What is with people these days?!?!?!?!

Around 4am, a neighbor a couple of blocks over had both cars in their carport set on fire. The cars and the carport were completely destroyed, but the house miraculously only had a few singed shingles. Their son's bedroom is right near the garage, so they were very lucky.

The cops think it may have been some sort of gang initiation.

What the hell?

What is the world coming to where people think that kind of thing is a good idea? Are they going to decided to burn down houses next? It freaks me out.

We have a car that is parked in back of the house. Dr Pig went out and bought a locking gas cap yesterday afternoon. It won't prevent all mischief, but at least it will prevent that particular mischief.

I'm just glad everyone is safe.

In political news, why is that certain people are so eager to ban abortion and yet these same people who are so desperate to save the fetuses rant about "socialism" when any attempt is made to provide welfare assistance for the resulting child?

Want to know something really scary?

This summer, I decided that we should try to get the house all ship-shape as if we were going to sell it. We're not moving any time soon, but we've been here almost 10 years and I'm not going to need strollers and a crib and an exersaucer again. I don't need those boxes of books that have been in the attic for 10 years - they are starting to smell musty. That skirt that I love but haven't worn since before I was pregnant? Yeah, it ain't gonna happen.

We've been cleaning out the attic and I've been working on the closets and under the beds and all those little places where we stash stuff (as opposed to the places we stuff stash - that's off limits).

So, forget Spring Cleaning. I'm instituting a Fall Purge!

Worth It

This is even better than The Kronos Quartet performing Purple Haze. The lyrics start at about 1:05, just in case you can't place the song.

Diving

Stash diving, that is.

I was reading Fuzzy Noodle Knits the other day and I saw this. For some reason, my brain decided that I had to knit it.

Now.

You know how it is. You have elebenty-million projects already on the needles and that pile of second socks and you can no longer see any of it. Because you must knit that.

The original was knit in Noro. Noro and I don't really get along.

I love the Koigu that Caryn chose, but I have very little Koigu and the skeins I have that match are already earmarked for another project.

So, I went stash diving and really looked hard at the stash. I didn't want something overly bright or too dark. And I wanted the skeins to match at some point, in order to randomize the striping sequence a bit. Where the skeins matched, the color change would be very subtle.

I think of myself as having a largish sock stash - maybe enough for 50 pairs of socks. I have a fairly decent selection of self-striping, variegated, and semi-solids. You'd think it would be a snap.

It took a while.

But I settled on this combo.


Vesper sock in Verbena and Claudia Hand-painted in Lipstick.



I've knit just a little bit, but I love where the two reds meet. The red in the Vesper is pinker than the Claudia, so there is a very subtle shift.

I'm already thinking of combinations for another one. There is something addictive about this pattern. I've needed a No Thought Required project for a while. This one is fun.

And I should have enough leftovers to make short socks with the toes, heels, and tops in the Lipstick!

Standards

Look, lady, it's pronounced nu·cle·ar. That's \ˈnü-klē-ər

I find it hard to take you seriously when you keep saying noo-q-lar.

I guess it's supposed to be folksy. If I want folksy, I'll go to Cracker Barrel.

Sunday night, I woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep.

Monday night, Dr Pig's pager went off at 1.30am. He had to work the rest of the night and I had the devil of a time getting back to sleep.

Last night, Bean got into bed with us around 5am.

It's a conspiracy!!!

I'm trying to get the house in a bit more order before The Invasion Of The In-Laws commences tomorrow. On the plus side, we have several social events this weekend so, free babysitting!!!

Must go to grocery store, though and buy several loaves of bread. They go through about a loaf of bread a day. I've never seen people eat bread like this. They'd never make it on Atkins!

In other amusing news, last night at dinner I told Bean to stop rocking her chair because it was in danger of flipping over and then she'd have to go to the hospital and get stitches which would HURT. (I'm not above using a bit of scare tactics if that's all that works.) Dr Pig told her that he'd had stitches and it hurt and then tells her, "I'm not even going to tell you where I got stitches."

Bean fixes him with that "like you're so smart" look she has and retorts, "Oh, Daddy, I know where you got stitches. In the hospital."

I couldn't help it - I spent the next 10 minutes giggling like a madman.

The List

I am fully aware that I tend to exaggerate. This is not one of those times!

My vacuum cleaner broke. The motor burned out, so I had to replace the vacuum. Had I known what was to come in the following couple of weeks, I would have bought a cheapie...

