantilly clad Knit Witch model. Oh yeah, you could tell that Wayne was just hating all of that attention....poor thing.......right.....he loved it.

Here's some of the bar crowd.................This includes Jen, Regan, Melissa (not there yet), Jane, Claudia, Janice, Sandy and some other folks whose names escape me unfortunately so you folks need to EMAIL ME so I can get your names and blogs on here!

Here's my infamous husband and some other folks that joined our party later.

Here's Jen's beautiful seaming job!

Here's us acting up on the balcony. We were going to all flash Wayne for the picture but he came back inside too soon!

I took it upon myself to steal Stephanie's traveling sock picture idea. Here's my sock in line waiting for the Yarn Harlot.

Here's me and famous Wayne.

Here's the line of knitters out the building and down the street! That's Jen of "JenLa" posing for the picture!

Here's some chicks with sticks.

We had such a great time and everyone was so gracious with their talents. Someone who lives just down the street from us has offered to teach Wayne to spin!! We loved meeting everyone.

We're off to see the Wizard......

It's National Harlot Day! Well.....in Atlanta anyway. We'll be leaving shortly to head down to the Highlands for a fun day of drinking, knitting and general debauchery. Jen and her gang are ALREADY down at the tavern drinking and knitting! They got there before noon folks!!!

I figured I better get another "quickie hat" cast on before I go. I'll be taking lots of pics to post for everyone tomorrow. I took today AND tomorrow off so I should have plenty of time to get them up. Here's the t-shirts - they turned out GREAT!!!!!

Emergency Baby Hat

I found out 2 days ago that we are supposed to bring knitted hats for donation to the Yarn Harlot event tomorrow. Sooooooooooo, I whipped out an "emergency baby hat"! It's nothing fancy and my seaming sucks but I think it will do. Here it is

Here's my sucky seaming:

Anyway, I think I'm ready. My husband has made the logos for the t-shirts and I think they are going to look great! He made one for himself too it says "Knit Witch Staff"!! I told him it should say "Knit Witch Weenie Warmer Model" but he didn't go for that.........sigh.......

I think tomorrow is going to be lots of fun! We are planning to get down there early and go to Dark Horse for their yummy calamari and a beer or two. I'm supposed to be looking for Jen and Melissa and Amy (who needs to blog more) down there so hopefully I can catch up with them. I have a feeling I know what Melissa and Amy are doing tonight since Melissa sent me an email this morning that said "We are supposed to bring a hat?? Crap, I took all of mine to the hospital for the preemies!!". So happy hatting you two! Jen says she will be at Dark Horse tomorrow too with a group of gals frantically knitting hats!

If you read this silly blog and you see me there stop by and say hi!!

NEWS FLASH!

I stated to my husband this evening in an innocent tone "Know what I need for Wednesday? I need a t-shirt that says 'Knit Witch' on it so the people that I am supposed to meet will know who I am.". Apparently, he agreed and said he would make it for me tomorrow. "REALLY???" I said. I'm tellin' you, this man can do anything. He really is rather brilliant and if all goes well, I will have a t-shirt announcing my Knit Witch status at the event on Wednesday. He needs one for the event also that says "Knit Witch's DH" don't ya think?? :)

OK - short post today.....I need to get off my ass and finish the hat I need to bring with me on Wednesday!!!!

Later!

Neighbors

So, Wayne and I have stirred things up in our neighborhood (which is not at all unusual so that isn't the story). At least this time we are stirring up GOOD stuff! We have started a website for our neighborhood in an effort to bring all of our neighbors a little closer and to help us look out for each other. We live in a great neighborhood with really great neighbors - with, of course, a few of the obligatory exceptions. We are also trying to get our neighborhood civic club back up and running.

On the website we started, people got talking about our entrance island and how overgrown it had become. So a few "energetic" people went out there and ripped out all of the shrubbery that was there so we could start again. Don't get me wrong, it needed it BAD but of course, it ticked off a few folks. Anyway, today we all got together out there and worked on the island. The weather today has been PERFECT and it is still so nice outside. We come home and opened the windows and turned on the attic fan - YAY!!!!

