Music Monday

Just for fun, I decided to do a Music Monday. This song is from the musical 1776. It is--as the name would imply-- about our founding fathers. They have just selected the committee to write the Declaration Of Independence, and now are debating on who to get to write it. This is my favorite song from the musical.

Happiness

While Amy and I were petting yarns in Southaven Wednesday, they had one of these Fruit of the Vine scarves there in the store as a display.  Naturally, I fell instantly in love with the pattern, and came home and found it online. 

Yesterday after work, I cast on, using the leftover Knitpicks Shadow Kettle Dyed Begonia from my Vernal Equinox shawl. 

But something was wrong.  The scarf just wouldn't cooperate.  After ripping out twice, I figured out what it was.  The scarf didn't want to be pink.  It wanted to be blue.  I tried to convince it otherwise, but the scarf insisted. 

It wanted to be blue. 

What else could I do?  I ripped it out once again, and cast on in blue. 

The scarf is much happier now. This is Knitpicks Shadow in the now discontinued Snorkel colorway, left over from my Garden Party Shawl. 

This is how Rylea spent her Sunday afternoon, the picture of contentment. 

Friday Funny

This'll make you giggle:

The Loot

Yes, I did make it up to Southaven yesterday and spent way too much money. My justification is that I only make it up there every 6 months, so I'm doing half a year's worth of shopping at once.

One of the main stores I wanted to go to, Sportsman's Warehouse, I discovered had closed. I was very disappointed. I wanted to find me some Teva type sandals.  When I walk Rylea with my regular sandals, I tend to fall off of them.  That takes talent, I know, but yeah...

So I went on to Gordman's and bought me some new work shirts. 

Then I saw an American flag t-shirt, and just had to have it.

I also bought a sweater shaver.  I'd wanted something like this for a while, and I finally got one.  The leg shaver came from Wal-mart.

I'd been wanting one of those, too because I hate shaving in the shower. Plus, there are times when I will be going somewhere and think, "Oh, I should have shaved", but don't want to bother getting all wet and stuff. I'm thinking this ought to come in handy for that.

I got two new hides for the snakes, but they didn't have the aquarium stand I wanted.  

I put the Repti-Shelter in Onyx's tank, but worried that it might be too small for him. It wasn't. He likes it just fine.

I put it into his tank because he has a way of filling up his hides with the wood shavings.  I thought the enclosed nature of this hide would prevent him from doing that.  So far, so good.  I'd originally put the other hide--the one on the left--into Blaze's tank, but took it back out.  It just seemed too big for him.  I put Onyx's old hide into Blaze's tank, and am going to put the new one into Slider's tank.  I'll clean up Slider's old hide and put it into Scarlett's tank.  That should be the end of musical hides, since they will all have adult sized hides now.

Onward...

I stopped at the book store and bought

Arguing With Idiots, The Overton Window, and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas.  I've already finished reading The Boy In The Striped Pajamas.  Now, normally, I am a the-book-is-better -than-the-movie type of person, and 99% of the time that is true.  This is one of the few cases in which I like the movie better.  (SPOILER ALERT) The movie much more vividly portrays the experiences of Bruno's final few moments, and does an excellent job of evoking terror from the viewer as you realize what's about to happen.  It also delves deeper into the fear Bruno's family feel as they discover he's missing, and the horror they experience as they discover what had happened to him.  The book just says he was never seen again.  After the terrible rush of emotions during those extremely disturbing scenes in the movie, the book was almost a let down.

Oh, the store clerk tried to get me to buy their discount card.  He said, that if I'd had the card, I'd have only paid $13 for Arguing With Idiots.  I asked him how much my total would be if I bought the card.  After he went and found a calculator, he figured out that my total would be $25 higher than if I didn't buy the card, and that was with the discounts applied to my books.   I passed.  Oh, if I shopped there a lot, it would end up paying for itself, but since I don't get up there that much, it just wasn't worth it. 

Anyway, back to shopping...After the disappointment of having the sporting goods store closed, I was excited to discover a Jo-Ann's had opened!  Woo Hoo!  Finally, a craft store within 100 miles of me!  Yay!  And, they had yarn!  Lots of yarn.  Ok, not as much as the yarn store, but definitely more than Wal-Mart.  I bought some new sock yarns for the blankie

And I bought some surprises for someone else, but I can't show them because she sometimes reads this blog, and that would spoil the surprise. (Uh, Opal, I need your mailing address again...I was sure I'd written it down last time, but now I can't find it!)

