MooKittyKnitting

Finally cleaned up the Brew Room

2010-07-15T21:33:00.011-07:00

A few weeks ago, I decided to start brewing again for the first time in a year. I decided a yummy chocolate cherry vanilla cream stout would be great as a first beer. Well, the fermentation went kind of wild and this was the result...

This was the ceiling after the stout exploded. The walls, ceiling and bathtub were all wrecked when a cocoa nib got caught in the blow-off tube and allowed pressure to build up to the point of the explosion... I lost about a gallon of the beer from this one..

Now the brew room is all cleaned up and ready to go again. In the foreground you see what is left of the beer that exploded all over the bathroom. In the back you can see the orangecello that is settling. The flask on the stir plate is the yeast starter for the yeast that are going to be used in the Pumpkin Pie Ale that I will be brewing this weekend...

MMMMM... Limoncello!

I finally got around to bottling up another batch of Limoncello that has been sitting for a month. This is the first batch of clear Limoncello that I have made and it looks really yummy. I did accidently put an extra 1/2 cup of syrup in the batch but we will see how that works with this batch. I have a couple of batches of "orangecello" going. One batch is getting some vodka and the other one has just had the sugar syrup added. It should be ready to bottle in 2 - 3 weeks.

The large bottle in the milk crate is the Tupelo Honey Mead. I made this back in Feb of 2009. I am hoping to bottle this sometime this weekend and try it. We were aiming for a dry mead, we will see how it turns out... Snark is in the sink, she is my new Jr Beer Rat...

Well, I took the first try... Hmmm... I think this needs to age a while longer. Yes, it has been in the carboy for a year and a half but it needs more time. The first taste is Rocket Fuel... It has a nice complexity in the middle and ends with a nice woody taste. The beginning? I think my hubby's description "Prison Wine" is a good descriptor. I will ask another one of the brewers to give it a second opinion. I really think another year or three will pay off on this one. Time is good to all meads that will wait...

Hey, is anybody still out there?

2010-07-02T10:08:00.006-07:00

This was the ringtail cat that was living in my toolset at work. Isn't she/he a cutie???

OK, I took a break from blogging for a couple of years to let life pass me by. Time to get back into it. I am still hanging out on Facebook doing the farm thing but I need to put my brewing, knitting, spinning, weaving and SCA stuff somewhere so I thought I would bring this blog back to life...

Currently, working in the solar industry for about another week, then off to find greener pastures where my engineering skills will work for me :-) I am excited about a change in life right now.

This weekend will be fun. We have a Pumpkin Pie Ale ready to brew (all-grain) and I am going to mix up some Sangria for the weekend. No big plans, just cleaning, playing silly farm games and brewing beer. I hope to be able to get the mead bottled (that I made a year ago February) but that depends on how well the back holds out. Right now, it is not up for bending over a bathtub and washing out a few dozen wine bottles. I am dying to take a taste of it (18 months worth of aging, it should be OK right about now...) and will try it once I get it bottled.

SO GLAD that I keep recipes on the blog. It makes for a great place to find things when I lose them. So here is the recipe for this weekend's Pumpkin Pie Ale:

8 lb 2-row Pale Malk
1 lb British Caramalt
1 lb Toasted Malt
1 lb wheat, torrified
1 lb rice hulls
60 oz pumpkin
.25 lb molasses
1/2 oz Magnum hops
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon clove.

Bake pumpkin uncovered for 1 hour at 350F to caramelize some of the sugars and gelatinize starches. Mash at 152F for 60 minutes. Pumpkin should be included in mash. Be sure to use rice hulls as the pumpkin will make a sticky sparge. Boil for 60 minutes. Add Magnum hops at the beginning of the boil. Add Molasses with 10 minutes left in boil and add spices with 5 miutes left in the boil. Cool and add English Ale yeast and put in Carboy for 3 weeks. Bottle and allow another 3 - 6 weeks for carbonation.

Time to head to the brew store and the SCA meeting tonight.

We are moving...

2008-07-20T14:25:00.001-07:00

I am currently working on moving the blog to a new site and revamping the blog. It will become more "fiber" oriented and less personal stuff. I will post the new blog address once I have set it up and have it running...

Arts and Crafts Day

2008-07-02T09:45:00.012-07:00

And we have a new drink recipe too!

This is the loom I have set up for tablet weaving. After much searching, I was able to find the book "The Techniques of Tablet Weaving" by Peter Collingwood. It was supposed to be the "Bible" of tablet weaving, and they were right. Man, this book goes into some great detail about all sorts of things you can do with tablet weaving. I know, I needed another string hobby like I need a freaking hole in my head. But, here we are! This is the loom all tied up with string and working on a new pattern. We were given the looms in our Beginners Tablet Weaving class at the SCA Collegium a few weeks ago down in Tucson. WOW!!!

Here was my second weaving pattern. My DH, Mike, wanted a strap that he could use in orange and black so I made this for him. It was a lot of fun to make and didn't take all that long once I got the loom working. My mother in law is really going to give me an "I told you so" when she comes down to visit in August. She has been trying to get me into weaving for a while but I didn't think I would be interested. Then, I took this class and the rest is history. She will be so happy to have another weaving buddy! We can spin yarn together and now we can weave together. The loom is portable so I can take it up to Santa Fe when we go over and visit later this year.

Here is the newest pair of socks! I decided to cave into peer pressure and try some Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn in color 185. This yarn is OK. Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the colors. These colors are so awesome. When I got finished with the heel, the sock begged me not to do 2x2 ribbing and ruin the gorgeous color but to do stockinette all the way up the leg and do 1x1 ribbing on the top 1.5 inches. Such pretty socks. I did find one knot in this skein but it spit-spliced nicely so there were no problems. I have 4 more skeins of it in my craft room (it was buy 4 get one free) so I am looking forward to a few more pairs of socks like this. When I first started using the yarn I really hated the feel of it. After trying on the socks a few times (to make sure they fit well), I think that the yarn is really great and pretty soft. I will see how the colors make it through a wash before passing final judgement on this sock yarn.

New drink recipe!!! I found this Sangria recipe that really kicks some serious butt! It is really good and pretty rich...

1 Bottle Red Wine (use a good table wine, not wine in a box or cheap red wine. I found some Menage a trois at Sam's Club for $7.99 a bottle that worked really well)
1/4 cup Apricot Brandy
3/4 cup Brandy (use at least a VSOP for this recipe)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best for this recipe)
1 red plum
1 peach or nectarine

Mix the apricot brandy and regular brandy in a pitcher. Stir in sugar and dissolve. Add lemon juice and bottle of red wine. Mix well. Chop up the plum and nectarine and add to the mix. Refridgerate for 6 hours (preferably overnight) to let flavors mix well then serve over ice.

This recipe is WONDERFUL for hot summer days. (Ask me how I know this...) The big thing to remember with this recipe is the better and fresher your ingredients are, the better this sangria turns out (aka get ripe fruit and don't get too cheap with the brandy and wine). You don't need to get top of the line red wine (it would be wasted on this recipe) but DO NOT use wine in a box for it, either.

We still have mead brewing in the bathroom with no additional "mead-canos". I am hoping that my JAO recipe will be clear in a couple of weeks in time for Highlands War in August. I love SCA events!!!

It looks like I am headed back to work next week. I will edit this post with more details as I get them.

Last week, we went to the True Colors tour and saw Cindi Lauper, the B-52's, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Wanda Sykes and this new group called the Puppini Sisters. If you get a chance to see the Puppini Sisters, go see them. They are a retro 40's musical harmony Jazz kind of group (think The Andrews Sisters for vocal style) and they were a load of fun! Their cover of "Walk Like an Egyptian" was a hoot! I picked up their CD and it is awesome!

More fun projects to work on

2008-06-20T11:17:00.020-07:00

Oh Boy! OH BOY! What is cooking in the cauldron today? Some Eye of Newt? A little bit of Frog Hair? Let's throw some honey in there, some oranges, some cinnamon and call it mead! This stuff brewing on the stove is my first official batch of mead. We were at an SCA Collegium a couple of weeks ago and they had a Beginner's Mead Making class. This is the recipe that they handed out so I thought I would try it... I got it all loaded up into the 3 gallon carboy then I found a really great website for mead makers called GotMead and found out I didn't have to cook it. This batch will hopefully be ready for the holidays when the entire family comes down to Arizona. Attention family, this should be some pretty yummy stuff...

They have a bunch of really good recipes on the site so I thought I would try mead batch number 2, also known as Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. This is a VERY simple mead that anyone can make with common household ingredients. We made 3 gallons of it with Desert Blossom honey and 2 gallons of it with Orange Blossom honey. I am hoping that this batch will be cleared and ready to drink in August! Yummy! Chris came down from San Diego last weekend so he helped me make this batch! This stuff is fermenting like gangbusters! I am looking forward to trying some of it when it clears and is ready to bottle.

In the shower in the guest bathroom, we have batch #1 (the small bottle) and last night's newest batch. It is a cherry cyser (mead) that I am also hoping will be ready in time for the family coming down for Yule. We learned some valuable lessons from batch number 3. We used cherries, apple juice, yeasties and Orange Blossom and Mesquite honey. We mixed it all up in our sanitized food grade bucket then transferred it to the carboy. We did not leave nearly enough head space in the carboy. When we got up this morning, we discovered what happens when you don't leave nearly enough head space in the carboy...

Holy Crap! It's Engineers Gone Wild!!! This is the ceiling of the shower in the guest bathroom. What is that weird red stuff on the ceiling? Cherry puree from the latest batch of mead. I did not take a picture of the whole shower since it was pretty gross. I was able to get it cleaned up in about an hour. So, when anyone asks me "Why do you ferment mead in your guest bathroom shower?" this is the reason. When your mead turns into a "Mead Volcano", clean-up is a breeze! If this would have been in our mud room or the laundry room, I would still be cleaning this mess up 4 hours later! Yes, the picture above is the shower AFTER I got done cleaning cherry puree off of the walls, carboys and tub. The big bottle is the new batch. I am working with the fruit cap every couple of hours at this point until fermentation settles down a bit. I just found out the limit on fermentation for personal use is 100 gallons per year... Hmmm, what to make with the other 86 gallons???

Yes, there were other great classes offered at the collegium. The first one I took during the weekend was Beginner's Tablet Weaving. OK, I already spin wool, knit and crochet. Did I REALLY need another string hobby? It looked like a fun class so I thought I would sign up for it. It was SO GREAT! I have already made a few belts and I am currently working on something that will become trim on my tunic.

Which was another great class that they offered, Newcomer's Garb Basics! They went through patterns for tunics and basic undergarments for SCA garb. I have some nice, lightweight cotton that I want to try to use and make a couple of tunics for myself and my hubby so we have something to wear under the "nice" clothes. There was also an awesome herbology class I was able to take that taught me a lot about using herbs for more than just incense! Way too cool! We learned so much over that weekend that we are still working on processing all of it.

We got our plane tickets for my High School Class Reunion up in Minnesota in August. I almost died when we got the prices for the trip. We paid $300 round trip per person flying from Phoenix to Minneapolis. I thought we would have to pay at least twice that amount with the cost of fuel going nuts like it is... I just started driving my car again last week (stick shift) and in the 8 weeks that I did not drive it, gas went from $35 to fill the tank up to $50 to fill the tank. WTF??? I have also discovered that I can drive a stick shift without having to bend my knee. It is all in the ankle and keeping the seat back as far as I can put it back. By using my foot and ankle to work the clutch rather than the whole leg, I am keeping the pressure off of my knee and it doesn't hurt to drive. It is SOOOOO nice to be able to drive again! I feel like I got my independence back!

The knee is still healing. I have been doing PT 3x weekly. It is slow, but it is getting better. Can I stand on my feet for a 12 hour shift yet? Not even close. I can do about an hour before I am in some serious pain. It may be a few more weeks until I am back at work. So, until then, I will be making some mead, weaving some trim and belts, sewing up some tunics, getting into some new meditation techniques and celebrating Litha! More adventures as they happen!

Oh Boy!!! Trader Joe's!!!!

2008-06-05T18:24:00.007-07:00

Better late than never, I have been meaning to post the Ren Fest garb pic for a while, here it is :-) My mom was asking me what it looked like since we are planning to wear it when we head up to Minnesota for the Ren Fest up there (and my 25 year class reunion). The only thing missing from the outfit is the mouse... I will probably throw a pic up here in my SCA garb soon too...

We FINALLY found Trader Joe's! It is down in Ahwatukee on Chandler Blvd right across the street from my PT clinic! Man, I have missed their Mac and Cheese and the chocolate covered cranberries! I loaded up on some of the fizzy lemonade and limeade along with some of their fabulous hummus!!! Next, need to get some "Two Buck Chuck" for cooking!

Right now, I am working on moving all of my stuff from both my old computer and my work laptop onto my new computer and external hard drive. It is nice because now I know where all of my music and pictures are. The bear of it is trying to get rid of the duplicates. Some songs in my library have 1 copy, some have 2 copies and about 80% have 3 copies. I have gotten rid of duplicates up to the letter "D". This is going to be a long night... Next, I need to copy my address book from my work laptop into my home laptop... Then I can let most of my friends know that I am not answering email in that account since I am at home on medical leave...

I have discovered a new comic online. For any cat fans, this one is really funny, it is called Two Lumps and details the adventures of the feline brothers Ebenezer and Snooch. We have a kitty named Ashley who looks and acts just like these two, so the thing is a hoot...

Mr Sting is really HOT!

2008-06-03T20:42:00.002-07:00

Fromage is taking it easy!

Wow! Over Memorial Day Weekend, we went out to see Elvis Costello and The Police in concert. What an excellent show! First, imagine Memorial Day Weekend in Phoenix... The temp during the concert was an unusual low 60's during the show! NO KIDDING! We were wearing jeans and sweatshirts to an outdoor concert at the end of May! (Gotta love cold fronts!) Elvis Costello did a great job. The special surprise during the concert was a duet with Mr Sting and Elvis doing "Allison" together. They did a great job, their voices blended so well together! What an excellent duet! The Police were also great! They did most of their hits and 2 encores. Mr Sting was SO HOT! I didn't think he was "all that and a bag of chips" when I was younger but DAMN, he has aged so well! I have been joking with some friends that if Mr Sting had been my English teacher, I never would have become an engineer, LOL!!! Next up is Crosby, Stills and Nash then Cindi Lauper and the B52's...

Speaking of the B52's, did anyone else see The Daily Show on Monday? Fred Schneider of the B52's was putting part of Scott McClellen's new book to music, it was absolutely drop dead funny!

This weekend, we are headed down to Tucson to the local SCA get together. They are going to do a "collegium" with lots of classes going on with stuff from archery to rapier to brewing to crafts. I am hoping to learn to brew mead and learn to tailor some more authentic period clothing. We are also having some of my "spiritual sisters" come down from north Phoenix come down to stay at the house with us for the weekend...

The knee is still out of commission. I started doing PT last week and have another appt with the ortho doc on the 25th of June. The MRI did show a small tear in the meniscus and we are hoping that PT will help heal it up.

My roses are still in bloom. I have 6 of them in the living room in a bowl of water right now, it smells so nice in here! The blooms are beautiful!

The weirdest thing is going on outside

2008-05-22T18:27:00.007-07:00

The End of the World is upon us! Prepare for the End of Days!!!! First, the temperature didn't reach over 100F today. The skies got dark during the daytime... Then the heavens got angry. First, they started flashing bright lights at the humans below, then they started arguing in loud tones. During this display of light and sound, the heavens then let out this strange substance that fell to the ground. It was colorless and very wet to the touch. This has been going on all day. I am not sure what is happening. This is Arizona, it is always hot and sunny here. I couldn't figure out what was happening so I took a picture of the heavens and posted it here so someone tell me what are the strange happenings that are occurring here???

Cute? THEY ARE EATING MY ROSES!!! GRRRRR! Last night, Mewstradamas caught a kangaroo rat and brought it in the house... While it was still alive... Nice to know that the kitties still catch those mousies...

Saturday night is the Elvis Costello and The Police concert. I am getting really excited!

We just came in from town and the temp is 50F. Yesterday, it was in the upper 90's, day before that it was 110F. I kinda like this rain stuff...

We are back to the wool dyeing again. I wound another 6 pairs of socks into the striping pattern, I just need to dye the wool and set it then it will go onto the Etsy site...

Time to snuggle up with a good book under a nice, warm blanky and listen to the rain on the windows. It is a treat we don't get enough of here in the desert...

Playing catch-up again

2008-05-19T22:12:00.005-07:00

OK, I have officially gone stir-crazy...

I hurt my knee at work (not because of work, just overwork or something) about a month ago. What is the injury? That seems to be the $64,000 question. I have been to the workmans comp Dr (just to have them tell me I didn't have a work related injury) then to Urgent Care so I could get a note to be off of my feet for a week until I could see my primary care Dr. I got in to see him, he told me I had injured my knee and (tried) to set me up for an MRI. Gotta love HMO's... A week later, I got the MRI appt made for the following week (at6:45 am...) I got the MRI done and followed up with my primary care Dr. He said that the place I got the MRI at gave him a diagnosis that was "clear as mud" and then referred me to a orthopedist. Guess how long it takes to even GET an appt with an orthopedist? 3 freaking weeks!!! So, a month later, I am still at home, having a LOT of pain in my left knee and still have another 2 weeks until maybe someone can tell me what is going on.

Now, for folks that know me well, you already know that I have ADD and can't sit still to save my life. This has been a wonderful opportunity to sit for the last 4 weeks! I AM GOING FREAKING BAT-SH*T!!!! There are a few HUGE changes going on in life on top of the fact that I am not able to walk so on top of being restless and not being able to do a thing about it, I am also getting really depressed. I don't deal well with change, either...

A couple of neat things have come about from my forced rest. First, I have been able to work with yarn again. I am still wrapping yarn and I have posed some stuff on my etsy.com site. I can't wait to get the dye bench cleaned off (when I get the ability to stand for any length of time without pain) and start dyeing wool again!!!

Second, my wonderful hubby and I found a really cool group to hang out with and start doing activities with. OK, so it was only a matter of time on this one... We went up to Prescott, AZ over the weekend for an SCA event and had a BLAST. Well, hobbling around a primitive campground is not the easiest thing to accomplish in middle ages garb but it can be done! I found another kindred "fiber spirit" at the event who was spinning on this gorgeous Reeves spinning wheel (not a Schadt-Reeves, a real Reeves wheel signed by the craftsman)... OMG! I was in heaven! We talked about spinning, about fiber, about the SCA and had a blast. We watched the fighters and I also learned some basic Medieval needlepoint stitches and had a great time at feast and around the campfire that evening. Mike and I were not sure we wanted to camp out (since this was our first SCA event) but we had SO MUCH FUN that we wish we had brought our gear and camped out (yes, crutches and all...). There is a Collegium going on June 7-8 down in Tucson that we are going to attend that has some classes on how to make an SCA persona, all sorts of newbie stuff and some other cool classes like making beer and mead! No spinning or fiber classes are going to be taught, but I will bring my wheel to the classes for the weekend...

SCA is the Society of Creative Anachronism. It is a middle ages re-enactment group. WOW! The folks at this group were so nice! I am going to be working on fiber arts related stuff and working on period-correct outfits for myself and Mike. Mike will be checking out archery and other activities that work well for him. We had the King and Queen at the Championship last weekend. I am really looking forward to participating in this activity! I have crocheted 3 snoods so far (yup, I am going nuts not being able to walk... I haven't crocheted in over 10 years) and found out that wool socks are a great thing to have in the mountains in May. I am looking forward to the Highlands War in August and the Estrella War in Feb. I hear that the Estrella War has around 8,000 people show up for it each year... YIKES!

Now that I am sitting on my glutes, I will TRY to be better at posting on the old blog...

30 some years later, Rush still kicks *ss!!! My rant to get me sent to Gitmo...

2008-05-10T23:31:00.010-07:00

OK, we went to the Rush concert here in Phoenix on Beltane (May 1st). They actually played one of my favorite songs from back when I was in high school. The scary thing? I think it is more applicable today than it was back in 1981. Scroll down to the end of this post for the lyrics and the song I am talking about... (No, it's not Tom Sawyer, but the same album) I guess that means I am out of the "proverbial broom closet", LOL!!!

Have we mentioned we have some new "fur kids"??? In this picture you see Grants (in Black), Pan (in Brown), Ishtar( the white mommy in the foreground), My Mommy (in pink, HAPPY MOMMY'S DAY!!!), Loki (in white in the background) and Sappho (in gray). We got Pan and Loki back last year and the other three came home from New Mexico a couple of months ago. Ishtar is due in mid-July and we will have our first cria then... My mom is feeding them some yummy treats... Anyone interested in their fiber, please check my site at lauriegator.etsy.com.

My mom and dad came down to Phoenix to visit us for the NASCAR race in April. My Aunt Susie came down for the race also! It was so much fun...

Chris has FINALLY gotten his orders and is now stationed in San Diego... We went out to visit him a couple of weeks ago. WOW! San Diego is so beautiful!!! I am used to Florida where all of the coastline is FLAT! What a difference! We will be out there a lot more while he is stationed there...

Chris brought up a valid point... Did you know our service men and women are paid about $2.15 an hour when they are in their first year of enlistment (E2/E3)? Oh boy, that is sure the wage I want the folks paid when they are fighting and dying for our country in the Middle East! I think I made more as a bartender when I was in college... Oops, I can't talk against our country or I may be "made to disappear"...

More in a bit... I am on crutches off of work with a knee injury and going NUTS! I was not meant to sit still...

Now, to that Rush song:

The night is black, without a moon.
The air is thick and still.
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torchlit hill.

Features distorted in the flickering light,
Faces are twisted and grotesque.
Silent and stern in the sweltering night,
The mob moves like demons possesed.
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right,
Confident their ways are best.

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will.
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill.

They say there are strangers who threaten us,
Our immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness to danger us
In our theaters and bookstore shelves,
That those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves.

Quick to judge,
Quick to anger,
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand.
Rush - "Witch Hunt "- Moving Pictures Album, 1981
(Go Barack Obama!!!)

Proud Mom Moment

2008-02-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

OK, at least my son let me take this pic last weekend... I am SOOOOOO proud! Last weekend, my mom and I went up to Chicago to watch my kiddo, Chris, graduate from Navy Boot camp!!! Here is the really serious picture of the two of us in the hotel room we were able to get at Great Lakes...

Let's start from the beginning. I took off from Phoenix (a couple of days before the Stupor Bowl) for a nice vacation up in Chicago. I got to the airport a couple of hours before take-off... We were told an hour before take off that we were going to be able to get out of Phoenix, but they were not going to guarantee that we were going to land in Chicago... I called my mom to let her know that we were going to get out but we may be landing in parts unknown....

4 hours later, we were in Chicago... We got there and I figured out why I had moved from Minnesota to parts much warmer... We got in and it was SNOWING... Awww, pretty... I got off of the plane and found my mom... We got to the counter, got the rental car and started our drive one hour north to the hotel about 4 miles from the Navy Base. We passed downtown Chicago and saw the Sears Tower, going about 5 MPH... No problem, this is Thursday Rush Hour traffic and we are supposedly making good time... Well, the snow starts getting a LOT heavier and we have made it about 6 miles in an hour and we decided that this hour long drive up to the hotel may take an hour or two longer... Since I flew Southwest, I had kept the snack-pack that they gave us on the plane. My mom was a bit hungry so I gave her the snack-pack and had her call my DH and Dad to let them know that we had landed but we were driving in some snow...

The trip was fun, we did make it to the hotel about 4 hours after we landed. We found out later that we were some of the last planes to make it into Chicago that evening... Here is my mom with her proud grandson...

We made it to Navy Graduation and we were looking for some seats close to where Chris would be marching when we heard "Would you like some help?" Mom replied "No, we know where we are going" and we turned around and saw Chris all decked out in his Dress Blues... Mind you, Dress Blues are actually black but that story is for another time... I was so happy to see him... It is amazing how much he had grown into a full-fledged adult since December...

Well, the weekend was a blast. The day of graduation, I am driving Chris back to his Base...There is this empty parking lot, full of snow, just ripe for some donuts in a rental car.. My "ever-so-responsible son" says "Mom! Don't you DARE start to whip donuts in the Navy Base Parking Lot"... Oh Goddess, since when has my son become RESPONSIBLE??? The kid was reading my mind... I didn't whip donuts in the parking lot and dropped him off in time for his watch... (Come on.... I hadn't driven in this much snow since I left Minnesota about 19 years ago...It was SOOOO tempting...) We all had such a wonderful weekend...

I flew back the night before the Stupor Bowl... The plane was FILLED with NY Giants fans... Did I mention they were a bit intoxicated? And they had tickets for the game the next day? I had 5 offers to be an "official chauffeur" for different parties to drive them to and from the game. I passed, I preferred to watch the game from home and have some fun watching the game... Go whomever!!!

Remember Super Tuesday??? We got our voting notice to go vote in the "Improvement District Office"... We thought this was in a big building but we "google-mapped" this and found the location was in the middle of a field... Where did we vote??? In a barn... Yuppers... We voted in a barn... We were in the minority (voting Democrat) but we had fun voting in a barn...

Here was the view across the street from the voting area...

My cat eats Milk Bones

2008-01-26T03:27:00.000-07:00

Hi! My name is Mewstodamas and I eat Milk Bones! My mommy gave some snack size Milk Bones to my doggie pals Roxy and Puma the other day and she gave me one to see what I would do. Since I LOVE to play fetch and sleep with my doggie pal Roxy and since Roxy LOVES Milk Bones, I thought I would try it. You know, they are REALLY YUMMY! Don't tell my mommy but my brother, Fromage, likes to eat them too. He doesn't like them as much as I do since he lets Roxy steal them from him while he is eating them. I don't let Roxy have my Milk Bones! OOPS, my mommy is coming! I'd better let her type on the computer now since this is her blog!

OK, how long has it been since I have blogged? YIKES!!! Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated and I am alive and well. To say that we have been busy would be an understatement!

So, what have I been doing on my fall/winter vacation? Hmmm... My son came home for a while, more about that in the next paragraph. I took a WONDERFUL spinning class in Davis OK in October, been working one heck of schedule, went to NM and picked out a couple of Alpacas, went to FL for the final NASCAR race of the season, picked out a couple more alpacas from a farm outside of Tuscon, went to FL for the holidays, flip-flopped from nights to days to nights to days to nights, helped a girlfriend from New Mexico get moved and settled here in AZ, worked an 11 day in a row stretch, had the sinus infection crap over Christmas (while on vacation), got a new spinning wheel and I am about to embark on a trip to Chicago on Thursday. There is a bunch more, and as I think of it I will post about it...

Chris came home in Sept and left for Basic Training in Great Lakes, IL on Dec 6th. He is graduating from basic training this week and I will be headed up to Chicago for his graduation ceremony and the couple of days of Liberty he has coming up. I am excited to see him and see what he looks like with short hair! OK, with no hair! I have been sending him really bad jokes that I pluck out of my email inbox for entertainment while he was in training. I am excited to head up there but I am NOT looking forward to that cold stuff up there. The bummer is that I fly back home the day before the Stupor Bowl. Guess where the Stupor Bowl is being held this year??? Yuppers, you got it, Phoenix. I am HOPING that the fans will already be here when I am flying back. I am NOT looking forward to getting to the airport 3 hours early because of the Tourons... (a combination of Tourist and Moron...)

I have also taken out the knitting needles again and I have been on some kind of lace and sock knitting kick recently. I am about 1/3 of the way through my newest stole and I knit up 2 pairs of socks in 1 week last week. I love hand knit socks when I am on my feet for long periods of time.

Work has been rough, to say the least! We are very short staffed due to circumstances beyond our control so anytime anyone misses one day, it is a killer and we are working our butts off. So, since people get sick, take vacation, and have things happen to them, this occurs on a regular basis. Most days, I am lucky to get an hour break in a 12 hour shift! I hear rumor that they will be working to fix this situation, but I will believe it when I see it...

Remind me to post pix of our newest fur-kids, the alpacas. My dear hubby, Michael, has worked his butt off getting the new fencing put in, building the shelter and getting the halters and other necessary supplies together to bring our babies home. We will be picking up the ones in Tuscon first then we will pick up the ones in NM.

I will put more news on here over the weekend. Time to head back to work!

Chris is coming home today!!!

