Monday, July 31, 2006

HOT.

It's disgusting outside, for anyone who cares. I think it officially went over 100 degrees. For the record, I begin to melt at temperatures over 76. I really need to move to Seattle; I can put up with the rain - what I can't handle are these insane extreme temperatures.

I have no garden photos, as I am not willing to venture outside. I hope the tomatoes are having a field day with this heat. From the back door I can see that we have 5 or so peaches on our peach tree. Originally I thought we would get peaches the size of apricots, but they look to be normal peach size! This is really exciting. I'm guessing they will be ripe within the next few weeks. Can you imagine - organic peaches from your own backyard? My mind is reeling already. I got some non-0rganic but grown in Illinois ones at the store recently and those were pretty fantastic. So much better than the crap from California that is bred for shipping, but not for eating!

I forgot to post the Calla lily I bought at one of the art galleries in Wisconsin:

It's made of blackened steel and brass. The brass part is removable and it's made to be able to hold a taper candle. I think it's the coolest. Haven't decided where to display it, though. (Also, my kitchen walls are red, not pink. Bah.)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand some knitting photos!

Here is the red sock. It's slow going but it's coming along.

Yesterday my hands started hurting with all this tiny tiny knitting, so I decided to work on another sock on size 3's. I liked this much better, as in about an hour and a half I got this far:

At this rate I'll be done with a pair of these before I cast on the second red one.

Work still is mostly sucky. I'm working on this project that is sucking the life out of me. Mostly because every day a problem crops up that threatens to derail the whole freaking thing...and then somehow we manage to get things under control...and then it starts all over again the next day. Right now there's a big one that's been brewing for 3 days, and there's a need for a decision as to whether to delay implementation for a month...which, by the way, management will NEVER sign up for. At least I've gotten all my mid-year reviews delivered. My own review is Wednesday, but I'm really not too worried.

Off to put in some more time on the sockies....

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Grr.

This has been a rough week at work.

On top of that, I decided to stop taking the Pepcid last weekend because my doc had told me I really didn't need it anymore. Well, I probably should have tapered it off because I ended up with some raging acid reflux. As of today I'm back on it twice a day - once things stabilize I'll go to once a day and then every other day or something. I would LOVE things to get back to normal, and be able to drink wine again and coffee.... sigh.

I'm just really glad it's almost the weekend.

The sock is now 6 inches long. If I work on it a bunch this weekend, I may be able to start on the heel flap. I need to make chunkier socks.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Addendum :)

I did get a lovely package yesterday from my wonderful Secret Pal...

Here is the entire contents:


3 lace scarf patterns (for the laceweight yarn I got last time) and 2 handmade needle rolls, both for holding my DPNs. No more searching for DPNs under the sofa cushions :)


Here is the inside of one of the needle rolls (they are both the same fabrics). I love that they are a combination of purple and green. I love those two colors together - we even have a room in our house that we painted with two purple walls and two bright green walls. My Secret Pal rocks - taking the time to make me cool stuff like this!!! :)



And here is the sock I have been working on. As you can tell, it's going slow...but I honestly don't think there's any way to make knitting on size 1 needles go quickly. At least the stitching is nice and even!

And here's a self portrait just for good measure :)


Actually, I think this is my new favorite photo of me, even if it does cut off the top of my head.

Pudding!

I know, I know, I am insanely overdue for an update. What that means: this is going to be a LONG post, so grab a cup of coffee.

The week of the 4th was pretty much a blur. I had to work on Monday, which meant it really wasn't a long weekend for me. On the actual 4th, we went up to C's aunt's house, which was fun, but we left for home when everyone left for the fireworks, as we both had to be up at 6 am for work the next day. Apparently, as usual, no one in my neighborhood has to work on the 5th because they were all shooting off fireworks and such all night. I cannot get it through my head why people think doing that is a good idea. It takes all my willpower not to hope that one of the neighbors or their kids at least gets a finger blown off, to stop that nonsense.

Last weekend was mostly spent on gardening. We have some INSANE weeds, some of which are taller than the fence. They are too well rooted to pull out, so I actually cut them with pruning shears. Then they need to be dug out of the ground with a shovel. I only totally cleared one section, on Saturday, to put in a bee balm I'd bought. Then I mulched tomatoes. Well, I decided that if I was going to have plants making a jungle in the back corner, they may as well be perennials I chose rather than weeds that just took up residence. So I bought 2 more bee balms and some ornamental grasses. The problem was after that, not being home for a few days and when I got back it's close to 100 degrees every day. So, the new plants are still in pots on the patio and hopefully it will cool off enough in a few days to let me do the heavy work digging out the weeds.

