the need to vent....

So just went out and got my mail (yes, at 9:30 PM....I just woke up), and in there was an envelope from the Humane Society.

I'm thinking "Hmmm....it's not time to pay the annual pet registration fee. And I've never gotten mail from them before." Open it up to find a WARNING NOTICE!!!!

Evidently, one of the people who lives next door to me (I'm not calling her a neighbor because neighbors don't pull this crap on you) called the Humane Society to report that "your small dog was barking all evening on your deck". I'm pretty sure it's the bitchy lady next door to me who had never introduced herself until she came over to accuse me of stealing her garbage can in April. They are the only ones living around me who don't own dogs. Unfortunately, these complaints are made anonymously. But I'm 99.9% sure that it's her. Why am I sure?

Because the weekend of the HP7 book release (Saturday the 21st), I got up a little later (kind of like tonight) and let Phoebe outside. This lady and her teenage daughter (who has parties at the house when her parents are gone) were sitting on their back deck. Because of the different builds of our houses, her back deck is all of 2 feet off the ground. Mine is about 10 feet, so it's very easy for Phoebe to see over the fence and see people and bark. This particular evening, they were sitting outside and Phoebe would go out, go potty, come back up to the deck, bark and I'd let her in right away (repeat every 10 minutes or so for about half an hour). This is the ONLY TIME this summer that I've seen these people use their deck. And they feel the need to file a complaint against MY DOG!!!!

It doesn't even piss me off that I got a warning. What pisses me off is that they didn't come over and say something to me first. I could understand filing a complaint if they were out there every night and Phoebe kept barking and barking and I just left her out there for hours on end to bark at them. But for pete's sake!!! At least have the common courtesy to confront me to my face!!!

Oh....and one more thing. This warning letter I got also quotes the City Ordinance about public nuisances. Let me share. "It shall be unlawful for anyone to permit an animal to unreasonably obstruct the use and enjoyment of property held by others in the community by allowing such animal to habitually bark, howl, yelp, bay or make other noise which by loudness or frequency causes a breach of the peace." (emphasis mine) A one-time deal (which I dealt with right away by bringing her inside each time when she was barking) suddenly means "habitually" to these people.

I'm still debating whether to call the Humane Society in the morning to ask questions and debate this. Anyone have any ideas or opinions?

drained

I'm just feeling completely wiped out at the moment. I've been downstairs working on my chevron scarf and practically falling asleep in the chair while watching Voyager. Considering I didn't wake up until 7 pm, I don't know what's wrong with me.

Bellatrix sock #1 is completed. I still need to cast on the second one. Maybe I'll do that next.

The mystery stole is sitting on the couch just begging for my attention, but as tired as I feel at he moment, I get the feeling that I'd mess up majorly if I even made an attempt.

I think I'm just going to listen to some podcasts (or maybe the audio book of HP7 that I bought) and weave in the ends of my last 4 Greensburg squares so I can mail those out. Then run downstairs and grab the yarn and needles for Bellatrix. Yeah....that sounds like a plan.

Done with something else!

I finished up the last of my Greensburg squares tonight. The official count (between my mom and I) is 57. It takes 56 to make one afghan according to the woman running the site, so we managed to knit an afghan together.

And now I never want to see another dishcloth in my life.

At least now I can get back to my sock and chevron scarf knitting.

I am so done

Finished reading HP about 9:30 or so. I'm completely exhausted by it. I know I'm going to have to go back and read it again, but right now I just need a couple of days to digest it.

Back to the knitting.

Oh....and Eliza talks about attracting the crazy all the time. Well, she witnessed my ability to do the same at the midnight opening.

DO NOT DISTURB!!!

I'm reading Harry Potter and I don't want to be spoiled at all! I'll be back when I'm finished.

the plan of attack

Here's how the day's going to go for me.

7:30 (or so) - get off work

7:30-9 drive around doing various errands (cash checks, pay registration on care, etc)

9:00 - Go to Borders and pick up my little numbered bracelet for the book release so I can show up late and still get the book before 2 am (I hope)

Go home and go to bed after that.

Sleep

Get up, eat, play with the pooch and all that jazz.

Then meet Eliza at Borders for the release. I'll be the geeked out one in the HP uniform and knitting while I wait.

Finally I'll be home to read the final book and try to stay up until I've finished the whole thing.

*thud*

I am so stinking tired from working the weekend! It's not that it was a bad weekend (no poo involved), but it was slow. We're hitting a point at work where the patients have been there a while, so they're getting settled in and sleeping through the night and not putting on their call lights every 5 minutes. But it makes the night go very slow.

On the plus side, I was able to start a new sock! It's the Bellatrix pattern from socktopia.net. I'm loving it. It's involved enough that you have to concentrate, but not so hard that you can't put it down before the round is over. And it's knitting up quick too. I think I've got 6 out of 7 leg repeats done and just started it Saturday (only working on it at work). Woohoo for quick socks! It's being knit in Lisa Souza's Sock! in Shade Garden on size 2s.