This is what we had to start with (repair of the lettering is next on our list):

I wish I had a picture of what it looked like before the bushes got pulled out but it was not at all attractive and you couldn't even read the sign.

This is what we finished with:

Here are a couple more pictures of us getting dirty and having fun (that's me in the blue jean shorts and white t-shirt and Wayne is in the black t-shirt with the giant root and the tiller!):

We are tired but the day went great and I'm sure we will sleep well tonight!!! It always feels good to get something positive accomplished. OK, off to do some knitting.

Rainy Friday in the ATL

I found this today on Jen's blog. You must join me in loving it! It's so cute and retro looking and it has a great stitch!! I know she's bitching about this, that and the other on her blog but the headband is great! I know, I have been doing a bunch of complaining about lame folks myself on the 'ol blog so I guess I can't throw any stones. HERE is her post for the day. I think I might need to try the blueberry poundcake too!! I make poundcake for the nurses that I am responsible for at work - they LOVE it!!!


I have nothing new and exciting to report. I haven't even been out driving on the roads today so I can't even complain about Atlanta drivers!! It's rainy here today so it's a perfect day to just stay home and veg. I cleaned up the house a bit this morning so I'm feeling happy - I LOVE being able to have the time to clean my house. You know, take everything off the counters, scrub them down, clean all the floors (well not ALL but MOST), do laundry, etc. I know, I'm weird but I LOVE it!


As I'm cleaning I just keep thinking about how very thankful I am to have this wonderful home that I share with my wonderful husband and my (usually) wonderful pets. It makes cleaning so much better. Spending time every day being thankful for what I have has just become a part of my life. My husband is feeling a little "under the weather" today and I hope I made him feel a little better by just telling him how VERY much I appreciate him being in my life. He truly is my angel. I know he will read this later so - I love you Wayne!!!


I have no new pictures so I'll leave you with just a couple of fun ones.

Hey!! Nice cock!!

Barbie and Hot Dog - when they were MUCH smaller.

Underwater fish pic we took in the bahamas.

Me and my sweetie!! This pic seems like it was FOREVER ago................

People are idiots.......

I know, I'm stating the obvious. I can't post about knitting because I haven't DONE any knitting so I have to post about people that are idiots instead. When you live in Atlanta, there are plenty of those to blog about. I've told my husband that my goal is to get out on the roads in Atlanta and not use the word asshole once as I go from point A to point B - unfortunately, it hasn't happened yet.

So today, I'm driving to my office. I pull off of Hwy. 78 onto N. Druid Hills Rd. On the exit ramp there comes this woman driving UP the exit ramp onto the highway going the WRONG WAY! I'm thinking - surely she is going to realize she is getting onto the highway going the wrong way since myself and several other shocked folks driving around me are honking like we are bananas and flashing our lights at her and such. Nope, she just keeps on going. I guess she thought we were the Hwy. 78 welcoming committee or something. As I got off of the exit ramp onto the road, I kept expecting to hear squeeling tires - but I didn't. I have no idea what happened. Geez....

THEN I'm driving down N. Druid Hills and I have to go right by the Open Campus high school, which is where the kids who can't fit into "regular" high school for some reason or another go. I can't make too much fun of them because I went there myself. I didn't fit into regular high school because I was pregnant - but that is a different post! So these kids are walking around IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!! They just dart out in front of your car to cross the road to get to their damn chick-fil-a sandwich or taco bell. They have a friggin light and a crosswalk but I guess they would just rather have people swerve around them and have to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting them. I swear, one of these days I'm either gonna hit one of those kids or cause a major accident trying to avoid hitting one of them. Literally, one kid was just walking down the dotted white line between two rows of traffic like that is just how you are supposed to do it. WHERE is the supervision for these stupid ass kids??? If you need to be told that you shouldn't walk in the road when you have sidewalks and crosswalks then you might just deserve to get hit because for some reason you think you deserve to walk in the road?!?!?!?! I don't get it. I'm pretty sure that one of the first lessons I taught my son was - don't walk in the road! Hell, I teach my DOGS that!!!!

