Welcome Back

Before he goes to bed, the boogie man checks his closet for Chuck Norris,  and Chuck Norris checks his closet for

Ed Hochuli.

Welcome back, Refs.  Football is just better with real officials.

Except Jeff Triplette.  He's still the worst ref ever. 

Just ask Green Bay.

Eye Candy Friday

I bought some candy for the church Halloween carnival.  But, alas, I had a sudden sugar craving. 

I had to buy the church another bag. 

Do Androids Dream

of electric sheep?

I don't know, but I do know one thing...Becky dreams of giant squirrels and gumdrop cookies.

And snickerdoodles, and chocolate chip cookies, and brownies, and blondies, and cake, and all of it delicious, and fluffy, and soft and moist, and full of eggs.

It's OK, I said.  I'll just take some Benadryl when I get home. 

Apparently, my hiatus from strange dreams was a short lived one.

It's good to be back to normal.


These floofy scarves are all the rage this year, so I bought some yarn to try to knit a few for Christmas presents.

The yarn is a net, and you knit in the top two loops.

It's kind of a pain.

I also got green and purple.

I'd planned on making them for Dennise and the girls, but I don't know if they'll be around this Christmas.  Long story...

But I'm sure someone will want them.  Oh, and by the way, it seems that fun fur stuff is not as out of style as we thought.  I saw some hats and scarves that looked like they could have been made out of it.



And lastly, it's good to have the regular NFL officials back!  Yay!  I'm even glad to see Jeff Triplette, and everyone knows how I feel about him.  I know the replacements did the best they could, but they were in way over their heads.  The integrity of the  game was being compromised.

The only person in the world Chuck Norris fears:  The Hochtator

One Hit Wonder

They've got a day for just about everything these days.  The guy on the radio station I listen to in the mornings usually reads off whatever day it is that day.  They've had some really good ones.  International Talk Like A Pirate Day was fun.  National Chocolate Milkshake Day was, too. I always thought it was not a coincidence that National Chocolate Cupcake Day also falls on National Menopause Awareness Day. 

Each morning, I look forward to seeing what day it is that day. 

Today is National One Hit Wonder Day.

You know what a one hit wonder is, don't you?  It's a band or singer that had one hit, and only one hit. 

This is my absolute favorite one hit wonder, and their one hit:

Random Thoughts

1. A man walks down the street in that hat, people are going to know he ain't afraid of nothing.

2. I've taken a break from my WIP list to knit a few charity hats.  It's getting to be about that time of the year.

3.  Greg Schiano has got to be the most unsportsmanlike coach ever.  Two weeks in a row, he's blown up Victory Formation.  Talk about a sore loser.  His excuse is, "Well, the game isn't over so we're not going to stop playing."  I wonder how he'd feel if the offense tried to score again on that last possession, instead of kneeling.  And I'm not talking about a piddly little running play just to eat the clock up.  I mean, really tried to score.  Would he whine about them running up the score?  I'll bet he would.

Total classlessness.

4.  These are not college kids, where you deal with them two or three years, then send them on their merry way, not having to worry about them again.  These are multimillion dollar investments. Let him knock a QB out for the season with that childish stunt of his, and see what happens.  Better yet, let someone blow up his Victory Formation and knock Josh Freeman out for the season.  The owner still has to pay him, even though he's on IR.  Schiano won't be keeping his job very long if that happens.

5.  There are many forms of stealing.  They don't all have to be breaking a car window and lifting a stereo, or robbing a gas station.  If you collect a paycheck for doing a job, but you aren't doing that job because you're too busy peddling purses all over your work place, you are stealing from your employer.  That is not pleasing to the Lord.  Or to your coworkers.

6.  The Cowboys O-line looks like a train wreck out there.  Special teams isn't much better.  Someone needs to block someone somewhere.  People want to lay losses all on Romo.  He can't complete passes laying on his back.