Monday after work, Mom flew out to get my old Neon (I'd decided to give it to her - long story - after the Toyota dealership wanted to give me squat for it). We were up until midnight or so (huge deal for someone like me who is normally in bed between 9:30 and 10), and then she left at 5 am the next morning. Ouch. I got up to say goodbye, and then went back to bed until 6:30, but I'm pretty sure I didn't fall back asleep at all. It feels weird with the Neon gone. I had that car for 7 1/2 years. But I'm glad it's in a good home instead of off at some car auction. It was a good car.

Tuesday I worked a half day, came home and frantically packed, and then we left for Spring Green, WI (it's about a 4 hour drive from here). We got to the B&B with barely enough time to check in, and turn around and drive to the theater. We met up with C's mom, cousins, and two aunts. As we ate supper, we heard about how everyone else got cornered by the owner of the B&B, who talked NONSTOP and was insanely uber-conservative. As he spewed offensive rhetoric at my MIL and wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise, she finally had to just walk away while he was talking. Anyway, so we saw Romeo and Juliet, and it was amazing. I am not a huge fan of Shakespeare - as a Literature major I had to study Shakespeare, and I hated it. But these actors are of such a high caliber that they bring everything to life. It was phenomenal.

Oh, here was our room at the B&B:


Very nice and all (though it looks bigger in the picture than it actually is. The picture pretty much shows the ENTIRE room.), but we'll stay somewhere else next time we go up there. Whenever I have a choice I prefer not to support businesses with ultra-conservative owners. It's bad enough that a lot of the time I don't have the choice.

Wednesday, we went into Mineral Point, a nearby town with a big artist community. We wandered around, going into a bunch of art galleries. I did buy a few smallish things, but I haven't taken photos of them yet - I will try to do that later today. Wednesday night we saw another play at APT called The Matchmaker - this is where the title of my post comes from. One of the main storylines in the play (it's set in the 1900's by the way) is that these 2 coworkers decide to go into New York City for a day for an adventure. The younger one isn't sure how he'll know when they're having an adventure, so he selects a code word "pudding" to be used as confirmation once an adventure starts. As the adventure gets underway, there are several points where he yells "PUDDING!" at the especially good parts :) It's one of those things you take away and make your own...but maybe you had to be there to get it. I'm not sure.

Thursday we just made our way back home in a leisurely fashion. And work on Friday. Bah.

Now we're smack in the middle of the weekend and it is insanely HOT. I think the chances are good I am going to be spending most of the day hiding in the basement (where it's actually cool) and knitting. I started a sock last weekend (on teeny tiny size 1 DPNs) and it is maybe 3 1/2 inches long. It needs to be 8 before I even start working on the heel. I have no idea how some people can do a whole pair of socks in one week!!!!!

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Photos working again :)

So here are the lovely items from my SP - finally! In addition to the handmade bowl, a gorgeous purple skein of KnitPicks wool :)


Here's a closeup of the bowl...look at the intricate beading!

And one more of my car...I took this one before leaving the dealership yesterday.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

So, so much to tell you!

Well, my camera seems to have trouble connecting to my PC... I do have photos of my lovely SP gifts in there, but I can't post them! So let me start by saying she sent me a gorgeous beaded fabric flower-shaped bowl that she made herself, and has a removeable pincushion in it. Photos will be posted as soon as I can get the stupid thing to work - and if I can't, I will get C to take photos with his camera, because his works fine.

The photos I can share with you are from graduation...

Here is the ballroom at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago....

Here is the back of me as I am actually receiving my diploma (woohoo!)

And here I am out on Navy Pier afterward with the city in the background.

It feels SO good to be done. Although I really don't feel like I have more free time, because I am working so many hours lately (not fun when you don't get paid overtime). Hopefully that will calm down soon.

And now for today's news - I went out and got a new car this afternoon!







It's a Toyota Prius (if you can't tell) and I LOVE it. I got lucky - I walked into the dealership and they had the exact car I wanted, that someone had ordered and bailed on last night. They had a bunch of people interested but I was the first to claim it. So far I have only driven it home but it is the coolest car ever. It has more stuff on it than I will probably ever use. So tonight I guess I will be reading the manual trying to figure all this out!