My watch broke. We sent it off and it was easily repaired. Thank goodness for small favors.

The next Friday, my car needed $1500 worth of repairs - OUCH!

Saturday, the mower broke. (Cracked head. This morning began with the joyful sound of the new mower revving up.)

Two days later, Dr Pig left on a business trip. The auspicious beginning was the driver showing up a half an hour late because he got lost. sigh

About 5 minutes after he left, the toaster broke (I fixed it by banging it upside down on the patio - I'm assuming that something was stuck in it.)

About half an hour later, the VCR broke. (Dr Pig was able to fix it.)

The next day it rained and a windshield wiper flew off my car. (Replaced)

Then the ABS light came on in Dr Pig's car. (Probably $1500 more in repairs. We are just going to pretend it's 1990 for a bit. It's not like there will be any icy roads to drive on until January anyway!)

Then (you didn't think it was over yet, did you?), the washing machine broke. Dr Pig, being a man who can Fix Things, fixed the washer. A $20 part was cracked. It was sort of involved because he had to take the motor apart, etc., but the $20 part probably would have cost us over $200 in repairs if we'd had it professionally repaired.

Then I got sick as a dog.

I'm hoping things have stopped breaking (including me). I'm not sure what kind of karmic revenge is underway, but I think it's going a bit too far. Dr Pig and I can do nothing but be amused at this point. It's too crazy not to laugh!

Still coughing. I'm assuming I still have two lungs, although with the amount of coughing I'm doing it is entirely possible that I've coughed one of them up.

Haven't knit a stitch since my last post. When I'm really ill, the only kind of knitting I like is stockinette and I don't have a stockinette project on the needles right now. (I know - it's positively shocking!)

I need to go buy two 16" Addi Turbo 0s for some plain vanilla toe-ups. Maybe next week.

dog days

As in sicker than the proverbial. I have succumbed to an allergy-related crud. Blerg.

I did manage to make it to bingo last night. Bean's school has a carnival every fall and the night before they have bingo. It's a blast. I figured today would be nasty regardless of whether I stayed home or not, so might as well go out with a bang. Today, I get to whimper!

In knitting news - yes, I still knit

Halcyon Socks by Wendy Johnson in Wollmeise 100% Lowenzahn



Firestarters by Yarnissima in Wollmeise 100% Red Hot Chili (now to the gusset)



I have to say that I have become very enamoured of the way Wollmeise knits up for me on toe- up socks. As I've said in the past, I'm an extremely loose knitter. I'm knitting both of these on two circs - size 0 addis. The fabric may be some of the best I've knitted for socks. I very much enjoy the cottony feel of the yarn while knitting. Being a loose knitter, overly sproingy yarn can sometimes be problematic for me. I have trouble with tension. Knitting with a yarn with very little sproing is a really good antidote.

Oh, Yeah, Blog

I took the summer off. I think I may have enough funny stuff and knitting and cooking stored up to entertain all of us for a while ;>

Your Bean Of The Day:

I hear this scream of “Jeeee-sus!” from across the room.

Me: Excuse Me?!

Bean: “Jee-sus Jesus Jesus!!!!!!!!” (screaming)

Me: !!!!!

Dr Pig: She said Cheezits

Me: oh!

Dream In Color

A few days ago, I finished my Dream In Color Shrug. I love shrugs. I have no idea why, since I always wonder if they make me look too, um, chesty shall we say.

At any rate, the cure for that is a nice, black tee!



This will be perfect for fall!

New York City Girls

Last night, I went to see the Sex and the City movie with a group of girl friends. Bean wanted to know where I was going and I told her I was going to see a movie.

"Mama, what movie are you going to go see?"

"Um, it's called New York City Girls!"

Fortunately, my brain was fully engaged in the conversation!

Grey's Anatomy Finale

I was going to post a cutesy title, but I figure if you read that title and haven't seen the episode yet, it's pretty obvious there will be spoilers ;>

So, very nice and pat. Of course, this is Shondaland, so nothing can work out quite so nicely.

Here are my predictions for next year:

Derek goes to tell Rose and is involved in a horrific accident on the way back to Meredith. Miraculously, he makes it out unscathed, but, when he returns to the land, he finds that Meredith has been abducted by aliens.

Hahn and Torres decide to leave the medical profession and open a lunch counter. Name? Sapphic Salads. Mark Sloan bankrolls them.