2007-09-16T04:14:00.001-07:00

It is a long week this week (this is night #4 of a 4 night work week) and I am so happy! My kiddo, Chris, is coming home this morning. He left a couple of days after his high school graduation in May to spend some time with his dad in Florida. His plane gets in at 10:45 this morning and he will be hanging out here until December when he goes to Naval Boot Camp... (Great Lakes in December, sounds a wee bit nippy to me...) So, once I get off of work at 6:20am, I need to go home and take ALL of the wool that is currently occupying every available inch of floor space in his bedroom and TRY to find some place to move it to... And WHERE am I going to find room for this? I have no clue. The garage is out because of the buggies and moths that tend to be out there. The bedroom is out because I still have boxes in there that I haven't unpacked from our move last November. I could stash it in Chris's room, but then he wouldn't have anywhere to move or sleep. The bedroom closet has the same problem as the bedroom, still need to unpack boxes. The cubby/pantry area is filled with yarn and other knitting stuff and is piled about shoulder high so that is also not an option. It is going to have to go in the living room until I can make room for it on one of my days off this week...

The sunsets here in AZ are not as spectacular as the ones I remember in NM, but this was a nice one. One minute before, it looked even more awesome!

I have swatched for my next KAL. I am going to be doing it in really nice wool/silk blend and it has matching beads. I will get around to getting a picture of it and getting it posted sometime in the next week... (yeahrightsurewhatever...)

Brunch sounds nice while we are waiting for Chris to come in. I think Mimi's Cafe would be a wonderful place for an omelette and a mimosa (or two). Why do people look at you funny when you want a glass of wine at 7am? Heck, I have been working for 13 hours, a glass of wine tastes pretty good when it's the end of a hellish week.

My newest lace project

2007-09-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a close-up of my current lace knitting project. This is the border of the Magickal Earth Shawl from the book "A Gathering of Lace". I have the lace next to a 15 inch ruler for a comparison. I have about 3 repeats of the pattern pictured in the close up. The pattern calls for 48 total repeats, then the two ends of the border will be joined together and I will pick up loops from the end closest to the ruler and knit from outside to the middle of the shawl. I think I will be picking up something over 1500 stitches when I start on the body of the shawl. I think I have lost my mind yet again.

Here is a view of the 11 repeats that I have currently finished (a little less than 1/4 of the total length of the border). This is a 48 row repeat, but there are only about 35 stitches per row so it does seem to go pretty quickly.

I am also a member of the Secret of the Stole KAL. If you are interested in another mystery stole type of knit-a-long, this one closes membership on October 4th, so join up quickly! I ordered some Plum Zephyr wool/silk lace yarn for this and got my beads in the mail yesterday. I am hoping to swatch it up this weekend!

A quickie question to the Albuquerque SnBers out there... Are you all still meeting at the Flying Star restaurant off of Rio Grande on Tuesdays at 7pm? It looks like DH and I will be headed back to ABQ for a little break sometime in October and I would love to have a chance to see some friendly faces while I am down there. We will be coming in sometime on a Saturday and will be going back to Phoenix on Wednesday so I can get back to work on Wednesday night... Let me know if y'all are still getting together, I would love to see everyone! Yes, I will be stopping by Village Wools to see what kinds of wonderful treasures that they have (and bring a few skiens home with me!!!) SHHHHH! Don't tell my DH about the yarn store! He doesn't think I need any more wool, LOL!!!!

I am hanging at home tonight, battling another round of "The Gift that Keeps On Giving" that someone at work decided they needed to share with the rest of us... BLEH! Low grade fever, stuffy nose and feeling like I got hit by a freaking Mack Truck... I hope to be back to work tomorrow evening...

It's football season again!!!

2007-09-01T23:37:00.001-07:00

Ashley (aka Boo aka Boo-Boo Kitty (from Laverne and Shirley) aka NummyMuffinBooBooButter (from MST3K))thinks she is a spinning wheel and took up residence in the box that my Louet Victoria was packed in... Isn't she just the cutest little kitty cat?

Life is good, work is going well and people are great!

College football season (for my Beloved Gators) started today. Guess who didn't watch the game. Unfortunately, this is my long week at work. That means I work Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat from 6pm to 6am this week. Since the game started at 9:30 am (my time) on Saturday, there was no way I was going to be able to catch the game. So, I have a TON of stuff on the DVR to watch before 4pm Sunday. First up is the Gators vs Western Kentucky, then I will catch the Cal vs Tenn game, then I will watch the Busch race from California. Hopefully, I can get all of that done and catch a small nap before the Cup race starts! Thank Goddess I have the mixings for some mean mimosas to enjoy when I get home from work at 6am on Sunday morning! DH did make sure I watched the last 6 minutes of the football game between Michigan and Appalachian State. WOW! I am glad he made me late for work to watch THAT game...

(SOAPBOX)
This is why I really don't agree with the rankings system for college football. Yes, the Michigan game is the perfect example of the phrase "that's why they play the game". Michigan was ranked #5 nationally for college football. Appalachian State is not even a Division 1 college football team. (Can you say OVERRATED???) Michigan was beat by a better team. THEY WERE RANKED #5??? USC is ranked #1 because of their bowl victory over this same Michigan team last January. I think it is high time that the NCAA starts seriously thinking about a PLAYOFF system for Division 1 schools. Use the current Bowl system that is in place as the sites for the playoff games. Start the playoffs in late November with the National Champion crowned in January. Take the top 16 teams as determined by the current (flawed) rankings system and start the games the Saturday after Turkey Day. Play a game every other Saturday (to allow the teams some rest and allow the players to take final exams) and the National Championship would still happpen at about the same time of the year that it is currently scheduled for... That would be my solution for this problem.
(/SOAPBOX)

Puma-Dog...

The next project on the needles is the Magickal Earth Shawl from the book "A Gathering of Lace". I would have put a picture into ye olde blogge but I haven't had the camera out in a bit and haven't snapped a picture of it... I am making this one out of a pinkish colored cashmere yarn. It fulls out nicely when washed and feels so nice and soft... mmmmm...

I am also trying to make my reservations to go to Oklahoma City in October for my Master Spinner 2 class. I log into the SW airlines site to cash in my free round trip, get to the dates that I want to take the class (they are both open for the free round trip) then when I go to select my travel times the site tells me that my frequent flyer number and/or password are incorrect. Now, I couldn't have gotten that far in the process if the number and/or password were incorrect. So, I will have to call SW airlines sometime this week to speak with a real human being and find out what is going on... GRRRRR...

August set a record here in AZ for the most days in a month above 110F. Oh joy and rapture...

Sometimes, it is fun to do something totally out of the norm... Last night at work, we got to learn how to leave in case of emergency. This exercise meant we got to walk around in the outdoors and into our cafe in our bunny suits. It's always fun to check out the reaction of my fellow co-workers when we walk into an area where people dress in street clothes while dressed in bunny suits. They wonder what is up...

My recipe for a mean mimosa:
1/4 - 1/2 oz orange liquour (I usually use Cointreau)
Orange Juice
Cheap dry champagne (I usually use Cook's)

In a champagne flute, pour about 1/2 to 3/4 inches of orange liquour. Add champagne until glass is about half full of champagne (after the foam has gone down) add orange juice until glass is full and garnish with an orange slice if desired. Another good substitute is to use Chambourd instead of orange liquour. I add the orange liquour to add a more rich orange taste to the drink.

Time for me to fly... more updates later...

Finally finished!

2007-08-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished the "Swan Lake Stole" or the stole formerly known as Mystery Stole 3. It was my first attempt at blocking and I blocked the stole a little bit too tight, so there are points in the stole that aren't supposed to be there. I am really happy with how it turned out. It is very warm, I am looking forward to a nice, formal event to take it out and use it. I figured a stole that is this nice deserved me getting into a dress to take the picture :-)

I just got home from Florida a few days ago. My grandma passed away and I flew down for the funeral. That is one reason that things have been quiet around the old blog. It's kind of funny how someone's death will make you question so many things that you once seemed so sure about. Things like religion, the afterlife, what you believe... One of the things that it does make you think about is how important the people in your life really are... Your spouse, family, friends, you realize how important they are and how much they truly mean to you. It brings back memories of friends that I have lost touch with from moving... It's a good thing. There are so many people that mean so much to me that I have not told that they are so important...

I'll add more details on what has been going on this last month in the next couple of days :-)

Whatever gets you through the night

2007-07-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

Another good use for strainers from IKEA, they make wonderful kitty beds... Boris is doing the test drive! He was NOT impressed that I woke him up to take this picture of him.

Carole, my thoughts and prayers are with you. This is a tough time for you but please remember to take care of yourself and remember that you are loved!

My first night back on shift is coming to a close and I have stayed awake for the entire shift! Yippee! I really am enjoying being back on nights again! I didn't touch my knitting tonight but I did have lots of fun in the factory.

Last night (in my world, 2 nights ago for normal folks) my hubby and I went out to OzzFest and saw Ozzy in concert. Wow! Talk about bringing back some memories from when I was in high school. The concert was pretty good but the people watching was great! It was a blast! We are headed out to see Rush on Friday at the same venue.

I was knitting on MS3 and wasn't paying enough attention to the knitting until I realized that I had knit 20 rows WRONG! 20 right side rows on the wrong side... Grrr... I am still tinking this mistake. Maybe that is one of the reasons that I did not touch my knitting this evening. What a mess! That will learn me not to pay attention to my knitting.

DH got all of the ceiling fans in the house on Monday. The one in the bedroom is a GODSEND! I am looking forward to getting home in an hour, putting that puppy on high and getting a good days sleep! The first night switching over to night shift is always a bear!

I love cloudy days in the desert

2007-07-23T09:45:00.001-07:00

Here is my progress on Mystery Stole 3 after clue #3. So far, it is progressing very nicely! I don't know what happened but (knock on wood) this pattern is going quite smoothly since the really rough start. I still count stitches after the right side rows (with all the K2Tog and yarn overs) but we have come out evenly after each one so far... I am still debating whether to do the extra extension on the stole and at this point I think I will add the extra length even if it means getting a little behind the rest of the group.

I am such a geek! On Friday, Mike and I decided to go to the Harry Potter movie then go to B&N at midnight to get the new Harry Potter book. I spent all day on Saturday reading the book from cover to cover. I will NOT give any spoilers from the book in case you haven't picked the book up yet or in case you haven't finished reading the book. I am now on my second read through of the book. My son got me hooked on this series and it has been an interesting series to read through.

I have a cat that climbs ladders. Remember the pic I posted about the cat on the ladder and not knowing how she got there? The other day, I watched her climb the ladder, step by step. She's quite the little acrobat!

It is now official, I AM ON SHIFT! YIPPEE! That means I am actually writing this from home at 10am on a Monday morning and on my personal laptop! I don't start my shift until Wednesday night at 6pm so I have a 4 day weekend this weekend and next weekend! What a relief! I made it through all of my preliminary certifications last week so I can be on shift with the other guys who are already there!

When they call this "The Monsoons" they are not joking. Since the beginning of July, we have had The Monsoons. A couple of them have been real frog chokers! The rain has been so heavy that it has washed out our dirt road 3 times now. Today is a cloudy day so I am expecting a real frog choker to come tonight. The lightning has been incredible and we have gotten a TON of rain. It feels like living in Florida in the mornings, the humidity is quite high!

Since I am back on nights, I am also back to ice skating! I got them sharpened last week and got back onto the ice. I am still trying to get my balance back after not being on the ice for 6 months but it is slowly coming back. Maybe by the end of this week I will be back to spinning and jumping again! Now, I just need to find a coach down here in Phoenix!

Back to knitting my shawl. Mike is getting the ceiling fan hooked up in the bedroom and I am sticking around the house to help him out today. That means a bit of knitting time while I wait!

Progress on Mystery Stole 3 and other musings

2007-07-05T16:40:00.002-07:00

Here is the progress on my Mystery Stole 3 KAL that I am doing. I finished clue #1 just in time for clue #2 to be released tomorrow am. WHEE! I love working on this stole, it is a lot of fun! I have frogged this puppy a bunch of times (an additional 3 times since my last entry, usually around row 50 something) until I discovered that Lifelines are not a sign of weakness. Now, I have my lifeline in at row 100 so I am ready for the next clue! My lifeline is mint flavored dental floss so my stole won't get a case of gingivitis while I am knitting on it, LOL!!! Someday, I will be able to spin frog hair to knit up into another stole! I'll post my list of "things I have learned from my first lace knitting experience" over the weekend.

Yesterday was July 4th and the temperature got to a balmy 116F. So, being the geeks that we are, we made sun tea and decided to see if we could fry an egg on our front patio. We dehydrated the egg and cooked it a bit. I think the next time we try this lovely experiment we will set a pan out first thing in the am and fry the egg in that to see if it works. What does 116F feel like? Go in your bathroom, turn your blow dryer on the high heat and high fan setting and run the blow dryer up and down your body. This is a pretty close approximation. One word of caution, riding a motorcycle in 116F heat is not a really brilliant idea and the seat on the bike gets REALLY REALLY toasty! We were going to go to the fireworks in Chandler last night. We got up there, paid our 5 bucks for parking, walked around a bit, decided we didn't want to wait until 9:30 for the fireworks to start (it gets dark at 8pm in these parts since we don't observe Daylight Savings Time) and decided to drive back towards where we live and watch the local fireworks. The town and the local casino both put on a fireworks display. Since they started while we were on our way back, we just pulled over to the side of the road and watched them both. The ones that the town put on were quite impressive for their first try at fireworks. The casino fireworks must have hit a glitch because there was no finale. NO FINALE? No Happy Ending? Nope. Nada... But all in all, they were pretty awesome.

Today, the tape player gave out in my car. Since I got my XM radio way way back when the cassette tape option was the only option to get a signal, this killed off my XM radio. I stopped out at Best Buy and got one with one of them radios with that newfangled FM modulator and now we have tunes again. Once you go to music without commercials, it's hard to go back to listening to the local wacky DJ commercial filled stuff that goes over most of the commercial airwaves. With a 1 hour commute each way to work, I don't want to listen to 45 minutes worth of commercials... BLEH!

The temp is currently a nice 112F. The weather people in their infinite wisdom have predicted that it might just rain this weekend. Our highs are only supposed to get up to 109F or so. WHEE! It's a cold front! I might have to wear jeans to work since it will be cooling down so much!

Since the stole is caught up, I have time for spinning tonight. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night because of the fireworks so I may not get too much done...

I have lost my everloving mind

2007-06-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

My life apparently isn't busy enough. I am working 5 days per week, anywhere from 8 to 12 hours per day, I am spinning like a mad woman, I have about 15 rovings and 4 handspun yarns to list on Etsy, so what am I up to now? The Mystery Stole 3 KAL!

See that teeny-tiny crochet hook there towards the bottom (the size 13 crochet hook)? That is used to get the yarn through the size 8 beads used on the stole. See the glasses over on the right? They are used so I can see the teeny-tiny hook on the crochet needle and so I can get the teeny-tiny hook through the center of the beads. Man, it really bites to get old... +1.25 correction (as in reading glasses, ewwwwww). I color coded the chart to make life easer for my ADD brain. I have also learned to count my stitches at the end of every odd row to keep from either tinking or heading to the frog pond.

Here is my progress so far, after about 37 rows. This is my first time doing any real lace knitting on lace weight yarn. So far, so good. I did the test swatch last night. I am using a really nice baby alpaca/silk blend on size 4 needles. The yarn overs show up very nicely so the needles were the right size. How many times have I frogged this puppy so far? Only 3. I am pretty proud of that. This pattern uses beads (another first) and I am hoping to keep up with the KAL during the summer. If it turns out well, I will probably take it with me up to Minnesota next June for my (ahem) 25th high school class reunion. We will be on a riverboat cruise (last I heard) going down the St. Croix River in the evening, so it will get a little nippy during the night.

Why am I the only person who GAINS weight when I get sick? I spent 2.5 days this week with the stomach virus that has been going around work. Oh Joy and Rapture! When I am too sick to want to spin up any wool, I am not doing well... I am plying up the last of some BFL I dyed and will list it on my Etsy site. I started spinning up the Superwash BFL and it spins up like a dream! I am looking forward to finishing that and knitting up some lacy socks with it.

The spinning is going well. I am still knitting on some socks and this stole. The dyeing is a blast! I am finally getting off of my butt and getting samples into my own dyeing notebook so I know what I have dyed up. It's fun to experiment with colors and textures.

The weight loss is going pretty well. I got off of the diet for a while and now I am back on it. I started back in March and I have gone from a size 16 (at about 185 lbs) down to a size 10 (at about 160 lbs). I would still love to get down to a size 6 by next year. Once I get back on nights, I can start skating again. Until then, it's the weights and my usual run around the factory like a crazy woman.

This is Natasha. Somehow, she got herself on top of a 10 foot ladder and is trying to figure out a way to dine on canary for dinner. Godzilla (the canary) does not like the idea.

July looks to be a busy month. My dear hubby got us tickets to Oz-fest later this month, we have tickets to the Rush concert and then we are taking the motorcycle to San Diego for a comic book/sci-fi con. It should be a lot of fun. Until then, I get to wait for the last Harry Potter book to come out in print (yup, this geek has a copy on advance order like 10 million other kids in this country) and knit some more on the stole. Tomorrow, DH and I will have a grand adventure putting up our new ceiling fan in the bedroom. We got the fan on Memorial Day weekend but we haven't gotten around to installing it until now. Well, we sort of needed the 10 foot ladder that Natasha was standing on to be able to install the thing. It will be nice to have since the temps are still in the 110+ F range. The floor fan just isn't doing the job any longer.

Enough stalling, time to get back to working on the stole and get some yarn plyed up. I have until next Friday (until clue 2 comes out) to finish 100 rows...

It's only going to get into the Teens today

2007-06-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Teens, not as in 15F or 18F but 115F.... Bleh! What is a person to do when it gets this freaking hot? Road Trip!

I found out last Thursday that I had Friday off. We had 2 choices: the Dine "Sheep is Life" festival up in Window Rock, AZ or the Estes Park Wool Festival in Estes Park, CO. Mike and I priced tix to go there and between airfare and hotel it would have been $1000 for the weekend in Colorado. YIKES! So, we thought about driving. 14 HOURS? No thanks. So, we called up Mike's folks and we all met in Window Rock, AZ. We had a great time, learned all that we wanted to know about Navajo Churro sheepies, learned about washing and natural wool dyes and met up with some friends on the Res! (Hi Ida and Virgil and kids!) The weather was beautiful, only in the mid 80's F. I came home with 10 lbs of Navajo Churro sheep hair and washed it up. Man, this stuff turned out beautiful. I still need to card it and it will go into my rug that I am making up right now. (No, not weaving).

Here is a great method I found to wash most all fleeces:

1. Clean the fleece. This involves shaking out the crud, seperating out the really dirty bits and taking out the second cuts.
2. Turn your water heater up to 140F (or use cold water in the heat of the day at my place)
3. Fill up washer with hot water and turn off washer (no agitation, the fleece gets angry when you agitate it and it felts)
4. Add 2 cups Arm & Hammer laundry detergent and 1 cup of ammonia
5. Add Dirty Fleece
6. Close cover on washer and let soak for 40 minutes
7. Turn washer to final spin cycle (the spin cycle without water) and spin fleece. It may be a good idea to turn off the water to the washer to make sure that no water gets onto the fleece while spinning.
8. Remove fleece from washer and clean out the dirt in the washer with a wet cloth.
9. Turn water back on and fill washer again with hot water
10. Add 1 cup of Arm and Hammer laundry detergent, add no ammonia
11. Add damp fleece back into the water and soak for 40 minutes
12. Spin the fleece again on final spin cycle.
13. Remove fleece from washer and clean out the dirt in the washer with a wet cloth.
14. Turn water back on and fill washer again with hot water
15. Add damp fleece back into the water and soak for 40 minutes. Add no detergent or ammonia
16. Spin the fleece again on final spin cycle.
17. Dry fleece with your favorite method of drying.
18. After fleece is dry, card and spin to your liking!

I found these really cool screened laundry baskets at IKEA that I put my fleece into and put it out on the front porch for a couple of hours to dry the fleece. With temps in the hundred and teen range, it doesn't take long to dry. I have found this method cleans some of the dirtiest, greasiest fleeces I have done. I have cleaned Churro, Shetland, BFL and Ramboullet using this method and it has worked for all of them! (Fine to course wools) I got these instructions from a wonderful helpful person in one of my Yahoo spinning groups!

I am REALLY behind in my etsy store. All of this roving and yarn still needs to be put up in my store, YIKES! I have found a good use for my son's old bedroom, it has now become my wool room. Here is where I put my wool up to dry, braid it, package it and store it for sale in my site. I am going to get a new site (my own store) up late summer/early fall once I get back onto nights and have my 3 & 4 day weekends to get the site up and running. I am also hoping to do 1 -2 wool shows this fall and sell some of my rovings and hand-spun yarns. I am not sure if this will work out since I am in the middle of a plant start-up at work, but I think I may be able to do this.

OK, the spinning bug has bit me really hard! I signed up for the SOAR retreat (the annual Spin-Off retreat) and signed up for a workshop called Spinning 201. Of course, I did this late and I am now number 2 on the waiting list for this class... Bummer... So, I decided to sign up for a Master Spinner Class at Olds College. Yup, I am going to Oklahoma in October to go to the Level 2 class to learn to ply better, learn to spin exotic fibers and learn more about sheep fur! I am REALLY excited! I have no clue if anyone I know will be there, but the idea of 5 days of spinning classes (full days) really makes me happy! I hope to be a teacher one day and this will help me learn all sorts of new stuff! They have 6 levels of Master Spinner classes and I covered all of the Level one stuff in my 4 week class I took at The Fiber Factory here in Mesa. I am finally feeling really confident in my spinning abilities. My yarn looks really great and I am having a blast doing it.

Today's fiber to spin up: Superwash BFL. I order 3 lbs of Superwash Blue Faced Leicester roving from Sheila over at Wool2Dye4 and got really prompt delivery. (Sheila has been great to work with for both yarns and rovings. No Affiliation, I just love getting stuff from her.) I dyed it up in a Royal Blue color and I am going to start spinning it today on Lenny (my current name for my Lendrum spinning wheel). I have some Shetland lamb fleece on Vicki (the Louet Victoria wheel) but I need to re-card some of the batts since I am finding them difficult to spin with. (Difficult meaning I didn't card them enough and I still have some clumps in it.) So far, the only thing I didn't like was that it got "yucky" in the dye pot when I dyed it a solid color. I am sure this is because the wool is superwash and slides easily. I will let you know how it spins up. This roving is SO SOFT!!! It is yummy! I just want to cuddle with this stuff. If the spinning goes well, I will probably paint some up and sell it on my etsy site or at my store when it gets going.

Today, I am taking the wheel and headed up to New River to celebrate the Summer Solstice with some great folks! Whee! There will be spinning, swimming, food and great company. On Wednesday, I have a meeting with the bosses to find out when I can move to shift. I sure hope it will be soon, this working 10 - 12 hour days 5 days per week is not fun. I would love to have my 12 hour shifts back working 3 - 4 days per week! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Proud Mom moments

2007-06-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

My baby just graduated from High School. This is a picture of Chris and I after his graduation ceremony. I am SO PROUD of him! Yes, I am wearing a Hawaiian shirt to a graduation ceremony. What do you expect? It's rural Arizona, it was close to 100 degrees when we got to the school and it was Memorial Day weekend. Besides, isn't it my job as a parent to embarrass my offspring whenever I can? LOL!

This is a few days before graduation. Does the kiddo look totally petrified or what? This was his swearing in ceremony for the Navy. Yup, not only did he graduate from High School, he also enlisted in the Navy that week. So, I am now a Proud Parent of a Sailor! He departs for Basic Training on Dec 5th. Right now, he is down staying with his dad in Florida for a bit. He will be helping his dad move and will be working with him over the summer.

This was an example of 2 of the weeks that I have had since I last blogged. It has been absolutely wonderful!

This is my mom and I at the Grand Canyon. My parents came to visit for 2 weeks in April. It was AWESOME. We took our first trip to the Grand Canyon, we watched the NA$CAR race in Phoenix and had a great time visiting. We learned a lesson that day... When the wind gusts are 50+ MPH, it is a BAD time to go out on the scenic overlooks at the Grand Canyon. The weather was a bit cold (hence the jackets) but the scenery was breathtaking. WOW! We had a lovely dinner after we did the bus ride for the day.

This is the Grand Canyon at night. Yes, this is a real picture of the Grand Canyon, not just a black square.

After my folks left, my hubby's folks came for a visit. It was lots of fun. We only had the weekend together, but it was a lot of fun. They live up in Santa Fe, so we can visit them more often.

We have had lots of visitors to our place. My bestest friend from way back in Elementary school, Julie, and her hubby Loren came out to see the new house. We grilled some steaks, had lots of wine and a tequila tasting and played cards. Great times! Julie, the Orchid looks wonderful! All of the flowers have bloomed and it is very happy getting southern exposure!

This is what my Dear Sweet Hubby and my Wonderful Kiddo did for me for Mom's Day. Isn't it purdy? They put in a fountain in our front patio. It is so nice to have the water feature in the desert! We are using our waste water from our reverse osmosis system to run the fountain and water the plants! We wanted to do something with the waste RO water rather than wasting it by letting it run down the drain.

This is my new baby, the Louet Victoria. What do you think? I wanted a wheel that was a little more portable than my other baby, the Lendrum. This wheel has been great. Right now, I am spinning some of my hand carded Shetland fleece that I washed. I have discovered a lot of great things about this wheel. Even though it is a double treadle, you can use one foot to do all of the treadling! This is a GOOD thing when you have a broken toe and can only use one foot to treadle. (My hubby's shower bit me the other morning.) It is a very smooth treadle and it is a great wheel! Yes, I still use my Lendrum for the majority of my home spinning but this is nice to take with me to SnB and I can carry it onto the plane! I am hoping to order a Woolee Winder for it in the next couple of weeks!

Being on day shift bites! I have NO TIME to do anything anymore. My dyeing has taken a back seat and I don't get nearly enough time to spin! I was supposed to go back to nights in May, but it looks like that will be pushed out to October at this point. I am learning A LOT by working on days and I am very happy to have the opportunity to learn, but I really miss my 3 and 4 day work weeks.

Should I go to the Estes Park Wool Festival?

Lori H, can you send me your email addy? I have lost it!

Ziggy Kitty went to the Rainbow Bridge on March 8th. We miss him terribly.

SEX and the married spinner

2007-03-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

Warning: the following entry will contain references to sex. Leave now if you are uncomfortable with the subject matter...

OK, for those who have stuck around, here is my haul from my SEX (Stash Enhancement eXpedition) at Stitches West in Santa Clara a couple of weekends ago. Notice that one thing that is sorely missing is YARN... Well, not really, this is all yarn, it's just yarn in the raw form. There was some really YUMMY rovings out there that I picked up from Blue Moon, Carolina Homespun, Lisa Souza Dyeworks and Judy's Novelty Wool! Yes, there is even some raw Corriedale wool in here that is begging to be dyed and spun! Nope, I didn't win one of the Grand Prizes they had there, or there would have been the need for a second suitcase for all of the roving I would have brought home! Stitches West was a real treat! It was HUGE! I have never seen so much sheep, alpaca, cashmere and other natural fibers in one place before. I was tempted to pick up a couple of balls of Tofutsies, but I decided to pick it up here at my LYS instead. The rovings are Corriedale, Blue Faced Leichester, Angora/Rambouillet and Merino wool. Yummy! I also picked up a nifty "Crafty Kate" (we don't call them lazy Kate's any longer) and another niddy noddy to take with me on the road. I am currently spinning up some Merino and hope to get it plied later this week.

The conference was really awesome. I got to see some old friends, get too little sleep, learn a hell of a lot about the new technologies coming in my job and had a chance to do a little bit of wine tasting in Napa Valley. We discovered the best way to go about wine tasting. First, you find a little no-name winery on the side of the road and stop in for a tasting. If the wine is really good (and this one was), you ask the wine server for a recommendation on somewhere else that THEY would visit. This lead us to 3 great wineries that had some of the most unbelievable wines I have had in a while. I was able to pack all of the wine in the suitcase and all are ready to drink now, yippee! I am hoping to break open one of the white wines this weekend.

I have made up another alcoholic concoction. I had so much fun with the Ultimate Grape Martini that I tried for another version in cherry flavor. The first recipe is something I am calling a Virgini-tini. This one has so much cherry flavor to it that it will feel like you got your virginity back :-)

Virgini-tini:
1.5 oz Cherry Vodka (I used 3 Olives brand)
0.5 oz Creme de Griotte (or any cherry liqueur. This is the one they had at BevMo)
Mix in a martini shaker and pour into a chilled martini glass

The next one is the first attempt, the Cherry Martini:
1.5 oz Cherry Vodka (I used 3 Olives brand)
0.5 oz Triple Sec
1.5 oz 7-Up
Mix in a martini shaker and pour into a chilled martini glass

The second recipe has a nice cherry flavor too it, but doesn't go wild with cherry flavor like the Virgini-tini does.