7.  Speaking of Tony Romo, he was knocked loopy in that game, much like Sean Lee was last week.  Last I checked, helmet to helmet was a 15 yard penalty.  So, let's start calling those before someone gets killed, mmmkay replacement refs?

8.  Speaking of replacement refs, did you see one of them threw his hat right under Ogletree's feet?  Ogletree slipped, and couldn't adjust his route to catch the pass.  Could have been the difference in the game-- especially if they'd gotten that fumble recovery for a touchdown call right for TB. 

9.  The Patriots-Ravens game was totally out of hand.  Many players are saying that they've lost all respect for the replacement refs.  Please, please, please get your differences settled and get The Hochtator back on the field.  As soon as possible.

10.  I'm a terrible pom pom maker. 

11.  If your job is to make sure certain parts, such as adapter tubes, are made correctly, hawking your very expensive purses, cakes, weight loss smoothies to a brazer while she is struggling to fit badly made parts into the brazing jig probably won't get you a sale.  

12.  Yeah, did you see Matt Schaub got part of his earlobe ripped off he got hit so hard?  And someone once told me that you don't see blood in football.  You'd have to be watching with your eyes closed not to see it.

Ummm, I guess that's it for today.

Laters...

Happy Fall!

 Fall has always been my favorite season of the year. The colors.  The decorations. The smells. The crisp days, and chilly nights. Holidays. Football. I just love Fall.

This year, Fall is bittersweet to me. I got out this morning and tidied up my flower beds, and it kind of made me sad, knowing that it won't be long before the it will all be gone for the year.  I'll just have to enjoy them while I can.

Me and the butterflies.

On the bright side, I've got more and more spider lilies showing their red heads.

 

The last batch I planted haven't really bloomed much, but they are putting up leaves. That leaves --ha ha, get it?-- me hopeful that they will bloom next year, when they've had a chance to get settled in.  I actually did take a picture of the little leaves coming up, but on my computer screen, it just looked like dirt.  So, I'll spare you that.  I'm sure you know what dirt looks like.

Wanna hear something funny?

I have this low spot out behind my house.  I've gotten into the habit of throwing food scraps into that low spot.  Not everything.  Just stuff like banana peels, fresh vegetable scraps, things like that.  Pretty much anything that will compost.   Anyway, a while back, I threw a few tomato scraps out there.  There must have been some seeds, because one of them sprouted and grew.

It's even got blooms on it!

OK, OK, I know the picture is sideways.  It uploaded that way for some reason, and I didn't feel like going through all the hasslement it would take to fix it.

Have I mentioned how much I hate the new blogger format?  It's soooooo difficult to use, compared to the old one.  But, I guess, you get what you pay for, and if you're using a free blog hosting site, you can expect crap.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog post.

The rest of the day was spent watching football and knitting.  I finally got around to buying the yarn to make me a Jayne Cobb hat.  And here it is:

They are Red Heart Super Saver in Gold, Maroon, and Carrot.  And here is the hat progress:

I spent a bit of time on the sock, too.  I've gotten past the heel turn and am working on the gusset decreases.  That's always my favorite part of the sock.

Can you just hear the sarcasm dripping from my keyboard?  I really don't like doing gusset decreases.

I  finished reading the first book in the Gregor The Overlander series.  It was really good.  I wish I'd found them when Cody was little.  I'm sure he would have enjoyed them.  We read together every night before bed, until he was old enough to stay up later than I did. 

That put and end to our reading together. 

But it was good while it lasted.

Things I Wish I Could Say Out Loud-- CoWorker Edition

1.  No, this isn't the next order.  I thought I'd randomly pick an order out of the schedule and do it.  It's much more fun that way, don't you think?

2.  No, I wasn't short on that order.  I thought I'd just quit working on it before I brazed the last two headers.   

3.  Why, yes I did braze just the one out of 240 wrong, after I'd brazed 239 correctly, of course.  I did that just to make your life interesting.