George decides that everything is going pretty well for him because he is celibate and tells Lexie he can't possibly have a relationship with her. Lexie sleeps with Alex, instead.

Izzie realizes that she really never will have George ever, so she sleeps with Alex instead.

Mark realized that he will never be asked to be in a threesome with Hahn and Torres, so he sleeps with Alex instead.

Everything turns out jelly-side up for Bailey.

Christina Yang falls in love with the gorgeous new head of OB/GYN, Dr. Adam Turner. She marries him. Yes, she will be Tina Turner.

Cleanorama

I've been on a cleaning rampage.

The house is sort of a mess. It's clean, but we've sort of lapsed into a general atmosphere of untidiness that is driving me bonkers.

So, I've been doing something about it.

The problem is that Dr. Pig is a saver and I'm not. And he tends to save things regardless of the quality of an item. The fact that it's dented, half-melted, or stained doesn't always register. However, at this point, we've been married long enough that he no longer feels like I'm tossing "his" things and even he can see that, if we haven't used it in the last 10 years, perhaps that dented pie plate is not really adding a lot to our household ;>

I'm sort of acting like I'm getting ready to move and making a first pass. Because if we do move, I don't want to have so much stuff to go through that I start tossing the good stuff because I don't want to look at any of it again!

No, really, I do still exist

I am, like most of you, incredibly busy. As I've mentioned before, I'm on the board of a couple of local charity organizations (nothing fancy, but lots of work) and the year-end wrap-ups and events and meetings have been going on at a frantic rate. I have not one, but THREE events tomorrow. All at the same time. I may end up going to one. I may decide to bail on the whole thing. I'm a bit worn out.

Plus, the end of the school year, the school play, and the 87 other school things and soccer things and Bean scheduling.

Combine that with an insane workload from Dr. Pig and you have very little knitting and really nothing to post about other than the usual blah blah. If you have children, you know the tune. If you don't have children, you probably don't care where that particular radio station can be found! I, of course, think that Bean is the most insanely cute, smart and fabulous child in the world, but even I can tell that I may be just a touch biased ;>

Oh, and, because I'm an idiot, I agreed to teach science lab at VBS. It's just sand and water experiments. I think they know better than to ask me to do anything actually related to theology! (And now, children, we will compare the teaching of Buddha to the Beatitudes.)

Poisonous Caterpillars*

Before I left for St. Louis, Bean brought home her science lab homework. It had a list of Living vs. Non-Living Things. All spelling, punctuation, etc. has been precisely reproduced for your enjoyment.

Living Stuff

Plant's
Bug's
posinis caterpilers
Trees

Non-Living Stuff

ded birds
Pudls (puddles)
Snake-Scin
bird poop

I love 6!

*If I ever have a band, I'm going to call it Poisonous Caterpillars. I'd make a mint. If I had any musical ability whatsoever!

Good gravy!

It's been almost a month since I last posted!

Time flies and all that.

I am still alive and kicking (loudly) as the other attendees of the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling can attest. I am wishing that this were last Wednesday, as I would still be looking forward to the event rather than wishing I were still there.

But, we're having a good time here. And there is knitting. But, right now, I have a meeting and then I have to pick up Bean.

allergies of DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

My sinuses are trying to secede from my head.

Here's how you tell if someone is really your friend: You pick up your child from school and your friend tells you that you should have let her pick up your child. The next day, your husband walks said child into school and your friend asks how you are doing. Upon hearing that you are still feeling pretty punk, your friend tells your husband that she will go to the grocery store, buy cupcakes for the class for your child's birthday snack, and bring them to school so that you don't have to get out of bed. I'm so grateful I could cry.

Ten On Tuesday

The top ten things I need to accomplish:

1. Stop procrastinating so much.

2......

Davidson 57 - Kansas 59

I am now obligated to hate Kansas with a burning passion.

I want UNC to beat them even if Hansborough does have a smug expression on his oddly teeny head (compared to the rest of him).

Man, it was so close. And now the national media is questioning why Curry didn't take the shot instead of passing it to Richards. Guys, the one thing you should have learned about Curry after watching him is that if he doesn't feel comfortable taking a shot, he's probably right.

This was an amazing run and the Wildcats deserve every accolade possible. It's too bad Curry won't be up for MOP. I think if they had beaten Kansas, he would have been a serious contender even if Davidson didn't advance any further. I think a case can be made that he's been the most outstanding player anyway, but the award has always confused "outstanding player of the tournament" with "biggest player on the winning team".