I started on days this week and started working with the Install/Qual team at the new factory. I am learning so much from this new job. I also found out that they aren't moving me for another month. I will have a "new" cube (as in a totally re-designed cube) in the same area as the rest of my counterparts. I am still having problems with this waking up in the morning and driving in rush hour traffic both ways, but I am getting used to it...

Time to get back to my spinning. I hope to have a day this weekend to dye some wool and put it up for sale on Etsy! My yarn is still there, which means that the right home just hasn't seen it yet! :-)

Ruh-Roh, there are BOXES in my cube!

2007-02-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

I am on my way to see these guys again!

About 6 weeks ago, I had one of those last minute midnight cube moves from the building I used to work in over to my new building. I came into work this evening and there are boxes in my cube and every other cube in my row. I think I am being moved again but no one has told me. I am starting to wonder if I will ever be able to stay in one cube longer than 3 months? Since I am on my way to San Jose and Santa Clara, I guess the move will have to wait for another week since I have not been told when my move date actually is... GRRRR...

I am about to leave work, head to IHOP for a yummy pancake breakfast then head over to the airport to go on my trip! (it's 4am, I think the drunks are gone now) I am SO EXCITED! Someone on one of my lists had this brilliant idea that for each pound that we lose, we get to buy a pound of yarn (and roving, if we are spinners). I think this is a GREAT idea and will keep us motivated to keep eating healthy and exercising. This means I am coming home with a LOAD of fiber and yarn :-) I am officially down to a size 14 and they are even a bit loose on me now. (I didn't want to get size 12's for the conference since I wanted to be comfy and have clothes that fit a bit loose). I am still working out at least 2 days per week (up to 10 miles each time on the bike) and the fat is slowly coming off. The "junk in my trunk" is starting to look much better also!

Forecast for the trip: rain every day and highs in the 50's. I am glad we are supposed to be indoors all week! I have lots of my sweaters and cold weather clothes packed for this trip. I am really looking forward to seeing my old co-workers from my old site. I miss them a lot! I like my new home and my new workplace but I miss the friends that I made back in New Mexico! I am homesick for NM and don't think I will be able to make it out there for a while... :P

The Woolee Winder is so great! I spent a couple of hours on it this morning after work while watching Batman and Robin. I got so much more spinning done in the time and my singles are MUCH more consistent! So my initial reaction was right on the money. DH complained that my last blog entry made it sound like he didn't know how it worked. He knew how it worked right away, he was just having fun with the ingenuity of its design and we discussed other mechanical things during that time also! (I'm gonna miss you while I am gone, honey...) Ziggy is so cute, he hangs out on my shoulder while I am spinning on the couch and watches me spin wool. He just lays there and purrs. I stop every so often and pet him and tell him what a good kitty he is. When he was a kitten, he used to love to climb on my shoulder while I was making dinner and would just ride around the kitchen on my shoulder when I would go from task to task. If he doesn't make it until I get back, I was able to spend some good quality time with him and tell him "goodbye". I told him that he needed to keep going until I get back, but as we all know, cats never listen to a damn thing we say to them. But we have had a lot of good talks and a lot of good purrs between the two of us!

The Woolee Winder is here

2007-02-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

My new Woolee Winder came in the mail today! So, instead of waking up and getting ready for work, I decided to be a few minutes late for work and try out the new toy. It has to be impressive if my hubby (who doesn't spin) is enamoured with it when I try it out! He had a blast figuring out how it worked and we chatted about it while I started figuring out how to use it. This first picture is my new Woolee Winder, along with Natasha lying in the sun (solar charging her little kitty batteries for a mad midnight romp through the house).

Here is a close up of the wool I am currently spinning and how it looks on the winder. I am currently working on a white/light lavender 100% merino wool roving with the winder. OK, so this was not the brightest choice on the planet for someone who has only been spinning for a few months. Next time, I'll remember that.

So, how is it working out so far? I only have about 45 minutes worth of experience on the Woolee Winder but so far it has surpassed all of my expectations. I was able to pick it up pretty quickly. Getting used to the differences between this winder and the one that came with my Lendrum was pretty easy. There is the "clicking" sound that comes up when I let the yarn go to wind around the spindle but it became a very soothing sound after I got used to it (about 15 minutes). It was REALLY hard to suppress the urge to stop the wheel and change the position of the guide that I used to use on the spindle. I LOVE the fact that once I got started and got my rhythm going with it, I was able to go A LOT faster than I had been able to go with my old winder. All in all, I give it 2 thumbs up for ease of use and what a difference it has made in my spinning. I do feel like I can be more consistent with my spinning than I was able to before with all of the starting and stopping. Nathan was GREAT to work with and I would highly recommend getting one. It is worth the cost!

OK, we had a BLAST at the Ren Fest on Monday. DH joked about how we paid $20 each just to go shopping, but it was in fun! My girlfriend Julie and her daughter Alyssa came out there with DH and I. The weather was a bit chilly (in the upper 50's) and the forecast called for 30% chance of rain. No problem. We got there and looked around for a bit. Then I found this beautiful cloak. It is made from black velvet on the outside and lavender satin lining the inside. It also has a nice hood (that you can't see from the picture) to cover your head. Well, I bought it because despite wearing a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt, I was still really cold. I wore it around all day and it kept me nice and warm. It was REALLY nice to have once the rain started. Alyssa bought herself a Didgeridoo and was learning to play it. It was really cool! (A didgeridoo is an instrument played by Australian Aboriginals, it kind of looks like a hollowed out log and makes a really cool sound). We had some sprinkles, which was no problem, until the thunder and lightning started and the heavens cut loose with rain and wind. BLECH! We found shelter and waited for the storm to pass. We caught one show, the singing nuns, before we left for the day. We all decided that we would head out there one more time before April 1st so we could see some of the shows this time! And so we could shop some more. I found a place that served warm Mead, yummy! It hit the spot on a chilly day. We wandered around, Julie picked up a neat beaded rose for her mom and some other goodies, Mike and Alyssa had a couple of Bloody Marys while we were there, we munched on Turkey Legs (of course), we didn't pick up any leather mugs, Mike loved hanging out at the fossil merchant, we found a cute shelf cat and a neat wooden cat for the living room. I had such a great time! We will go see The Ded Bob Show next time we are out there!

I have discovered the recipe for the ultimate Grape Martini. DH thinks it tastes like grape kool-aid with a hell of a kick. I think it tastes like the Grape Martini I had at the restaurant. Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 oz Grape Vodka (I used 3 Olives brand vodka)
1/2 oz Triple Sec
1 1/2 oz 7-Up or lemon lime soda

Mix the ingredients in a martini shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. I haven't figured out which garnish would be good with this (no, grapes would not work), maybe a lemon twist? The new martini glasses came via UPS yesterday and I was able to try them out. The work great for keeping a martini nice and cold. The glasses will probably also work for white wine and other drinks you want to keep cold but don't want to put ice into.

My guy crashed out of the Daytona 500 last weekend... DH's guy won the race (although the finish was somewhat controversial). Great race. This weekend (while I am shopping at the Stitches West Marketplace), I will be missing the CA race. I will have to record it on the DVR so I can see it when I get home next week.

I need to pack and get the needles and a "no-brainer" sock pattern in the backpack for the trip. The spinning wheel is coming with me to San Jose so I can play around with the roving I find at Stitches West. I am so excited! I can't wait to get the suitcase packed and go!!!

Searching for the Ultimate Grape Martini

2007-02-17T01:29:00.000-07:00

Mike and I were out at this really cool fusion restaurant (a Japanese Fondue place) in Chandler in November. When we were there, we both ordered Martinis. Mike likes a perfect gin martini, stirred not shaken and don't leave it in the shaker so the ice melts! I decided to try their Grape Martini. YUMMY! This is the Martini glasses that they served the drinks in. Aren't they the coolest thing? You put ice in the round bowl portion of the glass and your martini in the triangular glass. Your martini stays nice and chilled while you drink it without the martini getting watered down with ice. Mike and I have been searching for these glasses with no luck. Today, I found them and ordered them! They should be here in about a week. I picked up some Grey Goose Grape Vodka at BevMo this evening and I am working on duplicating the Grape Martini that I had at the Fondue place. I have found 3 different recipes to try, so I am going to try one when I get off of work in the morning. Let the tastings begin! After working a 12 hour shift, having a martini at 6am really isn't all that strange! Now, I need to find a 24 hour pizza place and life will be perfect!

This jewel is currently up for sale on my Etsy.com site. It is my first hand-spun yarn that I am selling. I have one ply in black and the other ply is a lime green and violet color. (see the post below to see the roving it was spun from) It looks really cool, the picture has subdued the colors a bit. I am very proud of this yarn! I've had a few folks look at it but no takers yet...

One week from today (Feb 24th) I will be on my way to San Jose, CA for a Microlithography Conference for a week. I get to learn all about the latest and greatest in my field and I am taking a class in photoresists to learn about the problems they can have. It just so happens that on the 24th and 25th of Feb there is a knitting thing called Stitches West going on in Santa Clara which is about 3 miles from the hotel I am staying at. Guess what I will be doing on Saturday and Sunday? I am SO excited! Last year, I missed Stitches West by 1 day so I feel really lucky to be there at the same time as Stitches West this year. Some of my online friends will have booths or be working out there, so it will be fun to put a name with a face. If St. Joan sees this, I am buying you a drink either Sat or Sun! I didn't sign up for any classes because by the time I found out that I would be able to go, all of the good classes were full up. I will sign up for the brochure and take a few vacation days next year if it's really a cool thing to go to. I am looking forward to seeing the West Coast Knitting "Mecca" as I have heard it called!

Monday, Mike and I are going to be headed out to the Ren Fest here in Phoenix with Julie and Loren. (Julie and I have been friends since elementary school and we both live here in the Phoenix area). It will be so fun to see them again! I have not been to a Ren Fest down here, but it looks like it will be a big one. I haven't been to a good Ren Fest since I left Minnesota. Damn, I really miss seeing Puke and Snot!

Once I get some sleep under my belt, I will be back to dyeing the rest of the roving and watching cars go around in circles on Sunday. Yes, NA$CAR officially starts back up this weekend with the Daytona 500. There have been enough alleged and real cheating scandals in this one race than I have ever seen. My guy starts in the 2nd row and my other guy starts in the back. I need to find a Columbian flag before the April race here in Phoenix!

Dyeing part 2: THE LARCH

2007-02-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

The larch.

Lots of stuff happening, let's start with our first attempt at painted roving. This is how it started. I mixed up some lime green and purple dyes, painted on the roving in 2" stripes for the lime green and 3" stripes for the purple. I left an inch between the colors because I wanted to have some natural color peeking through.

THE Larch.

Here are the rovings after wrapping them up in saran wrap and placing them into the pot to be steamed. Pretty...

The Larch...

After steaming, cooling off, rinsing and one last spin cycle in the washer. Here is the final result. I learned a lot from my first hand-painted roving experiment.

First: 1 inch is a good amount to leave between colors to get the colors to go into each other without blending. I only had 2 small spots of "brown" where the green and purple dyes mixed together on the roving.

Second: Painting the roving does prevent the "grabby" roving result that I had from the immersion dyeing.

Third: I really CAN do this!

I am going to be helping out Lisa over at One Planet Yarn and Fiber with some roving dyeing. What a truly nice gal! We grabbed a cup of coffee yesterday and chatted for a while about everything from spinning to sheep to SnB's to sheep breeds to online businesses. It was a blast! Now that I have more comfort with the roving painting, I can get down to business and get her projects done over the next few days.

Last night was the official start of "cars going around in circles" season. Hubby and I watched the Bud Shootout in High Def for the first time. It was like being at the race! Way too cool. Some things should NOT be seen in High Def. On the other hand, pit crew butts should ALWAYS be seen in High Def... LOL!

Cats on books and everything else...

2007-02-09T00:54:00.000-07:00

Fromage, Boris, Ziggy and Mew-stradamus decided they needed to get all sorts of kitty fur all over the new couch. We have now turned into those type of people who cover all of the furniture until company comes over. I think this means we are officially old...

Current projects: Dyeing roving and knitting more sockies.

I am currently knitting on a pair of Pomatomus socks. Yes, I am SOOOOO last year when it comes to socks. I decided to do them toe-up and quickly discovered that this pattern is not the easiest pattern to translate into a toe-up pattern. If anyone else wants a few hints, here ya go.
First - Cast on 37 stitches on one needle and 36 onto the other needle (I use 2 circs) before you go into the pattern on chart B for the first time.
Second - On the first repeat on the leg (chart A), make sure to do the SL2, K3 Tog stitch to get back down to 36 stitches.
I also found that the yarn I was using with a size 2 needle (as suggested) was way too big. (This is superfine merino sock yarn, not thick stuff). So, I ended up frogging about 5 hours worth of knitting and going down to a size 0 needle and starting all over again. The pattern looks REALLY cool, so I am going to give it a try.

Dyeing: I did my first dyed roving during the Stupor Bowl! AND IT WORKED! I had never dyed any roving and thought I would start with immersion dying some roving a solid black color for a hand-spun yarn I am working on. It did grab more than I had expected (not felted, thank goodness) but it is spinning up just fine. I am going to try painting a solid color and steaming it this weekend to see how well that works and if it makes the roving a dark enough color. I figured if I am going to card different solid colors of roving, the immersion should work well (since it will get run through a drum carder), but if I am wanting the roving to be less "grabby", I will try painting it.

I have been having a great time mixing up all sorts of 1% stock dye solutions so I can start experimenting with color mixing. I have been using the book Color in Spinning by Deb Menz to start learning how to mix colors and play with color mixing in roving and in hand-spun yarns. Scout suggested this book when I was curious about dyeing yarn. I have found a few things that will help with my yarn dyeing, but I am going to be using this book to learn more about color theory and how to make that certain color I am looking for. I feel like I have made a quantum leap in dyeing!

My very fast flyer came in for my Lendrum wheel today! I am so excited! I have been having a couple of little problems with my wheel recently. This first is the excessive squeaking from the bobbin (which usually starts about 30 minutes after my hubby goes to sleep in the next room). I picked up some lube to hopefully solve that problem. The other headache was with the plying head. When I would use the plying head to ply my singles (and using the LONG band), I was having a VERY hard time getting it to turn. It felt like I was fighting it hard to try to get it to work. This is the first and second time I have had this happen. In my Lendrumspinners Yahoo group, they mentioned this problem and the solution is to take a little bit of fine grit sandpaper and lightly sand inside of the plastic ring. The problem had something to do with certain wheels being made during high humidity and when they get to a really dry climate the wood contracts the plastic piece in the plying head and so it doesn't spin well. If you have a Lendrum wheel, it's a great group with a lot of good information!

Slim down update: I have been pretty good about working out, but not as good as I want to be. I have been working out at least 2 days per week (a day short of my 3 day goal) but I have been lifting to failure on my weight days and I have been lifting 2 times per week. I have been doing this for about 3 weeks and (without a diet change) I have gone down to a size 14! Yeah me! Next week, I will be starting to add diet changes into the plan. Last week, I decided to take some measurements of "problem areas" on my body. I remeasured this week (I shouldn't have done it, but I was curious) and found I lost 3/4" off of my butt and 1" off of my belly (also known as the "Muffin Top")! I will do another measurement in 2 weeks, after my monthly cycle works itself out. (I gain water weight like crazy the week before so any measurements in the next two weeks would not be valid). I am up to 9 miles per day on the exercise bike (at a medium tension), I am up to 60 crunches per workout session and I am able to do 3 sets of 15 reps on all of my upper body exercises! My favorite song to do crunches by? Fat Bottom Girls by Queen (and with a starting measurement of 43 inches, I qualify!). My favorite lifting song? Since I Held You by The Cars. My aerobics songs are whatever comes up on the iPod at the time. I am up to the letter J in my song list this week! I really wish there was a work out plan to slim the belly but let me keep my butt! I am really enjoying having some "junk in the trunk" for a change!!!

Ziggy - He is still hanging in there, but going downhill. The tumor on his neck has grown to the point where it is starting to bother his ear and he is scratching at it a lot. He is also sleeping all of the time and not very active. He still jumps on the counter, still likes to beg for food and still loves to mess with my shoelaces when I am putting my shoes on for work, so it's ok. We are keeping an eye out to make sure he isn't in any pain. He hasn't shown that he is in pain yet, he still has an appetite and he still uses "the box" so we are thankful for each additional day we get with him.

More socks and a rant...

2007-02-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

Still been busy with the socks! This is my latest made-up pair. They are really nice and comfy! The yarn was hand-dyed from Scout in a color called Lilacs in Bloom. It's a really nice combination of green, pink, purple and brown. I just love the way the socks turned out. In this first picture, you also see Ashley (The world's cutest and most cuddly kitty cat) getting her cute little butt into the picture. She was nowhere to be seen until the camera came out, then there she was, on the bar waiting to9 get into the picture! Brat cat!

Here is an attempt to get close up on the leg pattern. It looks like winding vines, but I haven't been able to get a good shot that shows the pattern very well.

The workouts are going well! I did 2 out of 3 last week and did my first one this week. I feel like I am starting to see a very minor difference. We will keep it up, one day at a time!

Now, I really need to rant! I will preface this by saying that I knew I would have to be pretty flexible when I took my new job. Since the new job really didn't exist before and they were kind of flying by the seat of their pants with the training, it wasn't a problem. The whole rant starts 2 weeks ago when I get an email at work letting me know that I have been "evicted" from my previous office home and needed to move to my new office home by the next day. This would have been enough notice if I worked days, but since I am on a compressed 12-hour work week, this only gave me one evening's notice. Not a problem, I came over to the new place, found my new "home", grabbed some boxes, packed and moved. So, I am all set up in my new home, but I do my work in my old home, so it involves quite a bit of hiking between the two buildings. Not a problem, I know that I will start working in my new plant (the one attached to this office building) in a week and a half. Well, I had a meeting with the boss today and found out that I am being switched back to the 5 day per week day shift again for anywhere from a few weeks to 6 months! If I wouldn't have asked, I wouldn't have found this out! That is scary ! So, needless to say, I am not a happy camper in the least bit! I LOVE WORKING NIGHTS! I LOVE WORKING COMPRESSED WORK WEEKS (3 days on, 4 days off then 4 days on and 3 days off the next week). Here is a list of the things I hate about switching back to days:

1. Traffic jams - now I have to try to time my commute to the huge traffic load on the roads at 7am. BLECH
2. Everyone works out at the gym at lunchtime - no more being able to get on a machine without a long wait
3. If I wanted to skate during the week, that is shot in the arse! Unless, I pay $4.00 per hour more to do freestyle skate at 6am before I go to work. (at $10.00 per hour!)
4. Back to working all the overtime I want for free... There is no such thing as an 8 hour day on days, it doesn't exist.
5. Meetings.... BLECH!
6. Only 2 days off per week!
7. No way I can go back to ABQ for a quick trip to go to SnB
8. No quick trips anywhere until I go back on nights
9. Too many people around to get any work done
10. I am NOT a morning person!

OK, I think I am done whining about this. At least I know that this is only temporary and I will be back on nights by this summer. Now, here is my list that I am forcing myself to make to think of good things about going back to days

1. I can work out 5 days per week
2. I can swing by my LYS after work
3. I can hit the local SnB group after work
4. I can get together with friends since my days off will be 'normal"
5. More time with hubby (although I don't believe this)
6. I can go to yoga classes offered at work
7. I don't have to take classes on my days off
8. I get to work doing something I have never done before
9. The cafe at work will have more than one selection for lunch
10. I can finally get some office supplies!

I ordered some more roving and a bunch of dye. I am going to try my hand at etsy again selling hand-painted roving and yarns! Not to make a lot of money, but it does supplement the "fiber fund" nicely! Look for me back up there in 3 - 4 weeks!

Sicky Sockies

2007-01-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

What did I do while I was spending the better part of two weeks lying on the couch with the bug? The first thing that the little "inner voice" was urging me to do was to finish a pair of socks that I had started but had been sitting in a backpack for the better part of 4 months. This first pair (in purple) is Koigu, knit on size 1 needles using a pattern from the Sensational Knitted Socks book by Charlene Schurch. (I absolutely LOVE her book). This sock was such fun to work on! I finished this one in a few days and wondered what else to do?

So I decided to go into the stash for the beginnings of sock #2. This was the sock yarn that was sent to me during the Dye-O-Rama swap that I was involved with last year. I had this yarn all wound into balls to be used, but I couldn't decide what to use it for. The colors are absolutely GORGEOUS in this yarn and the yarn is REALLY soft!!! Makes me want to purr like a little kitty! So, after not seeing anything in my sock books that made me want to go "OOH, I need to knit THAT sock", I decided to go to one of my Stitch Directory books and pick out a stitch and design a sock out of it! This sock was knit toe-up, used a short-row heel and topped off with a 2x2 ribbing.

Here is the top-down view of the sock. I thought a lace pattern would be fun with this sock, since the yarn is so heavy. It would have made a perfect winter sock up in New Mexico, but since I have moved down to Arizona, I needed something that would be a little bit cooler. If anyone is interested, let me know and I can post a pattern of how to make this sock (or at least the stitch pattern I used for the leg and top of the foot). I absolutely LOVE how this sock turned out. I loved it so much that I wore it to work for the first two nights of the week! Very comfy, nice and soft and keeps the feets nice and comfy!

I have a third sock that I finished last night but I haven't got the pictures uploaded to my laptop yet. That sock started as one thing and ended up turning into something completely unexpected.

I am a strange animal. I love to knit socks but I really hate to follow patterns. Why? It seems like the patterns look so nice on paper, but one I knit them up, they are either too loose on my foot or too tight. (This is always following patterns for "average" foot size. WTF is average???)So, through my vast many years of sock knitting (OK, 2 years), I have come up with a system that guarentees that my socks will fit me every time. Disclaimer, this works for me, you may not find the same results...

Here is what I do:
1. Knit a gauge swatch. (I can hear the grumbling already) I knit the swatch because I need to know what this yarn knits up like with this set of needles I am working with. I have had the same brand of yarn give me different gauge with the same needles. It's an important part of the formula.
2. Measure my foot width at the ball of my foot (the widest part on my foot). I take this measurement to get the size of the tube. Now, what if my ankles/legs are wider than my foot? Easy! Take a measurement for your foot and take a measurement for your ankles/legs. You can then increase the leg/ankle portion of the sock for your measurements!
3. Subtract 1/2 inch from my foot measurement. You can also multiply the foot measurement by 0.90 and use that number. I have an 8.5 inch measurement around the ball of my foot. (I subtact 1/2 inch since I tend to knit tight)
4. Multiply my gauge swatch times my result from step 3. For the current socks I started, I have a gauge swatch of 8 stitches per inch. Step 3 gives me a foot measurement of 7.65 inches. If I multiply the two = 7.65 * 8 = 61.2 stitches.
5. I look in my pattern books, my sock charts, my sock patterns and look for something within 4 stitches of this number. For example, I may find a really cool 8 stitch repeating pattern that I want to use, I would cast on 64 stitches. Or I may find a nice 6 stitch repeating pattern that I like, so I would cast on 60 stitches.

I find this system allows me to get socks that fit me well and I can use the stitch patterns from other sock patterns or from sweater patterns, blanket patterns or any other source out there. It allows me to be creative. From there, just insert your favorite heel and toe in the right places and you are off and running.

I also tend to carry the leg pattern down onto the top of the sock rather than knitting stockinette stitch over the whole foot. This is a matter of personal preference. I tend to walk around my house in stocking feet all the time so the extra pattern does get seen in my socks. If you tend to be the type that wears socks only in shoes and no one sees the feet, you may not want to knit the extra pattern.

That is the one thing I love about knitting socks! Once you understand how a sock is made and how to make the socks, you can use your imagination and make any kind of sock you desire! No patterns are needed!

How is the workout going? This week, I have been the weight room twice, done the bike and the weight lifting. I still need to get in there later tonight for another workout.

Yarn diet? The socks I started today are "ankle socks" (I always called them booties) that I am making out of some Lorna's Laces from my stash. So far this year, we are 3/3 in using our stash yarn!

New Year's Resolutions - 25 days late

2007-01-26T03:31:00.000-07:00

First resolution - more pictures of man butt!!! This was some nice man butt I found at the F1 race last year. I can't remember which crew this man butt comes from, but the one on the left is really yummy! I need more pictures of man butt in the collection.

Well, being down sick for two weeks really settles a person down and makes them think about important things in life, such as the ability to breathe using one's nose and the joy of using one's lungs without it triggering a coughing fit! Sitting on the couch, trying to recover and knitting like crazy for 2 weeks has got me thinking about New Year's Resolutions. Now, I am not the type of person who normally makes resolutions. In fact, I have never made a New Year's Resolution because my attention span isn't long enough to carry me through a couple of hours, let alone 12 months. I have a couple of goals that I would actually like to TRY to accomplish this year, so I figured I would make the dreaded resolutions and see how they turn out. I figure that if I share them with everyone, it forces me to keep doing it and forces me to actually follow through. Who knows? Maybe they will work!

Goal #1: Be able to fit into a size 6 by the end of June.

Now, how in heaven's name do I plan to do this one since I like to be seditary and I have a sweet tooth? Let's break it down into semi-managable steps. First, I will exercise 3 nights per week while at work! My plan is to hit the weight room at work 3 nights during my work week and work out. 3 of those days will involve 30 minutes of sweaty "get your heart pumping" type of aerobic exercise. My current fave is the stationary bike, but they have a rowing machine, stair climber, treadmill and elliptical trainer to choose from. It doesn't matter which one I play on, I just need to choose one for 30 minutes each day. 2 of the 3 days will also involve weight training. I will start with the upper body only (biceps, triceps, chest and shoulders) to keep it simple. Once I have been doing the lower body stuff for a couple of months, I will revisit adding lower body weight training to the schedule. I would like to add my favorite exercise (ice skating) to the schedule also, but I am not sure about how much time I have to devote to that. Let's put ice skating on the "to do" list and get to it as we get more time.

Diet - Do we have to do that??? Nope! Every time I try a diet, I fail in the most miserable way! Since there is no diet out there that allows me to eat French Fries and truffles, I am not doing a diet! Well, OK, I am going to eat differently. I am calling this my "Laurie Moderation Plan". I will allow myself to eat anything in moderation. How will this look? I am not sure yet. I figure I will drink my two 1000ml bottles of water per day as a starter. I will work on eating more unprocessed foods and eating more veggies. I will try to cut the soda down to 1 can per day and cut the sugary snacks down. For right now, I will settle for 1 sugary snack per day. If I do eat a sugary snack, it will be a serving size as portioned on the label. So, if a pint of ice cream has 4 servings, I can only eat 1/4 of it. That shouldn't be too hard. I will concentrate on eating in moderation and not eating because I am bored, tired, depressed or any other emotional eating. I will start slow with this one and introduce one good habit at a time. I am figuring slower is better.

Right now, I am wearing a size 16 pair of jeans. I would like to be wearing a pair of size 6 jeans by the end of June. OK, so they may be a REALLY tight fitting pair of size 6 jeans that I may not be able to breathe in once I button them up, but I would like to get to that level. Hopefully by the end of August the size 6 jeans will allow me enough room to breathe!

Goal #2: Slim down the yarn stash

OK, now that a bunch of the unpacking is done in the house, I realize that I have a LOT of sock yarn. OK, I have a shitload of sock yarn. I really need to use the sock yarn that I have and knit myself a bunch of really nice socks. So, this year's socks will be worked using yarn in the stash! There are a couple of exceptions to this rule. 1) my current Sock of the Month club membership does not count. 2) if Scout has a really nice new color, I can pick that up or 3) Out of town yarn shop purchases don't count.

Ziggy Update: He is still with us! Yeah! He is going downhill, which we knew would happen. He has his good days and his bad days. Recently, I have just taken to carrying him around all over the house when I am not working so I don't disturb his sleeping on me. He still likes to sleep on my head, but he has been sleeping a lot more lately. He is still eating and still showing his dominance over the other male kitties in the family, so we just keep spoiling him!

Tomorrow, I will try to post pictures of the 3 pair of socks I have finished since I got sick. One pair was a UFO from August, the other two were started this month!

It's been close to a month?

2007-01-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, I leave Albuquerque and my blogging habits get really really bad...