And I finished the Borg Queen/One Mind, One Voice socks! After a marathon knitting session at Eliza's on Thursday night, these are done!


I also started a Chevron scarf out of Koigu and I've got about a foot and a half done so far. Don't have the tags for the official numbers, but the colors were called Waters and Joe's Shirts by the staff at Personal Threads.


And lastly....I've finished Chart A of clue 1 for the Mystery Stole 3. I don't think it's turning out too badly! Knitting this in Jaggerspun Zephyr in Mushroom on size 4s.


Eliza and I are going to the midnight book opening at the Borders out by me. I'm still debating whether to geek out and go in uniform or not. I guess I'll wait and see what the heat's supposed to be like. Although I survived in my wool sweater, wool skirt, and wool robe two years ago when the heat index was 120 or something like that. And it is the last book....guess I'd better go and make sure the dumb thing still fits.

Off to bed...

Just finished up another night of work. So it's off to bed for me.

I have started one new knitting project and I'm planning on starting another one today when I get up too. I'll blog later this week.

And how weird is it that with all the movie theaters in this city, only one of them is doing a midnight showing of Harry Potter?!? I'm meeting a co-worker there at 10 so we can be sure and get seats. None of what happened when I went to see the last Star Wars movie with another co-worker and she thought we'd have no problem finding seats if we got there at 11:45.

Off to sleep.

Weekend to-do list

Have to keep track of it somewhere!

1. Pull/spray weeds in the yard DONE!!

2. Mow DONE!!!

3. Knit on something (borg queen sock, Greensburg squares, start koigu chevron or MS3). DONE (borg sock is on the heel flap now, and two squares were finished)

4. Finish laundry

5. Spray/stain fence and deck. DONE (minus about half the deck that will be done by hand later this week when the weather cools down)

I think that's going to be it. I don't want to overdo it and then be disappointed when the weekend is over and I haven't got stuff done.

In other news.....I picked my first cucumber and green pepper out of my garden today!!! The tomatos are still green, but I've got about 12 of them growing. The rhubarb just keeps getting bigger and bigger, but isn't really turning red. And my 5 little strawberry plants that survived (out of 10) are starting to put out runners!!!

Mom and Dad just called and they should be here in 20 minutes or so. Guess I'll go put another load of laundry in before they get here.

Des Moines yarn crawl...a review

Saturday morning....

Knitted Together
Nice store. Good basic yarn selections. Dale, Dream in Color, a wall of Cascade 220, plenty of sock yarn. The lady working there was really nice, even when the internet (and therefore her credit/debit card scanning ability) went down just as we were checking out. I got some Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in Dusky Aurora, some Dale Svale and Stork for a co-worker with wool allergies, Opal Rainforest in Peacock, and a Lexie Barnes bag in Baja.

Purls, the Yarn Studio (no link)
Smaller store. Very nice help. Selection of Blue Sky Alpaca yarns (including the cotton), Yarn Love sock yarns, some handspun stuff and I know there was more, but I can't think of it right now. I came away with enough Blue Sky organic cotton in Shrimp to make a hooded pullover sweater (got the pattern too), and a skein of Yarn Love's Joan of Arc (merino/tencel sock yarn) in Bliss. Then I got into a little tug-of-war with Cheryl over a Jordana Paige bag. She conceded and I walked away with it.

Creative Corner
AKA the big pink house. In Valley Junction. A smaller knitting selection, but they also carry needlepoint, embroidery, and cross-stitching stuff. I ended up with Louet Gems (both sport and fingering). The sport is a deep burgundy and the fingering is a lavender-grey.

And that's the end of the damage! If you want to hear more of it, check the Lime & Violet blog in the next couple of days. I just helped record a new podcast tonight, so it should be live in the next day or so.

Life is good...

It's been a pretty decent weekend overall.

Friday started off with 2 hours of sleep after working all night, then driving to Des Moines. Mom and I got checked into our motel room, then met up with Cheryl and her knitting group at Borders for their knit night. I spent most of the time spinning up some more CMF roving in I Got You Babe and bought Spin to Knit. Back to the motel by 11 or so.

Saturday, Mom and I met Cheryl at Knitted Together and started our yarn crawl. We hit Knitted Together, Purls the Yarn Studio, and Creative Corner. No bad experiences and I came away with more yarn than I needed too (again) and two new knitting bags.

Then we headed across Des Moines to the surprise party for my Aunt Sandy's 60th birthday. She was shocked and spent the first half hour crying since she had no clue what was going on. Knitting happened while we were there and I've got a very interesting tan line thanks to sitting in the sun a little too long while I was knitting.

Drove back Saturday night and then took naps today so I'll be able to work tomorrow and Tuesday. My church's slow-pitch softball team won our second game of the season (just don't ask how many we've lost) and a group of us went out to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream afterwards.

Life is good.