facelift

The blog has had a facelift. What do you think?. I'm kinda liking the new color scheme so far. It's been a slow week, Blog-wise anyway. Just not a lot of fodder. I could expound upon the Jerry Springer show issues of the patients at work but that violates all sorts of privacy laws and could get me fired. Besides which their issues are really pathetic when you think about it. It has been a good knitting week. The booga bag is completed - no pictures - someone who reads this will be getting it as a gift. I'm really pleased with how it came out and pictures will be forthcoming. And the panda cotton socks are started. I guess I'll call these the camo socks since that's what the coIors remind me of. Feel free to leave name suggestions in the comments. I love this yarn. It is a little splitty but it feels so good that I don't really care. And it is is very forgiving which means no ladders. Thanks Sheri for the suggestion. I had originally planned to give these socks as a gift but I don't think I'll be able to part with them. I will probably wind up buying this yarn in every color. I have S.E.X. planned for September. ( Get your minds out of the gutter - that's a Stash Enhancing eXpedition) Anyway, Here is my stuffed puppy modeling the

toe. Isn't he cute? He supervises my computer time, which has been curtailed this week due to evening thunderstorms, or "thunderboomers" as my mom calls them. My Gran would say that " it comes up a cloud" about this time every day. I've never known exactly what that meant but it is obviously weather related. Someone should probably tell the folks at the weather channel. They could stand to expand their vocabulary. I mean - if you're going to talk about the weather all day, every day you should probably come up with several ways to say " It is going to rain in Mississippi " or " It is going to be hot in Arizona". Otherwise people are liable to get bored and just go outside and figure it out all on their own. And that's what I'm going to do now. Later.

I'm Back

Triage : A french word meaning "Where the hell did all these patients come from, and how do I make them go away?" It has been a long and extremely busy week both at work and home. I am very grateful to have had a couple of days off to do nothing but read the last Harry Potter book. A few loads of laundry and a very little housework got accomplished too, but I have just read the last page. I won't be a spoiler for those of you who haven't finished yet but I can't deny that a few tears were shed as I read this one, just as they were at the end of book six. J.K. Rowling will certainly have a place in history for writing this series.

Now, since this is a knitting blog and I haven't written much about knitting lately, I will try to catch up. The confetti socks are almost finished. Just a little ribbing required on the second one and I will be casting off. Then, in keeping with my cast-off, cast-on rule, I will be starting a Booga bag with Noro Kureyon colorway #214. Am I the only one who wonders why the Japanese yarns don't have names? And also since I like to keep a pair of socks on the needles for knitting on the go I have some new Crystal palace Panda cotton which is a bamboo blend. The skein is so soft, I can't wait to see how it works up. And the name of the colorway is awesome - chocolate almond. And as if that isn't enough - I've got a baby cardigan and a baby surprise sweater waiting in the wings. I hope someone I know gets pregnant soon or I'm going to feel foolish about these projects.

And even more good news, Stephanie Pearl McPhee is coming to Atlanta in September. Her blog is a delight to read as are her books so I am very anxious to see her in person. But for now, I will go and visit with Mo & Larry if I can get their noses out of their copies of The Deathly Hallows. Here's a pic of the elusive Mama Kitty to tide you over til next time.

7-13-89

On this day 18 years ago Mo entered the world and just three months later he was this fat happy little ham who slept through the night. I guess he finally realized that Mom is not too interesting in the middle of the night and might be more fun in the daytime if she slept at night. I think he stayed up because he was so dang nosy and was afraid he'd miss out on something. That's my boy - he never wants to miss out on anything that might be fun. And before we knew it he turned into this handsome little guy in the Magnum PI shirt who was charming all the ladies at preschool.

And he grew some more and grabbed life with both hands. He wanted to try everything and do everything. He tried to make his little brother throw up on the teacup ride at Disney. Didn't work but it was fun to watch. He tried snorkeling and karate and indoor skydiving and escargot. He tried to drive his parents crazy. That one worked most of the time.














