Mother Nature has an odd sense of humor

There's snow out there, y'all. Snow that we actually desperately need (rain just doesn't do it when the ground is rock hard. It just rolls off, snow on the other hand, seeps in). But that doesn't make it any less of a shock to the system when really we've not had much winter this year.

My mind knows that March is typically one of our wettest months, but this winter has been absolutely atypical. Anyone who says there's no such thing as global warming, or that it isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be, needs a smack to the head. Or just to be brought to Colorado in July, because it's going to be an UGLY wildfire season.

Anyhoo. There's just enough snow out there to make my morning drive obnoxious, so I'd better get moving. Have a good day, y'all.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?*

Wow! It has been in the 70s the last few days and absolutely GORGEOUS! And of course, I've worked the last two days, lol. But tomorrow is supposed to be almost as nice, and I'm off work so it's all good.

Not much knitting going on here, but a lot of reading. I just can't seem to work up enthusiasm for knitting right now and I don't know if that's my projects or just me. I did pick up 2-at-a-time Socks though, and I've found the pattern that I am going to use for my daughter's Corntastic socks, Pitter Patter. It's a very simple pattern but that's what I need if I am going to try making them two at a time, lol. I just need to get a 40" circular now. It would be nice to have them ready to go for our trip to Iowa later this month.

Anyhoo. I'm tired and thanks to a co-worker, cranky. I'm going to grab something to eat and go see what's On Demand to veg to. Ciao!

*Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

"Mama said there'll be days like this...

...There'll be days like this, my mama said." -Dusty Springfield

Ah yes, today was one of those days. From the moment I woke up all too early til right now. I basically informed my boss this morning that I was going to go work in the copy section the moment someone else came in. He said, "Maybe." I said, "No maybe about it." And when D. came in at 10:30 a.m. I said, "Seeya." And off I went. Lol.

So I spent most of my day with pretty much just the head of the copy section and away from anyone I might be tempted to growl at or bite ;)

After work the kiddo read in her room and the hubby went and got food. I hid in the bedroom and watched Mike Rowe milk spiders.

Then I made the mistake of opening Sims 2 whilst the kiddo was in the shower so I could see what the new pets I imported yesterday looked like. Then the kiddo had to make a new family. But she dithered and dawdled and didn't even get one family member done by the time I came in to read. So I gave her the choice. Turn it off and read stories or keep going without stories before bed. When she continued to say "just a minute, just a minute," I turned the lights off and said good night. What I really wanted to do was scream and gnash my teeth and growl. Like I've wanted to do all day...

*Sigh* Must be bedtime for me now.

To quote Miss Scarlet, "Afterall, tomorrow is another day."

Not a wild night

Poor hubby has a miserable cold, so we put off a nice dinner until he feels better. No fun going out for a meal you can't even taste.

It was a nice night though. We dropped the kiddo off at a local program for kids (it was packed, lol. Every parent in town went, "Woot! No babysitter scramble!" Including us.) and actually enjoyed a few hours to ourselves in the evening. It's been a very long time since we've left the kiddo with anyone and gone out in the evening. And I think the last time we actually went out on our anniversary was before she was born!

The brilliant thing is, she had an awesome time and wants to go again. She immediately saw a couple of friends, though she didn't hook up with them for a bit, like I said, the place was packed with kids. They talked and played and watched other kids. The event is at the local rec center every Saturday, and there's tons of stuff for them to do. I see a few more nights out for all of us coming :)

Hubby and I did go out for burgers. Our local Culver's offered free two scoop sundaes with your meal so that's what we did. After we rolled out of Culver's we headed for the next town to the east, since they have a Border's and I had gift cards ;)

I really have a hard time finding things in Borders. It's not my fave bookstore. And Seattle's Best Coffee? Yuck. Even their frufru drinks are bitter. But free books are free books, so we go, lol. And after about 20 minutes I did find the book I was looking for, so it worked.

Anyhoo, the kiddo has finally stumbled out of bed, so I shall get us breakfast. Ciao!

Valentine's

Always a big day in our house. It's hubby's birthday and our wedding anniversary. It makes 18 years this year and it's also hubby's big 4-0.

At this point last year I wasn't sure we'd make it to 18 but I am very glad we have. He's my best friend in addition to my love and I'm very thankful to have him in my life.

Funny enough, his 40th doesn't seem to be bothering him. It's bothering the hell out of me though, lol. It reminds me that next year it's my turn and I feel very very old. It's had an odd effect on my psyche as well, since I've been having bad dreams lately, nightmares about growing old and infirm. It's silly since I know 40 isn't really all that old, but apparently my mind is having a hard time accepting that deep down.

Anyhoo, hubby is sick on his birthday and feels like crap, so I don't know that we are going to do anything tonight. Poor guy.

I was playing WoW this morning, but I am dreadfully bored at the moment. I think I shall just go read. I'm officially on book 29 for the year already, lol.