For you kids who aren't familiar with our 11 kitties, this is a picture of our oldest cat, Ziggy. (Who also goes by other names like ZiggyKitty, Brat Cat, sh*thead and "go away cat".) Well, this cat has literally lived 11 of his 9 lives in the 16 years we have had him by doing things like surviving 2 nights outside with the coyotes in Placitas, getting through 3 strokes, regularly jumping off of a second story balcony (at our Gainesville apartment) and other fun stunts. We found out last week that Ziggy has cancer (there is a fast growing lump on the side of his neck that is about the size of a tangerine right now). We are not sure if he has weeks or months to live, but he won't be around much longer. We are considering ourselves blessed that we do have a time to be with him, spoil him rotten and say goodbye before he goes to the Rainbow Bridge. Hubby and I decided that we would take him to the vet when he quit eating or was in distress so he wouldn't have to be in pain for a long time. He's still quite the obnoxious little twit, but we make sure he knows we love him!

House stuff: We should be getting our couch in the next week! WHEE! We are about 60% finished with the unpacking of the boxes but we have moved the boxes out of the general living quarters (they are in the master bedroom, in the closet and in the garage). We are going on the "unpack one box a day" plan until we get the boxes empty. We picked up a new TV for the house and we are waiting for the DirecTV folks to come out and install the HD dish for the TV! This is the first time that we have gotten rid of ALL of the mismatched college student furniture and we are actually working on a design theme through the house! I'll post pix when we have our couch done! It was a 5 week lead time on the couch, but I think it will look great in the media room! Once we have our couch, we are going to be inviting folks over to finally see the place!

Man, time sure does fly when you are having fun. I took my son to his new school on Monday and got the order form for his cap and gown and his graduation announcements. He graduates from high school during Memorial Day Weekend, so we aren't expecting people to come down for it, other than his Dad...

On the alumni front: WE WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP in FOOTBALL! We are the first college to hold a National Championship in football and in men's basketball in the same year! GO GATORS! Man, after having to endure grief from all of the media saying that our Gators didn't belong in the game and our Gators were going to get our butts handed to us on a silver platter, the final score was Florida 41 Ohio State 14. Hmmm, I guess our Gators didn't get that memo... We had fun in Phoenix doing all of the "pre game" festivities and pep rallies, but we didn't make it to the game. Hubby and I agreed that when 2 tickets to the game cost more that a house payment, we should just watch the game on TV! (Last I heard, tickets were going from $1800 up to $3000 per ticket!) I have to say, the Ohio State fans that we met over those couple of days were some of the CLASSIEST college football fans I have ever met!

We are finally done travelling and finally done with the business trips! It is so nice to finally be able to relax and put my feet up at home! I haven't done much spinning since Christmas, but I will be hitting that hot and heavy after this work week is done! I have totally fallen in love with spinning wool and I am looking forward to posting some of my creations and getting started on a pair of socks with some of my hand-spun wool!

Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends

2006-12-21T03:47:00.000-07:00

Your Name: Laurie
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa wraps the presents.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Usually white lights at my parent's house.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope
5. When do you put your decorations up? No decorations on or in the house. Something about not being home for the holidays combined with the nasty combination pine sap and cat fur...
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Mom's brussel sprouts with roasted chestnuts!
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Waking up in the morning and running out to the living room to see what was under the tree.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I can't remember how old I was, but I found out from my friends.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We used to as kids, but we don't do that any longer
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I don't... We travel home every year so we enjoy the one my parents put up.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Dread it!
12. Can you ice skate? Yes, still working on my pre-bronze moves for figure skating tests this year!
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A certain someone special (my hubby) got me this Florida Gator Christmas ornament when we lived in Altamonte Springs with a very special surprise attatched!
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with family
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Any pie that Dad makes!
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Going home, hanging out with my family, watching manatees and fondue!
17. What tops your tree? Um... Nothing.... There is an angel on my parent's tree that drives their black lab nuts!
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving!
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Pat-a-Pan
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Depends, the chocolate/peppermint ones are good!

Where am I and what day is this???

2006-12-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, another "I dropped off of the face of the earth" post... Where in heaven's name do I start???

Let's look back to my last post to see where life left off and what has happened since then...

1. House has been closed and ownership has been assumed...
2. Turkey dinner at the casino was pretty yummy.
3. The refrigerator made it to the new house...
4. The move from ABQ back to PHX was absolutely hellacious... See more below
5. The house does not look like the pictures below any longer... Add stacks of boxes to all of the rooms and you get the picture...
5. Spent another 2 weeks in Austin on a training assignment.
6. Came home to PHX during the weekend in-between to go to the Barenaked Ladies concert... Gators also won the SEC championship that weekend!
7. Spun a lot of wool in Austin along with the training class...
8. Found out Gators are going to the National Championship game in Phoenix this year. Anyone have a couple of extra tickets they would like to sell?
9. Tore a muscle in my shoulder in Austin during said training class...
10. We have internet service, DirecTV hooked up, cell phones don't work for crap out in the middle of BFE...
11. Kid informed me that we really don't live in the middle of Bum F*ck Egypt, we are actually about 15 miles outside of BFE...
12. School that we tried to enroll kid into would not let him in for the last 3 weeks of the semester. They gave him full credit for the semester so kid got a few weeks off of school...
13. Took an additional week of vacation after training class was over to start the unpacking hell. We have gone from being up to our eyeballs in boxes all over the house to being up to our butts in boxes all over the house...
14. The only furniture in the new house are 3 computer chairs, 2 computer desks, 2 barstools, 2 beds and one chair. Ordered new couch, should be here in the middle of January. Bought 2 chairs from IKEA...
15. Have we mentioned what a great place IKEA is??? I have died and gone to furniture store/ anything having to do with decorating a house heaven... and easy on the pocketbook...
16. Eau Du Vache is not pleasant when the wind blows it by the house... (aka cow farm odor...)
17. Cat house is finished on the back deck, the kitties just LOVE it! Now, they can go outside and be safe!
18. We have shades hung in the bedroom and master bath...
19. Got my butt back on the ice this week to start skating on Monday. Met some really great people! I found a new figure skating home... Not doing much on the ice except edges since the shoulder injury is healed to about 70%. Would you believe there are 6 ice rinks in the PHX area?
20. Today is my first day back at the plant in 6 1/2 weeks. Feels weird, but it's good to be back! Now, can I stay awake all night for the shift?
21. Finished the holiday shopping...
22. Still looking for the plane reservations for the trip back home to Florida on Christmas Eve so I know what time to be at the airport after work... I think I sent them to myself, but I am currently wading through over 700 emails to find it...
23. The spun yarn is looking REALLY good!
24. I quit smoking during this whole mess...
25. Cats have adjusted and are getting along quite well...
26. I am still having a problem identifying which city I am actually in every so often...
27. Kid has his AZ ID, the rest of us are still trying to get out there to get ours done.
28. Kid turned 18! We took him out for his birthday then we were going to take him to the casino to play Blackjack. We found out you have to be 21 to gamble in AZ... :P
29. We still can't find where Mike's scotch is packed... We found the rum, vodka, tequila and liquours... Also made up a new drink that is pretty yummy. (1 oz vodka, 1oz peach schnapps, pour into tall glass, fill with cranberry juice, add 2oz sour mix to top and shake! I was trying for something close to a cosmo only a little more fruity and a little weaker...) I LOVE having a wet bar!

I hate moving! The movers were a nightmare from start to finish. So many things went wrong, it would take pages to go through all of the problems. We will hit the major ones... First, the packers did not allow themselves enough time to pack so they were just tossing stuff into boxes with no regard for where it belonged or if it was breakable up until the moving van finished packing. Second, the packers were also not packing some things that we ended up finding and trying to cram into our cars because they were too lazy to pack it. Third, they got the dates mixed up and didn't deliver our goods until a day after they were contracted to. Fourth, I am finding quite a few broken items in the unpacking. Fifth, they were refusing to take the last few items saying "they couldn't take them" (even though the items were listed on the manifest as "in the truck"...) Sixth, about 40% of the boxes were mislabeled. That part is my favorite adventure of all of this. I have stuff from the garage labeled as kitchen, stuff labeled master bedroom that should be in the kitchen, stuff marked living room that should be in the bedroom, the list goes on... So far, we have found the dishes and most of the cookware and appliances, so we are in good shape as far as eating food goes. We found sheets and towels and most of the bathroom stuff was labeled right so we can keep clean. I am equating unpacking the house boxes to opening presents on Christmas morning. I have no clue what I will find in each box, unwrapping everything is fun, I have boxes of paper from unwrapping everything and it's fun to OOOH and AHHH over what I find... Have I mentioned I am really sick of the Christmas morning joy at this point in my life???

Once the movers finished packing the van, we were able to pack the kitties, puppies and other family members into various vehicles and head to PHX. Note to self - don't do an all night drive to Phoenix after spending an entire day packing and loading, bad things happen... But, the hallucinations we had on the road were kind of fun... We finally made it to Phoenix around 4am, brought all the animals into the house, unpacked the essentials (like a bed to sleep on), turned the heat on and finally got to sleep as the sun was coming up. We were up 3 hours later for the satellite installers, so sleep was not had until Saturday night (and I had to be at the airport at 6am for a business trip on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.... really fun...)

I LOVE THIS HOUSE!!! Even though it is still in total disarray (and no pictures because of this), it is nice to finally be in our home, it's nice to have my family back with me, it's nice to have lots of quiet where we are and it's nice to finally be getting settled in.

Closing Time

2006-11-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the offical street sign to our road. Yes, it is spray painted onto a piece of wood at the corner of our two dirt roads... No, this is not indicative of the house and the way it looks...

We finally got the house closed this afternoon. We had little problems here and there that bit us all the way up to the signing of the documents. Now, we are official!

Here is the outside entry way to the new house! The color of the house is Dangerous Robot... It is a really cool gray color which can change shades as the light hits it at different angles.

If you look closely at the reflection in the glass, you can see the port-a-potty from the front yard of the house. Yes, it is still there...

Here is the view of the formal living room and wet bar that you see when you step in the front door. No, there is no furniture there. We found out it will take about 5 - 6 weeks for the couch that we liked to come in. We are going to do a "sitting area" in this room and do bar stools around the wet bar. My spinning wheel and chair will also go in this room in front of the windows. This room has 10 foot ceilings, so the windows are between 8 and 8.5 feet tall. It adds a TON of natural lighting to the room!

This is the bathtub in the master bath... I forsee a future of bath salts, bubble baths and candles here...

The rest of the master bath...

I couldn't get one really good shot of the kitchen, but here is the closest I could come to getting it on one picture...

Now that the house is ours, time to head back to ABQ and pack up the truck and head back with stuff, kid, cats, dogs, bird and iguana in tow. We will be spending Turkey Day up in NM (with dinner at the casino since all of the family is out of town this weekend) and we will head out from there back to the new house sometime on Friday afternoon/Friday evening... The moving van will be at the new house on Saturday, along with the satellite dish people.

Down here, it takes 1.5 weeks to get a refrigerator delivered from Home Depot. The fridge is really nice, but hubby and kiddo will have to live out of a cooler until then. Did I mention that the nearest food of any type is about 15 miles away? There is NO cable out in this neck of the woods, let alone any type of high speed internet access or DSL... I feel like I am going back to where I grew up. We saw a field with a bunch of sheepies on our way back to the house yesterday. They were cool! Remind me to let everyone know about this really awesome furniture store called IKEA that we found here in town... OMG!

Beware of Men Installing Mail Boxes!!!

Before I leave: 48 things about me...

2006-10-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

1. FIRST NAME? Laurie
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Last Saturday night...
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? No, too messy!
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Um... Roast Beef!
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Now that I am older, yeah....
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Nope, I am too afraid someone would find it and read it!
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I don't eat cereal
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Yes, I have experienced too many things in my lifetime to not be strong!
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Chocolate
14. SHOE SIZE? 8 1/2
15. RED OR PINK? Pink
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Physically it's my weight. Emotionally it's the fact that I don't stand up for myself as much as I should.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Right now, my hubby and kid!
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Yes
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? I am wearing blue jeans, a Mr Bubble T-shirt and the shoes pictured in the entry below!
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Sweet and Sour Chicken from Pei Wei
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The hum of my computer and my fingers tapping my keyboard
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Lavendar
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Roses
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My Hubby
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Their eyes
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? Carole? Heck yeah!!!!
27. FAVORITE DRINK? The bottle of French Champagne in the fridge back in ABQ that I will be sharing with my hubby this weekend!
28. FAVORITE SPORT? To watch: College football. To play: figure skating
29. EYE COLOR? Brown
30. HAT SIZE? 8
31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes, I am currently wearing multifocal contacts
32. FAVORITE FOOD? Steak
33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy Endings
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate Mousse
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? I don't know
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No Clue
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Intuition:Knowing Beyond Logic by Osho and Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss
41. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE Pad? Scooby Doo
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? I started with switching between the Busch Race and the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (the annual University of Florida vs. University of Georgia game) then switched to the Texas/Texas Tech game before I came into work.
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? The ocean, rain
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Rolling Stones
45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME? Cayman Islands
46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Being able to diffuse tense situations between people, I am the perpetual peacemaker!
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? St. Paul, MN
48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I got this from Carole's blog

Peace out, everyone! I am getting back to work and getting some stuff here organized before I leave on my trip... Lots of work items to get organized before next week!

Baby got a new pair of shooz!

2006-10-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

Aren't these the most fashionable shoes you have ever seen? No??? Well, they are great and they are saving my butt (and back) at work. They are Z-Coil shoes. Lots of folks at my last factory wore these when they worked on the floor. They SWORE by them that they were comfy, lasted for years (the spring in the heel usually needs to be replaced yearly if you are really rough on the shoes) and were great when you were in the factory on the floor for long periods of time. Our factory started offering a reimbursement of about 1/3 of of the cost of the shoe, so I thought I would give them a try. I'll let you know the final verdict on them when I have worn them for a couple of months. Primary conclusions? Well, doing the tight "nursing" lace up was rough on my ankles the first night, but my feet felt GREAT after wearing them for my normal 12 hour shift! They also seem to have helped my back feel better after being on my feet all night long! Now, I need to find out if they can be claimed on the taxes ;-)

No blogging in a week??? This means I am either busier than crap or nothing has happened all week... Guess which one it was???

My work schedule was totally messed up this week. I had 1pm classes on both Thursday and Friday, so I ended up working 1pm to 3am on those days (to make up for cutting out at 3am on Wednesday night). So, my training time on the floor was cut down but the classes made up for it! Learned a heck of a lot! Training is going well. By the end of next week, we should have done our preliminary learning on all of the tool so when I head to Austin the week after next, I will have some clue of what I am doing...

I am flying out at 8:oo on Sunday morning to head back to ABQ! I am REALLY excited. The suitcase is packed and in the back of the car. I will be headed right from work to the airport to park the car, check an empty suitcase and get on the plane! Why an empty suitcase? I need to bring some warmer clothes back with me for the night time chill... I discovered this evening that wearing jeans under the gore-tex bunny suit is way too warm, so I will go back to my normal shorts and T-shirt when I come home. Why am I wearing jeans? The weather in ABQ is cold!

Great thing about living in AZ? I am still using the AC in my car in the end of October!!! I am still wearing shorts and flip-flops during the day! This is really cool!

I fly back from ABQ on Wed afternoon, work Wed - Fri night, have Saturday and Sunday off then fly out to Austin, TX on Monday morning for 2 weeks of training. Then, I fly back to Phoenix for a week (a week which I really hope to be spending getting stuff moved into the new house) then I fly back out to Austin for another two weeks. So, I ain't going to be home much between now and the 2nd week of December. (Note to Lori: Yes, I want to get together. Since you will be laid up, I will drive down to Houston. I am not sure if I will be in Austin the weekend between since we may be closing on the house on Monday, Nov 13th and if we are then I will be flying back to Phoenix to sign papers. I will let you know more as I get more information...) Let's put it this way, I signed up for Southwest Airlines "frequent flyer" program when I moved to Phoenix in August and I will have earned a free trip by the middle of November... That is pretty sad....

OK, here is one strange mamma-jamma of a site... For all of you crafty women out there who are not squeemish about that time of the month... The blowgun looks good for those PMS days... It also has instructions for an ammo belt... Pretty cool!!! I wonder if a female teenager could use this as a science fair project (she would have to be pretty damn gutsy and have a teacher with a great sense of humor!)

I made a strange realization at work last night... In the two weeks I have been on night shift, I have not seen a single female on the factory floor. I asked about it and there are not very many women working this shift in general... Weird...

Time to get back to woofing down my dinner from Pei Wei before it gets too cold to enjoy. The cafe doesn't have squat for food choices for night shift workers. I better enjoy brown rice while I can for next week I diet... I need to lose about 35 lbs since my $&@#% jeans don't fit me anymore. Back to lifting weights and cutting the rice, bread and other bad carbs out of my diet! I figured I would give myself until Halloween to enjoy the chocolate fix then be a good girl. If I can lose the entire 35 lbs by next spring, I will be a very happy camper! Then, I may even venture out in a bathing suit again.

Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody....

2006-10-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well, that's not totally true, the problem is that my somebody is 500 miles away right now and we won't be seeing each other until next Sunday...

So, what's a girl to do when she is alone, has PMS and is all bummed out??? SHOPPING!!!

I am not usually that much of a shopper, but the mood struck me today so I thought I would head over to the Chandler Fashion Center for a little entertainment. First, I have NEVER been to a mall with VALET PARKING... How freaky is that? I was also not prepared to be driving all over the parking lot to try to find a parking spot... The mall was PACKED at 5:30 on a Saturday evening. (I have to say, I never saw that happen in Albuquerque)... So, I went in and did a "browing experience". First stop: Build-A-Bear Workshop! This is my new buddy. He has no name yet, but his is very snuggly. Then, I decided to grab a bite to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, then stopped at Bath and Body Works. As I was leaving, they asked me if I wanted to take a survey, so I did and they gave me a $10.00 Gift Card... Pretty Sweet!

So, here is my checklist for a "Lonely Girls Guide to Saturday Night Pampering":
Teddy Bear? Check
Fluffy soft pink robe from Bath & Body Works? Check
Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory? Check
Stress Relief Sea Salt Soak from B&BW? Check
Trashy Murder Mystery? Check
Candles lit? Check
Nail Polish and Shea Butter Foot Cream? Check

OK, people in Phoenix are really weird. When I was coming home from the mall, SOME IDIOT ALREADY HAD THEIR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS UP ON THE HOUSE AND YARD AND THEY WERE LIT! People, it's not even Halloween yet, IT'S TOO EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!! There ought to be a law... Maybe the Fab Five can come down and knock some sense into these people??? LOL!!!

I found this cute little handbag at a bookstore in the same shopping center as my local Trader Joes. I thought it was so darn cute and it will make a great purse/knitting bag! TJ's update: Mac and Cheese is TO DIE FOR!!! Note to self: don't buy too much or you will eat yourself silly.

This morning after work, I went to Home Depot to get the cabinet and drawer pulls for the cabinets. I drove out to the house to drop them off and saw that our doors are on our house now! We also have a patio in the front, and all of the cabinets are in the living room! Fortunately (before we closed on the house) they found out that the septic system was not up to snuff and are in the process of fixing it. I didn't know that so imagine my shock walking into the backyard and seeing all of these mounds of dirt and this huge hole! The air conditioner is on the roof, the wiring is in place for outdoor light fixtures, the power "box" is on the house (along with the meter) and the front water faucet is in and operational. I may drive out to the house tomorrow and take pictures. Silly me, I forgot to bring my camera with me this morning...

Time for me to dig into a cheap trashy murder mystery and get into a soft fluffy robe, snuggle up with my new Teddy Bear and grab that piece of cheesecake out of the fridge...

Rubber VooDoo Chickens

2006-10-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, night shift is different!

I was going through my belongings in my office that I had moved from New Mexico. I opened one of my drawers and one of my co-workers caught a glimpse of my rubber chicken...

"What's that?"

"My Rubber VooDoo Chicken."

"WHAT???"

"It's a Rubber VooDoo Chicken."

"What is a Rubber VooDoo Chicken?"

"Do you know how all tools tend to have problems, some tools have more problems than others?"

"Yes"

"Well, the Rubber VooDoo Chicken is the great equalizer. With a Rubber VooDoo Chicken, it protects the tools from having problems and the tools run smoother..."

"Get out!!!"

"No, it's true. Rubber VooDoo Chicken really works! I used to have a toolset that had a bunch of problems. As a last resort, I got the Rubber VooDoo Chicken since nothing else was fixing the tools. Within a week, the tools started working fine and continued to work fine..."

"It's all a bunch of Hooey!"

"Call it what you like, but I trust my Rubber VooDoo Chicken to work and it does. When your tools start having problems, don't come crying to me..."

So, I will keep my Rubber VooDoo Chicken and be happy. I don't care if I work in a high tech industry, sometimes "folk medicine" will do more for you than equations!

Second night on night shift... Man, you get a lot of work done when no one is here! So far, so good. I didn't get much sleep today, but I got enough to make it through tonight. I went to see the Dr today and got a prescription for Ambien to help on the days that I am working night shift. I figure it can't hurt and will hopefully keep me from waking up while I am trying to adjust to nights. In a few weeks, I don't think I will need it any longer. We will see...

House stuff: Still waiting to find out when we are going to close on the house. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the 2nd week of November. I am out of town 3 out of 4 weeks in November, so I would like to have the closing done so when I am back, I can unpack and start getting settled. I am not sure what is holding up the house now, I think it is still the doors. Rumor has it that the cabinets may be going in next week!

Wow, it gets really dark at night out here... REALLY DARK!!!

Off the face of the planet again...

2006-10-19T04:48:00.000-07:00

Remind me to blog about the last two weeks, there was so much going on that I have not had time to update...

List of things I need to blog about:
1. Talladega Road Trip
2. House Update
3. Arizona State Fair
4. The final product from the hotel dishwasher dyeing experiment

Yes, it is 5am and I ain't blogging because I just woke up! We started night shift last night and I have about an hour left before I head home and crash out! I have done more here in 11 hours than 2 normal workdays on day shift. I am finding a treasure trove of information out there for my training and having a blast digging into it! Have I mentioned that my ADD medication doesn't last for an entire shift? Oh lookie! I found a Kit-Kat bar in the drawer of my desk!

Since I got back, I have finally found time to do some spinning! I found some delicious Superwash Merino wool dyed in some awesome colors at another LYS I visited on Tuesday before the fair! Now, I just need to find out where I can get some Superwash Merino Sheep and I will be set!

Another discovery, daytime TV really sucks!!!

I found a Trader Joe's close by! This week, I will be trying the Mac and Cheese, some Brioche, some tamales and Quiche. The miso soup they carry is awesome, I am totally hooked on their granola with TJ's nonfat yogurt for breakfast (or dinner for you normies) and the escargot are to DIE FOR!!!

Who had the brilliant idea to show NASCAR and my Beloved Gators AT THE SAME TIME???

Chiropractors are good! My hips hurt but my neck feels better than it has in years! Maybe after a few more treatments, I can get back on the skates again!

The weather has finally cooled off to the mid 80's!

I am coming home again between October 29th to Nov 1st. Yes, I will be at Stitch and Bitch on Tuesday night... Still at Flying Star Cafe??? I have decided that I love the compressed work week because it gives me more time off for the weekend! Now, if I can just get my family down here to Phoenix, it would be perfect!

Great things about working night shift:
1. Traffic is going the other way
2. Great parking spots are always available at work
3. Go to work and it is light out, come home from work and it is light out!
4. 12% shift differential
5. Peace and quiet to get work done efficiently
6. At 5am, everyone is a bit loopy
7. Get to go to the fair when no one is there
8. Can schedule appointments and not have to take time off of work
9. Esthetics school is open for discount facials when you are not working
10. Can knit in peace on my lunch break!

Headed to watch cars to roundy-round

2006-10-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Yup, I am headed back home to Florida tomorrow. I am taking a trip up to Talladega, AL with these three lovely ladies (Barb, my mom and Aunt Nettie), my hubby, my dad and Aunt Susie! We are all getting into Orlando tomorrow then packing into a van and driving up to AL on Friday. We will be watching races on Saturday and Sunday then driving back down to Orlando on Monday and we are leaving to come back to AZ on Tuesday. It should be a LOT of fun!

Well, I am also going to be moving to night shift in a week and a half. I just found out yesterday that my training plan has been changed and I will be training with a new set of folks starting on October 18th. It should be some fun, intense training. The good part about moving to night shift is that I will be on my 12 hour days, which will give me more time between working shifts. So, I will be able to spend more time back in ABQ with hubby, the kiddo and friends! I am excited. I am not sure when I am coming back, but I think it will be before the end of October...

No house news yet. Delays, delays, delays... I think we will be able to move sometime in November, but I am not sure. I meet with the real estate agent today to sign some more papers and hope she has another approximate date for move-in. Until then, we just wait and wait and wait and wait...

I am such a lazy bum! I have done NO spinning since Sunday. I have started doing yoga again. There is a really nice yoga studio (who knew they had such things???) in Chandler which is a couple of miles from work. I went to class on Monday and did a Yin/Relax yoga class. Man, it was just what I needed. And, I have discovered I am really tight. It will take a while to get my flexibility back. Tonight is a meditation yoga class, so I will see what that is like. After class, I am headed home to pack for the trip! I need to check the stupid security guidelines again to see what I am allowed to take and what I can't take. The main concern is the contact lens solution that is only allowed in packed luggage (the last time I checked). I may be able to take a 4 oz sample size in my carry-on, but I need to check.

OK, I am officially an adult now. On Monday, I had another eye exam. Every year I go in for these exams since I wear contacts. Well, the last month has been tough. I couldn't read street signs clearly any longer and I was having a hard time seeing close up. So, I got the exam and found out my prescription had changed! Now, my distance vision has improved but my near vision has gotten worse. Yup, it's time for bi-focals... LOL!!! So, I chatted with the eye doctor and he is having me try some multifocal contact lenses. Supposedly, the multifocals can correct both distance and near vision in a contact lens. I have had them in since Monday afternoon and I absolutely LOVE THEM! I can read street signs again! I can see close-up again! My arms are no longer too short for my reading! This is great! Some people do have a problem with adjusting to the new lenses but I think that adjustment took me all of 15 minutes on the drive home to get used to them. Maybe it has something to do with wearing contacts for 15 years, or maybe I was one of the lucky ones that gets used to them very quickly. The true test will be this weekend at the race. For work, they have done just what I needed them to do. I can see small parts in the tool again and I can stand a normal distance away to read things! This is even better than sliced bread!!!! For anyone who may be in the same situation or about to experience the same problem, give these multifocal contact lenses a try.

My spinning class is over...

2006-09-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my husband, Mike!!! He's 29 again ;-) I wish I was there with you tonight!

This week's lesson was learning how to ply our yarns. This first picture is my first 2-ply yarn. Yup, it's balanced! I was so happy. The class was so much fun! I really learned a lot from the class and I am really glad I took it!

This picture is my first attempt at "Navajo Plying". No, it's not balanced but I really love this way of plying. I plan to wash it tonight and set the ply to keep it from twisting.

This has been one hell of a week.

I have been playing "musical rooms" at the hotel this week. The hotel is doing some remodeling and needed to recarpet my room. So, I had to move all of my crap into another room on the other side of the hotel for 2 days while they redid my room. They were supposed to call me when it was done, but they didn't and put someone else in the room for a night. We got the problem taken care of and I was able to move back in my room last night and back into my bed. When there is so much change and chaos going on in my life, I really need SOMETHING to stay stable and my hotel room is it...

House update: looks like the end of October to the middle of November before it's done. I am not staying in a hotel room until then, so I am in the process of trying to rent a room or rent an apartment until it's finished. What a PITA... (PITA = pain in the *ss). I will keep trying to find a place that will rent month to month until the house is done... BLEH!

We made our reservations to go to Talladega next weekend, that should be fun! I am headed out there with my parents, my two aunts, my hubby and a friend of the family. This should be a hoot! We are driving from Orlando up to Talladega, AL to watch the race for my aunt Nettie's birthday!

Work is still a blast! I got a fun surprise today. One of my old co-workers from Albuquerque was at the plant and stopped by to say "HI"! That really made my day. We weren't able to hook up after work but we did chat for a while today. It's always nice to see some familiar faces in my new workplace! Thanks for stopping by!

I am soaking some more sheep fur to try to get some of the dirt and grease out of it. I am looking forward to a night of spinning wool and watching football. Later, I will take a glass of wine and take a nice bubble bath!

Yes, that is my fat arse...

