Twenty-one

Thieved from Ames...

What were you doing when you were 21? Let's relive shall we????

Here we go....

!. In what year did you turn 21? 1999.

2. How many years ago was that? 9

3. What if anything was memorable in how you looked? Um...I had long hair? I think.

4. What was your favorite outfit? Same as now. Jeans and a t-shirt.

5. What kind of car did you drive? A Chevy Corsica 5-speed.

6. Did you have a job? Yep!

7. Did you like your job? It was/is a job.

8. Did you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? I had a husband...

9. What can you remember about them? He was an ass and I wish I could blame the marriage on a drug haze. But, I learned from it at least.

10. Did you have any close friends? Not so much

11. Do you still stay in touch with them? See #11

12.Did you do anything special on your 21st birthday? See #8 & #9

13.What was the most memorable moment of the year of 21? I got divorced!

Now it's your turn! Repost this with your answers on your blog!

Warning! Funny ahead...

I remembered this from a friend's myspace blog. Thought it would make my three readers chuckle (and possibly snort with laughter). I can't claim the originality for this, but I sure wish I could.

For your own safety and that of your computer, do not drink (any liquids) while reading the rest of this post! You've been duly warned.

"How to give a cat a pill"

1. Pick up the cat and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while sliding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow...

2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from under chair. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

3. Retrieve cat from bedroom and throw soggy pill away.

4. Take a new pill from foil wrap. Cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse in from garden.

6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between the knees. Holding front and rear paws ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold cat's head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.

7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make a note to buy a new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines from hearth and set aside for gluing later.

8. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with its head just visible from beneath spouse's armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force cat's mouth open with pencil and blow down straw.

9. Check label to make sure that pill is not harmful to humans. Drink glass of water to take taste away. Apply band-aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10. Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with spoon, flick pill down throat with elastic band.

11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for last tetanus shot. Throw t-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

12. Call the fire department to retrieve cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.

13. Tie cat's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining room table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves from garage. Force cat's mouth open with small trowel. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Hold head vertically and pour ½ pint of water down throat to wash pill down.

14. Get spouse to drive you to emergency room. Sit quietly while doctor stitches finger and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Stop by furniture store on the way home and order a new table.

15. Arrange for vet to make house call.

KITTY!!!!!

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of my little cave. Mo, say hi to everyone... Mo... Mo? What do you have...Where are you going with that??... Get back here, you little shit!

Well, she's not being real sociable at the moment so you'll have to make do with some photos, I guess.

We adopted her Saturday and brought her home. OH and I had every intention of opening her carrier and leaving her alone to explore and get used to everything. Yeah, that worked well. I would guess that we looked like two new parents hovering over their newborn child. Luckily, this will be the only type of children we plan on having. (That being the four legs and furry kind.)

While we really want to have 2 kitties, our current living situation only allows for one. But that's okay. It's been a really really long time since either of us had a furball, so one will be plenty.

We got kind of worried about her yesterday, though. Where Saturday, she was all hyped up on adrenaline, yesterday she just kind of laid there and didn't really move much. So, we took her to the vet today to get everything checked out. She weighs 4 pounds exactly and is roughly 4 months old. And healthy. Except for a touch of a kitty cold. Luckily, there are no pills to give her. Just some liquid antibiotic and goo to put in her eyes. Guess who gets the joy of doing that twice a day for the next ten days? Yep.

Oh, and we named her 'Mo' because her motor (ha) runs almost all the time. It got narrowed down to Mo, River, or Jayne and Mo just kind of stuck. So, if this kitty has more than one name, I'd guess she'll be 'River Mo'.








Ain't she adorable?

I'm having a MOMENT, here...

I have to re-evaluate my life. Luckily, there are only a few areas I feel the need to re-evaluate. Like my wardrobe. And whether or not I want to dye my hair.

Where did this come from? Why do I feel the need to do this? Well, let me tell you....

I found my first grey hair this week. Ack!

Yes, I know. It's not a big deal, you say. There'll be plenty more where that came from. You'll get used to it. Blah blah blah-de-blah. I know!