New toys... sort of

Blogger now lets you add a blogroll to your page, and sorts them in the order of who has most recently updated. I love it. Though I am having issues with the font size but that's another thing... See, Blogrolling was hacked a while back (October for crying out loud!) and it's never been fixed enough to allow me to do anything with it. Which is really rather annoying and in my opinion rather poor customer service, and had I been a subscriber I'd be quite pissed off, but instead I just left.

So anyhoo. I've added a blogroll for the Ravelry 52 books group, but since there are hundreds of people and blogs in the list it will take me a while. And quite honestly I'm being fussy and only linking book blogs or sites with separate pages for their book info. No offense, but I'm there for the books, not for the latest baby diaper change. Oh, I am snarky lately.

Whatever. I'm going back to my book.

Books!

You all should know by now that I love to read. And reading over at Ms. Amy's blog I found her 52 Books post and her attempt to read 52 books in 2009. I frequently pick up reads from the blogs I read, why not the idea of 52 books as well.

Like Amy I must visit the local library to support my reading habit. Especially since in a good week I can read several books. If you look at my list you will see that I am now on #21 already, lol.

So anyhoo, to keep track I've started a new blog, Tabhair leabhar dom! which is Give Me a Book! in Gaelic. You're welcome to trundle on over and check out what I am reading.

Oh wow

I found my very first blog post ever tonight, lol. It goes just like this:

I decided to try my hand at this whole Blog thing tonight because I just have so many thoughts running through my brain. I sometimes think that if I don't get some of them out, I might just go crazy...

This seems like the ideal place to share my thoughts.

A little about me. I'm 31, married to a wonderful man for over 10 years, and we have a lovely daughter named Isabel. We'll be celebrating her first birthday May 9th.

I posted that on April 28, 2001. It's funny to see what I liked graphically back then, and how things changed as I learned my way around html, and finally CSS.

Rofl

The "great debate" on Dear Abby for the last two days... Thongs up or Thongs Down.

Are they comfortable? Are they sexy? Are they sleazy? Or are they just a way to avoid VPL (visible panty-lines).

I'm no fashionista. But a while back E! did a show on Fashion Do's and Don'ts and there were two things at the top of the Don't list. Mom Jeans and VPL. I don't wear Mom Jeans and I don't have VPL, so I guess I'm more fashionable than I thought ;)

So. Are they comfortable? Don't tell me they aren't comfortable if you haven't tried them. I'm so sick of people who have a lot to say about things they've never tried or considered doing.

Are they sexy? Don't care. I'm not wearing them for anyone else.

Are they sleazy? Nope, the man looking at my ass noticing I have no panty line is the sleazy one. Yeah, I am sure there are women wearing thongs who are sleazy. I'm also sure there are some who wear regular old undies that are sleazy. It's the person inside the knickers that's sleazy, not the knickers themselves, lol.

Frankly, I don't give a damn about what kind of undies a person wears. It's not any of my business. Really, let's keep it that way.

(Note to all those who seem to think that really low cut jeans are the only alternative to Mom Jeans: I don't want to see you panties and/or your crack when you bend over. In men that's called plumber's arse. Think about it...)

Winter

has returned to Colorado. While most of the Midwest and the East was in the deep freeze last week, we were reaching record high temps. My poor little mother was freezing in Iowa while we were running around in short sleeves. As my boss said one day, "Yesterday was the perfect April day. Only not in April." Lol.

So this week the weather has changed and it actually feels like January. We got some much needed snow as well. (We all forget just how necessary snow is to our area when we are running around enjoying 70 degree temps. But without adequate snowfall we have things like this and this at a weird time of the year and goodness knows what come July!). Between this week and one bitterly cold period where it barely got out of single digits, we've only had about 2 weeks of winter.

And even now, the temps are only short lived. One more cold day today, then back up to the 40s and 50s. Who says there's no such thing as global warming??

Anyhoo. Off to the shower before it is time to get the kiddo up for school. Ciao!

Call me a pessimist if you want but

I prefer to think of myself as a realist. I'm thrilled that G.W. is gone. Oh so thrilled. But I'm also pretty darned sure that Obama comes without a magic wand. I'm almost positive he's a muggle like the rest of us...

Yes, change is good. Yes, I voted for Obama and I do think change is coming. But it took things a long time to get this screwed up. It's going to take a long time and more than one man to get it all straightened out again. Honestly, I actually feel sorry for Obama, because he has a long row to hoe and very high expectations to live up to.

Most blogs and comments to blogs I've seen make me think people either think the man is a saint (which I think he would be the first to admit is not the case) or that he's gonna wave his non-existent magic wand and things are going to be better over night.

Let's be realistic here. He's one man working with at least 535 other people (the House of Representatives and Senate, not to mention cabinet members, advisors, and other world leaders...) that all have their own interests and opinions. Even with a longer than usual presidential "honeymoon" period like experts are predicting, when does government ever move quickly?

