Knitting in the Shadows

The more things change ...

As much as I hate to admit it, I ate lunch at McDonald's yesterday.  I felt as though I had slipped back in time (or perhaps been transported across the seas to the lands of my ancestors, Denmark).  The colors were straight out of the 1970's...

Yep, there's the orange, and brown, and harvest gold.  there are the paper lights....

And there's the Danish style furniture.

Oddly, it didn't feel cheap, or old, or worn out, but fresh and clean.  And the chairs were more comfortable than any McDonald's chair I've sat in before.  But really?  Must we go back to orange and harvest gold?

 

Incentives to Tailgate

Normally, I'm one of those drivers who likes to keep at least a car length between me and the car ahead of me. Especially on the highway.  In fact, when traffic is civilized, I tend to keep several car lengths between me and the car in front of me.

Especially in the morning, when I'm driving the kids to school, before my coffee has fully kicked in.

But...

When the view in front of your car looks like this:

You begin to think about projectiles and their arcs, and suddenly, you want to be close enough that an errant cannon ball will fall BEHIND you, not on top of you.

And you kind of want to be right up on that sucker's tail.

Until you realize that there are multiples....

Luckily, monitoring mobile cannons is not a usual part of my mornings. 

Whittling Down the To Do List

About a week ago (although co-inciding with my Grandmother's birthday, not actually in celebration thereof), I started another List. Yes... the evil to do list is back.  Since then, I've been whittling away at it, and, as these things go, adding things to it as I go.  Luckily, I've added fewer things than I've done.  But I started with 3 1/4 pages in a wee notebook that's about the size of a 3x5 card.  There are 21 lines on each page.

Ouch.

Bear in mind, that I'm no dummy.  When I make up a list, I break things down into small pieces.  That way, I get to mark things off even when the whole LARGE task isn't done.  For example, the dismantling of the Holiday Decorating took up four lines:  Put away ornaments; take down tree; put away wreaths; put away the Fathers' Christmas.  It ought to have had another for the candles....

Today, I finally marked off the last of those things.  The ornaments have been put away for a good week.  The tree finally came down Sunday (it was still so fresh! it seemed as shame to wrest it from its warm pot of water and chuck it to the curb).  But today -- I got all the wreaths in their boxes, and even put back the pictures that normally hang on the wall where the indoor wreaths were.  I put away all the Fathers' Christmas, and most of the candles.  In fact, after a quick tour of the first floor, this is all I have left to put away in the storage closet.

Three candles and a set of whistles from Christmas Crackers.

Todays' accomplishments also include the transplanting of several plants.  The big tree, whose picture I failed to take, finally got moved to a pot that is big enough for it to thrive.  The poor dear has been potbound for years (literally).  The local nursery had a big sale on pots, and I found one that was big enough that they hadn't originally wanted $100.00 or more for ... which meant that on sale, I could actually afford it.  The ficus should be much happier.

That freed up the ficus' most recent pot for a new member of our plant family:

Isnt' he stunning!  I know what you're thinking -- what on earth was I doing acquiring a new plant of that size given my stringent budget (that of the unemployed).  I quite agree... Norfolk Pines of that size tend to be pretty expensive.  But I was in Lowe's the other day, and they were trying to clear out the last of their "live Christmas tree" stock.  He was a bit disheveled, but for $5.99... I couldn't say no!  Later that day, I was in the local nursery where they wanted $5.99 for a Norfolk Pine that was about 6" tall.  I only barely didn't gloat out loud.

While I had the dirt out, I moved this little baby into that black pot:

Kitty bought that fellow for $1.99 while I was getting the pot for the ficus.  I freed up the pot by moving this baby fern into a pot that had been lurking in the garage:

(Yes, the new pot is too big right now, but if my past experience with those palm things is anything to go by, it'll grow into it.  I'm calling that move "time frugality" -- I'd have had to repot twice more on the way there anyway).

Alas, all that pot shifting only crossed off two itemson the list.  I hadn't gotten around to putting "repot pine" on the list yet.

As of this moment, there are 30 things left from the original list, plus 23 more that have been added since the original list was written.  I'd feel worse about that if there weren't 98 total entries on that list.  That's almost half of it done in only a week... and the day is young. 