OK - enough soap boxing. Maybe I can actually talk about knitting tomorrow.................

Tractor Trailor Incident in Atlanta

My neighbor just came by a little bit ago and was surprised I wasn't still on I-20. Why? I innocently asked. If you have ever been to Atlanta you know the traffic is horrible - HORRIBLE (Yarn Harlot be warned) so it never surprises me when anyone asks me if I was stuck on a highway. HOWEVER, Amy said that she was surprised that I wasn't there because a tractor trailer full of YARN turned over and there was yarn all over I-20!!! How could I have missed that?!?! I probably would have been mowed down by some rude-ass Atlanta driver as I rushed between the lanes to fill up my basket with yarn, then run back to my car to dump it, then run back out between the lanes to fill it again! I'm telling you gals, I would have been selling yarn cheap on knitwitch.com for ya!!

But alas, I was not on I-20 today. I was on 285. Which, I must say was wonderful today for a change. I guess that's because everyone was over on I-20 gathering up yarn!!! Just damn.....I always miss the GOOD traffic!

Sadly, since Atlanta is so full of really crappy BAD news, the yarn incident didn't even make the news. I was so hoping to find some pictures for all of you, but alas, the incident does not make it above the rapes, murders, kidnappings, drug charges, kids going to jail, gang violence, drunk driving, money laundering, public official debauchery, etc. that runs rampant in this here part of the world. WHERE are our priorities for pete's sake?!?!

No Time for Knitting

I haven't exactly had a mountain of time to devote to knitting lately. We have someone found ourselves to be the pseudo-presidents of our neighborhood association for the time being. We thought it would be a good idea to get everyone in our great neighborhood together and start having neighborhood association meetings again. Wayne started a website for our neighborhood so that we could start talking about things that needed to be done in the neighborhood. Well, it snowballed - in a hurry too.

An innocent discussion about how we needed to trim the bushes at our entrance island and repair the lettering on the sign turned into someone going up there the next morning and ripping out all the bushes by their roots! Don't get me wrong, it needed it and it is going to look WAY better when all of this landscaping gets done, but it pissed off some of the neighborhood "old timers" a bit. So Wayne and I went around today talking to people and apologizing for getting things stirred up without neighborhood votes and that kind of thing, hoping to quell things before the meeting so we don't get things thrown at us or death threats or anything of the like.

Anyhooo...............life here in the ATL is never dull. The dogs are having a great time tonight because we have been having "volunteer neighbors" stop by all evening to pick up flyers they have offered to help distribute. Of course, the dogs think they have been REALLY good so they are getting LOTS of visitors and attention!

Baby Alpaca update - I called today to suggest more names for the baby and the baby name has been decided - Harmony. Gail's dad's name is Harmon and he is the one that found the baby out in the pature so they named the baby Harmony after him!! I tried to talk her into Hermione but she said she would never be able to remember that........oh well.

Guess What???

Need I say more? How cute is she?? She was born on my dad's farm on Tuesday and we went out there today to see the new arrival. My dad and his wife didn't even know that the mom was pregnant!! They bought her last November and apparently she was. My dad's wife went out to the pasture to feed on Tuesday morning and there she was! She said that she could be heard screaming in 3 counties - she was sure of it. No name yet - any suggestions?


So that makes #5. Five alpacas. My husband definitely needs to learn how to spin!! I picked up some shearings from the white one today. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it! I have 2 bags. One full of "good stuff" and then one full of "secondary stuff" from the legs and neck. I really have no idea what to do with it but there is a bunch of it so I need to learn. It's hard to turn down free alpaca yarn - even if I do have to work for it.


Here's a couple more entertaining pictures from today:



Before you ask, yes, that's my husband and he IS petting turkeys!

