Finally!!!!

Several finally's actually.

First is the fact that I finally mowed my lawn after leaving it for the last week and a half. In my neighborhood that pretty much a sacrilege. But it's not my fault. This is what I woke up to every day for the last 10 days.


I was actually dodging rain drops as I took that picture. It seemed like every day I had off of work, it was raining. So the jungle grew. But now it's been tamed. I may go over it again on Wednesday just to chop up the clods of wet grass that will have dried by then.

Another finally is this.


That's my first Super Monkey sock which is actually completed. I've cast on for the second one, but my knitting time has been eaten up by other things. This is Cider Moon Icicle in Superman done in the Monkey pattern by Cookie A.

Had a great visit this afternoon with Eliza and Michele (biblioknitter). Met up with them at Personal Threads and I actually was able to walk away with nothing. That may have been because I was still half asleep after working the weekend and only sleeping four hours. A stop at Starbucks definetely revved me up and got my brain working in overtime. Now my head is ready to explode. Thanks E!

I just finished watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Time to grab some food and settle in for The Illusionist. Then I can get some sleep just to get up for work tonight.

Five question from Minnie

So Minnie had posted this thing on her blog that if you left her a comment, she'd ask you five quesitons. Here are the five she asked me, and since she bugged me about it last night, I guess I'd better get to answering them.

1. why did you choose nursing?
I always wanted to do something with healthcare as far back as I can remember. Whether it was a nurse, doctor, or vet, I wanted to do healthcare. I started off in college as a pre-med student, but when organic chemistry kicked my butt, I switched to nursing. And I'm very glad I did. I'd still be in school if I'd stuck with wanting to be a doctor.

2. what is the craziest thing you've ever knit (i already know, sewing wise, sheesh!)
Crazy knitted thing. Hmmm...that's tough. I'd say the 3 knitted Yodas I've done. And the Super Secret Project I'm currently working on. That's pretty insane, but just from the fact that I never thought I'd design something. Crazy time-wise would be the summer that I decided to enter a baby blanket in the county fair and stayed up all night trying to finish it. I was still sewing in ends as we drove to the fairgrounds (3 minutes from my house) and ended up winning a blue ribbon and beating out a woman who had been knitting for about 30 years longer than I had.

3. what is your favorite food?
Pork loin and garlic sour cream mashed potatos is my comfort food. Favorite junk food would be Ruffles baked potato chips with french onion chip dip and a big glass of Dr. Pepper. Oh yeah.

4. tell me a funny college story.
The funniest thing I can think of from college is when my friend Mary fell on a patch of ice. Her one butt cheek swelled up and she had to go to health services (aka health circus) to have the fluid drained out of it 6 different times. I think the total ended up being over 850 ml. It wasn't amusing for her, but it sure made for funny stories in the caf. Especially when she'd complain about how her jeans were fitting again because she'd just had her butt drained. Yeah...that got some funny looks.

5. what is the scariest thing you've ever seen?
Scariest movie would be Signs with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix. Tin foil hats made it entertaining, but I can't look at a corn field the same way anymore. And I live about 100 yards away from one everyother summer.

so much for that brilliant idea

I had been planning on mowing my yard today. About half an hour before my alarm was due to go off this afternoon I woke up to thunder and the sound of rain hitting the roof. Guess I won't be mowing the lawn. Even though it's only 70 degrees out and for once I wouldn't sweat to death while doing it. Stupid rain.

Finished the first Supermonkey sock last night. Worked a couple of hours on Cindi's green blanket.

And I got to tease my friend Sarah about some yarn that I bought to make her some socks from. I'm such an evil roomie.

MS3 and the SSP haven't progressed any further.

Phoebe's learning not to bark when she has the shock collar on. She's only be zapped about 5 times. Yesterday some ladies that walk their labs went by and Phoebe was content to hang over the arm of the chair and growl. I'm such a proud mommy!

no knitting

Last night definitely was not a knitting night for me. I got one repeat done on my Super Monkey socks and that's it. The rest of my night was spent in cleaning.

A group from my church is coming over tonight and the place needed to be picked up, groceries needed to be bought, and I was just going nuts in general.

Well, the house is done, but now I need to get myself ready, make dinner, bake cookies and maybe...just maybe....look over the passages we're going to be studying tonight.

In other knitting news....

I started another Ombre Blanket from LMKG for a co-worker's wedding/first anniversary present. But I need to rip it out and do it again with fewer stitches.

Started the Super Monkey socks on Wednesday at Eliza's. They're the Monkey sock pattern from knitty and I'm knitting them up in the Superman colorway of Cider Moon's Icicle sock yarn.

Eliza also exerted her peer pressure and I'm now working on a Super Secret Project. I obviously can't talk about it, but it's going to be cool!!!

Off to shower, cook and bake!!