Ads

Okay, I admit it.  There are some ads that I just can't get enough of.

Like this.

 

Now back to me...

Now back to the ad....

Now back to me...

I'm in my knitting chair.

Knitting humor, and the WIPs are winning

A friend shared this with me.

I MUST share it with you.

I've ganked it, rudely, from HERE

 

Perhaps that will make up for the lameness of what follows.

I'm progressing nowhere very quickly.

I have managed to divide Kitty's Wolf Hoodie for the armholes (but have no pictures -- someone *cough* Bookworm *cough* borrowed my camera, had lots of fun, and ran the battery down to ... well... nothing).  I had to do it twice, because the first time, I managed to create what would have been an interesting, asymmetrical zippered hoodie.  While asymmetrical might be cool and stylish, it wasn't sufficiently asymmetrical for anyone to believe it was intentional.

And those glorious mitts... Well.. um, they're stalled.

I did figure out what the cuff needs to look like. And now I'm flummoxed altogether in my attempts to coerce the yarn to do what I want it to do. 

It's clear that I need to keep a nice visual zig zag thing going, but… I need to get some stretchy in there too.  No one wants flappy wrists. But. Color work zig zag kind of undoes stretchy.

I tried getting the zig zag the same way one does in Jaywalker socks, while sneaking in some rib action but, since my zig zags are only 5 stitches between points (at 5.75 st/in) that means I’m working the following:

color A: (cdd, k1, inc 1, p1, inc 1) repeat.
color A: p1, k2, p1, k2
color A: cddp, k1, inc1, p1, inc1
Color B: k around
Color B: cddp, k1, inc1, p1, inc1
Color B:p1, k2, p1, k2
Color A….

Fussy, hard to see in the black rows, and in the end, it has almost no zig zag, and, frankly, isn’t very stretchy.

Horizontal stripiness looks like crap. Vertical stripes look worse. HOW to I keep the zigzag (or even some other color miracle) while getting stretchy/snuggy for the cuff?

Ordinarily, I'd be perfectly content with dithering about on this for months until I achieved success.  But this time, I want the gift to be on the hands of the donee, not in the time-out corner for miscreant WIPs.  This WIP is whippin' my butt, and I don't like it.

Whine mode off.

Today is Golf Pro's birthday, and I'm going back to celebrating that. 

Not at a theme park

Hello all.

I've run away from home.  Not because home is bad... but because every now and then, a gal needs some time OFF.  Luckily, I've a great and dear friend who likes to enable this behavor.

Yesterday, I flew to Orlando, got picked up at the airport and taken to Downtown Disney, where we shopped, and I bought silly things, including this T-shirt

and a present for my car's rear view mirror

 

(hey, it was cheap!  and it's my favorite mickey)

And, of course, presents for the girls.

 

What?  they read this blog!  No way do YOU get to see the pressies before THEY do...

After frivolous shopping, we went to Raglan Road, (the real reason for stopping on Disney property) where I narrowly escaped buying one more T-Shirt:

 

The knitter in me enjoyed that one...

We tried to take pictures once we got into the restaurant proper... but... well.. we had phones, not real cameras, and it was dark.  The web site makes it hard to link to things... but we enjoyed a Scallop Forest (each scallop comes on it's own fork, ready to dip in amazing sauce).  And then there was this goat cheese salad that I'd happily eat daily until I couldn't fit through the door.  And the ... well... NOT chowder (sort of an Irish Bouillabaisse)... delicious.   But the real danger came through the desert menu.

Bread pudding... already amazingly light and delicious.... with this buttery caramel sort of sauce.  and this... chocolate thing they describe as chocolate with more chocolate and then add chocolate.

And all the while, they've a live band playin' Irish music.  Well. No, seriously -- well. 

I'm really glad I don't live down there.  I'd have to eat there often.  And I'd be ... well.... more than a few sizes larger than I am now.