The thing is ... well ... the thing is ... um ... you see ... *sigh* It's physical proof that I'm a grown-up. And I just don't think I can handle that yet. I mean, I've only got 3 decades under my belt. I don't want to be a grown-up yet!

So, let me have my moment of panic, okay.

The tank is done!

See, here's a headless me to prove it! Too bad the blasted thing decided to pooch out in a couple of awkward places. Now it can be thrown into the bottomless closet of doom!
















Went to the family reunion. Was told that my attendance was 'mandatory' since one of my grandmothers was supposed to be there. Key words = supposed to be. Guess where she was. Not at the reunion. She went to Tennessee. Argh! Still, I guess it was okay. I saw some other family members (also not at the reunion), spent some time outside of work with Mom and Pop.

This coming weekend, though, I am not making plans!!!!! Hey, Ames. Our weekly ritual does not count as plans unless it can get us out of some other obligation lol.


Here's a photo of my current project. It (hopefully) will be a shawl. Yes, this is what most of my projects look like in the beginning. Only not quite as neat. Yes, there are two balls of yarn in a 'yarn bra'. (I did not name the thing, I swear!)

This shawl is the Forget-Me-Not Shawl over on Elann's site in the free pattern section. I hope I'm up for the challenge. I'm currently on attempt #3.

Attempt #1 was frogged due to my inability to count.

Attempt #2 was going well until I got to the second pattern row (row 11 I think) when a simple yarn over made me have a headdesk moment. Did I mention that this was after I forgot how to do my decreases and had to look them up on KnittingHelp, then remember how to properly reverse them to suit my knitting style.

And, before I got to the pattern rows on attempt #3, I had the bright idea to look at the written pattern (since I learned to reverse decreases on the written patterns) and compare it to the chart to see if I needed to change things up in the chart.

I think this is part of the reason I have trouble knitting something *exactly* to pattern. I always, always have to change something. Ask Ames. She's dealt with me and patterns before.

So, needless to say, I'm pretty sure that the tapestry that I'm doing has to be frogged and restarted as well because I did the decreases in the wrong flipping direction. Yes, it matters. Well, it does to me.

I'm going to go forage for chocolate now....

Shawl n Crawl

Firstly, I finished a shawl! It's the Luna Moth shawl and I really want to make another one, but in a different color. This one is going to be a Christmas gift for one of my grandmothers. She requested one and survey says that she'll like it. Cross your fingers...















Secondly, Ames and I went on a yarn crawl today. We had funds, a full tank of gas, no a/c, polar pops, and a fistful of directions. Believe it or not, we found our way to the first stop with no problems. No wrong turns, either!


See, we even have photos with some of our yarn cakes.









The owner of Clementine's was kind enough to let us know that what we had planned on as our second stop no longer existed, and printed out some directions for us to a different place instead.

Third stop: Mass Ave. Knit Shop! I had been here before, but it was Ames' first time. She reacted much the same as I did when we walked in. Which was to stop, gape, and absorb the atmosphere. Sometime during our perusal, the rest of the road trip just kind of ... disappeared. But, neither of us were disappointed with that fact. We spent several happy hours petting yarn, picking brains, concocting patterns, and yarny goodness! I even tried my hand at making yarn cakes with my purchases:










The cakes you see in front of me were wound by me, with one exception. Don't ask which one because I honestly don't remember.










Behind me, you'll see Dru hamming it up as well. (Forgive me if my spelling is off, Dru!)
















And then, much later in the afternoon, we decided it was time to take our new stuff home and introduce it all to its new friends in our stashes. Of course, it's all clamoring to be used right now but I shall be strong and finish the buddy tank first!

(Oh, and you can see my new, much shorter 'do as well.)

Intermission

I may have to *gasp* take a break from knitting. Or get a hand masseuse. But I really want to finish the eleventy billion projects I have around the room. Honest!

OH once suggested that I need another hobby. After my incredulous look, he hastened to clarify that I needed another hobby that wasn't knitting related. Doesn't that constitute heresy or something? Of course, then I turned him into my human swift for a while and he didn't mention it again.