4.  Why yes, the other brazer and I are doing the same parts.  Because you know a large header with 10 adapter tubes and a small header with 4 adapter tubes are completely interchangable.

5.  Why thank you for putting my bin of completed work over on the conveyor for me.  Now could you go get it back so I can put this one last header assembly into it?

6.  Of course, I realize those adapter tubes are correct, because a quarter of an inch is well within the three one hundredths of an inch tolerance. 

And finally...

7.  Sarcastic?  Me?  No, because I really do love working here soooo much. 

(No, it hasn't been a rough week at work.  Whatever made you think that?) 

Gotta Be Flexible

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.  I usually do my WIP updates on Wednesday and today is Thursday.  But I felt what I had to say yesterday was important enough that it wouldn't wait.  So, we gotta be flexible. 

 1. The 2010 Anniversary Mystery Shawl.   No progress this week.

2. Slip Stitch sock:  I'd finished the heel flap, and was working on turning the heel, but it wasn't coming out right.  That's when I realized, I didn't have my stitches divided evenly, so I ripped the whole heel out, redistributed the stitches, and started over.

3. Traveling Roses Scarf: No progress this week, though it is beginning to whisper my name.

 4. Fruit Of The Vine  No progress.

5. Orkney Pi Shawl:  No progress

6.  Anniversary Mystery Shawl 2012:  No progress

7.  Leper bandage: No progress

8 & 9 The two sock yarn blankies. I did do one square on one of the blankets.

It's taken a lot of hard work, and a lot of self control, but I've managed to cut my WIP list in half.  The amazing part is, it's almost October, and I've still only cast on the one new project.  I'm not counting the new sock, since I was a replacement for a project I wasn't loving, or the hat, since it was part of a set.

I'm about to ease up on that, though, since nearly everything I have left is lace.  I need some mindless stuff to work on at times.

I've got some hats in mind...

I Am The 47%, Too

It is no secret that 47% of Americans don't pay any income tax. This is true. I don't deny it. There is a common perception out there that if someone falls into that 47%, then they are on welfare or food stamps.  I was going to mention how even Mitt Romney has ascribed to that belief based on remarks made in a video released earlier this week, but as it turns out, those tapes were doctored.   Based on the now evident fact that I don't know what he really said at that fundraiser, I'm going to leave Romney out of this. 

Back to the topic at hand-- it's a common perception that if you don't pay income tax, then you are not taking personal responsibility in caring for yourself, and you must be living off of government entitlements.   This is most assuredly not true.  How do I know?

Because on October 13, 1993, at 7:00 in the morning, my husband walked out of my life and never looked back.  Eighteen hours later, my son was born, and I became one of the 47%.

I didn't choose to be part of the 47%, and I certainly didn't choose to be a single parent, but it's the hand that life dealt me, and I had to make the best of it.

After my hitch in the Navy was done, I took a job working in a factory, and I've been there for 17 years now.  No, it's not a glamorous job, no it's not my dream job, but it's honest work, and it gets the bills paid.


I worked all the extra hours I could get, and Cody had to grow up fast.  It cracks me up when people say that kids grow up so fast these days.  No, they don't.  Being grown up doesn't mean you can program a universal remote, or make sense of a Smartphone.  Being grown up means you can get yourself out of bed, shower, and get yourself to school on your own because your mother has to be at work at 5 AM.  Cody did it for years.

 We sacrificed.  We did without. 

My first home was a second hand trailer house.  No, it wasn't my dream home, but it was snug and dry, and within 5 years, it was mine, paid for, free and clear.  Sure I could have bought a bigger house, but I chose not to.  I decided I'd rather live modestly than be buried under a mountain of crushing debt.

I've driven the same vehicle for a decade.  We watched the same TV for 15 years.  We didn't have cable TV until a year ago-- and even now I have the cheapest package.  We shopped at Wal-mart.  Not just at Wal-Mart, the clearance racks at Wal-mart.  I sewed many of our clothes.  I wore the same dress shoes for nearly 20 years.  We didn't eat out much.  When we went to the movies, it was a special treat, not an every day thing.