After dinner, we wandered a bit more, and I tried on silly hats:

But, eventually, we pried ourselves away from mouseville, and drove south.  It was fun, and rather like old times, wending our way down smaller and smaller highways in the middle of the night.  We enjoyed seeing a bunch of guys fishing off the bridges over Sarasota Bay in the middle of the night (and I do mean midnight), and laughing about the various reasons we weren't going to talk to them. .. all of which ended with ..."because they're, well, hanging around on the bridge in the middle of the night).

We ended the day with a walk on the beach.  I tried to take a picture, because it was truly lovely, but my camera just can't.

Instead, I leave you with this view from my hotel room window.

Man, I love honors points that get you free hotel rooms!

Mutterings on Names

A passing thought about virtues.  Did anyone else notice that not one of the 73 virtues I posted about mentions athleticism, or any other form of taking care of your physical body in any way other than keeping it clean?  Does that mean that sitting on my ass is virtuous?

But seriously folks, I really meant to play with some Unconscious Mutterings.  Today it's about names.

1. Lisa :: Barbecue (I just went to a GREAT Barbecue party at Lisa's)
2. Hope :: Virtue
3. Irene ::malice (long story there, but it's not mine, so I can't share)
4. Tony :: Barbecue (again (same party)
5. Anna :: family (cousin, grandmother, great grandmother)
6. Dolly :: Hello! (or Parton)
7. Laura :: Ashley (though Jeane really should have been my first thought)
8. Debbie :: Reynolds
9. Wilson :: Dad
10. Paula :: Abdul

Candidate for Fail Blog...

Since I'm pulling a blog fail --- having spent too much time doing bills today to do sock photography -- I'm going to tell you about something I saw on the Disney Trip that SO needed to be photographed at a time when I had no access to my camera.  It was a Fail Blog candidate if I ever saw one.

Let me paint the scene.

You're in a rest stop along some highway.  There's a sweeping turn leading to the exit.

You're in a bus... a big bus.  It needs most of the space in that turn to get by.  But... there's something blocking the path.  A car can get past easily, but not a bus.

Out the window you see... a generic pick up truck pulling a flat bed trailer with it's two ramps down.  Those ramps are the perfect width for a car of some sort to drive right up.  Behind the flat bed, wheels a yard from the ramps, is an SUV (Explorer perhaps).  ON the flat bed is an ATV upon which is riding, in the normal place, a fellow of medium height and build, and... on the front fender, a young woman of similar build.  They're trying to haul the SUV up onto the flat bed.  Presumably there's no go left in the SUV.  The woman appears to be serving as ballast.

Already it's funny, right? 

They fire up the ATV, they move forward... the chain between the ATV and the SUV grows taught... the SUV actually rolls forward a bit... and then the ATV rears up a bit as the full weight of the SUV hits the ramps.

On the third try, the girl falls off the front.  And she's pissed at the driver.  Seriously.  Like it never occurred to her that falling off could happen!

I'm SO wishing for my camera.

Then the driver of the SUV gets out.  This person is at least one and a half times the size of either of the other two. 

Did it not occur to them that if there HAS to be a driver in the SUV, that driver should not be the heaviest of the crew?  Hello?? (Turns out that the driver of the truck was heavier still, but whatever). And that maybe, if you need ballast on the ATV, the lightest person in the crew isn't the best choice?  And just maybe... swapping spots would be more effective?

Eventually they decide that the girl who was acting as ballast should get in the SUV to steer.

So the heavy guy stands by while the medium guy remounts the SUV and tries to haul the girl in the SUV up onto the flat bed.

The SUV rolls forward again.  The tires touch the ramps again.  The ATV rears up again (more vigorously than before, because, after all, there's no ballast now).

After a couple of rounds of this action (dancing ATV even) they all dismount and palaver again.  After some discussion, one of them actually tries to push while the ATV driver pulls.  They get the tires about a foot up the ramps.

Then... the truck driver joins the heavy guy and they push.

After a while someone gets off the bus, and goes over to help.

More flailing about.

Two more guys from our bus go to help.

The SUV moves about a third of the way up the ramp.

More bus riders join the fray.... 