2006-09-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

sticking out there. Hubby and I spend some of our day last Saturday doing car repairs on the Chrysler. It's nice to have a car with room under the hood to work on it! Yes, I am really working on the car, I think we were changing plugs and wires when this picture was taken. We ended up changing plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor. It helped, but not enough. The problem ended up being a blown head gasket... BLEH! But, I did get a chance to ride around the block in the car and it was pretty cool!

Can you tell I decided to bring my camera back to AZ with me this time???

The weekend back in ABQ was really great! Hubby and I were sitting on the couch trying to decide how we were going to fill the time on Saturday. We decided to take the old car down to the Harley dealer to get some free hot dogs and enter a contest. We got the car about a block down the road and the thing was running really really rough. So, we ended up spending the afternoon together trying to get the car fixed. Around 4:30, we gave up on the car and hopped into the other car, run down to Village Wools to pick up some Roving (which I was going to dye before I left ABQ) and say HI to Ms. Scout!!! After the LYS trip, we went to Coaches to watch our Beloved Gators play against Tennessee... Quite the game...

ROCKY TOP, YOU'LL ALWAYS BE... SECOND IN THE SEC! GOOD OLD ROCKY TOP, SECOND IN THE SEC...

OK, I promise to stop now...

Sunday, hubby and I decided to hang out around the house and watch more cars go around and around in circles. Hubby's guy won the race (#29 car) and my guy came in 2nd (#20 car) so it was pretty cool... We waited for a friend of ours to call us (who we had arranged to get together with) and when she didn't call by 5pm, we decided to head over to Santa Ana Casino and play a little Blackjack and get a bite to eat. Well, Lisa called just as we were headed into the Casino and we decided to get together when she got back from Santa Fe with her family. It was really nice to see her again! I wish she could have seen her kitties, but we had a great time chatting.

Monday, hubby and I ran around signing papers, paying school fines for the kid and all sorts of other stuff. I got back to Phoenix late Monday night... What a fun weekend...

This week? Been washing sheep fur... Why???

This is what I got when I bid on some sheep fur on eBay. Yup, sheep fur right from the farm... Yummy! After a little bit of Dawn dishwashing detergent, some hot water and a little love, it turned out like this:

It washed up very nicely. There was still a little bit of VM left in the fur, but when I carded the fur the VM came out... OMG! I think that I have died and gone to heaven with this sheep fur. It's some Rambouillet from a farm down in TX... It is so soft! How soft? I could roll around in this sheep fur nekkid (after the fur has been washed) and sleep in it, that is how soft it is... I think I have finally solved the mystery of what kind of sheep fur I bought when I was down in Austin last month... There is nothing itchy at all about this wool. I think I will spin some of this up, dye it and make a scarf with it to see how it reacts. If it holds its bounce, I will look at blending some of this wool with either some nylon or mohair and try it on some socks...

Our next adventure??? Dishwasher dyeing in the hotel room! I'll post the results after I get the resulting yarn plyed up. I need to get a needle-nose pliers to remove the c-clip from the front of my wheel so I can put my longer drive band on my spinning wheel and ply the 2 strands together...

Headed back to ABQ and spinning stuff

2006-09-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

OK, I think I am officially addicted to spinning wool...

I was hanging out back at the hotel yesterday, feeling like I had been hit by a huge Mack Truck. So, I laid on the couch most of the day, sleeping on and off, and hearing my wheel calling me. Yes, my spinning wheel wanted me to spin some wool...

Now, I have some really cool roving, but I am not advanced enough to be playing with it yet (Merino wool roving and beginner spinner, not the best combination on the planet). Now, I don't want to spin my class wool yet (all carded and rolled and ready to go for next Tuesday) because I know I will probably blow through it within 20 to 30 minutes. So, I went to LYS a few days ago and got some Border Leicester fleece. I washed about half of it and carded that wool yesterday. I am excited to start spinning some of it to see how soft it is and how it turns out. I know I have been bitten by the spinning bug when I order a large amount of sheep fur. I have some raw Rambouillet fiber coming sometime in the next week to wash and card (by some sheep fur I am talking about 11.5 pounds of raw sheep fur...). I am hoping that it will spin up nicely but I am thinking about getting some nylon to card with it so I can spin it up, dye it and try making a pair of socks from it. I think I will need nylon with this kind of wool since it is supposed to be soft, which I would take to mean that it would wear out pretty quickly in socks if not reinforced with something durable like nylon. Maybe some of you spinning goddesses out there can give me some pointers on that. Now, I need to figure out what kind of dye to use on the nylon fibers (since acid dye won't cut it). After I get back from ABQ I will be going to spinning class again. I am hoping we start getting into plying the wool.

What have I learned from taking this spinning class? Here is a list of stuff:
1. Carding sheep fur is comforting also
2. Mesh laundry bags make washing raw sheep fur a lot easier
3. Greasy sheep fur sticks more than washed sheep fur
4. The difference between too much twist, just enough twist and not enough twist
5. It takes a lot more coordination to operate a drop spindle than a spinning wheel
6. Dawn dishwashing liquid is great for cleaning sheep fur.
7. I was reversing my hands when I was spinning and this was probably the cause of 70% of my early spinning problems
8. Getting consistant thread widths is easy once you know what you are doing
9. Keep practicing spinning "tufts" once you can get a consistant thread width so you can make fun yarns.
10. Spinning wool adds a whole new dimension to my knitting.
11. Taking this spinning class is one of the best things I have ever done!

Another thing I need to find out is how to card the wool so it comes out into the roving form that I see all of the time. I think it would be easier to dye the roving than to dye the raw wool before carding or easier to dye than the finished wool. Who Knows? That is half of the fun of all of the experimentation! Someday, the object is to make raw fleece into sock yarn that is usable, durable, soft and has some fun colors that you don't find out in the normal world. Someday, I will be able to do all of that... Time to JFGI!

Now, fun ways to freak people out at the airport: Drop spindle spinning. I was at the Phoenix airport waiting for my hubby to come in last weekend. I had my drop spindle with me along with some roving so I decided to practice on the drop spindle. Man, I got some really weird looks from people. One guy just sat there staring at what I was doing for a good 5 minutes. Since I am flying out to ABQ tonight, I will bring the spindle with me to the airport tonightto freak out some more people.

It's lunchtime now. I plan to leave early to pack, get some dinner, head to the airport and fly home! I hear the weather back in Albuquerque is really nice right now. I also hope to stop by Village Wools while I am there and see if anyone is around and see what kind of fleece they have available!

Yes kids, September is National Chicken Month

2006-09-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

I learned that little factiod today. So, now for the eternal question: Since all sorts of exotic foods taste like chicken, what does chicken taste like? (Insert frog joke here...)

Spinning class is tonight. I soaked my sheep fur and discovered what mild agitation does to sheep fur. No biggie, I will be learning to card it tonight. I have my spinning wheel and carders in the back of my car waiting for the class.

The house is finally coming along. We went down there this weekend and the walls are all done. We just need our kitchen, our master bathtub, our flooring and the electrical stuff taken care of and it will be done!

I am headed back to ABQ this weekend! I am very excited. I fly in on Friday night and fly out on Monday night. That should give me time to do stuff around the house, get some packing done, get my child's school records cleared to be released and make any other things happen. Hubby was down over the weekend and we had a blast! I really miss him!

Phoenix is still HOT! Someone told me the weather is cooling down. I guess if going from highs to 107 to highs of 99 is cooling down, they must be smoking something good! I can't wait to see weather in the 80's again.

I have found a couple of new blogsites that seemed like a good read. Strong women, check out the last 3 links under my "favorite knitty links" on the side bar.

If anyone would like to get together when I get back to ABQ, let me know!

More from Phoenix

2006-09-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

My most favorite band, Barenaked Ladies. Guess what? They are coming to Phoenix in December and I GOT TICKETS! I should have looked a couple of weeks ago... I had gotten an email about pre-sale tix but it was only for Austin, TX. Well, I went back and looked last night and they had tix for Phoenix so I bought a couple. I got 9th row, center section, so I am really really happy about it... Time to find the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxes ;-) Now, hubby and I need to decide if we want to pay the big bucks to watch the Rolling Stones play here in November...

OK, so what has been going on since the last time I blogged? TONS!!!

I went home for a couple of days over the Labor Day weekend. Hubby picked me up at the airport on Saturday morning and we spent the morning with some friends that we have not seen in a LONG time! It was great to catch up. After that, we headed down to Coaches Locker Room to watch our Beloved Gators play football. Man, they REALLY look rusty. I hope this was a fluke. This weekend, they play UCF (also known to the locals as U Can't Finish) and I hope they look a lot better. Sunday, Mike and I went out for brunch, went to the casino and played some blackjack then over to the NE Heights for a Trader Joes run... Got some truffles, some strawberry lemonade sparkling beverage and some other goodies then we went home and vegged out. It was such an excellent weekend! I had to be back on a plane at dark thirty on Monday morning, but I was just happy to be home for a couple of days. I miss my hubby, my son, my kitties, my puppies and being home. Hopefully in a few weeks the new house will be ready and they can all join me down here. I will say that living in a hotel is not the best thing in the world, but it works...

Tuesday night was my first spinning class. The LYS I am taking the classes at has 4 classes that meet on Tuesday nights in Sept. Our first class we learned how to spin on a drop spindle. Fun... For the first hour of class, I felt like a cow on roller skates. I could not get the whole concept of spinning the drop spindle then drafting the yarn. I was really afraid of the drafting process. The teacher, bless her soul, had the patience of a saint. She watched and figured out what I was doing wrong and then the light bulb went off! Once I got that taken care of, the drop spindle was a breeze. I will be working a little more on the drop spindle tonight before I go to bed. She gave us a bag of sheep fur for next week and told us how to soak it to get all of the lanolin out of it. We have to have it cleaned for next Tuesday so we can learn how to card the wool. She also is having us bring our wheels so we can learn to treadle on it. So I have some greasy sheep fur sitting in the hotel room sink getting cleaned right now... Yummy! I am glad I have eaten dinner already...

Hubby is coming down to Phoenix on Saturday! I AM SO EXCITED!!! I will pick him up from the airport and we are heading from there down to the house to check out how they are doing on it and get some details taken care of. I hope to have pix to post next week on the progress. After we talk to the builders we are going to meet with the local Gator Club and watch the UF vs UCF game at a local sports bar. Hopefully, the NASCAR race won't interfere with game time, but who knows? It's a sports bar and they will hopefully have the race on also. Sunday, we will finish up any house business then meet up with Julie and Loren for a while. It should be a really fun weekend. The weekend after this, I am back up in Albuquerque for a full 3 days to spend with the family and take care of any fines that the schools have so my kid can have his school records released for his new school down here.

How has work been going? OMG! I think I have died and gone to heaven! If someone would have told me that this new place was so awesome, I would have asked them if they were smoking crack. I have been at the new plant for 3 weeks now and I am still in love. There is a bit of a learning curve getting used to a new toolset, but it's not nearly as big as I was anticipating! Everyone here is really supportive and it has been no problem getting the training that I need for my new job (which is scheduled to start sometime between January and May of next year, no firm date yet). Tomorrow is a half-day since we have a team building going on starting at noon. I am looking forward to getting to know my new co-workers. I get the feeling that they think I am a squirrel on crack since I am asking so many questions and so eager to learn anything I can get my hot little paws on. It is SO DIFFERENT than the place I left, it is hard to believe that this is the same company... WOW! I really miss the old crew that I used to work with. Those folks were the BEST! I hope they are all doing well and I hope that they can stay sane in the insanity there. I do miss them! They were really good people, workwise and personality wise. Yes, I still think about them quite often (and have the group photo on my new desk). My new group has less people but seems just as nice. Things are done a lot differently around the new place so that is taking a little bit of getting used to. My external monitor and keyboard should be here in the next week, so that will be the last things I need to get to make my office complete. Now, I need to concentrate on learning as much as I can learn. I think one of my co-workers in the new place is one of the techs so we will probably bounce a lot of learnings off of each other between now and when I move over to the new place.

Tomorrow, I am going off to get my hair done, getting my car to the dealer to get the check engine light checked out and going to a team building. This should be a great weekend!

OK, the sheep fur has been through 3 water changes and it is starting to turn white. Wow! Hopefully there won't be too many more needed before I can set it out to dry. I am keeping it in lukewarm water and not agitating it. (Don't agitate the sheep fur... Who's agitating my sheep fur? Are you agitating my sheep fur? I love that commercial...)

Week 2 in Pu-ho-en-icks

2006-08-31T17:39:00.000-07:00

Sitting on the Start/Finish line at Daytona International Speedway before the Daytona 500. Yes, it is chilly there in February...

So, what has been going on since the last update?

I start spinning classes next Tuesday! WHEE!

Next Friday (Sept 8th), I have my ticket to go to the "Stitch and Pitch" game here in Phoenix. They have some seats where we all get to gather and knit our silly heads off. We even get a goodie bag for going to the game with some yarn and coupons. Should be a total blast!

I went to my first SnB meeting in Chandler on Tuesday evening. They had some really cool folks and I finally finished weaving the ends in on my shadow shawl, so it can be considered officially DONE!!! I am sure I will get some good use out of it when the weather cools down a bit... Is it hot in Phoenix? Does a bear take a Reader's Digest into the woods??? Yup, it is hot... REALLY HOT!!!

Work has been going well. I think I have finally finished all of the web based classes that I need to get the access to the software I will need to use to do my job properly. My eyes are now crossed! Training has been going really well. I thought the learning curve for the job would be steeper than it has been. It's a new tool, but all of the concepts are still the same! That has made life much easier. I got unpacked but during the move my computer monitor and external keyboard got lost. I will wait one more week before I order another one...

I am coming home!!! Yup, I got way too lonesome down here so I am taking a plane back to ABQ for Saturday and Sunday this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing the hubby, the kid, the cats, the dogs and the house! I will probably pack a suitcase full of stuff I am finding that I need before coming back down on Monday!

It gets dark down here at 7pm. I am still trying to get used to that...

I finally started working out! I am about to head back to the hotel, get dinner then work on the upper body today. The lower body workout about killed me on Sunday. It took my legs until Wednesday before they were back to 75% of normal. Last night, I worked the lower body again and today I am pain free... I guess that is progress. I still need to find an ice rink to skate at...

Time to get out of here. I need to get back to the hotel by 7pm so I can get some dinner before lifting the weights!

And today we decided to leave the hotel room...

2006-08-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

Say HI to Fromage (aka Gryffyn). He is my big orange and white kitty with a heart of gold...

OK, I am in a new city, I only know 3 people, I am getting tired of being holed up in a hotel room after work, so what is a gal to do??? How about look for another knitting group and find some local yarn stores??? Good idea!

So, at lunch, I decided to JFGI (Just freaking Google it) and find the local yarn stores in the area and stop by one to see what Phoenix had to offer in the way of yarn stores. The one I decided to go to was The Fiber Factory in Mesa, AZ. Great LYS!!! They had the class schedules out for Sept - Dec and have a LOT of classes. Well, since I brought this spinning wheel with me from ABQ and I am learning as I go, I decided to sign up for a beginning spinning class. The class starts on September 5th and meets every Tuesday in September. They teach you to spin with a drop spindle, prepare wool and spin on the wheel. I am really excited!!! I picked up a spinning book and a little bit of fiber while I was there then came back to work... Good stuff! I am really excited to start the class!

Then, I decided to continue my Google adventures and try to find a knitting group to hang out with. Now, no one will ever be able to replace my SnB Group that I just left in Albuquerque (with the greatest group of Women in the Southwest!!!) but I need to make new friends and warp new minds!!! LOL!!! Tomorrow, I am going to head over to my first SnB meeting over in Mesa, AZ. Next Tuesday, there is a knitters meet-up in Tempe that I will also head over to check out. There are a BUNCH of knitting groups down here. I hope to find one that will meet my schedule (meets on Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday when I start working nights) and has some really awesome people. I am also thinking about joining a spinning group, but I will wait until after I take my class to see if I want to spin with others or just keep it an "at home" type of activity.

Note to self: remind hubby to bring down some dye for my roving when he comes to visit September 9th...

The weather here is really weird... On Tuesday night, I hung out with my best friend from elementary school thru high school graduation, Julie. We headed over to Bed, Bath and Beyond and played with trash cans (yes, they have trash cans with remote sensors that automatically open and close). On our way back to her place, the windstorm from Hell (Think Albuquerque in the Spring) hit just before some really cool thunderstorms. Stupid me, I decided NOT to bring my camera to Phoenix (since the three options I had were leave it in a hotel room to possibly get stolen, leave it in a hot car to get ruined or carry it with me everywhere I go...) and there was the most INCREDIBLE sunset. You could see the sun setting over the mountain through the dust with a huge thunderstorm in front of it... WOW! When you have a dust storm before a thunderstorm, they call it a Haboob. Here is a picture of one:

Pretty cool, huh? Yup, it looks just like this. Wall of dust . Here is the National Weather Service Definition:

Haboob. A haboob is a violent dust or sandstorm occurring on the southwest deserts of Arizona. It depicts the leading edge, or gust front, of an approaching storm, and wind speeds can exceed 60 mph!

Where do they come up with these terms??? I am thinking that some bored meteorologists had been indulging in a bunch of "adult beverages" (with high alcohol content) and thought that one up after one of them got dumped by a strong, couragous woman! (aka Babe In Total Control of Herself, put the capital letters together)

So, back to the weather story, I was driving back from Julie's place on the leading edge of this beastie (after getting gas and "college student groceries") and it was vicious! There were trees damaged all over the place. One was laying across the road blocking 2 of 3 traffic lanes. I went into work on Wed am and the trees here took a good hit too. Yesterday, it was cloudy all day. Wonderful! Maybe it won't get above 100 degrees... Man, that was an anomaly. Today, the weather is back to normal again, a million degrees with humidity... Walk outside and become an instant giant walking sweatball. Now, isn't that appealing? Welcome to Arizona... I just looked on the Weather Channel website for the forecast. It said the current conditions were 100 degrees (feels like 99 degrees). SAY WHAT??? How can it be 100 and feel like 99??? Yup, the weather people have been into the "hooch" again...

What are "college student groceries"? Stuff you can make on a stove top or in a microwave.

My boxes are in my cube! Can you tell I am procrastinating unpacking it all? The cube I was assigned (from now until December when I move to my real factory) is small. REALLY SMALL. I don't know if I can fit everything from my old cube in here. So, it sits in boxes behind me (where no one is sitting right now), mocking me. I don't see a monitor or computer stand so I need to order that stuff...

If anyone is down in Phoenix on Sept 9th, they are having a "Stitch and Pitch" at the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game. They are handing out goodie bags too!!! Now, I need to convince the hubby that this is a good idea!!!

So, what are tonight's big plans? Back to the hotel room after work, get some dinner, spin some wool then go to bed. It's too freaking hot to do anything else. (and I even got a bug up my butt to update the WIPs and finished projects...)

Next stop: Phoenix

2006-08-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

I made it to Phoenix in one piece....

I flew back in from Austin on Friday night. Saturday, we went out to lunch with the in-laws then went to Village Wools for their annual sale. Sunday, I finished up the packing and hit the road. I made it to Phoenix and checked into the hotel that I will call home for the next month and a half until we move into the new house...

Yesterday was the first day at the new job. I actually got a cube! It's a tight squeeze but I can live with it for another couple of months until we start the new fab up. The first day of work was great! I think this is going to be a great place to be. This is a new position that has never been done before so I will need a lot of flexability to cope with the changes that will happen over the next few months...

I brought my spinning wheel down here with me. Something clicked, I don't know how or why, but the whole drafting concept has finally took! I am having a blast doing some spinning after work...

Sorry it's so short, just wanted everyone to know I am here... I will post more later...

Texas.... Has some sheep fur in it...

2006-08-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

OMG!!! Greasy, sweaty men who work on cars... Yummy!!!

OK, time to play another round of catch up...

Let's see, since our last episode a lot has happened (and that is why I have not done a lot of blogging). August 11th was my last day at work at my old factory. I got all of the training packages together, packed up my cube, hugged a bunch of people and left the place that has been like home to me for the last 5 1/2 years. That was really tough. I know that the new place will be a lot of fun with more really neat people, but I hate to say Good-Bye.

The Tuesday before that (8/8), I got together with my SnB grrlz to say good-bye. Amy and I were both leaving that day and it was Carole's birthday. Many pitchers of margaritas later, we said "see ya later". I will be back to ABQ to I am sure I will see them very soon!!!

Sunday (after all of the terrorist stuff going on), I packed the suitcases and flew to Austin, TX. ABQ airport has a new security device at the airport so if you are flying from ABQ you may want to leave about 15 mins early to make it through the new security. I have been down here since then for a training class on the new tools I will be working on. This tool is large and PURPLE... REALLY FREAKING PURPLE... I told the instructor on the first day that if we power up this tool and it starts singing "I love you... You love me..." I would beat the crap out of this tool with a large stick... LOL!!! So far, no singing... The tool is really cool!

In Austin, I have learned a few things. First, the people in Austin drive worse than anyone in NM... Second, not all women in Texas have big hair (but they do pick their noses in their cars in morning rush hour traffic, EWWW!) Third, there are some pretty neat folks out here and not all of them think that they are God's Gift to all creation! Fourth, I discovered some really great local sheep fur. I went to an LYS called Hill Country Weavers on Congress Ave here in Austin after class today. I picked up some really fun colored sock yarn and asked them about their rovings in stock. They took me to a house across the street (where they do classes) and they didn't have much roving, but what they had was sweet! I picked up this brown ball of sheep fur that was absolutely DELICIOUS to the touch. I asked the woman in the store what kind of sheep fur it was and the response was "It's Texas Roving. I don't know. It could be Romney. Wait a minute, it might be Corriadale. I don't know. I just know it's from a local rancher but I don't have his name." Great... I find some of the softest roving I have ever laid my paws on and I can't get any more... So, if anyone has a clue what sheep it might be from, please let me know. It's a light brown color with some assorted straw and weeds in the roving... This LYS is really cool and has a great selection of yarns... Stop by there if you are ever in Austin!!!

Last night, one of my friends from Jr High and High School (Lori) came up from Houston and we went out for dinner and to chat. It was a REALLY good time. We started at this place called Cuba Libre and had martinis, plantations and Sataki. On Thursday nights, this bar features $10 Martini and Manicure. Sounds weird to me... We ended up heading out for Thai food after that and chit-chatted about lots of stuff till the wee hours of the night. I am looking forward to coming back to TX in November and visiting her down in Houston. Yup, she is a Rocket Scientist! (Sorry, but anyone who works at, with or for NASA is a Rocket Scientist in my book!) I really had a great time!

Time for me to go to bed... for some reason, I am just beat today. I don't care if it is only 8pm. The beds at this hotel are TO DIE FOR! I hope the afterlife has beds like these!

The kid is alright

2006-08-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

Can anyone tell I wish I was back home by the ocean???

The test results are back and everything is just fine!!! No problems! I need a follow-up boobie squishing in 3 months and all is OK!

We just got back from Phoenix late Sunday night. The house hunting trip was VERY sucessful! We found our "dream house" (with a little less space than we wanted, but we can add on) and we also found a second choice house (bigger house, but the landscape and views are lacking). We are putting our first offer on the house today! I say first offer because the house is still being built and we have some things we would like done to the house that may bring the price up just a little bit more. The house is about 2000 Sq Ft on 1.25 acres out in the middle of a bunch of cow farms and horse pastures! It's a 35 mile commute to work (one-way) and the closest grocery store is about 15 miles away, but that is what we were looking for. Yup, we will be out in the middle of BFE (Bum F*ck Egypt...) It is a VERY open floorplan with a fireplace in the great room and a fireplace out in the front courtyard. The master bedroom is HUGE (about the size of our current living room) with a beautiful master bath (seperate shower and whirlpool tub, double sinks, seperate commode) a huge walk in closet with a view (yup, a window in the walk in closet). The kitchen opens out into the great room and family room with a beautiful wet bar in the great room. We will wall off the back yard into a separate back courtyard in a couple of years when we put in the pool. There are 5 floor to ceiling windows in the great room (our ceilings are 10 feet) that really open up the floor and brighten up the house. With the acreage, we are going to be able to build a little barn on the back of the property and get a couple of sheep! First knitting, then dyeing, then spinning... Forget that, just go to the source and get the sheep fur from the sheep. I am TOTALLY out of control!!! We will research what kinds of sheep can be raised down there before we get any, but the sheep are probably a year down the road.

Yup... Sheep...

Which way to the Yarn Harlot?

2006-07-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

Mewstrodamas is trying his best to be a gargoyle again...

Tonight is Yarn Harlot Night! Yuppers, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is going to be speaking here in Albuquerque tonight! I am really excited! I am picking up Noelle and we are heading down there. I just need to remember to MapQuest the directions so I don't get TOO lost...

Can I go home now? My brain is full! (caution: full out venting session follows)

I talked to my family yesterday and shared the news about the move to Phoenix in a few weeks. Everyone is really happy :-) Hubby and I shared a nice bottle of Moet and chatted in great length about the whole situation. No, the full impact hasn't really hit me yet. I figure it will hit full force when we are in Phoenix looking at houses to buy. We have a list that we have emailed to the realtor down there and all day Saturday and part of Sunday will be spent going from place to place to get a short list of places we would be interested in putting offers down on or starting the next search from scratch. We are leaving ABQ at noon tomorrow for the road trip.

This whole move is really hectic. For the personal side of things, just the logistics of what day do I actually need to BE in Phoenix (since I will be in Austin TX in between here and Phoenix), which school district will my son be in (depends on which houses we like and which ones we make an offer on), where will I need to find an apartment (short term) until the house closing is complete, are there fully furnished apts in the area, what will I pack for the short term, how to handle the different school start dates and how does it affect my release from here... It looks like I will need to be in Phoenix on Aug 21st, so I will do the actual move the day after I get back from Austin (Aug 19th). So, one of the weekends between then and now (either Aug 5th or Aug 12th) I need to figure out what apt to rent and get the rental agreement signed. We are still waiting for the company to give us the relocation package (most likely next week) but since the actual payout isn't for 30 days after the package is signed, we are going to have to float some of this for a couple of weeks. For the kiddo's school, we are just going to enroll him here for the first 3 weeks of the year then transfer him down to Phoenix and enroll him on the 21st. School starts Aug 8th down there and there is not enough time to find a place to live, close out business here and get him enrolled to start the year down there. Then, we need to find the house down there, close on the house, move from ABQ to PHX, clean up the ABQ house then put it on the market once we have done the carpets, cleaned the weeds from the yard and repainted the walls. (a couple of weekend trips back to ABQ to do all of that). We figure the house up here should sell pretty quickly, so we aren't worried about that. Then we have to move my hubby's business and get all of the licences and legal stuff taken care of before he moves to PHX so he can start working right away. I am taking 2 of the kitties down with me and my son so I don't get too lonely...

Workwise, the situation is just as bad. I need to pass down everything I have learned in 5 years and put it into a training document in a week then do the training. I start on one training item and it triggers 2 - 3 more tasks that I need to remember to put into the document. So I have this "stuff to add to the training document" list that is getting longer by the hour. Which reminds me that I need to call my Dr to get a refill on my Ritalin... Then we need to schedule all of the hand off meetings, close out all of my work here, get it transferred to the right people, pack up the desk and give away 3/4 of the contents of my office to the person who is taking over. MY.... BRAIN.... HURTS....

Today, we are officially saying good-bye to our co-worker who got laid off. At our meeting today, we also let everyone know officially that I was leaving also. This is really weird. I have made some wonderful friends here at work, most of whom I know I will not see again after the 11th of August. That is really tough. There are a few that I know we will stay in touch and bump into each other in the future, but the majority of these folks are going to be "good-bye". We took a group picture 2 months ago. Right now, there are 4 of us who are no longer part of the group. We have been a close-knit group for the better part of 3 years (3 new members came in and 2 left over 3 years) and between the folks leaving and the headcount reduction currently going on, it is really stressful. I haven't really thought ahead to the 11th of August yet, there is too much in the present to concentrate on. I know it will be tough...

Then, there are the other wonderful people in my life here in Albuquerque that are not a part of work. Topping that list are each and every one of the absolutely wonderful people who have been a part of the Albuquerque Stitch and Bitch group and the wonderful people at Village Wools. Where do I even start? My command of the English language is not defined well enough to truly tell all of you everything. Every one of you means so much to me. I would be in the loony bin by now if not for the things you have done to save my sanity since March. Some days, it was just the thought of seeing everyone on Tuesday night that kept me going. You have helped me through some of the best times and worst times of my life. Every one of you has touched me in your own way and I will ALWAYS remember that and I will ALWAYS be eternally greatful for all that you have given me. I know we all seem to be moving to different parts of the country but I hope that our paths will continue to cross in the future. I will be making many trips back to ABQ since I have family up here. I will try to schedule those trips with Tuesday night in mind. Thank you to everyone!