It was certainly not the life I would have chosen for myself or my son, but we made it. No, I never made enough income to pay taxes on it, but even so, I did not take one penny of welfare or food stamp money.  I stood tall on my own two feet, and at the end of the day I can hold my head up and say I made it on my own.

Now that Cody is grown and I can no longer claim head of household, I will move from the 47% to the 53%.  Do I regret those years among the 47%?  Absolutely not, for they have taught me-- and more importantly they have taught Cody-- something that can't be learned when you have everything you want.  They've taught us the value of money, hard work, and perseverance.  They taught us to save, to make choices, and that anything worth having is worth working for.  That everything is sweeter when you have earned it.

I know lots of people who have been in the same boat as I was.  They never made enough money to pay income taxes, but that doesn't mean they subsist on entitlement programs.  Like me, they scratched, and they clawed, they sacrificed, and they paid their own way.  Like me they made it.  They stood tall on their own.  And like me, they made it without relying government entitlement programs.  To say that just because we don't pay income taxes means we are dependent on government handouts is ignorant and wrong.

There are plenty of us who don't earn enough to pay income taxes, but we are still strong and self-reliant.  And we are the strength of this great land. We are what freedom is all about. 

We are the heart of America.

We are America.

It Feels Like Fall

The first cold front of the season came through last night, and even though the official first day isn't until Saturday, it sure feels like Fall today. The leaves are starting to turn, and I've got spider lilies coming up all over the yard. It was cool enough that I was able to open the windows when I got home from work, and just chilly enough to make soup taste good. In case you haven't guessed, Fall is my favorite season of the year.

I've already started putting my decorations out...well, the wreath on my door anyway.

I was going to put them all out last weekend, but it was still so hot I just wasn't feeling it. I'm feeling it now, though.  My poor li'l wreath is looking pretty bedraggled.  It's about 10 years old, and many of the leaves have fallen off.  I'm thinking I may splurge and get me a new one. 

Funny story...when my younger brother was about 5, he learned what the word "splurge" meant.  So, when my mother would go grocery shopping and he saw something he wanted, he'd say, "Come on, Mama.. Splurge.  Splurge, Mama, splurge."  It usually worked, but then, he was the baby of the family.

In knitting news, I'm workin' on a sock:

You know, I think I want some hot chocolate. 

You're jealous.  You know you are. 

Constitution Day Music Monday

September 14, 1814

In the midst of the War of 1812, a young lawyer watched the battle of Ft. McHenry from the relative safety of a ship anchored just offshore.  So moved was he by the sight of our flag still flying proudly as the sun came up, that he jotted these words down on the back of a letter:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?


On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner!  Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto:  "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And my new favorite, totally rockin' version:

What's Wrong?

It's been a week since the Dallas Cowboys knocked off the reigning Super Bowl Champion New York Giants 24-17 in the 2012 NFL season opener.  And for most of that week, the pundits and gurus have been asking "What's wrong with the Giants?"

What's wrong with the Giants?


Maybe, just maybe, they're asking the wrong question.

Maybe they should be asking, "How will having an effective running take the pressure off of Tony Romo, so that he doesn't have to carry the entire offense by himself?" 

Maybe they should be asking, "How will Kevin Ogletree effect the passing game now that he's come into his own and developed into a dependable third wide receiver?"

Maybe they should be asking, "How will having cornerbacks who can actually cover will shut down the opponent's passing game?"

Maybe they should be asking, "How will having safeties who are not afraid to tackle will limit the opponent's deep pass threat?"

Maybe they should be asking, "How will having effective DBs will allow the pass rush time to actually get to the quarterback?"

Maybe they should be asking, "How the back up tight-ends would fare in Jason Witten's absence?"  Ok, that was a trick question.  Nobody was asking that.  We all knew the Man Of Steel would be playing. 

