Why don't men have to go through this?

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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???

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...

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

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!!!

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...

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!!!

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

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...

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

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...

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

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

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???