Eventually, the bus driver gets out and goes to help, with a few more folk in tow.  By now, there are like eight guys pushing, and the ATV pulling... and they finally get the SUV up onto the flatbed, with NO room to spare.  They flip up the ramps, like this is going to hold the SUV on the flat bed???

Here's hoping that they actually owned the SUV, eh?

I KNOW there were some folks photographing the fiasco.  If I can get my hands on a copy of the pics, I'll share.

Grammar Cat's colleague...

Okay... LOLcats wins today:

Note the correct grammar....

Moonbeams and Mutterings

Your result for What Planet are You From? Test...

You are from the Moon!

20% Moon

Okay, yes, I know the moon is not a planet.

The moon, is, however, the Earth’s only natural satellite and the fifth largest natural satellite in our solar system. For this reason alone it could be that it has life on it, right? Yes, there have been many explorations to prove otherwise, but for many years people on Earth believed that the moon was inhabited. It is also the only celestial body that man has stepped upon.

There are a dozen gods and goddesses associated with the moon. The word Lunar, which relates to the moon’s cycle, is from the Latin word Lunar. One of the reasons that people tend to associate a female deity with the moon might be related to the female menstrual cycle. With that said, it’s is definitely time to move along before I get myself in trouble.

What does this say about you?

You desire contact with the world around you. You have a loving and nurturing nature, but you can suffer from mood changes and go through cycles. You aren’t afraid to stand up for what you believe in or to even stand up for the little guy that tends to get beat up on or forgotten. You probably even tend to put other people before yourself.

As a child of the moon you have a cold and warm side. When someone wrongs you it better be something they never do again. You may forgive them once, but you will never forget and a second time can cut them totally out of your life. You can be the life of the party, but only if it suits you. You are just as happy finding a few people that you can talk to and more than likely there are very few people that you can’t talk to.

You probably usually have a smile on your face and make people feel comfortable with you. You are just one of those people that others open up to and then wonder why.

So, moon child, in a way you are just like the tide. You ebb and flow in life and you like it best when you are in control.

Take What Planet are You From? Test at HelloQuizzy

I'll have to ponder the validity of that......

But... since I don't have much else...let's go for a few unconscious mutterings

1. Spit it out ::ptui
2. Shadow ::Cat
3. Database ::Management
4. Expression ::SMILE
5. Boss ::Lady
6. Baby ::Dream in Color
7. Mystic ::Pizza
8. Kate ::kat
9. Boobies ::Jeremy Hillary Boob, Phd, and his friends.
10. Raid ::Dare

Drive by sharing ...

Now that I've stopped laughing so hard I couldn't type...

go here

He also offers poignance, so it's worth a stroll through the blog. 

new toys....

Lookie at what I got today!

Isn't it just the coolest thing?!  And even if I load it up before heading home ... it won't be full... so when I stop at WEBS on Monday, I'll have all sorts of room..

Unless, of course Linda persuades me to take home a loom or something (Linda... do NOT get any ideas).

Huh?  What?  Oh, What is that thing?  It's the easiest to install toy for your car you can imagine.

There's my car, modeling it's new Thule Ascent Cargo box thing in Papa's back yard.  Now I can drive home without the rear view window being obscured by stuff.  This is a good thing. (And no, it wouldn't have made more sense to buy it at home -- there isn't a Thule dealer at home that carries the boxes -- just the bike racks.  I'm all about avoiding shipping costs).

Road trips R Us baby...  Just remind me to take it OFF before we head up for Stitches, or I'll have to sell the house.

Some people's brains....Some people's lace

In the news today, we see that some people's version of reality is vastly different from the rest of us.  The Dallas News reports that a man in his 20's attempted to pass a $360,000,000,000 check.  Yes, that's $360 BILLION!  Like someone would believe that a man in his 20's would have such a check to cash??? I wonder what he was smokin'?

Meanwhile, I'm being naughty again.  I'm mere inches away from finishing DH's socks, I've got three other lace projects on the needles, I've got a gorgeous Sock de la Mer to knit, not to mention Deep Breath or those pesky Mission 2008 projects to work on.  So what did I do?

Duh.

Let me introduce you to Boing!