Finally, it was on to the yarn store!  I was a bit nervous about meeting Amy, because what if I couldn't think of anything to talk about?  Not to worry, As soon as she walked in, we were chatting as if we'd known each other forever.  We talked, we laughed, we knitted, we petted yarn.  She gave me this:

It is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Geaux Tigers (LSU) colorway, enough to make a couple of blankie squares.  Speaking of, everyone was duly impressed with the sock yarn blankie.  I'd taken the one I'm making for my sister up there to work on while we visited.

Too soon, it seemed, it was time to come home.  Before I left, I bought two more hanks of sock yarn.

The one on the left is Cherry Tree Hill in Country Garden, and the one on the right is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Liberty colorway.  The funny thing about that is, I saw it on the shelf and only saw the maroon and white end.  I thought, "They have Mississippi State sock yarn", but when I picked it up, I saw that it wasn't MS ST after all.

And that was the end of my shopping spree.  I did buy one more thing, but since this is pretty long already, I'll save it for another day.

Vacation Day

I took a vacation day for tomorrow.  No reason.  Just because I can.  I'm going to go to Southaven and meet Amy B.

Oh, and do some shopping, too.  Blazie and Scarlett both need new hides, and I'd like to get a stand so I can get Scarlie up off the floor.  I have a big knot on my shin where I ran into her tank the other morning.

The foxhound was still here this morning, but he was gone when I got home.  If he shows up again, I'll feed him, but I don't think I'll get too attached.  Once peak season is over, and work slows down a bit, I'll check with the pound and see what kinds of dogs they have.

Only 10 more days until training camp starts. 

Yes!!

Monday, Moanday

When I got up this morning, the little dog was gone.  He was still gone when I got home from work, but then, about 8:15 PM, I heard a whining outside.  I wondered why Rylea would be whining, but it wasn't her.  It was the little foxhound.  I loved on him a bit, and put him some fresh food and water out.  If he's going to come by for dinner every evening, I need to get him some regular dog food.  I've got Rylea on fat dog dog food, but this guy sure doesn't need any weight management.  Unless you count putting some on.  He's very thin. 

Yesterday, I tried to get my Anniversary Mystery Shawl '10 out and work on it.  I got one round done, and put it back away.  The mojo just isn't there.  I don't know where it went.  I have hardly knit anything in two weeks.  Even the blankie square I started is incomplete, and I started it yesterday.  Well, Wednesday I have the day off of work.  No reason, I just wanted a day off.  I'm going up to Southaven and gonna meet Amy B at Hank of Yarn.  It's so bad that I don't even know what project I'm going to take to work on while we visit.  I'm sure I'll think of something, though.

On the other hand, I did get my new fan club packet in the mail.  I actually got it last week, but haven't been able to fit it into a post until today.  In addition to all the normal fan club stuff (including a new membership card, which I didn't seem to get into the photo)

 
I got a new photo, schedule and, team photo. 

And the certificate, of course. 

It's not much good without the certificate.

It has my name on it. 

Evening Walk

When we set out for our evening walk, I didn't think at first that we'd get very far. Dark clouds looked ominous, and we even felt a few raindrops.

I started to turn back then, but decided to keep going until I knew if it would really start raining. It didn't, so we kept going. We walked all the way down to the creek, so Rylea could get herself a drink, and cool off a bit. It wasn't really that hot, but it was very humid.  By the time we got to the creek, I was soaked, but I joked that it wasn't sweat.  It was condensation.

Somewhere along the way, we picked up this guy

He's a little foxhound.  He didn't have a collar on, or any tattoos or anything.  He was thin, but didn't appear to be starving.  He was full of ticks, though, and appeared to have been shot in the behind with a shotgun. 

He's a real sweet thing, and very obedient.  We waded in the creek a bit, then headed home. 

 
I figured the little foxhound just wanted some company, and when we went home, he'd head back to his home.  He didn't.  He followed us all the way home.  I gave him some food and water, and tried to get him to come into the house.  He wouldn't. 

Tomorrow, if he's still around, I'll call the radio station to run an ad, and I'll put one up at the vet's office.  I'd thought that if no one claimed him, I'd keep him, but now I'm not so sure.  He needs to be with someone who will hunt with him.  That's what these dogs are bred for. 

Religious Jewelry

 I saw a guy wearing a Rosary today at work. Apparently, that is some sort of new fashion statement.

The football player formerly known as Chad Johnson wears one.

As does this guy, whoever he is

And this guy, whoever he is.

Now, I am not Catholic, but I do know this one thing, Rosary beads are not for wearing. (If you are Catholic, and I am wrong about this, please feel free to correct me.)  They are for praying. Wearing them is very disrespectful, perhaps even sacrilegious. I'm sure any devout Catholic would never be caught wearing Rosary beads.  But to these people, and others who wear them as if they were any ordinary piece of jewelry, they mean nothing.