Today is my Grandmother's 93rd birthday. I am so blessed to still have a grandmother who is alive and kicking butt! Last Wednesday, I got a phone call from my parents that my grandmother had a stroke and was in the hospital. The stroke was minor. It didn't affect her physical mobility (she used to walk a mile a day) but it did affect the left side functions of her brain. One of her activities that she used to love to do was to play cards and play bingo. When I talked with my parents yesterday, she couldn't play bingo but she was able to play "Go to the Dump". She is going through PT and OT to help her recover so she can go back to the assisted facility that she has been at for a number of years. Grandma is quite feisty and I know she will do her best to recover what she can. I am praying for her to find peace through this whole ordeal that she is going through and to find serenity and acceptance. I am going to try to find a weekend to make a quick trip down to Florida to say HI before November, after the current mess is finished.

Ahhhh!

2006-07-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

The surgery came out fine. I will have the results from the biopsy on Monday. My boob hurts, but it is healing with no problems.

This is from the Ponce Inlet in Florida... Ahhh... Ocean...

This morning, I got my offer from Phoenix. I will be going to Austin, TX on August 14th for a week or two of training then I will be officially moving to Arizona. Yes, that is August of THIS YEAR. Yup, 2 1/2 weeks from now. OH SH*T, we need to find someplace to live! I am going to talk to my boss today and find out what the relocation will be. I know the company will move us, but I need to find out if we qualify for corporate housing for a month or three until we find a place to live. Commuting from Albuquerque to Phoenix would put a hell of a lot of miles on the car! LOL!

I rented a spinning wheel from Village Wools and started teaching myself to spin wool into yarn. Man, this has to be one of the mostest bestest things! What an incredible, meditative, calming experience. OK, so the stuff I am spinning looks kinda crappy, but no biggie! It will take a lot of practice to get it right. I am really excited! In fact, I was looking forward to going home tonight and spinning some wool but hubby and I are going to be starting the moving process. We are planning to go down to Phoenix this weekend and start the house hunt.

It feels REALLY GOOD to have 90% of the uncertainty in life taken care of. Knowing I have a new job and getting the move started is a big relief. Once we have the news on Monday, all will be taken care of.

I am really going to miss all of the friends I have made here in Albuquerque. I still have family here and we will be back visiting regularly! I will have to make sure it's on a Tuesday so I can go to Stitch and Bitch and chat with the gals!

We are now officially in full on freak out mode

2006-07-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

Ya know, there is just something nice about having the opportunity to watch men who are working on cars... I am not sure why...

So, what is going on?

At work they announced the first round of layoffs yesterday and one of our dear co-workers got a notice. It didn't seem fair. He was a great guy, worked hard, didn't have performance issues and he will be gone in 2 weeks. He will be sorely missed. Right now, the rest of us are on a heightened state of alert with another round of layoffs possible next week (a reliable birdie told me this...)

The interview in Phoenix went REALLY WELL. Unfortunately, the company froze all internal transfers and hiring on Monday (but they still interviewed me anyways...) I was told more than once during the day that they couldn't extend an offer because of the freeze but they would be talking to their managers to try to get around that... Sounds positive...

I am trying to keep a positive outlook through all of this crap, but it is really really hard to do that. I had hoped that some of the stress would be relieved after the interviews were over but the whole layoff thing heaped another helping of stress onto an already overfull plate. The surgery is on Thursday so I will have Thursday and Friday off of work for recovery time. Once that is finished, then it's all about waiting... and waiting... and waiting...

I am planning to do some dyeing this weekend to get my wits back about me again and to have some fun. After the surgery, I am going to talk to Noelle about learning to spin wool. It is something I have wanted to learn for a while but I really need someone who is a total GODDESS at it (which Noelle really is...) Learning that and having it would really be something calming, soothing and relaxing to get me over this stress in life. I am really looking forward to it!

A weekend... I can catch up on my sleep (3 hours on Wed after my flight back from Phoenix got delayed, 4 hours last night after the layoff mess), watch cars go around in circles, clean the house, dye wool, and maybe even have a nice adult beverage or two! Hubby and I are going out to Pelican's for dinner tonight and we will have some nice time at home afterwards. I am not going out of town this weekend for the wedding because of the uncertainty at work, so I will be showing up at SnB this Tuesday...

Forecast: Scattered Thunderstorms

2006-07-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

We finally got that pool in our backyard that we have always wanted....

This is the runoff from the hill next to our housing develpment in Rio Rancho, NM

Here is the arroyo next to the hill that our housing development sits on...

The forcast for yesterday? Scattered Thunderstorms... Kids, this is why your parents won't let you play in the arroyo... I think this arroyo, when empty, is about 10 -12 feet high...

When in Rome...

2006-07-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

I couldn't visit the Shrine of Speed without going onto the track and kissing the Bricks. This is a racing tradition both in NASCAR and INDY car racing that the winner of the race pays homage to the track by kissing the bricks at the start/finish line. I feel honored to have had the opportunity! (Yes, I am on the actual track and No, I didn't get run over by any of the vehicles that were on the track. I actually got on local Indy TV for doing this...)

Time for another round of "catch up with the elusive engineer".

First, the vacation was an absolute BLAST! Lots of cars, lots of excitement, lots of Europeans, the best group of people I could EVER have the opportunity to hang out with for 5 days! I went with some of my co-workers up to Indy for the F1 race, it was great. They had 3 other racing series there (Indy Pro Series, Formula BMW and Porche). The next door neighbor of one of our group actually had a Pro Series car entered so we hung out in the "garage" and watched them work on the car for a couple of days. I was in engineering heaven! Another surprise at the track, Frankie Munoz (Malcolm from the show "Malcolm in the Middle") was racing one of the Formula BMW cars, so that was pretty cool. We were also introduced to two very wonderful people named Al and Kittie. No trip to Indy is complete without a stop at Al and Kitty's house. We met all sorts of racing folks at their house and heard all kinds of really neat stories about NASCAR, F1 and Indy series. A big THANK YOU to them for opening up their house to us and showing us some wonderful Midwestern hospitality. I also discovered a new cocktail there called SKYLAB... Yummy!!! More on that in another post...

Medical update - I am going in on Thursday, July 20th to have said abnormality removed from my right breast. I will have Friday off of work, the weekend to recover then back to work on Monday, so no leave is necessary. Whee! Time to be out of it for a couple of days. A week to 10 days after the surgery, I will have the biopsy results.

Work update - Yeah, the bragsheet is done! Big relief! I had a phone interview on June 25th for an etch engineering position and I am going to Phoenix on July 12th for the second interviews! It will be a same day trip, so no suitcase is necessary. Today, I had a phone interview for litho engineering positions and they will be scheduling second interviews for that position on the same day, so it will be between 4 - 6 interviews in one day... WOW! I will hopefully hear the results by the end of the month so I can plan accordingly. Right now, looks like either October or January of 2007 for a move...

I taught my first class last night at Village Wools. Since it was my first class, there were a few things that didn't go as well as I would have liked them to go, but overall it was a positive experience. We went through beginning sock knitting. I printed up a 6 page pamphlet to cover the basics up through the heel turn. This weekend, I will finish the print out and go through the rest of the sock, answer more questions and put online resources into the document so the folks in the class will have reference material for after the class is finished. My 2 socks on 2 circs class may not happen since only 2 folks are signed up.

My kiddo, Chris, left for Florida yesterday to hang out with his Dad for a month. I know he will have fun down there, but I really really miss having him around! He's a great kid!

That's about all happening in life here... It's short so I will try to go into more detail if I get some time over the weekend...

On Da Road again...

2006-06-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

<-Not my cat... It's one of the Jetty cats in Florida.

So, how is everyone doing on this fine Tuesday?

Wow, where to start... How about business before pleasure?

The job search is going very well. I had my first phone interview last Friday. It went pretty well. I sorta blew one of the technical questions, but the rest went well. I will find out next week if I am selected to go to Phoenix for the second round. I have another phone interview for a different position a week from Friday and I am waiting to hear from the third position. It looks like a move to Phoenix sometime between September and December of this year if I get one of the positions. This is a little bit quicker than we were anticipating, but not a problem. Last night, I was reading a book about Adult Children of Alcoholics and it mentioned how difficult job changes were to us because we are afraid of change... No big revelation there, but now I know why I have been such a schkitty-kitty about the whole thing. My poor hubby has put up with me through this whole thing, bless his heart.

Last week's trip to Phoenix was a blast! We got down to Julie and Loren's on Tuesday night around 11pm, chatted for a while, had a glass of wine then crashed out. Wednesday, we did breakfast at the Cracker Barrel (MMMMM, Sweet Tea, my favorite!!!) then went out and looked at model houses until 4pm. We went back to the house to change clothes, went out to Cooper'stown for dinner (a sports/rock-n-roll restaurant owned by Alice Cooper) and headed out to the Zappa plays Zappa concert. Man, what an excellent show! They were tight, even during improv segments. Some of the musicians were playing two instruments at the same time without missing a note (like sax and keyboards) which was pretty impressive. That had to be one of the best shows that I have ever seen! The complexity of the music along with the mistake free execution was something I have not witnessed in a LONG time! On Thursday, we went out looking at more model houses then came home. We found our dream house! OK, we could technically afford our dream house but we would have no money left for anything else (like important stuff such as yarn, vacations, etc) So, we are planning to scale back on the house a bit and pay off some bills. It's funny how age and wisdom will sneak up on you and make you fiscally responsible... LOL!

Tomorrow morning at 10am, I am off to Indy to watch pointy cars go really fast in circles turning left and right. I am really excited! I am heading out there with some of my co-workers. I think it will be really cool to see these cars up close and personal. These engines hit 19,000 RPM on a regular basis, that itself is pretty dang impressive. (since my car doesn't like going past 3500 RPM without raising a fuss). Thursday we get to go in the pits and check out the cars up close. Friday and Saturday are practice and qualifying for the cars and Sunday is the race. I am charging my camera batteries as we speak! Have I started packing? Nope. Have I come close? Nope. I will be running around like a mad woman tonight after SnB. A bunch of us (7 or 8 of us) are sharing an empty apartment that one of my co-worker's sisters manages. This saves us a TON of cash on hotel rooms. Now, I need to find the air mattress so I have something to sleep on for the next couple of days. I know it is at the house somewhere... Man, I am looking forward to this vacation!!!

Watch out where the Huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow!

AWOL

2006-06-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

Picture by Tim Hussin/Indedpendant Florida Alligator. (The UF school newspaper... and I think this one is an Independant Florida Alligator...)

Man, I just love dropping off of the face of the earth... Having life turned totally upside-down is a gas, also...

I read on MSNBC.COM that folks who get migraine headaches have higher sex drives. Yup, I will attest to that one!

OK, first, I have my surgical consultation on July 5th to discuss getting this unknown lump out of my breast and get it biopsied. Until then, no news...

Kiddo is in summer school. Lucky guy. So, I have been spending my lunch hour at work for the last couple of weeks playing "Mom's Taxi".

Work is a total mess. My favorite boss left a couple of weeks ago to go pursue greener pastures in another company. Right before our mid-year reviews... BLEH! (Yes, that is the task I am putting off to do this). The euphamism of rats deserting a sinking ship is coming to mind. I have been working to bring in a new process to our factory for the last 6 months and guess what happened??? (I think the punchline is obvious) We aren't getting the new process... GRRR... We found out about that a couple of weeks ago. Earlier this week, they made the announcement that they are WAY over headcount and need some of us to move to other facilities. Our choices? Either Phoenix or Utah... We can stay if we want to, but we may not have work if we do. So, I am now putting my name into the hat to try to move to Phoenix to start up a new facility there. No idea when we will hear anything about it. I am asking for a position in Oregon for a few months to get training, then I would be back in NM for a bit then to Phoenix for good to work at the new place. My bestest friend from elementary school (middle school and high school) and her hubby live there, so it would be fun to be close to them again. Why, in heaven's name, would I move to Phoenix? Here are my reasons:
1) Compressed work week! Yeah! It would be 12 hour shifts, 3 days on, 3 days off, 4 days on, 4 days off with NO ON CALL!
2) Night shift engineering! I have wanted night shift engineering for a long time!
3) Opportunity
4) I like living indoors and having food to eat
5) Culture - more concerts!
6) NASCAR (yup, anti-culture) - a NASCAR track in the same town??? Hell yeah!
7) Year-around motorcycle riding
8) The idea of 115 degree days and feeling like I am living in an oven somehow appeals to me right now
9) A change is due...

Yes, this is the first I have really told anyone about this. Hubby and I talked and agreed it's a good idea. I am really looking forward to a new opportunity to make a difference and I would love to be able to do it in a more modern factory. Yes, there are downsides (leaving friends here is the biggest one) but it's not leaving for good, it's just playing in another sand box for a while. We will know more in the next month, but nothing immediate. If I got the seed position in Oregon, I would leave in August. If I get a sustaining position in Arizona, we would leave next summer sometime...

Time for vacations! Hubby and I are heading to Phoenix on Tuesday night for a couple of days to go see a Zappa concert. I come back on Friday, work Mon - Wed then leave for Indianapolis to watch the US Grand Prix! I LOVE watching cars go in circles at high speeds! It's even more fun when they turn left and right...

I am thankfully off of the new ADD med that was giving me migraine headaches. I only took it for 5 days, but that was more than enough...

Dixie Chicks ROCK!!!

2006-05-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hubby and I decided to make a stop at Best Buy on our way out to the movies last night. Both of us decided to pick up CD's that are totally out of character for us. Hubby picked up a Black Eyed Peas CD and I picked up the new Dixie Chicks CD. (Take a free listen to the entire CD here). WOW! I am not a huge fan of Country music, but these women have some serious talent!

We went out and saw The DaVinci Code last night. Hubby and I both read the book a couple of years ago and wanted to see the movie (sans protesters). It was pretty good, hubby liked it more than I did. We played our "game" after the movie of "what parts were in the book that were not in the movie". It stayed pretty true to the movie but it did change a couple of minor details and left a few things out of the book. All in all, it was worth the money to see it...

Today, headed over to LYS to pick up some yarn I ordered a couple of months ago and to see what is going on. They are going to do a walk/run for breast cancer, so I want to throw my name into the hat for it! Then, time to get to the dying for the weekend. I picked up some more containers to store dye in, I am going to mix up the rest of my colors and see what turns out.

And our learnings for today are???

2006-05-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

I believe.... OK, no redneck jokes today ;-P

It's 6:30 in the morning and I am at work finishing up on some data for a white paper that one of my co-workers will present for me while I am out on Tuesday getting started on my healing.

Yesterday, I went out to the Albuquerque Isotopes game with my co-workers, although I think the entire plant was at the game... We got beat BAD... It was painful to watch. When the highlight of the game is watching the manager get into a shouting match with one of the umpires for 5 minues, you can figure how bad it was... (Yup, we were cheering on the manager... It was funny!) After the game, one of my friends from work stuck around and we talked for a little bit about all that has been going on in my life and where I am at right now.

After our chat, I was driving home. I mulled over many of the things we talked about and realized how much I have grown over the last few years and how much in my life has changed. I have gone from being a very angry young woman to realizing that I am blessed beyond all belief. I have gone from feeling lower than dirt and thinking I was not worthy to finding that I am a gifted woman who can and does help others to heal not only outwardly but inner wounds also. I have gone from thinking that "I don't deserve any success, someday everyone will find out I am a fake" to thinking "What can I do to help the people in my life, the people on the periphary and the people that I don't like very much." I never realized what I have taken for granted after the hard work I have done the last few years and that I have finally got a self-esteem and those old tapes that used to play in my head about "how bad I was" don't play anymore.

Now, what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, this whole situation started from a getting that phone call a few weeks ago. I am a believer in both Eastern and Western medicine. I believe to heal a problem you not only need medical procedures (Western) but you also need to heal what caused the problem in the first place (Eastern). This is a fourth chakra issue, having to do with the heart. It hit me like a ton of bricks on Tuesday. I had buried this issue very deep inside of me and minimized it so I wouldn't continue to feel that hurt. I cried for 3 days over it. I felt the pain of what happened and the anger over it. There was no way I felt ready to forgive the parties who were responsible for what happened and I thought it would be a cold day in Hell before I would be ready. After our talk yesterday, I thought more about it. Just before I got home, I realized that if my "Highter Power" can forgive someone, I can do it too. I said a little prayer and let it go. I got home at 6:15, decided to take a "little nap" and woke up at 4:45 this morning after the best night's sleep I had gotten in a long time. This morning, that hurt tried to come back, but instead of getting angry over it, I felt peace and serenity.

I realize I will need to confront this person about this hurt in the very near future. I am trying to find a way to do this with love and compassion for this person. I don't expect this person to ever change. What I do hope for is that I can express this hurt, this person will have the knowledge of the hurt and maybe they can heal a hurt inside of them that caused them to hurt me in this way. Tall order? Yup! I have a feeling that the whole situation that is happening is here to not only help me but to help me teach others. No, I am not that important in the grand scheme of things, but I am always looking for the good that can come from any and all situations, no matter what they are.

During all that is happening, the "Higher Power" that I have cursed, doubted and blamed for so long has been here with me, letting me know that I am not alone. I feel a debt to my "Higher Power" for this and now realize that I need to find my "calling" to start to "Pay it forward". I don't know what that looks like, but whatever it is, I will be there to do it.

And who's brain was it?

2006-05-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

"Abby... Somebody."
"Abby Somebody.... Abby Who?"
"Abby Normal"
"Abby Normal... So you are telling me I put an abnormal brain into this body?"
"Uh.... Yes..."

That has got to be my favorite part of the movie "Young Frankenstein". ROTFLMAO!

I sold my first yarn today! Etsy sent me a note saying I had someone buy my Pink Houses and Caribbean Blue Yarn! Yippee! I have my new multi-colored yarns going up sometime later this week!

I went in for my "repeat" mammogram and ultrasound. This time, they took 4 additional pictures of my right boobie and one didn't turn out so I got to get an additional boobie squeezing on that side. I have come to the conclusion I would rather have a pap smear and gyn exam any day over the boobie squishing maching... OWIE! The results came back and there is a mass in my right breast that is not a cyst or fatty deposit. I am going back a week from Tuesday for a biopsy on the mass and we will go from there. Hey, a day off of work so I can have needles inserted into my boobie and possibly have the mass cut out, whoopie!

I have not been a real sociable animal in the last week and a half. I really don't feel like dealing with anyone right now... It's hard to describe. I have no fear or dread of the future. I know deep down that everything will be OK, even if this is a bit of a struggle in the short term. Hell, I can't go, that would leave too many people in my life that I would have to come back and haunt! I plan to live to 90-something and I will NOT be changing those plans anytime in the next 50 years! It's that things that used to be so important are no longer all that important. (Work is topping that list). I think this is my "Higher Power" telling me that it is time for me to truly look at what I value, look at my life path, look at what I still need to teach and what I still need to give back to the World before I am done. Kind of a "spiritual tune-up". It's necessary, but not easy by any means. I have learned a few lessons in the last week and half, but I think there is so much more growing and changing to do before this "crisis" is over. I think it is totally ironic that I was working as a test knitter on the "booby socks" and now, I am in the midst of it.

Now for those of you who haven't been paying attention during the last week and a half: GO GET YOUR MAMMOGRAMS! PLEASE! The life you save will be your own!

The Dyeing Be Done!

2006-05-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

This is what was sitting in my garage a few hours ago... My first attempted foray into the world of putting more than one dye color onto a hank of yarn... The one on the far left is just an experiment, the second one is my secret pal yarn, the last two were stuff I messed up on last night after watching my race... The white stuff on the end??? Well, it got it's own special bath today! I decided to throw all caution to the wind and start dying hanks in more than one color! So far??? I think it's OK...

If you are my special pal in the Dye-O-Rama swap, look for these goodies to be arriving at your door very soon! (and how did you find out what my blog was???)The yarn is aqua, yellow and green with striping in it! (Although, I will confess, not the exact striping I was hoping for..) I came to realize today that I am not a machine, I do not make perfect yarn and that is all that there is to it :-)

My digital camera is not good at capturing the true colors of the yarn. I think I need to start taking the pix outside...

So what else is going on??? Hmmm... Going with the folks I work with to the Isotopes game on Thursday... That should be lots of fun... Get to skip a half day of work tomorrow for a Dr appt, should be ok... Kid is done with the regular school year on Tuesday, he is really excited. I am going to the Formula 1 race in Indy in July, that is REALLY COOL!

I will put up more pictures of dyed yarn when I get them dried and wrapped. I have 2 of them that I am really excited about! But, I can't wrap them till they are dry, which should be sometime tomorrow afternoon!

My yarn is here, waiting for Dye

2006-05-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

Yippee! My new yarn is here, just waiting to be dyed... Hopefully, the dye will be here on Wednesday! My new rosebush came in today also!

Here is my first yarn for sale. I dyed some of Beth's 100% superwash wool and put it up for sale on Etsy. I have had a few folks look at it, but no takers yet... This guy is called Green Grass and High Tides Forever. It is a self-striping verigated yarn with different shades of green. The fun thing with the yarn is that it is a harmonic, random striping pattern. Should be fun!

Man, I woke up with the migraine from hell this am... Called in sick, slept in until 11am and got up. I still have the lovely residual headache, but most of the nausea is gone...

Mom's day was fun. Hubby took me out to the Melting Pot for dinner. We had an absolute BLAST! The food was good, but the company was better :-)

Time to go wind some yarn... Yipee!!!!

Why don't men have to go through this?

2006-05-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday of this week, I went in for my first-ever mammogram... WHEE! My question is why don't men have to go through a similar non-invasive check (like having their balls put in the same contraption)? I had my well-woman check on the first of May and my Dr gave me the form for a baseline mammogram. I went on Wednesday. I had no problem with the "nekkid" part of it, but having my boobies squished in a giant machine, that sucked. My boobies really REALLY hurt. Then, the tech had to do a second picture on my left boobie since the first one didn't turn out right. Yeah, another chance to get my boobie stuffed into a steel and plastic vice... Fun stuff! Worked on my shadow shawl in the waiting room while I was waiting for results. The second picture of the left boobie turned out just fine and I would be getting the results in the mail in a couple of weeks.

Today, I got a phone call. I have a second mammogram appointment set up for a week from Monday at a different office. Apparently, they found an abnormality in my right breast. Now, I do monthly checks and I haven't felt anything. It was strange, I was driving to work after my first mammogram and I had this feeling like something wasn't right and they might find something. (So either I am psychic or I am really in-tune with my body.) The lovely woman on the phone was trying to be very reassuring that the second exam is usually OK (with no problems found) and that the cancer Dr here in town is having great sucess with lumpectomies and that the screenings being done at this office have resulted in VERY early detection so that the Dr has not had to perform very many masectomies. She told me that this appointment will take about 90 mins (rather than the 30 mins for the first one) and that they will explain in detail what they found on the first exam, what is found at the second exam and what will happen after that.

A little background: At my first post-partum check-up after I had my son (who is now a 17 year old man), the Dr found some abnormal cells during my PAP smear. (Family history: Grandma died at the age of 58 from Overian cancer, I have 2 aunts with hysterectomies from cancer. Mom is the only one in the family with her uterus still intact). Upon further review, they found I had the beginnings of cervical cancer. They froze my cervix, cut out the offending cells, and I have not had a reoccurance since then. This is why I faithfully go for my yearly well-woman checks.

What does this mean? One of two things will happen. First thing would be that all is OK with the second exam and I have nothing to worry about. Second thing would be that they find something wrong. If that is the case, it's early! It would also give me some time off of work to play with dyeing yarn (now THAT is a plus!) If it is found, I look at it this way, I beat it before, I can beat it again! I have a feeling in my gut that it will be the second option, hopefully I am REALLY wrong about that!

So, to all of you women who read my blog, DO YOUR MONTHLY CHECKS and GET YOUR MAMMOGRAMS!!! I love every one of you and want you to be here with us for a LONG TIME!

Dye-O-Rama Meme

2006-05-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

OK, I play follow the leader A LOT... So, here is my Dye-O-Rama Meme:

Your favorite colors? Purple, blue, pink
Preferred yarn weight (Fingering, Sport, DK, maybe even Worsted)? Fingering or sport
Do you prefer solid or multicolored yarn? Multi-colored
If your buddy is able to do so, would you like a variegated, self-striping, or self-patterning yarn? Doesn't matter which one
Would you be interested in a wool blend sock yarn (nylon, tencel, silk, acrylic, alpaca, etc.)? Would prefer wool/nylon or wool/silk
Imagine the perfect colorway. What would you name it? I don't know, it would depend on the colors I use for the colorway...
What was the biggest appeal to you for joining this dye-along? Learning to dye yarn

General yarn/fiber questions:
Have you dyed yarn/fiber before? Not before this
If so, what’s your favorite dye and method? Acid Dye
Do you spin? No
Have you knit socks before? Oh Yeah!
Do you use sock yarn for just socks or in other patterns too? I use sock yarn for other patterns too!
What are some of your favorite yarns? STR, Lorna's Laces, Opal, Regia Silk
What yarn do you totally covet? Lorna's Laces
Favorite patterns? None, I like to make it up as I go
Any pattern you would love to make if money and time were no object? No
Favorite kind of needles (brand, materials, straights or circs, etc)? Addi Turbo 24" circulars
If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be? 100% silk

Nothing to do with knitting/yarn/fiber in any way but seemed kinda fun:
Do you have a favorite candy or mail-able snack? Dove Milk Chocolate
What’s your favorite animal? Cats
Do you have pets? Yes
What are their species/names/ages? OK, from the top... Dog/Puma/8 yrs old, Dog/Roxie/2 yrs old, Iguana/Gorgo/7 years old, Canary/Godzilla/6 months old, Fish/a bunch/various ages, Cat/Ziggy/15 yrs old, Cat/Killer Shrew/13 years old, Cat/Entropy/7 years old, Cat/Maus/5 years old, Cat/Mewstrodamas/3 years old, Cat/Boris/3 years old, Cat/Fromage/3 years old, Cat/Natasha/3 years old, Cat/Dust Bunny/2 years old, Cat/Ashley/2 - 3 years old, Cat/Tabitha/3 - 4 years old
If you were a color what color would you be? Blue
Describe your favorite shirt (yours or someone else’s).. My Scooby Doo Shirt that says "Here comes trouble" on the front and "There goes trouble" on the back
What is your most inspiring image, flower, or object in nature? Mother Ocean
Tell me the best quote you’ve ever heard or read. "You don't have a clue. You couldn't get a clue if you were wearing clue musk in a field of horney clues and doing the clue mating dance".
Do you have a wishlist? Nope
Anything else you’d like to share with the group today? Is it Friday yet??? ;-)

Not much going on in life... I dyed my first "test dye" on yarn... I hate how it turned out :-P So, I learned some lessons about choices of colors. I will probably play with my other color choices sometime this weekend! Self striping yarn is fun to do :-) I will start dying handpainted yarn for sale after I am done with my Dye-O-Rama buddy's yarn. I just ordered a whole bunch of dye and will see where I go from there. My yarn is going to be called "Moo Kitty Paw Prints" and I will be donating part of the proceeds from the yarn to ACAT, a no-kill organization helping cats here in Albuquerque. I have come to the realization that I can't save all of the kitties who need homes, so I will help them try to save the kitties!

Does anyone know how to contact Henry's Attic for wholesale yarn? I didn't see anything on the internet and would like to order some yarn from them....

Yeah, I know...

2006-05-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

I should be much better about my blogging, but life seems to keep getting in the way... We all know how that goes...

Yes, I made it home in good shape. I really needed that vacation and after 1 week at work, I need another one... BLEH! Right now, I have a TO DO list at work that is growing longer by the minute and the headache that started yesterday at about 2pm is getting worse also. It's not a killer migraine, but it's enough for me to notice it while trying to work. We had a class last week called Human Dynamics. At first, I figured this would be one of those useless classes, but it turned out to be one of the best things I have ever done in my life! In those 2 days, I learned so much about myself, how I work and how to communicate with others who are a different dynamic. My cool discoveries? First, my emotional well being is tied directly to my physical well being. Yup, that is why I have stress migraines. Another really cool discovery is that I can feel other people's emotional state. It was weird, 2 days after I took the class, we had a couple of meetings back to back where there was a lot of bad news handed down. At the end of the second meeting, I could REALLY feel everyone else's stress and fear and it was starting to affect me! I left, found a conference room, knitted and did some meditations to clear my head. I came back to work fine after that. I never realized how much everyone else had been affecting me and that I don't have to own THEIR emotional reactions as my own if I do not want to (another startling revelation). The last thing, I realized that whenever something bad happens, I tend to blame myself first when that may not be the case. The message from the class I got was be aware, don't get into other people's muck (unless you want to) and detatch from the situation and ask questions to get objective... No kidding, the class was a freaking life changing experience! (BTW, the current headache is from sugar withdrawls...)