And since our last slow-pitch softball game was rained out last week, we're having it this week. Same time (5:00) and place (the softball complex just west of 120th and Fort).

Fawkes socks done!

I knit like a mad woman the last couple of days and finished my Fawkes socks. Pics of the first one are a couple posts down. They're out of STR lightweight in Firebird (the June sock club colorway). I lengthened the cuff by one full repeat, and still had plenty left over which is always good for me with my size 11 feet. Now I'm off to figure out what else to knit.

HOT!!!! (part 2)

Just wanted to let everyone know that my church's co-ed slow-pitch softball team is having their last game tonight at 5. We've already beat our record from last season (we've won four, last season was only 2 wins). If anyone wants to come out and watch, we play at the softball complex on Fort, just past 120th. It's on the north side of the road. We'll be on field #6 at 5 pm. Let me know if you're coming! And if you're not, then think of me while you're sitting in airconditioned comfort between 5 and 6.

And I managed to get past my heel gusset on the second Fawkes sock tonight. These things are just flying off the needles!

HOT!!!!

That would be me.....and I don't mean visually, I mean temperature wise.

I woke up this afternoon and just knew that I had to get outside and mow. I haven't mowed my backyard in about 2 1/2 weeks and it was turning into a jungle. And all my neighbors (except that lady who lives next door) are hypervigilant about mowing their lawns every other day to a specific height. I think the guy on the corner was former military or something because I never see him out mowing (or hear him), but his lawn is always mowed to exacting precision. Then there's mine. I actually mowed just my front lawn last Thursday so they couldn't start to complain about the state of the weeds. My backyard is fenced so they can't see!

So outside I went. It's probably 99 outside with heat index of 115 or something. I'm just dripping. Forget about pulling out the weed wacker to get the edges. They can grow. So my front and back yards are mowed, and now I'm inside dripping sweat and contemplating what to drink to replace the gallon of fluids I just lost outside. I'm thinking lemonade. Yeah....that sounds good.

Fawkes #1

And close-up of the stitch pattern.


It's in STR lightweight in Firebird, the June RSC yarn.

completed!

I just finished the first sock of Fawkes in the RSC June colorway of Firebird. This yarn was completely suited for the pattern. Pictures tonight sometime.....after I watch Dog the Bounty Hunter, sleep, wake-up, and mow down the forest that is currently residing on my legs.

an update

Well, at least it was a quiet weekend at work. It was also the last weekend that I got to have my nursing student with me. He did a great job and really got to learn a lot. And gave me time to knit at work. *wink wink*

That's how I managed to make so much knitting progress this weekend. Normally, when I have a work weekend, my knitting time drops off to nothing. But including the time I've spent knitting tonight, I'm already past the heel gusset of the Fawkes sock that I cast on last Thursday.

I also got my big Knitpicks order in the mail over the weekend. I ordered some of the single pockets for my options set, a book that Mom wanted, Knit Kimono for me, and 44 balls of Wool of the Andes to make an afghan for a co-worker. That's right 44 balls. And I spent over an hour tonight just winding them into cakes. They're all stacked into a box right now so all that's left is to cast on. I'm planning on using them to make the Ombre Alpaca Blanket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but in greens. I got (from darkest to lightest) Evergreen, Grass, Fern, Asparagus, Avocado, and Cloud. Think it should be pretty, but I'll have to resist the siren song of the socks and chevron scarf in order to get this done by October. At least now I can stop feeling guilty about the Colorful Waves afghan (another knitpicks creation) that I had started last fall as a wedding present. I've got this instead and at least this will be easy tv knitting.

Bellatrix

My Bellatrix socks are done and I got a picture of them once I got back from Eliza's late last night. Here they are.

what I'm gonna do....

I've decided not to call the Humane Society about the warning they sent. There's a couple reasons behind this. #1 - I hate confrontation. Even if it's not with the people that made the complaint (who I will cease calling neighbors because they've never acted like neighbors should), I don't like being all accusatory....especially with a 3rd party, which the Humane Society has turned into. #2 - I'm not going to sink to the next-door person's level. Except maybe telling her son to get out of my front yard if he tries to sled down it this winter. Because if he gets hurt, she'll probably try to sue me or blame me somehow.

So here's my solution. I went online to Drs. Foster and Smith and bought a bark correction collar. Yes, it's a shock collar. I'll admit that Phoebe does have a barking problem, but I try to correct it or get her inside ASAP if she's outside. But the barking continues inside...especially out the front window at people and it can be really really loud if the windows are shut because it tends to echo. I should have the collar within a week, then we'll start with the training.

I've been mulling this over all night and I finally just decided to be a better person about the whole thing. We'll see if it works.

Edited to add: I'm shredding the warning notice I got into tiny little bits. That'll make me feel better too. And I finished my Bellatrix socks.