Kind of reminds me of the fad not too long ago of wearing crosses.  The bigger, the gaudier, the better.  You know that these people did not know the significance of the cross.  Rappers who glorify the abuse of women, murdering police officers, drug use, violence.  The ones who can't go three words without the vilest of obscenities coming out of their mouths, would have huge 3 inch gold crosses hanging from their necks. 

And the jewelry store owner asks them, "Do you want a plain cross, or one with a little man on it?"  Yet they have no idea who that little man is, or why he was on the cross in the first place.  Because it means nothing to them.  It's just a fashion statement.

Several years ago, my sister and brother in law were visiting me.  This was during the height of the WWJD bracelet fad.  We had gone to visit the Christian book store in Batesville, and they had a basket of them for sale.  My sister offered to buy me one, but I'd seen too many people wearing them who had no idea who "J" is, or why they should even care about what he would do.

I declined.

My faith is more than just a fashion to me. 

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Sleepy

So, I was out looking for Rylea yesterday evening, when I stopped to speak to a neighbor.  She invited me in, and offered me a diet coke.

Now, since the doctor told me that avoiding caffeine will help reduce my tachycardia episodes, I've limited myself to one diet Dr. Pepper per day--and usually I drink most of it in the morning.

I just wasn't used to have that much caffeine in the evening, so I was wide awake until probably after 11:00 PM.  After a while, I was afraid to look at the clock.  Still, it was a too short night.

I found Rylea, by the way.  She'd followed a neighbor kid down the road, and I found her in the cow pasture.


Knothead.

Telephones

I work in a job that is basically a no-brainer, and as such, I have a lot of time to just think about stuff.  Its strange the things you sometimes think of when your mind isn't otherwise occupied.

There was this boy I went to high school with.  We weren't really friends, but I had a lot of classes with him throughout junior high and high school.  One day we were in class, and he was telling the story of a girl--a class mate of ours--and how she would call him all the time and just talk and talk and talk.  She drove him crazy.  Finally, he got an idea.  When he was tired of talking to her, he'd ask his parents to yell at him to get off the phone.  He said his dad was cool.  He'd just yell across the room, "RANDY!  Get off the phone!"  The first time he asked his mother, though, she came up to him and said, "Randy, dear, I really need you to get off the phone."

He was like, "Aww mom!" 


Moving right along....

I was in fourth grade, or thereabouts, when one day I couldn't remember my homework assignment.  I got the phone book to look up a classmate's number.  As I was searching for her number, I found another classmate's number.  "Oh, here is James' number.  I'll call him.  He'll know."  At that moment, my mother rounded the corner, arms a-flailing and eyes a-blazing. "Girls do not call boys on the phone!  It's not proper!"

"But mom", I countered. "It's not like I was going to ask him out on a date.  I'm just calling him about school work."  But my mother was adamant,  girls do not call boys on the phone under any circumstances. 

Fast forward to 6th grade...my little boyfriend called me on the phone.  I was unavailable at the moment.  My mother told him to call back in about 15 minutes.  He did.  "What were  you doing?" he asked.

"Oh, I was using the bathroom," I replied.  At that moment, my mother rounded the corner, arms a-flailing and eyes a-blazing.  "Girls do not tell boys they were in the bathroom!" 

"Why not?", I asked.  "They have to go, too."  But my mother was adamant.  Girls do not tell boys they actually *ahem* use the bathroom.

I think this may be where my phone issues come from.  My older brother had phone issues, too.  His freshman year at college, he was unable to find a ride home for the Thanksgiving break.  What did he do?  He wrote my parents a letter.  They got it the day he was supposed to be coming home.  My dad got off work that evening, and had to immediately set out driving 4 hours to Marshall, TX to pick up my brother.  They took the younger kids with them, but told me I could stay home if I wanted to.  I was 17, and they would have let me stay home alone, but I didn't really feel comfortable doing that.  I chose to go stay with my grandparents instead.

I was waiting for them to come pick me up, and they didn't come.  Six o'clock passed, then seven.  Finally I called my grandpa and asked him what time he was coming to get me.  "At 9:00," he snapped, then sneeringly added, "Is that OK with you?"

I have a terrible aversion to using the phone ever since. 

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Rain

It has been raining off and on all day today.  My co-worker Kathy went out to the parking lot when it first started so she could roll up her car windows.  When she came back, she was soaked, even though she'd had an umbrella. 

Rylea is upset because she didn't get her walk.  I don't know what she's complaining about.  She doesn't like to be outside in the rain anyway. 