Now for the fun stuff! I have my warping board, I have my dye, I have my masks, I have my scrubs and lab coat, utensils, table cover, I am ready to do the DEED! I picked up some practice yarn at Village Wools on Saturday. Unfortunately, the weekend went by way too quickly and I didn't have a chance to play. Last night, I wound my first ball on the warping board and got the sections tied off. I am letting it hang in hubby's office to straighten a little bit (his office is also a cat free zone) and I am hoping to play with the dye on Wednesday!

The Shadow Shawl is really a lot of fun! I have the chevron stripes set up and am into the middle of it... SO easy to pick up and do! My socks are patiently waiting for me to finish the shawl!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go

2006-04-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

OK, well, I am in the process of packing my bags for the trip tomorrow...
Here is the rest of the week recap:

SATURDAY: We got up with the chickens and headed back to the beach! Mom, Dad, myself and the Dog made another beach run so I could get some pretty pictures of the beach. We got there and Mother Ocean was even angrier than she was on Friday. Way Cool!!! I decided I would try to go onto the Jetty to snap some pictures of the waves crashing over the rocks... I got about a quarter of the way up the Jetty and realized that these waves were big! Some of the spray coming off of the Jetty was going up 8 or 9 feet into the air... Hmmm... How to get to the END of the Jetty with camera in hand without giving the camera a salt water bath... Timed my walking down the Jetty and left my shoes in a dry area. When I got to the end of the Jetty, it was beautiful. Lots of waves and lots of pictures!!! I got a bunch of shots, thanked Mother Nature and Mother Ocean for their beauty and made my way back down the Jetty with my camera neatly tucked away in it's camera bag... I got about a third of the way down the Jetty and looked up... At that point, everything went into Super-Slow-Motion... Out of my mouth came the word "FUDGE..." (But I didn't say Fudge, I said THE WORD... The Queen Mother of ALL SWEAR WORDS... The F... Dash... Dash... Dash word...(From "A Christmas Story")) I turned back around and a 9 foot splash hit my back starting at the hair and going down... I ran into Mom as I was picking up my nice dry shoes. Mom commented that it looked like I got a little wet. I turned around and showed her that my entire back was drenched... She laughed! I took off my soaking wet t-shirt (Yes, I had a bikini on under my shirt and shorts) and walked on to meet Dad and the Dog... We walked around a bit more and I took some more pictures. The second lighthouse picture didn't turn out as nice as the first. (The reason the lighthouse picture was removed from my blog is so I can use PSP and put a watermark on the shot before I upload it again... This one could enter a contest someday) We went to the Dairy Bar for some ice cream (a tradition with Mom, Dad and the Dog) and hung out under the bridge watching a pelican successfully catch some breakfast. I looked through the pics and found a few nice "Ocean Spray" pictures. We left the beach and came home and watched the Busch race. After the Busch race, we went over to Aunt Jody's house (the aunt I ran into at the Phoenix airport last Friday) and went up to a little restaurant in Flagler Beach called Martin's. If you are EVER in Flagler Beach, go eat here... Dad ordered Prime Rib, Mom ordered Filet Mignon, I ordered broiled scallops and Jody had a broiled seafood sampler... Mom's Filet weighed in at around a pound (for $20) and Dad's Prime Rib had to be 4 lbs of meat (for about $20). THE PORTIONS WERE FREAKING HUGE!!! I don't think me and my son could have finished all of that meat! We drove home, watched the Truck Race and crashed out.

SUNDAY: We took Grandma out to brunch for Mother's Day... Yes, I know it is still April... But no one will be here for Mother's Day... We had a great time. The food was yummy and the company was even better. I finally satisfied my craving for Sweet Tea... (Yup, another Southern Thang...) We hung out at Grandma's apartment for a while and looked though pictures and where the wasps were trying to build a nest up on the 8th floor of her building. We headed to Target, got some Florida Gator National Championship Swag and headed home to watch the NA$CAR race... Then the rain started at the track up in Talladega, so we watched rain coverage... The race ended up getting postponed to Monday... Bummer... So we hung out, munched out on leftovers and did some stuff around the house... Now, it's time for me to pack. Mom lent me another suitcase so I could take my new yarn, t-shirts and other treasures home in. I have to leave here by 5:45 am (That would be 3:45am Mountain time) to catch my 7:50 flight. I get back home to Albuquerque at 9:50 am, have an 11:15 Dr appt (You know, that yearly check-up that all of us women have grown to love...) then back to work at 1pm...

Knitting content: Nothing got finished on this trip... I am close, though... I will see how tired I am on the flight back to ABQ. I may knit, I may read or I may just sleep... I will figure that out tomorrow... I will be back for SnB on Tuesday :-) When Mom comes out in August/September, she wants to come to our SnB meeting too :-) That will be Tres cool!!!

Cuz I'm leaving on a Jet Plane, Don't know when I'll be back again....

Guess the upload just takes a little time to work

2006-04-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

Geez... Picky computer... Must be dial-up!

Today, we went to the beach... Then, I realized in utter horror that I did NOT recharge the battery in my camera. So, I take out the back-up camera battery... Dead... $*(&(@#*$&#@^$ We are going back to the beach tomorrow to take pictures... I had enough battery power to snag this shot at Ponce Inlet... Then, out to Krystal's for some YUMMY Krystal Burgers... (Think White Castle burgers...) I really, really, really, really, really, really miss Krystal Burgers. I think it's a Southern thing, but they are SO GOOD!!!

Summing up our adventures to this point...

Wednesday: spent most of the day taking the dog to the vet. Poor thing caught his toenail and ripped it up from the nail bed. Mom and I took Bo over to the vet and she asked for him to stay with her for the day. Mom, Dad and I then went up the road to the Farmer's Market/Flea Market at the Volusia County Fairgrounds. They had this really cute tote bag for 3 bucks with kitties all over it, had to get it. We walked around, tasted some of the freshest veggies I have had in a LONG time. The tomatoes I got were sugar sweet. MMMMMM. Saw a vendor selling plants with this HUGE purple rose bush in bloom... (Why can't I take it home? Stupid agricultural rules). Came home, took a nap. Got up, Bo was back from the vet, but he was really stoned (or still sedated). Dad made the bestest ribs for dinner. These ribs just FELL OFF OF THE BONE! The sauce was totally yummy. MMMMM...

Thursday: looked like a good day to go out running. Started at the meeting, then went to the new Harley-Davidson store down the road. Got DH a cool shirt (yes honey, it is in XXL this time) and found myself some clear goggles for the bike for 15 bucks. Mom was over at the sale rack and found this really cool ladies tank top (in pink) with the HD logo that says "Shut up and Hang on"... PERFECT!!! After the HD store, on to explore the LYS's in the northern Orlando area...
KNIT: this was a really cute yarn store out in Longwood. She had NO sock yarn, but she had some fun frou-frou yarn and a load of really soft alpaca yarn in the back of the store. A big table and a big couch to encourage folks to come into the store and knit... Tres cool! She was really really nice and very helpful. I found some funky yarn that will turn into something eventually. I also picked up my Addi Turbo needles (size 5, 24" length) for the shadow shawl. She is even open on SUNDAY!!! She had social knitting on Thursday nights (but I didn't go...)
NEEDLE ORTS:this was listed as a yarn store but there was NO YARN in there, just needlecraft stuff. I need to let the map muse know this store has NO YARN.
SIP AND KNIT: When we drove up to the store, I thought it looked really familiar from my former life in Orlando. Talked to the owners, it was the cake decorating shop I used to visit when I lived here. They had a silly looking cement sheep when you came up to the door... Cool! Went into the store, there was yarn everywhere! Yarn in the front room, books in the side room, yarn in the back room (along with a large table for social knitting.) Yarn out the Wazoo! I found some fun yarn called Swizzle for socks, they also had some Koigu that Village Wools didn't have (this yummy solid purple and some light blues), and this great new yarn I had heard of online but had never seen. Yo, Scout, can Village Wools order some Regia Silk??? This yarn is TO DIE FOR.... SOFT!!! I got a couple of balls in pink (I am in a pink phase right now) and it will be so nice to knit up!!! I am looking forward to it! I ended up with 2 Swizzles (100g balls), 2 Juvel (for socks, 50g balls), 4 Koigu and 2 balls of Regia Silk (50g balls) for less than $100... Steal of the Century in my book....

After all of the shopping was done, we hit I-4 at 4:30 pm from Orlando to DeBary... Major rush hour... Someone forgot to tell the folks on the road about this because we were able to do 65 the entire way home. This is a FREAKING MIRACLE! This is the first time on I-4 that I have not had words coming out of my mouth that would make a sailor blush! Dad made Coconut Shrimp for dinner and Mom made this yummy dipping sauce for it (sweet and spicy... MMMM). We hung out for a while (the dog is not stoned anymore and he is starting to act like his normal self again). For desert, we had this decedant concoction. It was strawberries (big, red and ripe) with chocolate drizzled over them and then we dipped them in mint-flavored heavy whipped cream... OMG!!! This is one for our next party! YUM!

Friday: Today was "go to the beach" day. I mentioned the camera battery fiasco already. We went out to Ponce Inlet down here and hung out at the beach. Dad took the metal detector around the beach looking for treasures (Yup, he is retired and loving it!!!) The wind was strong, the waves were crashing on the Jetty and we found 2 kitties hanging out on the Jetty looking for handouts from the local fishermen. One was a little gray momma kitty who was about to have her babies... She was so cute and such a talker. Note to self: bring kitty food to the beach tomorrow am when we go take pictures... Came home and now I am hanging out and updating the blog...

Knitting stuff: I am almost finished with the Sixth Sense socks and I have turned both of the heels on my test socks. Both should be close to done by Monday. I am about to start a new pair, but not sure which ones... I hope I have enough room in my suitcase to take all of my treasures home... I have a bunch of orange GATOR shirts that my parents found at the flea market a few weeks ago... I will add more later this weekend before I come home! I hope to have some fantastic pix to post from the beach!!!

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

2006-04-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yeeeee-up! That about sums it up!!!

Just finished packing (and WHO needs a backpack full of yarn for a 6 day trip???) and ready to head to the airport. I was shocked that everything fit into ONE carry-on suitcase! This time, I remembered to bring my USB cable for my camera in case I get a chance or three to update the blog...

In my pre-knitting days, I used to be pretty darn good at PSP and making tags and stationary. I haven't played around with it for a couple of years, but I just found my old stash of tags and tubes! Maybe I should get back into doing that. Most of the stuff I made tended to be a bit on the "cutesy" side...

I am so happy to be finally going on vacation. I got the A boarding pass printed yesterday for Cattle Call Airlines, so I am ready to rock and roll... I get to Orlando at 9pm (7pm mountain time) and will be on my way home... Yup, my parents are newly-retired, so I will be having a BLAST with them!!!

I will try to update. See everyone on Monday!!!!

The weirdest thing happened to me in the airport

2006-04-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Yup, another week, another blog entry...

The weirdest thing happened to me at the Phoenix airport on Friday. I was at the gate, waiting to start boarding the plane to Albuquerque. I am hanging out, knitting on some socks, waiting.... Well, the plane that we will be boarding finally lands and the passengers get off of the plane. I look up and I see my aunt from Florida getting off of the plane. Now, how freaky is that? I ran over, gave her a big hug and we chatted for a bit... I will be seeing her in a couple of days when I go back to Florida and visit the relatives... Too weird...

Now, for the WIP's:

Here are the socks I am working on called the Sixth Sense Socks. I am knitting them with Opal Silk... They are turning out really nice so far, and they are a pretty easy pattern to play with while doing really dull things like waiting in an airport for a plane, or sitting in that plane on a runway while they are trying to get the "push back cart" disconnected from the nose of the plane. (Took them 45 mins... In Phoenix... In the heat of the day... with NO AIR circulating because the engines were turned off.... EWWW!)

The next pic is blurry, but you can see, this is the start of the mosiac socks from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch... Too persnickity, but fun to play with...

The trip to Phoenix was very productive...

Hubby and I are taking the motorcycles out again today to ride around with no particular place to go... We are starting at Flying Star for breakfast/lunch, then ride till it gets too windy to ride. Yesterday, we went to the car show here in Rio Rancho, then down to Thunderbird Harley-Davidson . After that, we hit the NE Heights, tooled around and checked out the buffalo down by the casino and headed through downtown Bernalillo then home... There was some kind of historic parade going on with horsies and wagons... Pretty cool. Today, we hit Flying Star, headed out to Madrid, listened to a guitar player sing "Ring of Fire", toured around the museum then headed home (stopping at El Pinto on the way for din-din). We have put over 300 miles on our bikes in the past 2 days and boy do I have a sore butt... I mean SORE... REALLY FREAKING SORE!!! I have discovered a couple of facts about motorcycles... First, the more you ride, the more confident you get. Second, Enchantment in the teeth is a bitch... Third, you make a pretty good headwind doing 60 mph, combine that with a 30 mph cross wind and it is a bear... Fourth, I really can't wait for Enchantment season to be over... I am also discovering I need a gel pad for my boney butt...

Time to turn on the TV and watch the F1 race I taped from this am... Last night, we hung out and watched the Cup race... We were also listening to the in-car radio of one of my favorite drivers, Kevin Harvick... He is a hoot on the radio... During various parts of the race you would hear him key the mic and start singing "The Chicken Dance"... ROTFLMAO!!! He won the race, which was really super cool... Wish I could have been there...

Dust Bunny is kicking some butt at Kittenwar.com

2006-04-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Page down a couple of posts... See the cute grey kitty??? Well, I posted one of his kitten pictures at kittenwar.com and he is doing quite well... So far, he has won 86% of his battles, lost 7% and had a tie for 7%... Pretty cool for a little grey fluffball kitten...

Today is Sunday, great day for a bike ride... DH and I took the Harleys over to Moriarity to go look at the new car my hubby bought 4 months ago (that I had never seen until today..) Sounds like he is going to bring the car home next week... Still needs some paint and other minor work, but it is pretty neat... Seriously, you could fit 4 people in the trunk of this car... It's really freakin' huge!!! It's a 1948 Chrysler Windsor, but I think he got it from the mafia on the cheap... There was an oil change tag inside the windshield from a service station in Gainesville, Florida... Tooo cool!!! The ride was fun but battling the wind going down Paseo doing 65 mph on a bike is no fun... Came home and hung out in the hot tub...

I am now sufficiently worn out from the ride... I would take a nap, but it will be bedtime in a couple of hours...

And where have YOU been, Young Lady???

2006-04-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I wasn't there... That is from my California trip last month...

Let's recap our wonderful week, shall we???

Monday: started my new dosage of Concerta (my ADD drug)... New dosage is working really well. Starting to get better organized in my work tasks. My to-do list for this week includes 11 items, 4 of which I can reasonably accomplish during the week. This includes the major excursion that I am in the middle of getting contained and dispositioned...

Tuesday: OOOH! Stitch and Bitch! My favorite! Kept working on the major excursion. Went to another area and looked at 11 lots of bad material under a microscope to classify the extent of the exursion and what would need to be taken out as bad material... Looked at so many wafers that my eyes got crossed for most of the day. Went to the big meeting to discuss how to take care of the bad material and had all of my duckies in a row! Yay! Went to another meeting to pass down the knowledge from the excursion and was given the task of organizing and presenting 2 training sessions in the next week in identification of defects... Both of the classes will keep me at work late Friday and Monday... Went to SnB and had a wonderful time! You grrrlz save my life each week! Also looked at the calendar, found I can finally take a couple of vacation days and bought a ticket to Florida for April 25 - May 1 to go see my parents. I have been trying to schedule this trip since February...

Wednesday: Are ALL of these meetings scheduled REALLY necessary? I guess so... Finished up the disposition of the bad material and sent the information off to the powers that be. Somehow, my TO-DO list has now grown to 25 items, how did that happen? I have finished the 4 items I needed to finish this week and I am now working on the data pull from hell... Met with my counterparts from across the country to find out another factory had the same kind of excursion that we had. We will all share our learnings next week at a face to face meeting at our factory in Phoenix. Went to one meeting where someone handed running the meeting over to me and I was not prepared at all. I was able to wing it pretty well for that situation. FINALLY got my butt back on the ice... Man, I was sore when I got off of the ice, but it was SO worth it... No sleep for the weary tonight, too many thoughts flowing through my head. Ended up on the couch so I wouldn't keep my hubby awake all night... Finally got to sleep around 2am.

Thursday: I am tired and cranky from no sleep. Still working on the data pull from hell when someone mentions another problem that came up. Researched the problem and found the cause. Tried to find the person to help me fix the cause, but he was out sick... Everyone wants the cause fixed immediately but we can't do that because of the sick human. Noticing my derriere is getting smaller from the chewings I am getting from the problem... How did my TO-DO list grow to 32 items? Finished the data pull from hell after my computer decided to crash 4 times on me... I think I need to do a major hard drive backup before this computer crashes for good. Went to my 2 late meetings and got out of work at 7pm. Went home, started working on the test pattern and found that there was a mistake in the pattern... Oh well... Hit the hot tub with my hubby and watched a bunch of Law and Order episodes. Tried to get to sleep, but sleep was not forthcoming... Who needs sleep? Crashed on the couch again around 2am...

Friday: That would be today... Just finished one training session, I have different one at 1pm and yet another different training at 5:30 pm... I am training a lot of folks this week... I still need to get the presentation finished for the 5:30 training session so I can post it for future reference... I am hoping to leave work by 6:30 to get my butt to the rink by 7pm and skate for an hour or so... Hopefully there will NOT be a busload or three of munchkins there, or else I will not be skating tonight. Nothing is worse for me than trying to practice a jump or spin around a bunch of "wall rats". Since they can't skate, I have to anticipate their moves and plan my moves around that, no fun... My TO-DO list is now up to 40 items, WTF??? So far, I have been able to cross off 20 of those, so that leaves 20 things to start next week off with (not including what will be added later today).

Saturday: Plan to do social knitting with Bev and Noelle! I am SO PSYCHED! I also plan to stop by Village Wools, submit my idea (semi-syllabus) for a 2 socks on 2 circs class and chat with Scout for a bit.

FYI: I am not going to be around very much for the next 2 weeks. I am leaving at noon on Tuesday, April 18th for a business trip out to Phoenix. I am coming home from that trip on Friday, April 21st at 5pm. I will be home for a couple of days, then I am leaving again on Tuesday, April 25th at 5pm to lie under palm trees and drink "that frozen concoction that helps me hang on" (Thanks to Jimmy Buffett). I am coming home from Florida on Monday, May 1st at 9:30 am and will drive to my Dr for my yearly "well woman checkup" at 11am. I will be back to normal reality life at 1pm... I will post my WIP's tonight or tomorrow :-)

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging already in progress...

Uber cute web site...

2006-04-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

Another picture of Dust Bunny...

If you want an Uber Cute Web Site, click on this link... It is totally adorable...

Not much going on at the old homestead... I am still knitting on 4 sock projects at the moment... I have my SnB sock (the six sox knitalong for April), my mosiac sock, my test pattern sock and my other made up sock that I am quickly losing interest in... Maybe that sock needs another pattern...

Looks like rain again today... I may just head out to the tub for some after work relaxation... It already looks like a killer week and it's only Monday... BLEH!!! Still working on the organization thing with the yarn... I may pull that off this week... Nah...

More Yarn Porn

2006-04-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

The last of the yarn porn before I begin the yarn diet... This was my package from Germany that was waiting at the post office... The top row and part of the second are Opal Petticoat, the rest of the second row and the bottom row are Opal Acalpulco... I think there is only one color out of the whole bunch that doesn't work for me...

A big thanks out to Beverly who had us all over to her place for Crafty Friday... It was a total blast! Met some great new people, got to try my hand at spinning thanks to Noelle, it was a total BLAST!!! Stayed out WAY later than my normal bedtime (I am usually in bed by 10, I left at 10:30) got home and crashed!!!

Saturday... No plans for the day... Just going to hang out here at the house, work on some knitting, put my feet up, watch some sports and be a lazy couch spud...

Yarn Porn!!!

2006-04-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have been a BAD BAD girl... Yup, been travelling a lot over the last couple of months... Also been a few sales at a couple of sites and some new stuff I have wanted to try... So, my stash has expanded quite a bit recently...

Here goes: (From lower left corner across:) Opal silk (blue), Lana Grossa (multi color), Opal silk (yellow, green and pink) Lana grossa stripe (blues), More lana grossa (purple and grey), sock landscape (Reds and purples), sock garden (pastels), Color your own (white), sock garden (purples), Lana grossa (purple colors), Jawoll (black and natural), Koigu (blues and purples), Lorna's Laces (purples), Pallette (black), Simple stripes (purple, green, blue), Mama E's C'eye'ber Fiber in Scout color (purples and blues), Koigu (purples and pinks), more Koigu (purples), Lana Grossa (purples and pinks), more Lana Grossa (reds and greens), Artful Yarn (blues) and Claudia Hand Painted Yarn (baby blue)... And no, this isn't the end of it... I have my LAST package at the post office that DH will be picking up in the morning that came over from Germany... Yup, you guessed it, more sock yarn... I got a good deal on E-bay where I picked up the Opal Petticoat collection (8 colors) and the Opal Acapulco collection (8 colors) for $10.00 per 100g ball... Shipping wasn't really all that expensive, so I saved a few bucks... Guess what that means... I have now put myself on a sock yarn diet... BIG TIME... I need to tear through my stash before I can buy any more sock yarn... I have the next 4 or 5 projects planned out, so that should help... (No, the diet does NOT include the Socks That Rock club, that has already been purchased... LOL! Along with the one other sock club I belong to...) The yarn diet does not include a project other than Socks and sweaters...

Man, I have been a total, absolute, incredible BEE-OTCH today... I don't usually get cranky during my monthly celebration, but this time, I am not a good person to be around... I think it is a combination of hormones and the fact that my body has learned to metabolize my ADD meds (again...) and they don't work any more... I talked to the Dr. about upping the dose (again) so I only have another day or two on this present dose. The way it is working, I am better off not taking anything at all... I am completely absent minded, easily frustrated, unable to remember things, easily distracted, and REALLY FRUSTRATED!!! When I take the meds, I can concentrate... It is really frustrating to know how the meds are supposed to work and wonder at 10 am if I even took my meds at 7am... I feel like all I am doing is pounding my head into a wall... And the fact that I am currently having a major excursion at work and I can't concentrate and details are falling through the cracks doesn't help much, either... Yup, I am unmedicated and rambling again...

Tinking upon the great mysteries of the Universe...

2006-04-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that's it!!! The cat got into my knitting bag and knit 4 rounds of my socks using the wrong stitches!!!

When will I ever listen? When will I learn??? Carole was just talking about this last night at our SnB group... Bring simple projects... If you bring a complicated project, go to SnB and have a beer, you wind up with F*'ed up knitting... Guess what I am spending my lunch hour doing today? Tinking the 4 rounds of sock knitting I did at SnB last night... LOL!!!

I am finding that tinking gives you time to ponder upon the great mysteries of the universe... Questions are popping up in my mind such as "Why did I decide to try to use black yarn on size 1 needles on a project??? Was I smoking crack again???" and "Would a psychic be able to predict the weather better than a meteorologist???" and "Will drinking catnip tea give me pointy ears like Spock from Star Trek???" and "Do I need brighter light or stronger reading glasses???"

AHA! I found it!!! Lesson learned, do NOT put your knitting down in the middle of the row. Your sock may get turned inside out and you start knitting back over what you just did and all the stitches come out backwards... D'OH! I didn't think that the Mosiac socks would be such a challenge. First, I took the book's advice and cast on 84 stitches for the sock. Tried it on after an inch, too freaking big... So, I frogged it and went down to 70 stitches (which by the book would be too tight for my foot). Tried it on, fits fine... Go figure... 1/2 inch to go and I can start on the pattern!!! WHEE!!!!

Well, I heard through the grapevine that our LYS just got a HUGE shipment of Koigu in... There goes my yarn diet... Time for a little SEX after work... (Stash Enhancement eXpedition)

I am also pondering submitting a short syllabus for a class on knitting 2 socks on 2 circular needles at our LYS... First, I am afraid of rejection... Second, I am not sure if I should teach toe-up or cuff-down (I am leaning towards cuff-down). Third, would anyone be interested in taking the class??? I guess I will ponder it for the rest of the day and drop the idea by the folks at our LYS and see what they think... It's worth a try...

It's Great... To BE.... A FLORIDA GATOR!!!

2006-04-03T21:49:00.001-07:00

I don't believe it... I absolutely DO NOT Believe it!!!

Congrats to the 2006 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS in Mens Basketball, THE FLORIDA GATORS!

What a game!!! We went out to Coaches Locker Room with most of the Unofficial Gator Club here in Albuquerque to watch the game... Yup, I am still very superstitious... So I knit... A LOT... DURING THE GAME... Hey, even my boss sent me a page to stop knitting... Well, I didn't stop knitting... AND WE WON!!!

This is Century Tower... One of the landmarks on campus... We are with all of you celebrating at the O'Dome and on University Ave tonight!!!

'Neath the Orange and Blue VICTORIOUS
Our love shall never fail
There's no other name so GLORIOUS
ALL HAIL, FLORIDA, HAIL!!!
(From the Florida Alma Mater...)

My beloved Gators, Clapotis and AFGO

2006-04-02T18:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of postings this week, I had some bad back spasms all week that didn't allow me to do much other than lie down and take some muscle relaxers to take the spasms down to a dull roar...

Last night, we went over to my boss's house to watch the Final Four in Men's BB... My Beloved Gators were playing against George Mason in the first game and UCLA played LSU in the second game. We got there a few minutes after tip-off and my Gators had a pretty nice lead. Then George Mason started catching up. Me, being extremely superstitious, realized that "Hey, I need to knit... My Gators don't win if I am not knitting". So, this party is going on and I break out my knitting... ROTFLMAO!!! It worked! Gators won the game by a pretty good margin and are going to be facing UCLA tomorrow for the National Championship... Did I think the Gators would be in this game??? Nope! But, I am happy that they are... We are going to Coaches Locker Room tomorrow night to watch the Gators with our unofficial Gator Club...

I finished the Clapotis during the second game and decided that since it was a bit chilly that I would wear it... My boss's teenaged daughter said "Hey, that's really cool, did you just make that today???" LOL! Teenagers... It felt good getting a compliment like that from a teenager...

We then watched the Formula One race from Australia... What a cool freaking race!!! Dang, when those engines "done blow up", they do it in pretty spectacular fashion... Still debating on going to the F1 race in Indianapolis this year... It could be fun :-)

What is AFGO??? A very wise woman told me that when things really seem to be going wrong, they aren't going wrong... It's AFGO... Another F*cking Growth Opportunity... Well, the newest "growth opportunity" hit me square between the eyes yesterday. My 17 year old son announced that he was going to move back to Florida to live with his Dad after the school year was over... I know this is nothing personal, but it really hurts like hell... Even though I think it would be a good thing for him to do... It's a mixed bag... I don't think I am really processing it yet... I still have a couple of months left with him before he goes... Honestly, I thought I had another year before this day came... I will make the most of the time we have together... I know I have raised him well and we all need to say good-bye to our kids at some point in our adult lives. I have always told myself that my job was to make sure he had the right skills to go out and be successful in the adult world... I think he has most of those skills... His dad has done a lot of good growing and changing in the last several years and I think that he can give my son the last of those skills before he really moves on... I am gonna miss him like crazy, but he is a man now, he deserves to make these decisions in his life and I am going to support him and love him no matter what those decisions are...

A week... Yup... Been a week...

2006-03-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

And here is Mewstradamas (aka Sean) doing another gargoyle imitation on top of the television...

Man, what a weird week....

Our hot tub was delivered on Thursday! WHEE! The delivery folks even did a clean out of the tub. Now, the inside is sparkling! We have the electrician coming out this Tuesday to hook up a 220V line from the garage to the tub! By Wednesday, we will have a working hot tub! I am really excited!!!

Knitting: Wow, lots going on.... I restarted the clapotis with some 100% alpaca, here are my results so far:

I LOVE the colors in this... Hopefully I will get to the meat of the clapotis today... I am still working on the increase rows...

