Eek!

Plans are made to be broken, right? I was so looking forward to a relaxing day of knitting and watching football, but alas, a small creature has ruined it.

Friday night I heard a noise on my kitchen counter. When I went to investigate, I saw a tiny little mouse coming out of a box of soft batch cookies. Eeeewwwwww! I don't hate mice, but they sure aren't my favorite roommates. I bought poison and traps and haven't caught one yet. So today I am deep cleaning my apartment, with the game on in the background. The home is due for a good clean anyway, but I was hoping to put it off a little longer.

The kitchen is now CLEAN, and the only place I've seen droppings is there, so hopefully I won't find mouse poop anywhere else. The thing that freaks me out the most is that it's a studio, and my bed is 2 feet away from the kitchen counter. It's no fun to be in bed, trying to sleep, and thinking that there might be a mouse near the end of my feet. Gross. I'll get that rat bastard and kill him. Trust me.

The good news is that I'm housesitting this week, and will hopefully kill him before I'm home again.

Last night was best friend's birthday party, and we had a blast. I was almost done with her socks when the mouse appeared, and didn't quite finish them in time, but there was plenty of time to knit the legs while playing Charades.

Of course I ripped and started over with a new pattern shortly after I turned the heel on the first design. She ended up getting socks with baby cables: that 2-stitch cable where instead of doing a real cable, you knit 2 together and knit the first stitch again. They were a lot of fun and there's enough yarn leftover to make myself some too!


The best part is that she LOVES her socks! This picture was taken after breakfast this morning - she put them on last night and has not taken them off since. And they fit perfectly!

As of yesterday, Abbie and I have now been friends for half our lives. We are so different - in looks, personality, careers, family lives - every way. But we get each other. And we're always there for each other. When we hang out it feels like we're in high school again, but instead of sneaking out of my parent's house to smoke cigarettes, we're sneaking around her house trying not to laugh too loud or else we'll wake her baby. Life's funny like that.


I'm so thankful for Abbie, and all of my closest friends. I'm thankful for their families, who have become my family. They make life so sweet!

Icky

I'm sick. It's my annual sinus infection, and it's a bad one. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon.

When not sick, you forget just how much sickness affects your mood (and knitting). I'm mad because the doctor's visit and prescriptions cost way too much money, because all food tastes terrible, because my nose is chapped from kleenex, because the medicine makes me drowsy, and most of all, because the knitting mojo is shaky at best. It also sucks that I'm missing work. I had to cancel a knitting lesson and am missing stitch 'n bleep. Ugh.

This morning I decided to knit some worsted weight toe-up socks to help pass the time. I'm wearing my favorite handknit socks - lime green mini-cable socks out of Cascade 220 superwash - and there's some off-white 220 in the stash. I swatched and swatched but nothing seemed to work. I'm too lazy to purl, so that rules out ribbing, and lace doesn't work with the bigger gauge.

So I called my dearest best friend to talk about our plans for her birthday this weekend. I was sitting there, staring down at my favorite pajama pants (that I stole from her years and years ago) thinking 'what a pretty stitch pattern':


Then I thought about how I have some time on my hands and should make her something for her birthday. It took way too long for me to put 2 and 2 together, but once I got it, I started knitting.


Abbie will be getting a pair of toe-up eyelet birthday socks! It's an easy knit, and works up fast on just 40 stitches. I'll do a short row heel and a 5" leg, and will be able to make a pair out of 1 ball of yarn. Now I'm much happier and instead of thinking about how bad I feel, I'm thinking about my amazing best friend and how much she will love her cozy socks.

Knitting makes everything better.

Happy Happy Happy Happy

Wow. In the past 2 days I have been completely overwhelmed - in the best way possible. As my Nanee would say, I am so incredibly blessed. I have the BEST friends and BEST family on the planet!

Thursday night I left work to go on a birthday date with a cute boy (my birthday's the 16th) and walked through his door to a big surprise party! Most of my friends are out of town this weekend, which really sucks because it's my birthday and I have a couple extra days off. So the boy organized a huge birthday party one day early with all of my closest friends and a huge, amazing dinner (they even got my mom to cook my favorite food). It was EXACTLY what I wanted. We ate and drank and danced all night - just perfect.

Friday I sat around and played with my birthday present to myself - a gorgeous skein of Alchemy Yarn's Silk Purse in the color "San Francisco Sky" - pictures later.

The next party was with the family. We ate another amazing meal, topped off with chocolate mousse cake. Yum. After dinner I had to step outside for a moment and when I came back in my family looked like this:


They were wearing just about everything I have made them in the last 8 years or so. They were all wearing hand knitted socks, belts, scarves, hats, nephew Hoss was wearing a poncho that I made his mom, everyone was wearing jewelry that I've made for mom and sis (even the guys), dad was in pajama pants - you get the idea. They wanted to thank me for all of the strange little things I do for them, and again, I was completely overwhelmed.

I even snagged a pic of Buddha Bear in his first birthday sweater.


The color is perfect - his blue eyes look electric next to that sweater.

I am so so so so so so so so so thankful for my wonderful friends who pulled off the best surprise ever! I am equally thankful for my family who have been so supportive of everything I do! I am so very blessed!

