PlazaJen: Passion Knit

I have the huskiest, graveliest voice today, Kathleen Turner should be worried. Unfortunately for me, I feel like crap & every so often I issue a barking, phlegm-rattling cough that has kept most people outside of my doorway & wishing silently that I would just GO HOME already.

And I will. I'm just trying to clear up the most "on-fire" things & make sure I don't miss any deadlines - because work is more important than health, right? Cough, cough... I'm not the only who puts work first, and I know it's for my own mental security, that nobody's going to have to rummage in my office, or have to have conversations about how to cover my work, blah blah blah. It's a hybrid seed, borne of paranoia and responsibility.... and it seems to be ROOTED IN MY SOUL....... but I do take the hedge trimmers to it now. Maybe I should buy some Roundup?

As I went through my morning routine, I thought about what "stuff" I'm loyal to - beyond the obvious & more important (James, friends, honesty, etc.) and thought I'd try a list to see just how loyal I am.
1. Laundry Detergent: Tide, Fabric Softener: Downy. Yeah, yeah. My mom always used the stuff. When I was living alone & struggling, I didn't always buy them because they were a bit more expensive. But I always wanted to. Once in a while I'll try something new (the new Method line is nice but a little too fragrant), but 98% of the time, our stuff is washed in Tide, rinsed in Downy.
2. Dove anti-perspirant. The semi-soft stuff you click up through the cheese grater-esque topper. Nothing else keeps me unstinky.
3. Colgate toothpaste. With the exception of a Costco coupon purchase on Crest, once, in a fit of savings-induced madness, we don't brush with anything else. That three-pack of Crest lasted way too long.
4. Viva paper towels. In this category, I am a freak. Absolutely no substitutions and cheap bargain paper towels make me NUTTERS. James thinks I'm over the top but I notice he enjoys blowing his nose with them. (an ELEPHANT would be happy blowing its nose in Viva.) I can't stand anything else, and always buy the multi-packs when they go on sale.
5. Miracle Whip. Either you get it or you don't. Light or Regular, doesn't matter. Just keep that goopy yellow mayo away from me.
6. Clorox bleach. The ads worked. I'm convinced everything else is watered down.

Wow, I've stumped myself. I thought with as much of a consumer that I am, the brands would just fly off the keyboard. But every category I mentally stumble into, there are multiple brands without a single must-do, must-have. Makeup - all over the place, but I prefer Neutrogena for my base. Cereal & peanut butter? Primarily consumed by James, so we buy what he likes, asks for, or is on sale. Bread, same thing. Cleaning products - I like to try a variety. Clothing & Shoes - most of my clothes come from Ulla Popken because they're the only plus-size retailer that doesn't engage in gobs of polyester or mumu-esque wardrobing. Love my Doc Martens, Birks, and Ecco shoes. When you can adequately combine style with comfort, I'm sold. I realize Birkenstocks aren't necessarily considered stylish by many, but they're perfect for showcasing hand-knit socks, and they are very comfy. Loyalty Shopping? I love my Wal-Mart (SuperCenter please), Target (SuperTarget please), Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens-N-Things, Organized Living, Pier One, Price Chopper, and Jo-Ann's.
Now, don't get me started on yarn shopping. I have way too many local and internet spots that get my money, and there's no way you can trick me into saying "I'm a Berocco yarn girl, all the way." That would limit me waaaay too much. And isn't that what this country's all about? Choices!
I'm thankful I have so many.

Yeah, yeah, I changed the name. I figure I should make my blog title more about knitting and less like a soap opera - even though And the World Turns still feels technically correct & often things in my life take on a soap opera-esque magnitude - though I have yet to discover I've got a mysterious twin sister, or that my husband is plotting to have me kidnapped, or that my dogs are actually searching for their birth bitches because they have a rare blood disease.

I also fiddled with the sidebar, and copied the mood monitor cartoon smack offa Leslie's site, because I thought it was cute. I doubt I'll be able to keep up on my moods (hell, James will tell you he certainly can't), so I thought a coffee-related mood would work well. Who knows. I'm hungry and I want something I haven't eaten in the past three days: in other words, I'm done with American Down Home Cookin' Country Comfort Food. I hit the big mashed-potato-veggie-casserole-turkey-more-turkey-want-some-pie wall, and all I can crave is Thai food. Waah. I don't want to get dressed & go get any, so I'm stuck with what I can scrounge up around here. Looks like the forecast is callin' for rice.