Maybe they should be asking, "How will having a full compliment of healthy wide receivers will keep the opponent's defense on their heels, and having a bruising running back will keep them honest?". 

It's been a week since the Dallas Cowboys knocked off the New York Giants, and all the pundits are asking, "What's wrong with the Giants?"

Maybe they are asking the wrong question.

Maybe they should be asking, "What's right with the Cowboys?"

WIPS And...Well, That's Pretty Much It.

Ahhh, it was so nice to be able to come home after work today and not have to go anywhere, or do anything.  So that's exactly what I did -- nothing. 

Today is National Chocolate Milk Shake Day.  Did you know that?  I didn't until I heard it on the radio this morning.  I'm celebrating by drinking a homemade chocolate milk shake.  And while I'm doing that, why don't I update you on my WIPs? 


 1.  Arwen Wrap:  Complete!!  Still waiting to be blocked, but that doesn't count.  Not really. 

2. Garter Rib Scarf: Complete!  And with matching hat to boot.

When I finished the hat, I had this much yarn left.

So, I was able to add about 4 more inches to my scarf.

Now, I have a cute little set...that still needs blocking.  But we won't talk about that. 

3.  The 2010 Anniversary Mystery Shawl.   No progress this week.

4. New sock:  I cast this one on to replace the Conwy sock, that just wasn't working for this yarn.  I hope this one will go better.  I'll have to give it a name, because eventually it won't be a new sock any more.

5. Traveling Roses Scarf: No progress this week, though it is beginning to whisper my name.

 6. Fruit Of The Vine  I did one more pattern repeat.

7. Orkney Pi Shawl:  No progress

8.  Leper bandage: No progress

9 & 10 The two sock yarn blankies. No new squares this week.

11.  Anniversary Mystery Shawl 2012:  No progress

That was about it for knitting this week.  I did tinker about with um...the s-word, trying to figure out if I really wanted to do a linen stitch scarf out of my Zauberball Crazy.  I wasn't sure I liked it though, so I ripped it all out. 

We're off again this Saturday, and the plan is to knit, knit like the wind, and try to get some of this stuff a little bit closer to being completed.

But right now, the plan is to sleep, sleep like a log. 

I hope so, anyway.

I'm Back!

Didja miss me? 

Did you even notice I was gone?  I haven't had internet since Sunday afternoon.  It's been dropping out from time to time for a while now, but Sunday when it dropped, it didn't come back.

My first thought was that my router had gone out, since it is pretty old.  Yesterday after work, I went to Wally World and got a new one.

Turns out that wasn't the problem after all. 

I took the router back to the store and called ATT customer service.  Wonder of wonders, I got to speak with someone who speaks ENGLISH!  And without an accent, too.

Well, first I was speaking to a computer, getting nowhere, and in a moment of frustration, I blurted out, "I want to speak to a real person."  The next thing I heard was that robot voice saying, "Please hold while I transfer you to the next available representative." 

I had a lovely conversation with a CS rep named Joshua, and after turning the router off and on, and checking to make sure all the cords were securely plugged in (which I had already done), he suggested that they send me a new router, since mine is so old.  I told him that I had already tried a new router and it didn't solve my problem, so the next thing was to send a tech out to the house. 

I tried and tried to get them to schedule him to come after three, but they don't do that.  They gave me a between 1 and 5, so I had to leave work early.  I was expecting him to come at 4:30, but to my surprise, he was at the house before I got home. 

He hooked up his fancy, schmancy meeter to my box on the utility pole and said that the signal wasn't getting through.  He knew it wasn't my phone lines since my telephones still worked fine.  It was something specific to my DSL. 

Well, to make a long story, still long, he had to replace a circuit card down at the hub, by the highway.  Soon as he did that, my internet came right back up, slick as a whistle. 

Normally, I don't say things like "slick as a whistle", but I'm in a generous mood tonight.  Any other night, you'd get a "slicker'n snot on a doorknob", but I'll be kind. 