It is predicting scattered showers all week.  Soon we will have Lake Riverdale again.

Tomorrow is Rod's birthday.  I was going to bake him some cookies, but I completely forgot.  It's too late now to fool with them.  Well, I've left the butter out, so maybe I'll remember to bake them tomorrow.

At least he'll have something to look forward to.

Lazy Monday

I didn't do much of anything today. We didn't have to go to work, so first thing I did was to sleep in until 6ish. I'm not really sure because I didn't even look at the clock when I got up. I thought briefly about driving up to Southaven, but decided against it. Instead, I stayed home and caught up on a few things around the house.

I did two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed and rug sticked the carpet, and paid bills. After that, I felt like I'd earned a little knitting time, so I finished the first Bubble Wrap sock.

I did 4 pattern repeats on the foot, instead of the three the pattern calls for.  The last pair I'd made with this pattern were a bit tight across the toes, so I wanted to make this one a bit bigger.  As you can see, I succeeded. 

I was looking at them and thought, "Boy that toe sure looks pointier than normal." That's when I realized, I'd decreased to 8 stitches on each needle, instead of my normal 12-14. Oh well, I'm not re-doing them.

I'd also wanted to make them a bit big, because I've heard that this yarn (Knit Picks Imagination) has a tendency to shrink a lot.  It is supposed to be superwash wool, but some people have reported that it has felted on them.  Others have reported that it does just fine in the washer.   I'm not so sure I'm going to like this yarn for socks.  It seems very loosely spun, and even more loosely plied.  In some spots, it seemed that the plies weren't even twisted around each other, but laying side by side. 

It was also supposed to be hand painted in such a way that it wouldn't pool, but as you can see, it pooled just fine, thank you very much.  Oh, well, good thing I don't mind pooling.

After a while, I got tired of sitting and watching TV, so I took Rylea for a walk.  We were just going to go for a short walk, because of the heat.  But there was a good breeze blowing, so we walked all the way down to the creek.  Ry was able to get a drink and cool off a bit.  Even I slipped off my shoes and went wading.  It kind of reminded me of the carefree days of childhood, when playing in a creek was the most important thing I had to do all summer.   

Now, the sun is setting, and my beautiful, glorious weekend is drawing to a close.  In the morning--very early in the morning--I'll have to return to the humdrum grind of everyday life.  I sure have enjoyed this weekend, even though I didn't anything special. 

Sometimes doing nothing is special in itself. 

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Happy Fourth!

Finished Object!

And that FO would be the Vernal Equinox shawl.  Well, I really finished it last weekend, but I didn't get around to blocking it until today.  I did run into one minor snag.  I got this far in the bind off

and ran out of yarn.  No biggie, as I had another hank.  I just was hoping not to have to wind it. But I did, and persevered. 

Funny thing is, I thought it was going to be a fairly small shawl when I started knitting it, but it was almost too big to pin out on my bed. 

Here is the final product, released from its bonds.

An interesting thing happened today while I was cleaning snake tanks.  I was cleaning out Scarlett's tank and found these things buried in the substrate:

At first, I couldn't figure out what they were, then it hit me.  Eggs!  She'd laid eggs!  Of course, they weren't fertile, because she's never been with a male, but still.  It's kind of nice to know that the little snake I thought was going to die has recovered enough to lay eggs. 

The would-be mama.  The spots are water spots on the glass, which I am notoriously lax about wiping down. 

Telling On Myself

Since I told off on my cousin Ashlee a couple of days ago, I decided it was only right for me to tell off on myself, too.  Fair's fair, after all.

I think it was the summer I was 7, and we'd gone up to visit Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Tommy.  I had taken my bath and was getting my pajamas on.  Aunt Bonnie had a basket of toys she kept in the back bedroom for when kids came to visit.  Since my dad married late (for that day and age), my first cousins on his side were quite a bit older than we were.  They were already married and having kids while we were still pretty young.  In fact, Aunt Bonnie's oldest grandchild is the same age as my sister, and only 5 years younger than me. 

Anyway, I was getting my pj's on, and in that basket of toys were two mini footballs.  You know, the kind the cheerleaders throw up into the stands at high school football games.  Well, I don't know what got into my head, but I put those two footballs under my pajama top to make it look as if I had boobs.  And I walked out into the living room. 

Aunt Bonnie thought it was hilarious, but my mother was furious.  I knew as soon as I saw the look on her face that I was in for it.  I don't remember what punishment I got for it, but I never did anything like that again. But I've always remembered it.

I thought it was hilarious, too.  Still do.

Today's Photo:  Gratuitous sunset through hurricane clouds shot. 6/30/10

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