8.26.2007

P.S.

I am still working on the cardigan. I'm almost done with the sleeves. I believe I will run out of yarn soon. When I substituted this yarn for the yarn used in the book, I bought it based on weight, not yardage. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. It made sense at the time. I will not be fooled by weights and measures again!

My LYS is unfortunately in a town where severe flooding has occurred. I may have to make an emergency run this week.

I'll take pics when I'm not so stinkin' lazy. Ha.

Killer Bees

Our small town had a "Taste of Belvidere" day... where a bunch of the local eateries had samples of things and everyone was out walking around. Lee and I live close to downtown, so we walked on down. Had dang quesadillas. Then we stopped for hotdogs at the Weiner Wagon. There were signs on the wagon about bees, and they had a bee trap thing. I had only enough time to think "It's been a long time since I've been st.... OUCH!!!! @#$%" A bee stung me on the inside of my upper arm. Now, I don't remember bee stings hurting THIS much. But dang if that thing didn't swell up and make a nasty red mark about 3" in diameter. Today it just itches like crazy... I've been trying not to scratch, but you all know how that is probably going.

After the bee sting, but before the ice cream... we happened to go in our local furniture store. We'd never been in there... assumed it was small... just never went. Turns out it's HUGE... 3 floors. On the 3rd floor we found a couch and chair we liked. On the 1st floor, I fell in love with a red leather lay-z-boy rocker/recliner, that just happened to go with the other two pieces of furniture. All this was pretty expensive, but we've had a hand me down living room set for our whole marriage... 9 years. (Dividing the final price by 9 seemed a pretty good way to justify the purchase!) I was prepared just to get the couch and chair and wait on the recliner, because Lee was sure he would NEVER use a recliner. Then he sat in it. So, um, we're getting all 3 pieces, and I'm pretty sure there will be fights over who gets to sit in the recliner.

After the sticker shock, Lee headed toward the Sweetery. I could hardly deny the poor guy ice cream after the impulse buy of major furniture. There was a contest going on at the shop... these two teenagers were trying to eat banana splits in 5 minutes or less to get them free. It was pretty gruesome... then the owner told us what all was in them... 5 scoops of ice cream, 5 toppings, 2 bananas. Ergh. Did your stomach just lurch? Mine did. I don't think I'd feel well after eating 2 bananas... but with all the rest... Ergh. They didn't make it. The girl came close and finished at about 5:30. I got the single scoop of Zanzibar chocolate, which is pretty much the best chocolate ice cream I have ever had. It was almost black it was so dark. It tasted like the most chocolate thing you've ever had, covered in chocolate sauce. Mmmmm...

8.14.2007

Geeks... We R them... They R us...

I should mention Comicon 2007. I didn't want to go for very long, if at all. It's a very tiring thing. BUT... Richard Hatch of Battlestar Galactica (old and new) was there, and I couldn't resist getting his autograph on the same picture that Dirk Benedict signed at Comicon 2006. He called me "Darlin'." Tee hee.




















Here's some big boys with some little boy toys... This picture doesn't adequately show the scope and range of the comic books available. My eyes go all glassy when I see ANYTHING in that great a quantity.
















Did I mention how difficult it was to take pics here? I didn't want to use my flash all the time. Here's a (thankfully) blurry image of one of the many, many inappropriately attired females.




















I kept trying to photograph this colorful couple without them knowing. They were always walking, so my auto focus never set. At least you can enjoy their hair color.















Okaaaay... in a conference that's 90% males in their 20s through 40s, what was THIS lady doing here? Go grandma... way to stay young. I'd really like to know what she bought.




















Hey Megan! I found you a new boyfriend. He looks nice!




















If any of you haven't watched the new Dr. Who, it's worth a look-see. Here's me by the Tardis.




















I must be completely candid with you all. You won't believe this, but Stitches Midwest (biggest yarn gathering EVER) was at THE SAME PLACE as the Comicon. That MAY have played a role in my wanting to go to Comicon. I grabbed some cash from Lee to run up there "just to look around." Ha ha. You know what happened next. I spent ALL my $$ in about 1/2 hour. I got some yummy yarn and some new circulars for my next sweater. (Even though I'm not done with the cardi... but I am on the sleeves now.) Pics tomorrow. Maybe. I keep forgetting.

Also - we know a comic book writer/artist now. He was best man at Lee's sister's wedding. Good friend of my brother in law. He was at the Comicon, and we finally found him after checking a bunch of "Matts" listed. (We couldn't remember his last name.) Check out his website... it's kinda interesting, how he made the graphic novel. The Homeless Channel.

Matt gave me the Stitches Midwest discount for his book, in honor of his aunt who also attended both conferences. I, apparently, was one of about 3 people who went to both.

8.12.2007

Deep Fried Oreos

We went to the Boone Co. Fair on Wednesday. I got there after a loooong day at work. My pedometer already read 17,000 steps (you're supposed to try for 10,000/day). By the time we left, I had 22,000 steps or something. With my stride, that's about 10 miles I walked that day.