Yep, we have baby goats too.

Socks..................

Right now, I hate them. I think that's all I need to say.

OK - that's a boring blog. How about this: Do you ever pick up your knitting the next day and wonder what in the HELL you were doing while you were knitting the night before because it obviously was not 'paying attention to you knitting'. Do you ever completely screw up your knitting without even realizing it? Like, you pick it up and think that evil little elves (or cats) came in during the night and completely screwed up all of your lace knitting??? UGH!! Well, that's what I came home to today.

I would think that with my knitting being so screwed up the next morning it would be for good reason. Like, 'there was a GREAT movie on TV and I was trying to knit and watch it at the same time' or 'I was trying to talk to my mom on the phone for an hour while I knit' or 'my husband was giving me a naked tallywacker dance while I was knitting and it was ruining my concentration'. None of the above apply (sadly on the third thing) so I just have to chalk it up to simply being lame.

We went to the Yellow Daisy Festival after we climbed Stone Mountain this morning. That was all good. We met my aunt there and we had a great time walking around and such. Then, I came home, got practically naked because it is hot as bejeeezus out there, had a new issue of interweave crochet that I sat down and read, then I went to work on the sock. I picked up the sock, looked at my lovely lace wor..........WHAT??? What the hell happened!?!?! I have all these beautiful rows of yarnovers - oh wait, except for THIS one here!! WTF?!?!

So, that's when you have to make a decision, right? Cry, drink, both or just fix it. So, I TRIED to fix it without frogging. I pulled the offending section off the needles and attempted to rebuild it. I got it pretty close except for one of the yarn over areas which was GAPING! So damn - FROG. So I frogged and spent the next 20 minutes getting it all back on the needles. I am close to my correct number of stitches, but I figure I am off because of not picking up yarnovers. I thought "well let me knit one round before I put it down so I can complete the fix". Well, that's kinda hard to do when you need 5 needles and for some reason now you only have FOUR!!

I tell ya. Sometimes those knitting godesses just slap you across the face and say "Oh you are DONE working on this for now!". Probably best.................

OK - time to forget about FUBAR knitting for a while and have a glass of wine and get ready to go back to Stone Mountain for the laser show. That should make me smile because right now knitting is NOT making me smile. I gotta learn the 2 socks on 2 circulars method because right now I'm having major second sock syndrome before I even finish the first one - I just need more circulars!! On a positive note, hubby did find a knit picks circular under the couch when he was helping me look for said DPN. I didn't even realize it was lost! Here's a picture of the offending sock as it sits in waiting right now..................

Oh and PS - if you don't know what FUBAR stands for, I'm not going to tell you. Ask someone you know who has been in the military and I'm sure they can tell you.

Cats................

This is Slim.....he looks sweet and innocent doesn't he? Well, for the most part, he is. HOWEVER, he goes through this period right before bed every night where he turns into pure evil. Does anyone else's cat do this? I call it his "bananas period" where he just runs around acting bananas for about an hour. He gets into everything, destroys everything he can get into, knocks as much stuff off the tables and possible, chases the dogs around and is just a general menace. As I am writing this he is trying to climb all over my laptop.

Slim loves bedtime. He comes in at night and expects that we are going to be at 8:30 - no later than 9. And until we do decide to go to bed, he just acts like a butthead until we go upstairs. Every time I walk around the house in the evenings and even get close to the stairs he SHOOTS up the stairs in anticipation that we are going to bed. Most cats are nocturnal, right? Not this guy, he loves his bedtime and will lie motionless for 12 hours a night if we let him. At night we call him "noodle". You can literally pick him up and place him wherever you want him and he will just collapse in the position you put him into and go back to sleep - like a wet noodle.

Last night during his "bananas period" he grabbed my sock and thought he was going to take off with it. I tell ya, if he had pulled out those DPNs I would have had a fit! So, the knitting had to go away until we were done with banana hour.