I'm about to go park myself in front of the DVR and watch all the crime shows I've taped for a week-plus, while knitting on the Fabu Holiday Shardigan. Unfortunately, I did not consume enough caffeine in the past couple of days & woke up with a humdinger of a headache. (It's a bitch being an addict.) But I took three Target-brand Excederin, and I'll have a Diet Coke or two & stability will be restored. It's much easier to maintain this habit than, say, oh, black tar heroin! I'd venture a guess that it's also a smidgen healthier.

We had a really nice evening last night, with some of our favorite people in the world stopping by to nosh & visit: Shelley & Kurt, Kristin and her Mom and Dad (the one and only JET), Angela, Julie & Randy & the spankin' new Lily, who was even more gorgeous than she was on Day One in the world - it was so nice to see her eyes OPEN! There was way too much food, as we always go overboard, but not having a ton of people really allowed us to chat more and relax. Oh, and I probably drank an entire bottle of wine when it was all said and done and the little light bulb just went off in my head that perhaps THAT also contributed to the headache? Well, I'm sticking to the caffeine story, no matter what.

I'm also going to go brunette this weekend. I feel like I'm kinda done with the varying shades of shocking red, and red is also the fastest haircolor to fade, studies say. It has gotten to the point where I feel like I need to color my hair every two weeks to obliterate the ever-marching forward root line. I think it'd be kind of interesting, one day, to actually NOT have to dye my hair to cover up my roots - and, GASP, discover if I have any gray hairs yet! I'm naturally a mousy brown, and it's really challenging to find that specific color on the boxes, because "mousy" is not really a selling adjective in the cosmetic & haircolor industry. So as we phase out the red and into a new era of hair color, "French Roast" will be the first step in a new direction. Mmm. Sounds tasty. Maybe in a few months Feria'll have a "French Mouse". Madame! Portez-vous la Souris Française? Très bon. Mousse? I'd love some.

I'm in a very U2 space what with having listened to the new album & being reminded of old albums in the past 24 hours. I just love 'em & the new album is awesome! Today is beautiful, especially because we don't have any tree branches down in our yard. The heavy wet snow is de-gorgeous, and even better because I didn't have to go to work today! WA-HOO. James set his alarm for 2:25 a.m. so he could call and get OUT of goose hunting today (knitters don't engage in such craziness, but I also know that if the best sales on Noro or Colinette happened at 3 a.m., the entire hobby/sport would change, literally, overnight.) So he gets up, I wake up, we're both looking at the snow & Polly wakes up and freaks out that she's once again starring in the left-behind series of Polly, and might actually miss out on something spectacular, like, free bacon. So with the hunter staying home, he "got" to spoil me. A big omelette with turkey bacon, salsa & sour cream, orange rolls, hot coffee - yum. Then he drove us (4-wheel drive engaged) to meet Shelley for coffee, and James showed off how well four-wheel drive works in snow in the parking lot, plowing through huge snowplow piles of snow and careening about, while the entire time I laughed very loudly and nervously, because similar actions in a Honda Civic would result in certain death. After five minutes we stopped behaving like we were 16 years old & went in to Starbucks, where we sipped on chai tea lattes, and I read James the book "Hello, Sweetie-Pie" starring Lola the chipmunk (we think she's a chipmunk, it's nicer than if she's a rat.) It was the cutest book ever, and one page made us laugh so hard because it was like a page out of my life: Lola's friend Lulu initially teased her for her parents' nicknames for her, but then realized she was just sad that she didn't have one herself. So Lulu got her parents to call her the SAME EXACT NICKNAMES that Lola's parents called her, and there's this great drawing of Lola all pouting and HOPPIN' MAD with books standing up on either side of her so she can be by herself, and she's saying, "But I am the only princess sweetie pie!" And then Shelley got there and we made her read it, too, and when we were done we went to Costco & bought oodles of yummy things and ogled television sets that would make our living room feel very, very small.