I went to my Weight Watchers meeting before going to the fair. Our leader told us that the corn-dog actually has less calories than a regular hotdog. So there was only ONE thing on my mind when I joined Lee and the others at the fair... (and no, it wasn't the lemonade!)



















Luckily, this fair, like all others, makes it remarkably EASY to find food. Even food you never thought of, like deep fried Oreos. Why, I ask you?

The Corn Dog was EXCELLENT, btw. I'm sure it was better than usual because I was starving, and the the "corn" part tasted like funnel cake. Mmmmm...

Here's Megan and Karolyn figuring out how to eat a ... whatever that is... elephant ear? It was deep fried and covered in sugar. They are young and can still eat like that. I remember my mother telling me when I was 19 that I wouldn't always be able to eat like that. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Dude... so, so true.

8.07.2007

Because we're such good chum.....ps....

There have always been cats and kittens living in and around our backyard. We don't really mind as long as they don't poop in the lawn. In June, a kitten got up in the wheel well of our car. Great. We coaxed it out with food. Soon this kitten was hanging around our house. It was teeny tiny, and CRYING, so we fed it. (You wouldn't think it was teeny tiny judging by Sibbie's -one of our indoor cats- reaction. When she saw it outside, she tried to climb the windows, much to our amusement.)

A couple of weeks later, another kitten showed up. We can't remember if it was the all black one in the wheel well or the black with white feet. Anyway, we started occasionally feeding these two kittens. We knew they were probably off-spring of Senor Botas (whom I wanted to name Mr. Boots, but we couldn't, because we don't like such obvious names for cats... so we named him Senor Botas, or, in Spanish, "Mr. Boots"), who was black with white feet, and was born last year behind our neighbor's garage.

Suddenly, it was as if every cat we saw near our house was black with white feet. So, we named the big one Bass, the medium one Alto, and the kittens, of course, were the Sopranos. Ha ha.

It took us awhile to cotton onto the fact that there were indeed THREE kittens... one black with white feet, and TWO black ones. Ah ha... that's how they could seem to be everywhere. We can now tell the black ones apart because one is very bold, and will look at you like you owe him something.

I kinda got used to the Sopranos hanging out with me in the garden. Sometimes Alto would be there too. I think they were still being weaned at this point, because we weren't giving them more than a treat every once in awhile. One day, I saw a pile of kittens sleeping in the sun. There were the 2 black ones, the black with white one, and... a tortoise shell one. What the?!

4 kittens. I admit that we made a tactical mistake here. We started putting food out regularly. The mama (Alto) came a couple of times with all the kittens, but then she stopped coming. (Oh, and did I mention the pregnant Alto2 that had been hanging out too?) Now the 4 kittens hang out on our deck and we feed them every day. So, yes, we are chumps. Since they let us get close, we'll probably get them fixed when they're old enough. I think we've reconciled ourselves to the fact that we've got 4 outdoor cats now.

Oh, and we decided on new names for them today... since there are 4 of them. Pestilence, Famine, War, and Death. We'll probably change their names again when the mood strikes.

Check out pics of them on the left.... and tell me, what the heck would YOU do in a situation like that? Please, no haters.

8.04.2007

Defeated by Math: A Cautionary Tale

Listen up, you kids out there! You WILL need math... you will need it to do the following:
Make buttonholes, the last being 6 rows before you start decreasing for the neck... but 9 rows before that you have to have started the arm hole. All of the these things are happening AT THE SAME TIME. But not EXACTLY at the same time. Oh no... it couldn't be that simple.

I blazed on ahead to the last buttonhole... exactly 9 rows AFTER I should have started the decreasing for the arm hole. I THINK. I'm not exactly sure, what with all the "AT THE SAME TIMES (but not until thus-and-so's!)"

This is a fairly easy sweater... all K2, P2. Now try picking up all those K2, P2s 9 rows down. The Ks I got, but the Ps are all over the place. One row up, one row down. I'm about to stab somebody with my circulars. Possibly myself. Possibly Lee... for being oblivious to my pain, and sleeping on the living room floor for about 2 hours now. He did stir a bit when my swearing got loud... there was a dropped stitch that decided to go for a run.

It's gonna be an awesome V-neck cardigan if I can just get through the math!










Speaking of math... here's the aftermath (ha ha, get it?) of me trying to figure this sweater out. Notice how the pattern is completely covered up. Maybe THAT'S the problem. :)






On the brighter side... I finished up this cute little bag... used up the leftovers from the 2nd French Market bag. Woot.














Anyhow, I gotta get back to my sweater... I'm about 1/2 done fixing the stitches... then I can start knitting again. BTW, I did read all the instructions 1st... I believe this is a LEARNING CURVE. It's pretty steep, but next time will be better. And I will pick something without buttons, and therefore without buttonholes. :)

There was no contest in my photo class last night, but this one TOTALLY would have won! In other photography news, I got a polarizing filter today. It's rainy and yucky today, but I'm looking forward to trying it out.