And since it was the circuit card, it was affecting more than just me.  Beverly called me a few minutes after the guy left and said they'd been having the same problems.  Now, maybe everything is fixed.

Anyway, we're back in business, and you can expect normal blogging to continue unchecked. 

We Will Never Forget

Enough

Last night, I dreamed that my co-workers and I were brazing together a 300 foot tall spiral staircase...

for Elvis Presley.

This morning, I put away the Vicodin. 

I think I've had enough. 

Getting Better

No, I didn't post yesterday. Mainly because I didn't do much yesterday but lay around and sleep. Not much worth talking about there, though I did dream my older brother had hair again.

But let's not talk about that, shall we?

I'm feeling a bit better today, even though I'm still pretty sore and swollen.  I think if I had a sit down job in a climate controlled environment, I might have been able to go back to work.  But standing on my feet all day in the relentless heat of the factory floor-- wasn't going to happen.

So what did I do all day?

First of all, I ungrafted my Arwen wrap, reknit a couple of rows, and regrafted it.

So, now it's finished for reals.

 And the rows all line up.  Or the columns.  Or whatever you want to call them.  Yes, there is still a slight pucker where I grafted the two halves, but I'm hoping that will relax when I wash and block it.

So, that's one more WIP to mark off the list.

Now, about that darn hat...

I'd started knitting it in the round, but when I got to the garter rib pattern, the yarn pooled terribly.  So much so that it almost didn't even look like the same yarn.  So I ripped it out, and re-did it in just straight 2 x 2 ribbing.

Only that time, the yarn started spiral striping. 

Which to my mind, wasn't any better than the pooling.  Plus, I really, really wanted to keep with the garter rib pattern.  So, what else was there to do?  I ripped it again, and started over-- this time knitting flat.  It's done much better this time. 

No, it's not my favorite way to knit a hat, but if I can keep the pattern without having all the pooling, hey, you just gotta do what you just gotta do.

We're expecting the first cool front of the year to blow through tonight.  Highs over the weekend are only supposed to get into the 80s.  That's the good thing about fall.  I'm so looking forward to cooler weather.

The bad thing is, my flower bed is starting to die.  Yeah, I knew it would happen.  It's still kind of sad to see them go. 

But the fun part is, I'm already planning next year's bed.  I've even started sketching out where I'm going to plant everything.

Now, if only I could find that darn notebook....

It's not like I don't have enough of them laying around.  Somewhere...

And It's Done

The wisdom tooth is gone!

I look like I've got a huge wad of tobacco in my mouth, and feel like I've been hit in the jaw with a baseball bat.

But that wisdom tooth is gone, and that's the important part.

I think it went much better than last time, because I can actually remember waking up in the doctor's office.  Dr. Greer asked me how I was doing, and I said, "There's two of you."

Other than that, I don't think I embarrassed myself.  I have this fear of coming out of anesthetic and my Navy days coming back to haunt me.  Luckily, it didn't happen today.

When we got home, James was in the front yard with a little yellow lab puppy.  He said Jake had woke him up (he worked nights last night) carrying on.  When he got up to see what was going on, he had found this little puppy.

She's real young.  She doesn't look to be more than 8 or 9 weeks old.  James went up and down the road to see if anyone had lost a puppy, but nobody claimed her.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll feel up to going out and getting a picture of her.

But right now, it's almost game time.

Yes, that's right.  The NFL kicks off tonight!

Go Cowboys!!

It's Almost D-Day

Tomorrow I get this pesky wisdom tooth out.  I can't believe I'm excited about having oral surgery, but I know in the end, it'll be so much better.

The whole right half of my head is in pain-- up to above my eye, into my ear, down my jaw nearly to my chin, even on down into my neck.  I'm just ready to stop hurting.  And I can't eat or drink after midnight.  Now, normally I don't eat or drink after midnight anyway, but knowing that I can't-- Yeah, I just get desperately thirsty all night long. 