One last observation about U2. It's obvious they continue to evolve & grow as people and as a super-band. The music and lyrics have grown, and as I was listening to the second song, "Miracle Drug", for the first time yesterday driving to work, I was having these flashes of times in my life I've listened to U2, and each image is like this texturally rich photo, with sounds & smells: Sunday Bloody Sunday, in the Main dorm, the window's partway open & I can hear the B&G mower and smell the fresh cut grass - and I realize as I look back at that snapshot how much I didn't know or how far I would need to grow to feel how I do today. And when I flash to "Beautiful Day" I see James & I in that awful apartment, waiting to get married and needing more space and thinking that I could never need to love him more than I did then & now discovering that I love him twice as deeply in only half the time I've known him. And the love and the music just feels explosive, like the rings that shoot out from Ground Zero and ripple under the surface of the earth, never stopping, and it feels like I'm going to explode myself, but how would I explain to the officer that I'm speeding and crying and happy, all at once?
I want to knit a hat for The Edge. How cool a thank-you would that be?

I am you and you are mine
Love makes nonsense of space
And time...will disappear
Love and logic keep us clear
Reason is on our side, love...

The songs are in your eyes
I see them when you smile
I've had enough of romantic love
I'd give it up, yeah, I'd give it up
For a miracle, a miracle drug, a miracle drug

God I need your help tonight
Beneath the noise
Below the din
I hear your voice
It's whispering
In science and in medicine
"I was a stranger
You took me in"

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting
and do it all the time. While finishing a piece
is the plan, you still love the process, and
can't imagine a day going by without giving
some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation
involves leaving ample space for the stash and
supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn
ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com

What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm sitting here watching Lenny's new video "Lady" and of course, he is still an amazing musician, singer, rockstar, and his little sideways smiles ooze sexuality. He's a hottie, and if you think that's news, you need to get out a little more. His new haircut is shockingly handsome - I thought I'd always swoon for the dreds. I was thinking about how challenging it would be to be Lenny's girlfriend (c'mon, indulge my fantasy. We're only doing this for 5 minutes.) Seriously, you'd have to have an amazingly secure ego, because not only would unbelievably hot, beautiful women be throwing themselves at him all the time, you'd have to live in the shadow of Lisa Bonet, and Lenny LOVED that woman. So I think Lenny should date Annie Lennox. Because she is possibly the most intimidating & secure woman I've ever seen. She scares David Letterman. I first thought Halle Berry, because they have the same haircut now, and they're both really beautiful, but I think Halle would be too insecure. Annie wouldn't even ask Lenny where he'd been. Because she wouldn't have to.
And kudos to Lenny for the women in his video. They obviously are amazing dancers, and they have -gasp- real thighs! Very muscular & not Paris Hilton pukey skinny. I love ya, Lenny. James is still is mad at you for cancelling your show here two years ago, but I say all is forgiven. Come on over to Kansas City, Lenny. And think about giving Annie a call, if she's not taken.

I'm madly in love with James because (#749) every morning, after the school announcements are read and the new "daily meditation" has been spoken, he leads all the children in his class to say in unison, "Whooo-sahhhhhhh" like Joey Pantaliano's character in Bad Boys II when he was trying to de-stress.....

(#922 is for finding an affordable cleaning lady who is scary good. I'm hiding from her upstairs because I can't believe how filthy our house is & how unphased she seems to be about it.)

whooosaaaahhhhhh.

"What is cleaning like crazy in preparation for the cleaning person to arrive?"

An inner spring on the interior mechanism seems to have coiled out and sprung into an area in which it is not used, leaving behind a piece that needed it. I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. last night, playing some jewel shifter game on Yahoo that you can't really even win, dammit, and then slept for 7 hours. Finished the felted mitten class, and told my students to admire their work more. The Dictator Cheerleader. That would be my action doll, if one were being made in my image. You will DO AS I SAY and you will GIVE YOURSELF PATS on the back!
I am making a frozen pizza because it seemed like a better alternative than chewing my arm off. Later it's off to Roger & David's for dinner & a (rented) movie, and knitting on their couch. Sitting down to check email made a big wave of exhaustion come up & over me though, and all I want to do is NAPPITY NAP NAP NAP! But I can't. I'm starting the Holiday Shardigan, so I can wear it to the Holiday Shindig, where, hopefully, there will be Holiday Shenanigans!
And I have to de-clutter because tomorrow, for the first time EVER, I am paying someone else to clean my house. It's funny to clean for the cleaning lady, but dammit, it will force me to do it, and she can have the joy of the brutal mopping and vacuuming & dusting because there is just no way I can do it all. My action figure is not perfect, by a long shot. But it sure can see the silver linings.....