For the next progress photo, I hope to have four hands, so I can show you some open lace....  and    Yes, I did cast on quite a bit ago.  Then we had a little tiff, and now that I have reopened my brain to the reality of reading simple and well drawn charts...we're off and springing.  Gotta love this color too.  My camera didn't get it quite right, but we'll try again soon.  It's a perfect foil for the gray blustery day that's gusting around outside.

That wind kept me from enjoying the bit of yoga I'd planned to do on my patio today.  The wind thought my yoga mat would make a fine toy.  I can see it now...... only Down Dog or Savasana would ensure that the mat wouldn't flick up and tap me on the head or leg or.....  I yoga'd inside instead.

ETA:

When I got home from fetching the kids today, I found a glorious surprise!  Lookee what Joan (that was you wasn't it Joan??) sent me!

She's totally enabling my Knitting With Nora plans.  There are several of us who will be knitting Icarus (or Icarus on Ravelry) together out of this lovely yarn!

Missing Post, Finished Socks and Beads

Yesterday, I typed up a post on Ten Teeny Rants.  It was taking off on the Knitting Curmudgeons Ten Things Tuesday post of the week.

I was SURE I'd published it.  I even thought it was pretty good.

Today, it appears to be gone. (likely just as well, but still).

That would go a the top of my list, for sure.  But which rant would it replace?  One of the big ones? or one of the little silly ones?

Folks who don't recycle when it's easy, and worse the ones who litter (resulting in trash blowing into my yard)? Religious intolerance? People who think that my duties as laundress of the house include unwadding jeans and socks from the balls into which people managed to torture them (or the same folks who think those duties include foraging in pockets for wrappers, candy, lip balm, notes, money, stones etc. etc.)? The little things that you have to use to prove that you're a human in order to post comments on blogs?  Automated phone systems? The media -- that has to wallow in the slightest bad thing, but can't share the good?  The TV stations who run R rated ads for R rated shows during prime time and shows that are kid friendly?   

Yeah, I know, that's not ten.  And the gripes aren't explained either... I'd rewrite the whole thing (with links and all), but today I'm distracted by finished socks and unexpected beads.

Yes... it's true. I finished something:

First, before I could truly finish, there was a bit of frogging of the prior edging.  Then there was working the double-knitting phase of a tubular bind off (let's not forget the rib element), and finally, the grafting phase:

I finished one sock during piano lessons (where there was lovely light to take pictures), and the other during trombone lessons.  Let's hear it for music!

Of course, by the time I got home to take pictures of the socks installed, we'd lost all decent light.

Now then. Can anyone explain how they look like they're two different colors when they came from the same hank of yarn?

Me either.  But I'll try to get better pictures soon.

High on that sense of accomplishment, I gleefully welcomed DTB Elizabeth in for knitting.  We didn't get nearly as far as we usually do.  First we had to play with beads.  There was a bead attack, during which I seem to have ordered four different choices for my shawl, and two for hers from the Bead Wrangler (who, btw, gave lightening fast service) ...  We threaded our options onto our yarn, and laid the yarn across the shawls and pondered. 

Actually, I think I did a pretty good job, what with not being a bead expert, and not knowing the difference between clear and silver lined and color lined and rainbow and metallic etc, and ordering late at night in a bit of a frenzy.  Out of six vials of beads, only one was clearly wrong, and another, that looked practically identical in the tube -- looked great on the yarn.

Then, having confirmed that the beads were right, we approached the charts, consulted with Mary (the Beading Genius), and planned bead placement.  Only then did we settle in to knit with Raven Clan Laci for the evening.  All the bead fuss cut our knitting progress in half:

It's hard to tell, but two of the rows we knit had beads in them

If you look really closely, you can see the beads there. Look near the yos. They're subtle, but that's what I wanted.  Perhaps with actual daylight I can get better pictures....

Home Again!

Home again home again.

At last!

The girls and I put 3750 miles on my lovely new car between June 26 and July 30.  We saw folks in four states and two countries, we stayed in another 2 states.  We had a great time, and are tired now.

I promise to catch up with the blog soon, and post more pictures of Maine and New Brunswick and knitting... (though Jessica's Lace will only have hidden shots until I learn whether folks want to publish her).