NFL Week 10

Guess where I went today? Here's a hint:


Carrie has season tickets, and took me to the game! Woo Hoo! But we lost and that sucked. My throat hurts from screaming and my hands hurt from clapping but it was a really fun time. Carrie rocks!

The only thing that really made me mad (besides the way we played) was Princess Frostilocks (he's the one on the right).


I love to play Mullet Watch. This is Music City where mullets are everywhere and you keep thinking that it couldn't get worse, but it does. I wish this picture showed the white blond frosted tips in their full glory. He had a bleach blond soul patch on his chin, and the wife-beater tank was hanging out of the neck of his shirt. He talked on his phone throughout the game and I was waiting for him to tell me to hush while I was screaming at our defense. It just made me scream louder.

This was the only second of the game that his arm was not around his woman (and her hair was almost as bad as his). When he put his arm around her he blocked access to my drink holder and I must have said "Excuse me" about a million times. If he messed with my hot chocolate one more time I would have gone on a frosted-mullet-bashing tirade, but kept my cool and was kinda worried that his girlfriend would scratch me to death with her scary press-on-nails.

I had to take a picture - that's for you, Sassy. She's my hairdresser/ best friend/ cousin/ knitting buddy and appreciates a bad mullet more than anyone I know. I normally don't make fun of people this much, but this guy needs to be in the Mullet Hall of Fame and he really pissed me off.

So we're 6 -3, still have a good chance at the playoffs, but the Titans had better get their %#*! together if they're going to win any more games. I still love you, Vince, and I really do believe in you, but right now my favorites are Keith Bullock and Kyle Vanden Bosch. I really like the way Keith sports the bright red gloves. The man's got style. And Vanden Bosch had a few really nice plays today.

Next week we're playing the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football! I do love Jay Cutler, but we'll be kickin some Bronco butt.

And Betty S. - thank you so much - I had the BEST coffee this morning and am enjoying another wonderful cup right now!

Why I Love Tennessee, Round 2

I left work early yesterday (sorry Alicia!) to head out with some friends for a tiny weekend getaway to Monteagle (A sleepy little mountaintop retreat with amazing views, as you can see). Sometimes all you need is to drive for an hour and a half and feel (mentally) halfway around the world. It was a beautiful mini-vacation!


Today we went on a hike in Fiery Gizzard (great name!) I went there with my family many many years ago, and remember the sheer cliffs, up and down trail, intense rocky overhangs and water everywhere. So today we brought swimsuits and were expecting to hear the powerful waterfalls, but there was hardly any water. Tennessee (and much of the south) has been dealing with a tough drought for what seems like forever, and it was so sad to see a rushing creek turn into a standstill. One member of our group trekked around a slick waterfall and jumped in where the water was deeper, but after putting my feet in, I decided to stay dry. It was cold!


I snapped some great pictures, wish I could show them all. Below is an enormous old hemlock tree that must have been 12 feet in diameter.


I did bring knitting, of course, and wanted to knit on the porch last night after dinner, but there was too much wine around and it's hard to knit while looking at the stars - there were a bunch of shooting stars. Sometimes you have to get out of the city to see just how much light pollution effects the starlight.


Here is a current sock while driving down the highway. I got a lot done, but didn't count my stitches until about a half inch past where this picture was taken, and I have 28 sts on one side (how it should be) and 30 on the other (whoops). I have no idea when or how this happened, and am too tired to figure it out tonight. It's late, I just now ate dinner, and my legs are killing me. It's time to settle down with a certain project (felted clogs) for a certain good friend (who took me to Monteagle).

And I almost forgot - the Titans played the Falcons today, and it took all of the patience I could muster to wait until the hike was over to call friends in Nashville and find out that WE WON 20-13! Haven't found out the details yet, but apparently our offense was off but our defense saved the day. We're 3-1!

Christmas in September

Sometimes it's hard to exchange gifts with your friends during the holidays. Everyone is busy running around and going to parties and traveling and hanging out with family, so it can be difficult to exchange gifts with friends. Such was the case with my my dear friend Carrie. We've known each other forever, live 2 blocks away from each other, and hang out a whole lot. To make a long story short, we exchanged our 2006 Christmas presents today (please don't judge - we both may enjoy procrastination and might be a tad absent-minded, but there are valid reasons that it took months. I think.) Her gift has been hanging out in my closet for the last 9 months, while my gift has been sitting in her office. So here goes...

My gift to her: felted clogs out of Cascade 220 and (not pictured) the new Feist CD - the Reminder. That gift was added last week. If you haven't heard it, check it out. It's very very good. Carrie LOVES the clogs, and they fit perfectly. I did offer to put some puff paint on the soles for traction, but she would rather risk injury and slide around on her wood floors. I'll keep the paint handy just in case she changes her mind.


Her gift to me: A nice assortment. Some Miso Pretty products (not pictured) and they smell heavenly. Here's a picture of the only bumper sticker on my new-ish car. In case you're not a football maniac like me, the "V" stands for Vince Young, quarterback for the Tennessee Titans.
It rocks!


Also, I receved "the Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook". I've already flagged most of the pages and am looking forward to trying everything! I think the first dish will be the red pepper risotto.


While I'm not a vegetarian anymore (I eat turkey and fish), I still would rather cook vegetarian meals, and this cookbook is awesome.

Thanks Carrie! And Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!