This afternoon was a rock-um-sock-um kinda afternoon. It felt awesome. I don't know if it was excessive amounts of sugar burning themselves into productivity neurons, but I got SO MUCH DONE it was almost frightening. It was terrific! I felt no guilt about leaving every bit of work right there, at work. Next weekend will be a little different, as I'll need to haul some files home to do numbers, but it still won't be Herculean.
After work, Kristin & I went to a Fiber Fair/Sale & I bought a sock kit & some yarn for a Xmas present. Then I came home & smooched my husband, we put together the new vacuum cleaner, he left for his hunting lodge & I am knitting, watching tv, and hanging with Polly, who has licked me more than she has all week. Ew, but still sweet.
I also feel like my conversation yesterday with Phil has helped me realize the foundation I am building is actually brick & mortar, not quicksand. I feel like my actions at work are doing good, and I do not care if they ruffle feathers because someone's insecure or feels the need to compare themself to me. I am doing the right thing, and I am doing positive things. It does not have the power to fix the things that still need to be fixed, but if I can make some people feel like I value them, and to break some of the ice that seems to have frozen up around everyone, then I have gone "above & beyond".
I am setting my own boundaries with my family & it feels healthy. It feels like I've finally made it to the top of that hill, and even though there are more hills out there in front of me, I'm making my decisions & owning the fears & sadness that sit within me still. I may even set down that baggage & leave it behind one day. At least I've taken a few rocks out of the backpack.
sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me ..... re sp ect find out what it means to me..... to BE me.....

I met Roger for dinner at our favorite haunt, Thai Place (in Westport), because our absolutely most favorite waitperson in the Entire Universe works there (Amy) (who is Chinese, not Thai) and she always makes sure we have plenty of Thai Iced Tea (Nectar of Gods) and always has a joke for us. Last night’s joke started with “What do you get jackass with onion?” and we filled in the missing verbs mentally, and I said, “Somethin’ stinky?” and she said, “Hole on, I be right back.” She darted off and returned with a small notebook. She had written down the joke! I love it! I should start doing this, because I usually forget everything but “something about a guy, and then it ends with Blow it out your Ass!” and it’s only funny to me and awkward for the target, usually my husband. Anyway. The joke goes like this, and it’s a double-duty joke because it has two punchlines and right now I’m terrified I’ve already forgotten them, because I didn’t write them down.
What do you get when you cross a jackass with an onion?
Answer 1: A Stinky Ass (this might have been created on the spot for my benefit)
Answer 2: A piece of Ass that brings tears to your eyes!

While the joke itself isn’t that funny, Amy’s delivery is everything. She’s the bomb!

Immediately after dinner, I had to rush home. I thought I might actually heave-ho into a garbage can along the sidewalk, much to Roger’s consternation. He told me to go ahead, but know he’d be forced to follow suit. After getting home & having some quality time, I determined that the culprit was NOT Thai Food, but the panini sandwich from Panera I’d eaten for lunch. It had left me a bit queasy & adding spicy red curry catfish to the churning machinery was enough to send things into high alert. I am just grateful because I love Thai food so much, if I had to stop eating it, I don’t know what I would do. Just typing about it makes me crave it!

Tonight is Knit Nite, which is going to be held at an IHOP, should be interesting! I wish it were 5:00 right now!