And since today is such a milestone birthday I'm going to be embarrasssingly sappy and steal the words to a very pretty song to express my wishes for you. Happy birthday son. I love you.

"It's only for a moment you were mine to hold.
The plans that heaven has for you will all too soon unfold.
So many different prayers I'll pray for all that you might do.
But most of all I want to know you're walking in the truth.
And if I never told you I want you to know
As I watch you grow.

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams.
And that faith gives you the courage to dare to do great things.
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots and help you find your wings"

How many?

When you have pets of any kind there comes a point where, when people ask you how many you have, and you reply " four" or " seven" or however many is true, that they look astonished and want to know " Why so many?" You see, it started like this. My family and I actively sought out and rescued 2 pets. 1 cat ( Jenny) and 1 dog ( Snoopy). This made us happy. Then we moved. Our old house was apparently a desirable place for a feral cat to have her kittens. It was not however desirable to sell a house inhabited by feral cats so we banished them , in the process rescuing Abby. She was tiny and we bottle fed her and we kept her, figuring two kids, two cats. Makes sense right? She does love to sit in her daddy's lap

Meet Forrest. Forrest wandered up one day last year and talked his daddy into patting him on the head, then feeding him, then letting him move in. He moved out again pretty quickly. Naughty house manners, nuff said? But he stayed around and became the "outside kitty". For those of you keeping track this makes a total of 4 critters. 2 inside kitties, 1 outside, and one very spoiled inside dog. Still a reasonable number right? One pet for every member of the family - nothing exotic or outrageous.
Now it gets a little ugly. It seems that Forrest has a wife and kids. We just met them Sunday. Mama ( you know that Forrest loved his mama) is a pretty little gray tabby - very bashful - no pictures available yet. Little Bubba is solid black like his daddy and little Lou ( for lieutenant Dan) is gray and white like his mama. They are also quick as little bunnies and we can't catch them. So now it starts to sound a little nuts. I admit that I have said when I am old that I will be the crazy cat lady on the street. I have also said that I will sit in my rocker and knit and give little kids snow cones. I really never meant for this to happen. I'm not old yet! Oh God, I have 6 cats, and a dog. I need a drink.

Home

As you can no doubt see, St Thomas is exquisitely beautiful, but I am thrilled to be home. After much drama and mayhem involved with the airlines, we actually made it down there. I have mentioned my distaste for Spirit airlines in the past. You may now officially register that as outright hatred and know that I will NEVER fly them again. The nice AIRTRAN and Delta planes went up & came down on time and got me and the guys where we needed to go. I had several enjoyable encounters with the TSA agents as well. Who knew getting frisked could be so much fun? Apparently when you buy tickets at the last minute and then fly with no luggage you set off alarm bells. Who knew?


This is the adorable hubby sitting right above the first completed confetti sock. It is displayed on one of my cool new sock blockers. Thanks Chappy, they finally got here. I believe I mentioned that I would endeavour to locate a yarn shop during my travels. There are none, zero, nil, nada. Apparently the fine folks in the Virgin Islands purchase their Rasta hats at the local K-mart.
These fine folks are however, exceptionally bad drivers. Probably something to do with them driving on the wrong side of the road. Some of you are aware that my tolerance for bad driving has sharply diminished in the last year. Even so, I was a bit slow on the uptake when our erstwhile tour guide/ car rental agent began marking the pot holes on our map of the island. I failed to realize that he was only marking the holes that were deep enough to swallow the car. Needless to say we returned the car quickly and opted to stay in our resort thereafter. Which was very nice. We attended a couple of weddings. Best wishes to Scott and Sandi. We drank a lot of rum punch and pina coladas. And we vegged on the beach and watched the iguanas freak out the other guests. Who could ask for more?
We didn't miss much. Apart from the incredible natural beauty, St. Thomas resembles a third-world country. So I leave you with a photo of the amazing sunset as I go off to acheive whiter whites and brighter brights in preparation for my return to work.