I am also working as a "test knitter" on another project. That one is caught up to the point where I am waiting for the next set of instructions... I will show that one off once the pattern has been published and I have permission from the person I am doing the test knit for...

Today is Sunday, that means "Cars going around in circles" day... We watched yesterday's race from Bristol. They had to stop the race for a bit for a SNOW delay... Pretty funny...

I am going to need to set out all of my yarn for a "yarn porn" shot one of these days... I kinda went on a fiber binge this last month... OK, it was a HUGE fiber binge... Really big one... I have projects for the next 3 years... Cool...

Friday was really strange, but tied this week together nicely... We had a group "happy hour" after work with the bosses and a few of my co-workers... Let's just say the immensely philosophical conversation that was going on at one end of the table was interuppted by a comment from the other end about how "SIZE MATTERS"... ROTFLMAO!!! It's nice when all of the loose ends seem to tie themselves up and we all DO live happily ever after!!!

Long post, playing catch up

2006-03-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

Here are my completed "made up socks" done with Lorna's Laces... I finished them in California on my trip, but I still need to take one of the cuffs apart and re-bind-off since it was a little too tight on top... Yup, today is the day to get a few UFO's finished before I head back into Clapotis territory

Here is one of the pairs of socks I started while out in CA... I am just doing plain old socks toe-up with Toasty Toes yarn... I am pretty close to finished on this pair... Figure I will try to get the cuff finished off today and get this pair cast off also...

Here is the progress on the Clapotis... I started it on Thursday afternoon. I just did the first Drop Stitch... COOL!!! I was wondering how one little drop stitch would make such a cool ladder, now I know... I am using Rowan Baby Soft yarn, so I am not expecting any real stretch to it... I figure it would be a nice wrap to have at work...

Man, my blogger is not working well at all... I got over the problem of not even being able to see my blog... Now, I am not able to upload pictures... We took care of that problem by uploading the pix to Photobucket.com and transferring the links... Thank Goddess I still have some rudementary HTML language programming left in my brain, since I am doing this post strictly through HTML... Fun...

Last night, hubby and I went out to PF Chang's to celebrate my birthday a couple of days early... Dinner was very nice... Had my favorite lettuce wraps and lemon chicken... The PF Chang's Green Tea drink (not tea, the alcoholic drink) was really yummy and I had some with dinner... MMMMM

Hubby and I have been talking about getting a hot tub for a few years now... We have the perfect spot in the back of the house to put it... On Friday, hubby called me at work and told me he found a 5 seater hot tub (complete with cover) at a neighbor's moving sale for $400, do we want to buy it??? WHAT??? ARE YOU KIDDING??? HECK YEAH!!! So on Thursday, our pre-owned hot tub is coming home ;-) He called an electrician to get the 220 wired out the back wall by the kitchen so we can plug this in... There was some sediment from the water here in NM, but other than that, the tub looks to be in good condition... I figure pre-owned saving a few thousand dollars is a good thing!!! So, question to the Albuquerque Stitch and Bitch GRRLZ, anyone up for a hot tub gathering when the weather warms up??? Yup, this was a GREAT birthday surprise... It won't be installed in time for my b-day on Tuesday, but hopefully we can get it up in running in the next couple of weeks...

It's Sunday... Just finished watching the Formula One race, now have the TV ready for the NASCAR race... Love watching cars go roundy-round and knitting and sipping strawberry margaritas...

Home again... Ahhhh...

2006-03-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

More sleepy sea lions...

Made it home yesterday and immediately hit the sack... Man, it's good to sleep with my hubby and kitties in my own bed again...

I was supposed to head out to the rink for some skating, but I was absolutely wiped out... I ended up staying home instead and hanging out with my hubby...

Time to get started on the clapotis... I unpacked the yarn last night and I will be casting on today... Maybe....

Dinner deserves it's own post

2006-03-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

The wharf at Santa Cruz... Great place to go check out Sea Lions...

Yes, it's my last night here... Stitch and Bitch grrlz, I really missed you tonight and I was thinking about ya while eating dinner... Looking forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday...

Made the decision... Since I didn't pack my size 8 circs, the socks won out...

Since I have FINALLY completed the audit and 90% of the problems were solved on this trip, I decided I deserved a REALLY nice dinner out... So, I made reservations after work and went out to one of my faves in San Jose, La Papillon...

Dinner started out with a glass of Champagne (yup, the real stuff from France) to celebrate all of the hard work I have put in over the last 2 trips out here to get this transfer to run smoothly...

Dinner was served with bread and the dining utensils were SILVER...They gave me a petit fois gras for an appetizer, free of charge (SWEET!) OMG!!! MELT!!! Yummy... The next course (again, freebie) was an anise/duck consumme (again, MELT...) For dinner, I had the wild mushroom open ravioli with a glass of chardonnay... This ravioli was TO DIE FOR... After taking 45 minutes to finish the entree (and savor EVERY bite of it) I went for dessert... They had a bittersweet chocolate mousse topping a crust of macadamia nuts... SHEER HEAVEN!!! The only way to describe this meal is a culinary orgasm... No kidding! Every bite was a flavor explosion in your mouth. Incredible... Unfortunately, KIP was IMPOSSIBLE at this place...

Mike, you missed a GREAT dinner... Maybe next time...

Now, time to go to sleep. Gotta be up and out of the room by 4am to catch a 6am flight back to Albuquerque... Yup, I was doing the "cabbage patch" down the hallway of the hotel this evening singing "I'm going Home!!!!"

"Fate must have a reason... Why else endure the season of Hollow Soul"... k.d. lang - been my theme song this week... Gonna do a figure skating program to this song this fall!!!

California, Day 9, almost done

2006-03-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is what I drove through on Sunday morning to get to the beach in Santa Cruz to go look at the sea lions (the pic that I posted yesterday)... It was still snowing when I took this picture... Now, being from Florida, I am not used to driving through snow to get to the ocean...

I am going home tomorrow morning... WOO-HOO!!! Yippee!!! Unfortunately, no first class upgrades were available... Booo.... So, I need to head to the store tonight to pick up some food for the plane, since it leaves at 6:20 am and NOTHING is usually open at the airport that early...

Things I will miss about California:
Good Wine (and LOTS of it)
Sea Lions
Sushi in the cafeteria
Toblerone bars in the vending machine
Communknity
Green... All over...
Rain (and LOTS of it)

Things I am looking forward to in Albuquerque:
Hubby & kiddo
Kitties
Puppies
My own bed
Skating
Friends
Stitch and Bitch
My birthday next Tuesday (the 21st...)

Tonight, the packing starts... I picked up a duffle bag here at work so I don't have to worry about being over the 50 lb limit with all of the stuff I picked up this last week... Way too much yarn (is there really such a thing???) and wine... I have a 4 pack carry-on, but still need to pack 2 other bottles... Time to see if there is any bubble wrap around here that I can steal to wrap the wine bottles in... I have one last tool fingerprint to do then I can head back to the hotel and start packing everything and making sure the iPod is charged for the trip...

Now, the important question, start the clapotis or finish the socks on the trip???

California, Day 8

2006-03-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

Here is one of the pictures of the sea lions that I went to the wharf to go out and see... Kinda feeling like this sea lion today...

Not much going on today... I did re-do my travel reservations... I am coming home on Wednesday now rather than Friday. I am looking forward to coming home, I really miss everyone... A 5 day trip is fine, but 10 days or 14 days really is way too much...

I made one last trip out to Communknity to get some more yarn... One of the girls there was working on a clapotis... Between her and Noelle, I am now going to try the Clapotis so I have a nice wrap for work... Someone thinks that it's OK to keep the air on FREEZING the entire day... I picked up some nice pink baby soft wool to make it with...

Still working on the socks... I am about to turn the heel on the Toasty Toes socks... Looking forward to that! I am hoping the pair will be done before I get back...

California, Day 7

2006-03-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

OK, how much more freaky can you get??? Gentlemen, start your engines...

Today was a blast... Started out the day heading down to the coast to check out the Sea Lions... On my way, I ran into a snowstorm... Yes, snow.... Snow on my way to the beach... Made it through the mountains and got to the Wharf in Santa Cruz and checked out the sea lions...

After I got back, I headed up to Sonoma for some yummy wine tasting... Went out to two of my favorite vineyards, VJB and Ledson... Had ravioli at a great Italian place next door to VJB... Picked up a couple of bottles of wine and had a couple of others shipped home since I won't be able to carry all of the wine and yarn I pick up on the plane back home with me...

I can't wait to get home...

California, Day 6

2006-03-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture from the Picchetti winery we visited last week... Pretty area...

Today was "be a freaking bum" day... I slept in till about 8:15, went down, got some breakfast, then came up to my room and knit for a while... I am working on starting another pair of socks with my Lana Grossa yarn that I found at Comunknity the last time I was out here in San Jose... MAN, this yarn is just soft and delicious to work with... After watching some basketball and doing some knitting, I got a little lonely and decided to head out to Comunknity to get some yarn and have a little bit of social knitting time... I picked up the Winter issue of Interweave knits for the cool sock pattern and the short row explanations...
I met Scout's Secret Pal, who was working at Communknity today, she was really a neat person... We hung out and knit and chatted... I think I am going to start a Clapotis, they look so cool. Noelle did hers and it looks like something I can use at work to keep warm at work... I will post some pics next week of the place that has been my "home away from home"...

I also posted a picture of the Mountain Lion Warning sign that was posted at Picchetti Winery... I love this sign, I think it is a hoot ;-) (For all MSTies out there... KITTTTTTY!!!)

If you ever see a mountain lion, you should not let small children wander out of sight... DUH!!!
The sign also tells you to sing, whistle or talk while you hike to alert the lion of your presence... I guess the song "What's New, Pussycat" would not be a good choice... The sign also tells you at the end to fight back if attacked... Now, is that a no-brainer or what??? This is after telling you to keep children close to you and to pick them up without bending down... So, now that I have totally screwed up my back and I can no longer walk or move and I have a child in my arms, I am totally gonna be dinner for the kitty....

The warning sign could save a lot of time by saying "This is a Mountain Lion. Make lots of noise. Don't turn your back on the kitty. If you have children with you, you will make a delicious meal for the lion and they prefer it if you just sprinkle salt over yourself before you are attacked..."

Tomorrow... Wine tasting and Sea Lions... If I get my butt out of bed in time... No, they don't make wine from Sea Lions... I have to take a drive down to Santa Cruz to see the sea lions... Then, up to Sonoma to taste some wine... If all works out well...

California, Day 5

2006-03-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was sheer hell at work... So what do we do to relieve the stress??? KNIT!!!

At 5pm, I took off from work and braved rush hour traffic to head out to Communknity... OMG!!! I found my home away from home...

I browsed through the yarn and books for a while... Nothing different in the books, same ones I find at Village Wools... Yarn, now THAT is a different story... There was a brand new hand-painted yarn there.... I picked up a really nice blue and white yarn for sockies... There was another 100% Merino hand paint that I also picked up...

After the shopping, I hung out with a few of the women there... They had a couple of couches and a nice rocking chair that surrounded a fireplace (that was not operational...) We hung out and had our own "social knitting night". We were talking about how knitting really breaks down a lot of barriers between people and you can get a couple of knitters together anywhere who don't know each other and the conversation just ends up flowing. It was REALLY nice... I was having a tough time out here, just going from work to the hotel back to work back to the hotel... Having a couple of hours to just talk with other knitters was sheer HEAVEN!!! I will be heading back out there this weekend and next week to knit and chat with other women... Yup, I have officially found my home away from home...

No big plans for tonight, I will keep knitting on my 2 pairs of socks that are currently on the needles. Tomorrow, I am planning to head up to Sonoma for some wine tasting and a visit to Infinion Raceway... WHEE!!!!!

California, Day 3

2006-03-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning and guess what??? It's raining again... Third day in a row... Hmmm, guess the bright orb of light in the sky has gone into hiding...

Since there are no pictures to update, everyone gets silly cartoon images for the next couple of weeks...

I am about to head off to work for another exciting day of audits... Good stuff... Tonight, I decided to go ahead and grab something to go on my way back to the hotel and spend the night in my room knitting and watching TV... Can you believe that my hotel doesn't have the Weather Channel??? I guess they don't want us to find out that the only thing going on in Northern California is rain for the rest of our natural lifetimes...

I still need to call Communknity to find out when they have their "social knitting night" this week... Today is Tuesday and I usually hang out with my stitch and bitch grrrlzzzz... I am really gonna miss them tonight... I will head down to the bar, get a glass of wine and knit along with them in the comfort of my room tonight... In-and-Out Burger is not the same cuisine as Flying Star, but we can make due... Hmmm, maybe room service is in order tonight...

California, Day 1 and 2

2006-03-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

We made it into California...

After the plane landed around noon, went to pick up the rental car, checked into the hotel, then out for a wine tasting adventure...

We started out at Fogarty winery up in the mountains... I just LOVE rental cars with the Neverlost system... Just throw the address in there and voila, you are on your way... Took us about 40 minutes to get up there from the hotel... We were supposed to meet some friends up there, but the friends who have been there before got themselves lost ;-) We had some absolutely WONDERFUL chardonnay, some crackers and snackies and then headed off for the next destination... Any winery that has a kitty cat hanging out is my kind of place...

Next, we went to Picchetti winery... Great place with more great wines... Their port was absolutely to DIE FOR!!! Sampled that along with the chocolate fondue that they had going... Absolute HEAVEN!!! Our last wine there was a 2001 Angelica... they call it "liquid love", it was more like an orgasm in a glass... OMG!!! Words can not due justice to this wine... I had to pick up a bottle... Yummy...

Then, we were off to Yo Yo Sushi for some dinner... Yup, what's a trip to California without having bait for dinner at least one night??? MMMMMM.... Then back to the hotel for some sleep...

Day 2 was a little less exciting... Spent the day in class to get our factory authorization... Whee... Afterwards, came back to the hotel then picked up folks to go out for dinner. We were at YanCan for some yummy chinese food... A couple of the folks with us decided to try Saki for the first time... ROTFLMAO!!!! The food was really, really good... I had never had sweet and sour chicken with mint... MMMMMM....

Time for some sleep... Tomorrow starts the 2nd part of the audit... Realized when I tried to update the blog that the connection for the camera to connect it to the computer is back in Albuquerque... Guess everyone will have to wait a couple of weeks to see the pix...

I finished my socks yesterday... Did a gauge swatch on the Socks that Rock yarn... Will start the new pair tomorrow ;-)

Catching up again

2006-03-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

OK, you land your plane on a landing strip in Africa around lunchtime. You drop off your delivery then go inside to get something to eat. You come back to your plane and see this... What do you do???

KITTY!!!!!

Now, what has been going on? I finally got my first heel turned on my socks I started over the weekend. I will post a pic once I have the other heel finished! Then, it's just knitting up the leg and it will be finished...

On Friday, I am heading over to the local high school to give a talk for National Engineers and Technicians week... Time to warp young minds as to why they should consider being an engineer. While they are at it, we will also be taking appointments for the mandatory lobotomy that you need before going out into the workforce (LOL!!!)

I leave on Sunday for the trip. I still need to do laundry, pack and get a few essentials at the store...

Trip to the Frog Pond...

2006-02-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

Here lies the last picture of Jaywalkers part 2 before they went to the Frog Pond... Completely...

Why did they go to the Frog Pond after a heel turn? Tried one of the socks on and couldn't get the sock on past my ankle... Grrr... Rip... As Cartman from South Park likes to say "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home..."

What did the trip to the Frog Pond teach me? Plenty. First, some yarns are better for some patterns than others. Yarns like Opal and Jawoll have a looser tension to them, so they tend to stretch more. These yarns are good for a tight pattern like the Jaywalker sock pattern. Tight tension yarns such as Lorna's Laces and Socks that Rock do not lend themselves easily to a tight pattern like this pattern... So, what to do with this beautiful Lorna's Laces yarn???

We go WAY OFF THE DEEP END and design our own sock!!! Here is my progress so far on a pattern I am calling MooKitty's Toe Up Mock Cable Pattern... If you click on the link, you will notice the pattern is not complete... The pattern will be complete when the socks are complete... I figured it would be good to write down what I do on my "made up" socks so if I ever take one out and decide to make it again, I will know what I did... Yup, ADD is a WONDERFUL thing ;-) I will bring these to our Albuquerque SnB meeting on Tuesday to show everyone... The picture does not do the socks justice... So far, so good on the fit... We are using Lorna's Laces in the Georgetown color for these socks also...

We have started making plans for the business trip to San Jose starting on March 5th... One of my co-workers wants to go out wine tasting on the 5th (Sunday) to a couple of wineries close to where we are staying... So far, there are 5 of us going on this road trip... Should be a ton of fun!!! I want to try to go up to Sonoma on Saturday the 11th to go to a couple of my favorite wineries up there and get some yummy wine to bring back to Albuquerque... I also want to visit the Infinion Raceway again...

Time to watch the Busch race from California Speedway! And knit some more on the new socks...

Quickie Update

2006-02-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

Now, doesn't this defeat the purpose of a bird feeder? Or do we have 2 bird feeders going on here? Yes, this guy was in our backyard hanging out on top of our bird feeder... In the middle of a very bustling suburb... The hawk is real, he is not a decoy...

Where to start??? Work has been a bear! I got back on Tuesday (after having President's Day off). I submitted my expense report for my last trip then turned around and made my arrangements for my trip out there starting March 5th... The good part? I get to go back to my favorite LYS in San Jose, Communknity, and play around there! I am looking forward to a couple of weeks of social knitting! It will help take my mind off of the fact that I will not be able to be with my Albuquerque SnB Grrlz! So, for the next week, I will be getting the cats herded for the next part of the trip ;-)

My socks that rock yarn came in yesterday! I got a hank of the Queen Rock yarn. I am looking forward to winding it up and playing with it on another pair of socks...

I "Allisoned" someone yesterday. I had been working on a pair of socks for a friend's wife. She got them yesterday and loved them :-) Always makes me feel good when one of my projects finds a good home! Still working on the Jaywalker socks, part 2, and another pair... At least the trip will allow me time to work on that. I am also thinking about digging out another sweater and working on it... It is a pretty cable design that I will use from a pattern book and I will adapt it to my style of working on sweaters in the round rather than a piecemeal sweater... Should be fun! The yarn is an alpaca/wool/silk blend that feels yummy on the skin!!!

A wonderful day off...

2006-02-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

Ashley (Boo) kitty being cute, as usual...

Not much going on today... Went to the LYS to get a couple of balls of yarn... I think I drove poor Jaime nuts... In and out of the store 3 times within an hour... I have picked up some new yarn for my next project. A nice gray sock yarn for some fun knitting...

After I got home, went to the airport and picked up the kiddo. At the airport, I ran into another fellow knitter... I gave her one of our SnB cards, I hope we see her at a meeting soon :-)

Tomorrow is our weekly SnB meeting... I am looking foward to being with the grrrlz again! I missed not being there with them last week. I will be casting on the new pair of socks and working on the Jaywalkers part deux...

Time to go get some sleep and work on getting rid of this cold...

The Olympics are WAY COOL!!!

2006-02-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

The most awesomest sport in the Olympics has got to be CURLING!!! The guy they are interviewing from Italy looks like one of the guitarists from Bare Naked Ladies! Way cool!!!

Here is my progress so far on my pair of Jaywalkers using Lorna's Laces in Georgetown. Of course, the color is totally washed out in the photo... This pair seems to be working out quite well...

Here is the yarn stash I got while I was in San Jose... I am excited about starting a pair of socks in the new Lana Grossa...

Thank Goodness tomorrow is President's Day, we get a day off of work!!! I plan to work on my socks and stop out at the LYS to see how they are doing after the break in this weekend...

I still have this stupid cold... Last night, I spent the night out on the couch cuz of the cough... The cough seems to have died down today, so I can sleep in bed tonight...

The Daytona 500 was a pretty interesting race... It was weird seeing someone else driving my guy's car... That car is truly cursed... Right at the end of the race, he gets hit and finishes in a really crappy position... Bummer... Jimmie Johnson won the race... The weather looked really crappy in Daytona today, glad we didn't go to the race this year...

Yeah! I am HOME!!!

2006-02-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here are the socks I finished on my way home last night... Go Sock Team! Yup, these were my toe-up Olympic Knitting socks... The turned out better than I thought they would... I am wearing them around the house right now...

Yesterday was not a good day... I am on my way to the airport, so I decided to stop at a LYS in San Jose to check out the yarn sold there... I was picking up some Lorna's Laces and saw a big old advertisement at the register for Stitches West... Stitches West was going on that day, at a convention center that was 1/2 mile from where I had been working all week... I WAS SO PISSED! Next year, since this seems to coincide with our big litho conference, I will go out to San Jose a couple of days early and go!

There were a couple of nice knitting shops in San Jose. One store, Communknitty, had a really cool back room with tables and couches where the local SnB group meets. Apparently, they meet on Wed and Sundays... When I am back out there for business, I will be heading there for the social knitting... The other neat thing I saw at both of the yarn stores was that they were both full with folks just sitting in the shop knitting... Cool concept. They had some really cool Lana Grossa sock yarn... Since I had heard about it but I have never knit with it, I picked up a couple of balls (80% wool/20% nylon) and give it a try... No one in San Jose carried Opal... Weird... Lots of Cascade, though... The other store I visited, The Knitting Room, carried a HUGE selection of Lorna's Laces... Picked up a couple of hanks of it also...

Looks like I will be spending a bunch of time in San Jose that I was not intending on doing... The first third (Silly me, thinking I would finish) of the audit was very enlightening... We are messed up... TOTALLY! It will take us a while to get everything taken care of and in order... I will be back for a week to get things organized then back out for a couple of weeks... BLEH!

I have started my new set of Jaywalkers with Lorna's Laces Georgetown color... I will post a pic once I get a little further into it... Let me tell ya, casting on in a VERY crowded LAX (LA Airport) with a TON of flights running between 1 - 2 hours late was a challenge... The place was a freaking zoo! Both of my flights were delayed last night... Instead of getting home at 9:30, I was flying in at midnight... Between the west coast weather delays, the midwest weather, and the fact it was a 3 day holiday weekend, we didn't stand a chance. We spent 30 minutes in line just to go through airport security at San Jose... Now, San Jose is not a really big airport... I am glad I got there 2 hours before my flight...

I heard our LYS was broken into last night... I tried calling the shop but got no answer... Does anyone here in ABQ have any more info on what happened and how they are doing??? Since we really only have 1 LYS in the area, this is a huge blow... I hope everyone is OK and that things weren't too bad...

It takes a week long business trip to really make you appreciate the comforts of home... This morning, I was looking through the refrigerator thinking about how lucky I am... I crashed in my own bed last night with DH and most of the kitties... It was SO NICE! I have really missed this place... It is really great to be home again...

Yeah! Finally on my way home...

2006-02-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Here are Mewstradamas and Roxie having fun with each other on the couch... They still haven't figured out that dogs and cats do not get along and are sworn blood enemies...

I got the suitcase packed up and checked out of the hotel this am... I am finishing up a few last minute things here at work then off to get some lunch, gas up the rental car and go to the airport... Cattle Call Airlines, my favorite...

I hope to have some pics up this weekend of the knitting I was able to do here in CA... The weather turned a little chilly yesterday. I am SO GLAD I packed a turtleneck and a sweater... I still have this stupid cold... The nice part is that this weekend is a holiday weekend at work, so I will have the day off on Monday... More knitting time!!! YIPPEE!!!

This Sunday is the start of the NASCAR season with the Daytona 500... It is really weird watching the race without my favorite driver behind the wheel this year... I am still trying to find another driver to cheer for... OK, I have been trying to find a new driver to cheer for for over a year now with no success... I may fall back on my hubby's favorite drivers, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick until I find someone else... Who knows???

Happy VD everyone!!!

2006-02-14T15:00:00.001-07:00

OK, so things aren't quite turning out as planned...

Knitting time??? Yeahright.... Been busy working! It's been fun! I come out here to learn new stuff and I end up teaching about past problems we have seen! Awesome experience, but no time to knit...

Today, I am away from my honey for Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day, Sweetie!!! I am thinking about you lots and lots! I really miss you and I am looking forward to seeing you on Friday night ;-)

I also miss hanging with my SnB girlz tonight... I will be thinking about all of them while I am working on my Olympic socks tonight...

The weather here has been beautiful... No jacket required!!! I love being able to go outside in a short sleeve shirt and not freeze my butt off!!! I don't think I will be going anywhere nice for dinner tonight, probably just pick up some "bait" (AKA sushi) and have a quiet night in the hotel room...

It's time for me to fly....

2006-02-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here is progress on the Olympic sox as of noon yesterday...

FYI - no pictures of knitting progress this week. I have opted out of bringing my camera on a business trip... I will update the pix next weekend...

9:30 am... All packed and ready to go. I brought a couple of extra knitting projects with me, including my UFO sock from the cruise... I have another pair of toe-up socks, a pair of Jaywalkers I want to start (toe-up, 2 at a time) and a pair of solid color to start a "design your own" sock... I think this should keep me busy this week while I hang in a hotel room after work... The best thing about a business trip? PLENTY of uninturrupted knitting time... The worst thing? My wonderful hubby and teenager are here, my kitties are here, my puppies are here and I am there :-(

I have my Munchies and my Dove chocolate, time to catch a plane to the Left Coast...

Let the knitting begin...

2006-02-10T22:34:00.000-07:00

I have finished the 2 socks on 2 circs top down socks... Took about a week... Not too shabby ;-)

We FINALLY got the cast on for the toe up socks... It only took me about 4 hours to get the hang of how to do it... (This includes nap time due to a cold...) I have cast on and done my increase to the foot width... I will post a picture of my progress tomorrow...

Man, somehow I ended up with another cold... This bites! Yuck...

WHEE! My packages arrived today :-)

2006-02-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

I am so excited!!!!

I have now "officially" entered the knitting olympics! (No ADD tendancies of procrastination on this one! LOL!) I was playing catch-up with my blog reading and was over at The Knitting Fiend's Blog and looking at the page. Under Project teams, I found my Olympic match made in heaven... SOCK TEAM USA!!! Since my current passion runs with socks, this is perfect! I have mentioned my sock knitting goals were 1) 2 socks on 2 circs cuff down 2) 2 socks on 2 circs toe up and 3) design my own sock pattern. I am about 3/4 of the way through goal number 1, I thought the 2 socks on 2 circs toe up would be a GREAT project for the Olympics. I will be stretching myself to learn a new technique or three and I will be doing the project I love most, which is making socks!

Last week (to fulfill goal #2) I ordered Queen Kahuna's "Crazy Toes and Heels" book to learn the toe-up method and I decided to try some sock yarn from Knit Picks. For $2.99/50g ball, I figured I have nothing to lose on the yarn... I just wanted something inexpensive to try these new projects on. I have the Lorna's laces to use once I have mastered the new technique... I chose the Parade yarn in Blues Parade, Plum Parade and Gumball Parade and 2 balls of the Storm Simple Stripes yarn. It's 75% Superwash Wool and 25% nylon. The Parade yarn knits up to 6 stitches per inch on size 3-5 needles! Yeah! Fast socks!!! The Simple Stripes knits up 7-8 stitches on size 1 - 3 needles (more fingering yarn...) This is what the Postal Delivery Person had waiting for me today when I came home from work :-) I am SO HAPPY!!! Now, I can take all of the goodies on my business trip to San Jose (on the Left Coast) next week...

Congrats to Scout for her National Exposure!!! I know someone famous now :-) (Well, there is this race car driver who knows me by sight, but that doesn't really count... We see each other and chat once a year...)

Stitch and Bitch was really fun last night! We had 28 people at the Flying Star!!! I sat with Scout for a bit and helped her with 1 sock on 2 circular needles. Scout, I have a really good book called Sensational Knitted Socks that goes into the technique. Let me know if you want me to bring it to Village Wools when I stop up there on Saturday afternoon! I worked a bit on my current sock project and probably did more bitching than stitching last night :-) I am gonna miss my girls when I am out of town next week... I REALLY look forward to our weekly gatherings... It is great to unwind with an excellent bunch of women while enjoying one of my favorite hobbies and an adult beverage or two! Scout showed us this really cool twisted drop stitch I will have to try sometime... We also had quite the lively conversation about the men's equivelent to Valentine's Day...

Work has been absolutely brutal... Let's just say we had the Queen Mother of all Data Pulls due yesterday, I present the white paper tomorrow and I have 2 more days to get all of my stuff together for this trip next week... Today was the first day I was able to get out by 5pm...

Today's saying du jour: Cats - the only self-cleaning appliance!