Yes, that was the subject line from one of the 55+ spam emails I get on a daily basis, and it made me laugh enough that it stayed in my Junk mail folder, just as a pick-me-up for those days when I don't feel like a Vessel for anything, let alone Our Lord. As a former spelling bee champion (I was a contendah, daddy, I was!), I am a bit disappointed in the scribe chossen by the Lord, because it really is important when you get notifications like this, that everything be spelled correctly. I can't frame this or even forward it to my friends, because it's got that slipshod feel now.
....sigh
I crowned myself the Queen of Cream Sauces last night, because I can say without hesitation that there are two things I do with impeccable skill: parallel park & make a cream sauce. In cleaning out the pantry over the weekend, I found an assortment of half-used bags of pasta in a variety of shapes. I under-cooked the pasta, put it all in a big lasagne pan, and then whisked my magic: cream sauce, to which was added 4 cups of shredded cheese (sharp cheddar, colby, jack) and then some chunked Velveeta just for the guarantee: damn good cheesey-ness. Topped off with parmesan cheese. We had some leftover - getting hard & crunchy - artisan garlic bread, so I cut that into bitty bits, tossed with butter & used those rich crumbs to top the whole shebang off, put in the oven at 375 & baked for about half an hour. It was almost too rich, if there is such a thing! Leftovers will be eaten with lots of steamed broccolli, my favorite veggie, which will sop up some of the cheesey cream sauce & cut through the overall richness. I am excited to get my yarn wound for the Shardigan (which is not a Summer Shardigan, but rather a Holiday Party Shardigan) - I don't have loads of time between now & the party & best to get crackin'! The Folly is coming along nicely, and those little flowers were meant to be done intermittently, because they do hurt my hands a bit. 16 large flowers done, 16 large flowers to go, and uh, 24 small flowers to go.
Please, Lord, if I am your Vessel, let me finish this cardigan.... flowers & all!

I have spent the day in the same items of clothing I chose when I decided I was cold & needed something to putter around the house in - at 9:30 a.m. It's over 12 hours later, and I've spoken to one person on the phone, had MANY conversations with Suzy, who is staying at home this weekend while Polly gets some hunting experience, and I have done diddly-squat beyond what I've wanted to do, most of the day. Interestingly enough, my unshowered, stick-straight hair has actually stood up more on one side of my head as the day's gone on, I'm not sure what physics-defying mechanics are at work, but I look more bed-head-rumpled at 10:17 p.m. than I did after I got up this morning. As my dear art history professor Susan Strauber would describe a Corot, my hair is "movemented".... we never believed that was a real word, but it worked, and is particularly applicable to my hair profile today. I didn't go outside & plant tulips, because I wasn't dressed for it, and could not bring myself to change, apparently. Lazy, lazy daisy am I! But I checked my work email & Heather from dooce.com had replied to my query - how big is Leta's head - so I've started a fun little hat for the cutie-patootie. Kristin & I will hopefully get the hats done & off to her before it gets too much colder! I switched from the poofy pink yarn to a skein of biggy print I had left from some socks - it's way more fun, and I'll use the poofy pink for little Lily Wenger, maybe make her a beret or something. Baby knits are so fun because they go so fast, and the results are so adorable! I'm completely making the pattern up as I go, so here's to doing it without running out of yarn.... I better go do some of the work I brought home - the week ahead will be grisly as usual, and I never seem to learn the lesson of doing a little at a time ..... kinda like those tulips.....!

So, we are just past the three-week mile marker for James & his bi-Pap machine. It is a miraculous little device; I have dubbed it the "iron lung" in my head. It truly keeps him breathing through the night, unless he pulls his mask off, and then his snoring usually wakes me up & I have to tell him to put it back on. But even that has gotten less as time goes on. And within a week, I was seeing glimpses of my "old JWo", like he is shedding a skin that bound him and crippled him and his healthier, more-human self can re-emerge into the light. I've even flipped around and am sleeping side-by-side with him again. It's really nice. (It will be nicer once we get that damned headboard done!) Two nights ago, he held my hand as we lay there, waiting for sleep, and through his mask he said, "Thank you for being so patient." And without even thinking, I replied: "I'm patient because I love you." It is so nice to have that level of love & trust. I don't think I ever believed I'd find it with anyone, and now I don't know how I'd live without it. I've also become a much more patient person, because of my relationship with him, and as I've gotten older & less demanding that EVERYthing on earth go my way. Most of the time. :)

There is something incredibly satisfying about throwing an object (like a pop bottle lid, or a pile of paper) at the garbage can & having it "thunk" right in. Most people take this for granted, don't they, their ability to accomplish such a mundane task? Not me. I am AWFUL at basketball and other similarly-skilled sports. Here, take this surprisingly heavy object, don't double dribble, run back & forth & evade all these waving hands in your face until you get within 'range', and heave said object up in the air and through that stringy thing on the ring. What-flippin-ever. Let's just say, it's not the sport of choice for short fat women in this country. The hand-waving in my face, I will never, ever forget. It made me want to throw the ball RIGHT IN JOLENE'S FACE and break her nose. My own cheer would have gone something like this: BE AGGRESSIVE, BE, BE AGGRESSIVE, GO! GO! GO! HA HA! I BROKE YOUR NOSE!