On another note - FOOTBALL! Who watched the opening game last night? I know this is a knitting blog but now that it is football season you will have to listen to me rant about football as well. We play on a fantasy team. One of our running backs played last night - Deuce McAllister. Yeah, he didn't do crap. New Orleans got their butts handed to them on a platter last night. So, 2 points for our running back - woo hoo! Adam Vinatieri (kicker for Indianapolis for all you football virgins) had 11 points! Yeah! We love Vinatieri! So that was good.

OK - that's it - be listening for me to be bitching about the Redskins again this year.........but they were 2 and 2 in the pre-season so there's hope.

Have you ever......

Have you ever swam in the ocean? Have you ever gone skiing? Have you ever been to another country? How about, have you ever started knitting your heel turning BEFORE your darn heel flap? So, after yesterday afternoon, I can now answer "yes" to ALL of these questions darnit! Can you believe I did that? I'm just knitting along and then all of the sudden I'm thinking "This does not seem right for some reason.". Well DUH! It's because you forgot the heel flap completely! So, FROG on the sock. Now I think we are back in business and I am knitting the heel flap - Gee, what a concept.

OK - I promised you pictures of the shot glass shelf - here it is! What do you think? I was actually surprised that there is room for more! If you go anyplace exotic, mail me a shot glass will ya?

Finally they can be displayed after 5 years of exile. We have had a BUSY weekend doing all kinds of stuff around the house. We walked the dogs this morning and then Wayne made a great breakfast - Toad in the Hole - anyone heard of those? Then I trimmed bushes out front and Wayne finished up the shelf. Then we went and climbed Stone Mountain since it wasn't quite 100 degrees today. Then we came home and hung the shelf and put up all the shot glasses, then we went and stole beer out of our neighbor's Sweetwater Hummer keg!! :) I'm thinking we should sleep well tonight.

Yesterday, I gave the dogs a bath. After they get a bath they always run around like they are feeling great! I was laughing at them as they chased each other all over the yard after their bath. Slim was watching too. I'm sure he was thinking how stupid they are. Here's his vantage point.......

Sunday Socks

Just socks today - no plants. Here are the socks I cast on yesterday with the Knit Picks yarn I got yesterday in the mail.

They are kinda on the small side but I figure they can be for a more "small footed" friend/family member for around Christmas time. They fit over my feet just fine so far. I was getting a little irritated with the pooling action but I think it is going to look kinda cool when it is done. I'm using a modification of a pattern from the "Knit Socks!" book. You know, the book that looks really stupid because it is shaped like a sock? I hate that the book is shaped like a sock but it does have some good information and good beginner patterns in it. This one is really easy.

On another note, DH is out in the garage right now building me some long awaited shelves for my shot glasses. I have hundreds of them from all around the world but they have been wrapped up in boxes for about 4 years now because I haven't had anywhere to put them up. We did a little rearranging in the living room so now he is building some shelves just for them. I'm looking forward to getting them all up and visible again! I know, it makes us look like alcoholics but we really aren't! I can't even remember the last time I actually used a shot glass for drinking a shot! Although, my husband would probably like it if I did as I'm sure I would end up naked in no time........

Pictures of the shot glass shelf to follow soon!

Plants and Socks

Sounds like a reasonable combination, right?? Well, for starters, we went to Pike Nurseries today and they just happened to be having a huge sale! Yippee! We wanted some plants for our house since we were discussing how pathetic it is that we have NO houseplants! So, lucky for us we were able to get about 15 houseplants AND ceramic pots and some wall hangers for about $70! I don't think we paid over $2.99 for a single thing. So, here is some of our "plant work" - pay no mind to the knitting stuff all over the couch.........

So, that was fun! We spent a couple of hours getting everything potted and placed and such. Then, my knit picks sock yarn came in the mail! So, time to get busy on some Christmas socks. Here's what I got - all on sale of course!

Apparently Slim was tired from all the hard work of him doing NOTHING while we potted plants. He made it very obvious that I was in his spot on the couch and that he didn't appreciate that one bit.