What all do I have on the needles today, you ask? Well, I'm so glad you did ask. I have:

1. A hat for Pop (probably for xmas) over halfway finished.
2. Wristwarmers/cuffs for a cousin of mine (barely started).
3. Tank top (buddy knit with Ames) small amount finished so far.
4. A swatch/tapestry that I'm designing (roughly a quarter finished).
5. A shawl (Luna Moth Shawl) that is over halfway completed.
6. Another shawl (Kiri) that's been hibernating for a while now.
7. A scarf (Candle Flame Scarf) that's hiding out in one of the knitting bags.
8. A blanket/throw for an uncle. He's been patiently waiting for this thing for over 2 years.
9. Two! baby blankets that need sewn together.

And that's just off the top of my head. That also doesn't count all the things I want to make. I think I'll save that list for another post.

I'm going to go eat more chocolate now, I think.

Insert-Title-Here

I have lost my witty-title-making ability for the moment.

I do believe I need to admit to something. I'm pretty sure that I'm more of a process knitter than a product knitter. Yes, I have finished some things, but I just can't seem to resist starting more and more projects. So I'm a process knitter with severe startitis. (Process knitter = knitting to be knitting. Product knitter = knitting to have finished items.)

What do I have on the needles right now....

• Tank top buddy kal
• Kiri shawl
• cuffs
• swatch/tapestry

And I'm starting another project. It looks fairly easy, and is in a thicker yarn, and I'm optimistic that I will be able to finish it and not get bored halfway through the pattern (as I tend to do quite often) and ignore it in favor of chocolate. I honestly should weigh a lot more than I do if I truly consume as much chocolate as I say I do....

The tomato plants are still alive! There's even one turning red (a good thing). Unfortunately, it's the one I'm not sure I want to eat as there are some holes in it (from bugs, I guess). But, there's 3 or 4 others that are perfectly healthy looking (at the moment) that I'm waiting for the colors to start changing. Go me!

I've this nifty new keyboard that's addicting to type on. It's very slim, like a laptop keyboard. And it lights up! So I can type in the dark now without squinting to see the keys! My only difficulty with it is that, occasionally, certain keys stick so I have to pay more attention to what I'm typing so that I don't end up typing 'lie his' (like this).

Now, where did I leave those darned sarcasm pills?

The Pratchgan 2008

Ramblings of a yarn junkie: The Pratchgan 2008 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!

See my previous post for more info. Not much more that I can add to this, honestly. I'm still in awe of what we did!

Pratchgan 2008 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Way back in December, I joined in with a group of fiber-artsy people over on Ravelry to make an afghan for none other than Mr. Terry Pratchett.

Well, earlier today our wonderful organizer, Shirley, had the privilege of presenting the Pratchgan to Mr. Pratchett in person. She's posted about it, with photos! over on her blog.

She also wrote a letter explaining what it was and why we did it. Here's what the letter says:

Dear Mr Pratchett,

The Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild is a group on the fibre arts website ravelry.com where fans can come together to indulge our passion for all things crafty as well as all things Discworld.

At the end of last year we were trying to think of a way to show our support following the news of your Alzheimer’s diagnosis and being a bunch of knitters and crocheters (not to mention spinners, weavers and dyers) we decided a Discworld-inspired afghan blanket was the way to go.

Since 26th December 2007 ninety-nine people from all over Roundworld have contributed a square or two, causing my postman to start giving me some very strange looks. The project thread on ravelry has been a joy as people suggested themes, egged each other on or just had a rant when a brilliant idea turned out not to be so brilliant after all. Somewhere along the way the project became known as The Pratchgan 2008 and the name has now firmly stuck.

We send you this gift and the accompanying letters with all our love, to let you know that a bunch of strangers are thinking of you and also with our thanks for all the years of laughter that your books have brought us. If you ever manage to find the time to join ravelry (a wee birdie has told us that you spin and weave so it’s not entirely outwith the realms of possibility that you might feel the urge to join some day) we’d be honoured to have you as a member of the Guild.

We hope you enjoy The Pratchgan and that it brings you as much pleasure as we’ve had creating it.

Warmest wishes,

Shirley (ravelry name cherryred)
On behalf of the Ankh-Morpork Knitter’s Guild

I feel truly honored to have been a part of this. And yes, I did get a little bit teary-eyed at all of it.