In the mean time....

My Jellicle name is Eluna.
Take Jellicle Name Generator today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

And while I'm playing with random things and not doing so well at updating...

You Are Lightning

Beautiful yet dangerous People will stop and watch you when you appear Even though you're capable of random violence You are best known for: your power Your dominant state: performing

What Type of Weather Are You?

Drive By Blog: I caught up!

Drive by blogging:

I've finally gotten my bloglines pending blogs to zero.  Yes!  Finally I am 100% caught up!
Okay gang, stop blogging for four hours okay?  I want to wallow in this while I sew in Sahara's ends and block her,  'kay?

Thanks ...

Mid-Life Crisis?

One of the Interview Meme Questions got me thinking.

When I thought about the question about whether I'd do anything differently, I focused mostly on big things -- life changing things: choosing career paths and relationships and whether to move or not move.  I skipped over the little things.

But I got to thinking about one of the little things.  The things I've dithered about for years but never done.   Things like piercing that place near the top of your ear, or getting a tattoo, or dying your hair. 

For years, I've sort of wanted to pierce that spot at the top of my ear, but can't decide which ear to do it on, and I only want ONE.  When I could decide which ear to double pierce, I went for both when I was there, thinking that I could make up my mind over the course of the next week, and pluck out the "wrong" earring and let it heal over.  I still have two holes in both ears; I never could choose.

I've dithered about tattoos forever too.  I can't decide what I want or where.  And tattoos are much harder to undo than extra holes in your earlobes.  I may never get that done.  I'm too skittish; and when I'm being a lawyer, it's too important to avoid freaking out the judges and the clients.

I've also rather wanted to put bright color streaks in my hair.  For twenty five years I wished I was brave enough to have a bright blue streak, or several purple streaks in my hair.  It all started in my Physics for Poets class my sophomore year in college.  The girl who often sat in front of me had a bright blue lock of hair at the nape of her neck.  I thought it was so cool.

I wanted one... but was afraid to get one.  Why on earth I'd be afraid to get a bright streak of color in my hair, I don't know.  At least not then.  Once I'd started practicing law, it was rather clear --- the stuffed shirts at the firm where I worked would not have been impressed.  Nor would our clients.  But surely, some time in the past 25 years I could have done it? right?

Not right.

So... Wednesday morning, when I got up, my hair looked like this:

Half an hour later, we got this

after half an hour of drying, we got to this:

Not quite as bright as I'd expected/hoped... but who knows what will happen when it gets into the sunlight! .....We'll see how it plays out when it's fully dry..

I waited several hours....

and got this:

I don't know about you, but to me... that's not reading purple...

Let's take a closer look:

I'm not impressed.  I mean, if I'm going to have a midlife crisis and make my hair purple, I want to be able to see the purple...

So, Friday, Loreal and I had another little chat.

Okay, not screaming purple... but much better ... people can even see the purple now.

Especially in the sunlight.

Well, most people... not DH, who didn't notice when he got back to town last night.  (He'd even been warned that purple hair might be in the offing, and that I wasn't going to tell him -- he was supposed to notice). I'll pretend it's because it was dark.

Now... back to the Joy Socks,

for which I'd LOVE to have a test knitter.  I need someone prepared to knit fast fast fast (sorry) to see if my pattern works for other brains the way it works for me.  That way I can get the corrections in (assuming they need to be made), before Just Our Yarns prints up umpteen copies.

 

Blog, she goes a-cordless and she did fly**

I'm writing to you from the airport in San Francisco, where I've splurged for a day's worth of T-Mobile HotSpot access.  I'm writing on the household's new laptop.  It was purchased not because we need a new laptop, but because the kids' computers are old and tired and trying to die, and I had to find something still available in the verse the runs XP.  I bought what I could get.

Turns out I like it quite well.  And since it's smaller than my primary laptop, and thus weighs less, it's going to be my travel machine.  The kids will have to cope.