So whenever I throw something halfway across my office and THUNK it goes in, or even more exciting, I bounce it off the backboard of the wall and it THUNKS into the garbage can, I mentally award myself with praise and two points. I have no idea what my score is, but I'm winning.

I am entering the time of year where everything piles and piles and piles and threatens to all tumble & crash to the ground into a thousand shards of Things I Used to Love Before They Broke Into Shards. It makes me very intolerant, and slightly homicidal. Witness driving to a birthday lunch, when a woman errantly looked across the street & thought "Hey, it says Don't Walk, but that old saying 'the Pedestrian has the Right of Way' should trump that." Lady, you are lucky to be alive because as I hurtled down the hill, WITH the green light & right of way, I shouted at you, "Lady, prepare to DIE!" and I really didn't think I'd do that much damage to my car if I hit her. She looked pretty small, in fact. Fortunately for both of us, she stopped trying to cross, and I became less cross - eventually. I have been yelling about making love to goats (I don't practice it, but the plastic farm animals in my supervisor's inbox have started it up), and my jaw is getting tighter and tighter. I chip my front teeth in my sleep. My dentist said re: the last chip, "It gives you personality", to which I replied, "I don't NEED more personality with my teeth, I have PLENTY to start with." He did not offer to cap me up, and I can't afford capping anyway. However, it's cafeteria plan time, so hey, let's pencil it in for next year! I did ask if we could do titanium caps, so as to curb the chipping. Apparently not. Maybe if I went to the BlingBling place over by Bannister Mall I could get Hooked Up. Basically, I'm sensing that I need MORE TIME to myself and I also need to get my shit together. Our house looks like we're trying to get picked for one of those "Clean Sweep" shows, except I don't have time to take pictures of it, and if I had to enter the Make-A-Wish foundation, I'd fervently hope that someday I'll put my laundry away & actually get it all done! The great news is that I care less. I tell myself I don't care, but it's not completely true. I care, because it's part of my wiring system. I am just re-conditioning myself to put in a filter, so I don't care about EVERYthing, and some things have more weight than others. This practice, I believe, is commonly labeled "prioritizing"!
Tomorrow, I am sleeping until 7 a.m., because that damned Witty Knitter is out via email, and everyone else can just wait their happy asses out for it to arrive in the mail. Peeps, it's called a computer and an information superhighway. Think about gettin' on it and off the wagon trail. Just make sure you look both ways before crossing, because you never know who's speeding down the hill right atcha, and you daresn't cross against the lights......

My hands are tired from knitting, my body is tired from - well, I'm not sure what its excuse is. I only got 18 tulips planted (hey! I have 98 to plant, so only 80 to go! wooo hooo!) and it was arduous, even with the HoundDog Digger, because the ground is so wet it won't release from the cone that you stomp into the ground. And the Hound Dog Digger is not the lightest piece of equipment (which is good, I prefer sturdy over cheap & bendy), so whacking it four-six times after stomping a plug of earth into it, was just a little more than I'd bargained for. Plus Polly was observing from her kennel & whining, which made my nerves more than tired, it made them rubbed the wrong way & grouchy! It's funny, I'm putting in "Sophisticated Ladies" by the dog kennel, and Mike observed last night, "For the doggies to look at?" I said, "Yes, because they're Sophisticated Bitches." There's nothing like fifth-grade humor among friends.
There may be an elann purchase in the near future, because I'm not enraptured with some of the colors I bought for the flowers for my Folly. I have a purple & a lime that I do like, and I think I'll stick with a similar color scheme that the designer had, adding a deep fuschia rose, and a navy blue. I have a bright red, pale yellow, and sky blue that I'd ordered, and they don't make sense now. Oooooh, but an afghan could incorporate all those colors, eh? LOL, I just can't stop. Maybe baby sweaters would be better. But it's handwash. Hm. Well, I'm sure I'll find some use for it all. :) It's a sickness, and I'm certifiable. Certifiably tired, that's for sure. Off to turn the oven on, for my hunting husband is homeward bound, and we're having salads & pizza for dinner. Yum!

