I wonder...

....if I'm coming down with something. I don't feel sick or anything, but it's just this feeling I'm getting. I worked Thursday night and didn't have to be in to work last night, so I didn't set my alarm. I went to be about 10:30 or so and woke up at 5:30. Six hours of sleep...not bad. Talked to my parents, went back in my room with every intention of showering and getting some errands run. Instead, I collapsed facedown on my bed and slept until 10:30 PM. Lovely. Errands didn't get run, but I feel great now!

On the plus side, I finished the Green Blanket of Dooooom!!!! It's completely done, ends woven in and everything. I'll put up pictures later when the sun's actually up. I ended up not using the last two colors I had bought for the blanket, but I figure that there's enough there to make myself a pair of felted slippers.

Now for todays' to-do list!
- Shower....I feel like a greaseball. DONE!!!
- Run errands to the Apple Store, the bank, Walmart (contacts) and the grocery store. Grocery store isn't exactly critical since I'll be gone for about the next two weeks, but I need a few staples to make it through until I leave. DONE!!!
- Mow the lawn. It's supposed to be almost 80 today so I'm hoping the grass will dry out enough for me to mow down the jungle. DONE!!!
- Haul out the suitcases and make a packing list. I'm going to have to pack 2 suitcases....one for the conference and one for my parents.

I think that's enough for one day. Off to shower and knit some more.

It's all good...

I spoke to a very nice woman named Grace at Mayo and she said that everything's lined up for me at the conference. My credit card is being processed and I should have my confirmation packet shortly.

Didja feel that gust of wind? That was my sigh of relief. If I could have reached through the phone and given this woman a hug, I would have.

Now I can go to bed and sleep and not freak out.

not even close

I totally didn't get my list done. That's okay. It'll still be there next weekend.

Right now I'm in a little bit of crisis mode, but I can't do anything about it until the waking hours.

Here's the thing. I registered for this nursing conference that's about a 7-hour car ride away from me. My boss is going with. She sent in her registration snailmail in mid-September. I faxed mine in on Sept. 21. On October 5 (Friday), I called the office that's handling the registrations and was told by a lady that she was putting the confirmation packets together and they would be mailed out on Monday (which happened to be a holiday). I asked her to please confirm that I was on the list since the fax machine I had used had never spit out a little confirmation copy for me. I heard her tapping on the keyboard and she told me that I was on the list. This is important because the deadline for the conference registration is this next Monday, the 8th.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning. My boss tells me that she had gotten her confirmation packet in the Tuesday mail. I hadn't checked my mailbox on Tuesday so I was sure it would be there when I got home. I checked....no packet.

As of the mail on Saturday, Oct. 13, there was no packet for me. I just checked my credit card transactions, and they haven't charged my card for the conference fee yet. I really want to go to this conference because I've already taken the time off work and it'll earn me over 3/4 of my continuing education credits that I need to renew my license next year. So I guess I'll be staying up later this morning to call the Mayo people and find out what the heck is going on. Because I certainly don't want to go up there on blind faith, enduring a 7-hour car trip with my boss only to be told that I'm not registered.

And yeah.....I said Mayo. As in Mayo Clinic. As in the place I did my 3-year nursing school clinicals at. As in internationally-renowned. And if they managed to mess up a simple conference registration and then have an office employee lie to me over the phone that I was registered, I'm not going to be a happy camper. And they will hear about it.

I'll update later.

another one down the toilet

....or the storm sewer. Had planned on mowing my lawn today since it wasn't supposed to rain until tonight. But when I ran out to the mailbox it started sprinkling.....then it rained....then the power flickered....then it thundered loud enough to shake the house several times. All of which adds up to the fact that the jungle is going to be completely soaked and I won't be able to mow it today. I'm hoping this rain will let up some so I can at least mow the front yard so I won't feel so bad when I compare my yard to the neighbors' perfectly manicured lawns. I'm so ready to just hire someone to do the mowing for me.

And the green blanket is into the 6th stripe. I think there'll be a total of 9 if I end up using all the colors. I've got plenty of time to get this done. No problems. Especially with the weekend off and a stack of movies to watch.

To-do list for the weekend:
-do a general pick-up around the house
-finish the dishes
-mow (at least the front yard)
-go to the Apple store and get a new ipod
-go to Borders while I'm out
-try to get two more stripes knit on the green blanket
-swatch for the 5 secret projects that I've got to get going on


.....and I think that should be enough.

I'm being good....kind of

I've been valiently resisting the yarny calling. I actually didn't buy anything in the sneak-up at The Loopy Ewe tonight. We'll just look past the fact that I have something in my cart. It's for a future secret project. But I haven't actually bought it.....it's just sitting there.

I did buy a row-counter bracelet thingy off etsy over the weekend. I had admired Eliza's and so I just had to have one.

The knitting on the Green Blanket of Doom continues. I'm about 2/3 done with the fourth stripe. This is my at home knitting. I have been working on nothing else anytime I'm home since this must be done this month. Once I finish the movie I'm watching, I'm going to either hit the netflix movies that are stacked up or pop in LotR (again) and knit like a fiend until morning.

What to say

Things have been fairly quiet around here. I got back late Sunday night from a great weekend home with my parents. There was knitting and marching bands. Good times. Sadly, no pictures because I left my camera charging in my living room.

Knitting projects. Let's see. How about a numbered list?

1. Green Blanket of Doom - I'm over halfway done with the third stripe out of eleven (I think). I may end up making this shorter just to get it done by the end of October. I promised my friend that it would be first anniversary present. Just need to get my butt in gear.

2. Johnny Cash/June Carter chevron scarf - Love it, love the yarn, need to knit the green blanket instead. I pick this up when I've only got a couple of minutes to knit and can't finish a whole row of the giant blanket.

3. Chanticleer RPM - Just started the gusset of sock #1. This was my marching band watching knitting over the weekend. Got lots of comments from people sitting around me at the field show. It's pooling, but not in a bad way.

4. Cherie Amour - I've got 16 of the 31 rows done on the bottom of the sweater. I can't take this anywhere because I apparently can't count to 2 when other people are around. It's turning out great though.

5. Super Secret Project #2 - This is just in the planning stages, but I need to get going on it as there are several others waiting in the wings. All will be revealed in due time.....or should I say once upon a time?

And I think that's it! Back to the grindstone that is the green blanket.