So anyway, my day started well before dawn.  For some of you, this is no big deal.  Me? I think dawn is lovely when seen just before going to bed.  I'm very distrustful of dawn when I'm just waking up.  However, to avoid driving to Chicagoland, where I'd have to leave my car for 5 days in some unguarded parking lot, and to preserve money that otherwise would have gone to a hotel for more important things, like buying YARN in Oregon, I took the early morning shuttle to O'Hare.  It left before dawn.  The things I do in the name of knitting! (oh, did I mention that my incredibly supportive husband drug his weary self out of bed to drive me to the shuttle?  Is he wonderful or what?)

This put a bit of a crimp in my travel knitting plans.  You see, I'd gotten Thistle all cast off, and the next step was crocheting the steeks.  I needed to get this done before hitting security at the airport, because I needed to CUT said steeks so I could sew in the sleeves.  I'll need Thistle's warmth in Oregon.

Eventually, the sun came up and cast some light through the van windows.  Following Eunny's wonderful instructions, I crocheted my steeks, and cut them in the van.  I tried to take pictures, but the lack of light and the bouncing of the van made this challenging. 

 

I then sewed in the sleeves.  woohoo.  All done but the end sewing before I got to the airport!   See how pretty the insides are?

  (More pictures when there's daylight.)

Thus, the scissors went into the checked luggage, and I carried Thistle and a chibi needle through security.

But, alas, I'd used up all my brain power before I got on my 11:00 flight to SFO.  I quickly gave up on Thistle, and tried to knit a bit on the sock (who was too sleepy from the early morning rousing to pose in the airplane window), but started making mistakes pretty quickly. 

In a burst of unprecedented wisdom,I abandoned knitting for stints of reading The Genesis Code and attempting to find a comfortable position in which to sleep, with intermittent moments of hostility aimed at American Airlines.  --- they now CHARGE you $2.00 for a bottle of water on the plane.  You have to pay at least that in the airport, since you can't bring IN a bottle of water from the land of only generally inflated prices.  Soda, of course, is still free.  But on a four hour flight, they only come by twice, each time offering a paltry 4 oz or so of liquid.  I don't know about you, but in any four hour period, I'm likely to drink 16 to 24 oz of water. I guess they're trying to avoid the problem caused by providing too much liquid -- I mean if you drink too much, first you're Russian and then European. Given their name, they must want us all to maintain our nationality.*

Luckily, upon disembarking I was able to get water, latte and chocolate... and find T-Mobile's hotspot to read and write blogs.  I'm in a much better mood and thus am able to cope with the weirdness that is SFO. 

The terminal into which I arrived was pleasant -- they serve good latte and really good chocolate croissant.  The sock appreciated the latte

but the croissant didn't stick around long enough to be photographed.

However, the journey from the terminal into which American Airlines flies to the terminal through which Horizon (their partner I guess) flies, takes you through no man's land. 

Is this eerie or what?

It's 2:00 in the afternoon here.

Ghost Terminal!

I sure hope my suitcase makes it through this twilight zone and gets on my plane to Portland!

I'll find out when I get off the next plane...

Of course seeing this as the decor in one of the eateries did little to allay the feeling that I'd stepped into the Twilight Zone.

Yep.  those are real cars....

But the rest of this afternoon will be spent with another plane..... 

Until tomorrow...when we learn about luggage....

*Bad pun invoked by Norma's demands, and provided by Galen (one of my charming dinner companions)

**Title pun, also invoked by Norma, with apologies to the Frog, and promises not to sing the courting song.

Bye bye Mom, Hello Yarrrrrn

So, Spring Break is over around here, and we settle back into what passes for normal in Shadowland.

My parents came for a visit.  We had a pleasant low key time, during which somehow almost no knitting got done.  At least none worth photographing.

Just before they arrived, I received my Pirate Shirt

That's me saying yarrrrrn....

I loved it so much, I bought one for Elizabeth too.  And now DH wants one three! tee hee.