Oh, yes, I'm bad..... I bought yarn ..... more yarn than I planned on buying - but hey, it was all gooooood. The Studio had their awesome sale & I got loads of yarn for lots of projects, and walked out saying, "I'm done buying yarn for a while." To which Kristin replied, "Yeah! Until next week."
Well, it's not even next week and I'm freebasing all this Tartelette I found on eBay, because the prices there are way cheaper than even "on sale" at my LYS, and I smell holiday scarves as presents. (My yarn nose is amazing. A veritable bloodhound.) I seriously am going to have to be stopped. If only Two Rivers was a more glamorous retreat. I need like a detox yarn spa, where I bring my OWN stash, but get massages & manicures & pedicures & tasty healthy meals cooked for me and it only costs, like, $30.
The Folly is humming along, I thought the acreage knitting was really going to be annoying, but in fact, it's going pretty well. I grabbed out some of my flower yarn to take along tonight for a small project if Game Night is not holding my interest. (That's the kind of guest I am. You're having me over for a game night? Well in case I get bored with what you have going on, I have my knitting, right here! LOL!) I'm looking forward to Genghis Khan beforehand, apparently the new one up north is pretty spiffy. I need to stop at Home Depot on the way to Roger's and get a Hound Dog bulb planter, since tomorrow is Tulip Day for me, and I'm not kneeling & planting 100 bulbs!
Had my first session of the Felted Door Mitten class today, the students were all at different levels, but I feel pretty confident that they'll all be able to go off & make some serious progress between now and the 20th. I enjoy teaching, and it's fun to teach new things that delight people, like a knitted cast-on, for instance. Two students decided it was the Greatest Thing Ever! It's rewarding to have that kind of enthusiasm. And I got paid for my classes, so it actually made me feel a little better about this Yarn Binge I've been on!
Better get dressed & going if I'm to be on time.... for once!

Good night, sweet Jesus, why do I love to go to scary movies? I went to "Saw" with Roger & David yesterday, and Hollywood has figured out if you're at the scary movie, then you are a perfect taret for ALL the scary movie previews! I was ready to bolt before the movie even started, what with crazy redneck killers and dead people talking and the only preview that wasn't terrifying was a funny movie coming up starring Bill Murray & Owen Wilson as deep sea divers on an illegal quest to kill a shark that killed Bill's best friend. Bill Murray in a wetsuit, doing a little hip-shifting dance, is enough to make even the terrified laugh.
Saw, on the other hand, was a lot like "Se7en" or however that movie was spelled, and it yet it wasn't as perfect as Seven. The acting was a bit lame-o. Felt more like watching a college production desperately trying to be Mamet, than a big ol' Hollywood movie. Even so, there were some taught, freaky-ass scary scenes, and of course, the mongo big twist at the end that was just so implausable, at least, it made me less fearful that psychopaths are, at this very moment, plotting my torturous demise. When I saw Seven, I had to go home and check EVERYTHING. Closets, even full closets, under the bed, everywhere. That movie flipped me out, and in part because we didn't know what it was about, just that maybe it was a mystery/detective movie, and so what that we're going to see it at 11:00 at NIGHT.
Onward & upward. I finished the cutest little booties for our United Way fundraiser, I will get a pic posted soon. I'm going to try & whip out another pair (different style) before Wednesday. We had a few trick-or-treaters last night, and none were teenagers, thankfully. I think when you get to the age you can mow lawns, it's time to buy your own candy.
I thought today was Polly's Burfday, however, James thought it was the 4th. I told James we would just have to celebrate her Burfday ALL WEEK because she is JUST THAT SPECIAL. Polly demonstrated her agreement by licking my chin. I just checked her papers, and Wednesday, the 3rd, is her 1 year Burfday. I love that dog a little too much.
Back to work. I swear, the next seven weeks (hey, there's that number again) better go by smoothly or I might just have some BlueFlu.