The receptionist from the office left me a message and I thought she said to bring a lifeguard.  Huh?  I listened to it two or three times, and finally figured out she was saying to bring my Met Life Insurance card. 

OK, I'm starting to ramble now, so I'll show you a less than ideal picture of my gingerbread hat.  

For some reason, it is pooling more than the scarf did, and I'm not sure why.  The  2 x 2 rib didn't pool, but once I got into the garter rib pattern it started.  So I guess I'll rip it back and do the whole hat in 2 x 2 ribbing.  Even though it isn't the same pattern, I think it'll match the scarf better that way. 

I guess now I'd better go get me a big glass of chocolate milk, since in about 10 minutes, I'll be dying of thirst. 

Happy National Empty Chair Day

I made chocolate chip cookies to celebrate. 

(But really, I made them for Cody.  He just needs to go to the on campus post office and get himself a mailing address before I eat them all up.)

It Seems So Long

It seems like it's been such a long time since I've posted, even though it was only day before yesterday.  Actually, this is the post you would have gotten yesterday, buuuuut....

Yesterday was the first Saturday of college football!  LSU and Texas, once again, played at the same time.  Well, pretty much all the games I wanted to watch were on at the same time, so I had to watch LSU and Texas play on the computer, while I had Alabama on the TV.

But before that, Navy played Notre Dame over in Ireland.  Oh, that was painful.  The Irish won 50-10.  Sigh...the funniest part was, an Irish (as in from Ireland, not associated with ND) sportscaster was interviewing an Irish (as in from Ireland, not associated with ND) fan.  Neither of them really knew anything about football, and some of the answers were hilarious.  As in, "An illegal formation is when you have two quarterbacks on the field."

On the other hand, some of the questions were pretty funny, too.  "What is unnecessary roughness?  I mean, it all seems kind of necessary to me."

The mail made me feel a little better, because I got a box.  And what was in that box, you may ask?  I'll tell you.  Better yet, I'll show you.

What was in that box was this:
.

It was on clearance, because I hate to pay postage for just one hank of yarn.  So, I threw this into the basket as well.

What I like best about it is that the table of contents has thumbnails.  Woo Hoo!  If I want a specific border, I don't have to flip through the entire book to find one that I like.

 

This is what I was really ordering, though.  This is the Imagination yarn in Gingerbread House to make the hat that matches my scarf.

 

And I threw this into the basket, too.  It's Swish worsted in Bordeaux.

I was a little disappointed, because when I'd bought the Swish Tonal last year, it was 100g hanks.  I expected it all to be the same, so I didn't even look at the size of these.  It's only 50g.  Still, it should be enough to get a hat out of it. 

While I was watching all those ball games, I finished my Arwen wrap and grafted the two halves together.

But after I'd finished, to my dismay, I discovered that somehow I'd gotten my grafting messed up and I was one stitch off.

I couldn't find any sign of a dropped stitch, so I figure it must be an omitted yarn over.  That means I have to pull all the grafting out, tink a couple of rows back on each side and rework it all.

No, my CDO will not allow me to leave it that way.

But my CDO will allow me to set it aside to fix another day.  So that's what I did.  I'll fool with it later.  Maybe next week when I've gotten my wisdom tooth out and have all those days off of work.  Or not.  I might be too stoned to do it then.  He he he...

In the meantime, I cast on my Gingerbread House hat.

 While I was in the store Saturday, I was looking at all the fall decoration stuff, and wishing I had sense enough to make some really pretty decorations with it. This is the kind of thing I usually end up with.

Yeah...

Oh, one more thing.  I'd picked up new candle in a lovely pumpkin pie scent.  After a few minutes, I decided not to buy it as I still have a couple of candles at home.  As I was returning the candle to the shelf...

Yes, I really did go there.  And out loud, too.



Everybody enjoy your Labor Day, and don't forget the empty chair.