Also arriving a week ago was some incredible yarn from Lisa Souza.  Oh my... baby alpaca/silk blend.  It was DIVINE.  Alas, the color wasn't what I'd expected (the pic shows what happens when the dye does its dance with wool... Same process with alpaca silk yields a much paler version).  Try as I might, I could not persuade myself that the yarn would work for it's intended purpose -- nor could I come up with any other plans for that particular color.  :-(   My mother agreed with me (since the object in question is intended for her sister, I thought she'd be a good judge of color).  When I emailed Lisa to see if I could return or exchange it, she was incredibly gracious.... so the yarn is on it's way back to her.  All this means is that I'm doing daily browsing sessions at LisaKnit.com to find something I "need," and thus suffering daily bouts of yarn lust.

So, today, I drove the dear parents to the airport, and secretly hoped that they'd be denied access to the plane.  I love my folks, and no visit with them is ever long enough.  Someday, I'll find us jobs closer to my parents so I can see them more often.

I then set out for errands. yuck.

But...during the errand running, I came to a realization.  Like some who blog, I hate my hair.  It's never cooperating; the curls defy order or even continuity.  But suddenly, I realized something, catching my reflection in a shop window.  My hair behaves much like Stephanie's hair!  I have Yarn Harlot Hair!  Woo hoo.  Now, I may be able to wear it as a badge of knitterly honor (or unbearable groupie-ness... whatever).  MY hair and I are eager to see her in Oakbrook.

Also during errand running, which included getting my glasses fixed (they ground one of the lenses wrong so we had to have a do-over), I had some time to kill in the dreaded mall. This led to trying on clothes, which led to buying a pair of SIZE 4 pants!!! Size FOUR people!  Not that I'm proud or anything... but ... size FOUR.

Anyway...when I got home from taking the dear parents to the airport and prowling around the local mall, I found this:

This, dear readers, is BRAND NEW sock yarn from Just Our Yarns.  It's even better than size four jeans. I'll be sock designing now... and though I had ideas before I saw it, I realized that they were very color dependent, and just won't do with this color.  Already, though, new ideas are percolating.

I hate mustard yellow -- it's in there.  I hate olive green -- it's in there too.  But I LOVE this yarn!

MadTV - iRack

Link: YouTube - MadTV - iRack.

I'm still laughing too hard to type....

If only it were TRULY silly

What does YOUR oven look like?

I am a bad blogger.
Any blogger worth her salt, when bizarre things happen in her home, whips out the camera and records them for the blog.
Not me.
so... all I can do is report -- no pics.

Last night, DH was tired and not fully focused on what he was doing when he put the frozen pizza in the oven.

Upside down.

Now I'll admit, it all their frozen glory, frozen cheese pizzas don't look dramatically different on the top and the bottom.  And when you're tired, and focused on the all important March Madness, these things can happen.

A good wife would have done the honors herself, and not allowed a basketball crazed man near the kitchen.  But this wife was upstairs tapping away on the keyboard, and her man was being a Good Husband, and feeding the children.

It smelled marvelous -- much too early.

And when we opened the oven to remove the crispy bubbly goodness that is pizza (even frozen pizza), we found that the yummy parts were burning happily on the bottom of the oven.

We all put on brave faces.  We partook of the all but cheeseless pizza (which still did taste pretty good).  But the oven ....

oh the oven.

Luckily, ours is "self cleaning."  So I set it on "clean", and walked away.

The oven did its best.  It locked its little door, and cranked its temp up to something frightening that I don't really want to know about.

And then.....It smoked.
wow.
Boy did it smoke.
Even prompt application of the stove-top fan and opening various windows and doors was insufficient to keep the whole first floor from smelling of.... burnt stuff.

Luckily for us, DH and I got to go out for dinner.  The kids and the babysitter suffered in the smokiness (I assume since they were all indoors when we got home ... but we as we pulled out, they were safe in the fresh air in the driveway).

This morning, I checked the oven.

Ash.

Lots of ash.

As I addressed the ash, by vacuuming my oven (yep, I vacuumed my oven), it occurred to me that photos should have been taken -- of the cheesy splendour on the bottom of the oven -- of the ash accumulation on the racks, and the piles thereof on the bottom of the oven... of me with the vacuum cleaner. (yes... me... with the vacuum cleaner!  that's a rare sight at the best of times).

But... I am a bad blogger.  I took no photos.
I finished vacuuming, closed the oven door... and came up here to confess my sins.