Change'll do you good and I believe it's coming, but don't expect too much too soon from this one single person. Give the man the chance, and the time he needs.

Knit Twit Trips Down Memory Lane

I wish that it was possible to program a playlist in YouTube, without joining anyway, lol. There are a million and one songs there that I don't have in my iTunes. Songs that I would never pay for, like anything by Metallica (insert raised finger here). *Snark* I imagine they'll come after YouTube soon (and insert again) lol. And there are also a lot of songs I have in iTunes that no longer exist on the old puter. iTunes no longer exists on the old puter, lol.

Really though, my hubby was playing my metal playlist the other day (aka WoW PvP tunes, nm that I don't PvP anymore) and he bitched that I should rename it to AC/DC list, lol. Well can I help it that most of the metal I've loaded is AC/DC (and really, it's only 17 of the 35 songs in the list, rofl)? I have more of their albums than any other metal band. And sadly, a lot of my metal music is in that unplayable, old-fashioned format, the dreaded cassette tape! And iTunes just doesn't have Megadeath available for dl. But even YouTube doesn't have much of the old punk that I loved, like the DKs (listening to "Institutionalized" right now, thanks to Jango, lol. "All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi!" And of course we can't forget the classic, "I Saw Your Mommy" What scares me is I still remember the lyrics to both songs, haha. What a sick child I was, lol.)

Anyhoo.

I did actually cast on for my bag tonight. I need to work up a few more stitch markers, that or find the ones that my daughter ran off with because they were pretty, lol. Hmm, she got a jewelery kit for Christmas, maybe I'll steal some of her charms, haha.

(PS This little trip down memory lane brought to you by phone calls from friends out of the past ;)

Ok so recasting on the

Flowers on the Go bag the other day was a rather ambitious idea as it turns out. Just balling the last skein was a project in itself. New Years Resolution number 2: From now on I only buy yarn at places that ball the yarn for me ;)

I have a ball winder. It works fine and dandy. But the last three skeins of yarn I've tried to wind have ended up a tangled mess 2/3 of the way through. I would guess that this last skein of yarn took a good two hours for tow of us to wind.
how the heck it gets so tangled I know not. One moment everything is fine and the next there is 50 yards of wool in one giant knot.

So while I love my closest LYS because the owner is friendly and helpful when I need help and content to let me just wander and touch yarn when I don't, she doesn't ever offer to ball the yarn.

The adorable LYS in the next town over (love, love, love the location and the atmosphere of this store!) has friendly and helpful employees who ALWAYS offer to wind my yarn.

Even the employees at the single most unfriendly yarn shop I've ever been in wound my yarn for me the one and only time I shopped there.

I don't know, it just seems life (and knitting time) is too short to waste untangling wool ;)

New Year's Resolution

Yes, I know it's a little late. But still... My resolution this year is to get a family photo taken. Our last family photo was taken when the munchkin was probably 2. And that was just a shot we set up before Christmas in front of the old fireplace so really, it wasn't even a great picture. This year I want a real photo taken, and since you can't really beat the price it's not asking for a lot, is it?

It hit me last year when we were at Mt. Rushmore and someone offered to take a pic of the three of us (and cranky hubby said no, but that's another story) that we really needed to do this.

Of course, hubby and I have both put on some weight this last year (being out of work and sitting on one's arse eating chocolate tends to do that...) but oh well.

My other resolution is to knit more. I just need to make the time. I have some lovely stash yarns that are just begging to be used. Heck, I have some UFOs sitting in my knitting drawer. The Flowers on the Go bag needs to be frogged and the new skein of yarn balled so I can cast on again. I've socks on the needles. I've got Corntastic yarn begging to be knit into plain Jane socks for the kiddo. And my Brooks Farm Yarn is crying to be knit in to something fantastic. Not to mention my spiderweb shawl...

Oh yeah!

This year about 3 days before Christmas I smacked myself in the head as I realized I had forgotten our Christmas Kringle. Oh the heartbreak!

Well, last week I solved the problem and ordered my Kringles. Today they arrived, lovely and fresh. Raspberry is my hubby's favourite, and this year I tried the cherry cheese. YUM! I've also had the pecan, which was delicious as well. Happy happy happy!

Memories

So I was cleaning off the old computer tonight, trying to get anything salvageable off just in case we need to do a reformat. Some of my old recipes are in a Works database format that I can't access with the new computer, so I was printing some out and copying others into a readable format when I ran across a recipe I hadn't thought of in years. As a kid it was my favourite desert ever. It never had a name that I could recall, other than Grandma's Bars.

I swear, I am going to make some soon, even though I know no one else in my family will eat them. I'll take half in to work, lol. But I just have to have them!

It's a very simple recipe. Smooshed graham crackers, brown sugar, butter, and coconut are all mixed together and boiled, then spread over a layer of graham crackers and topped with more graham crackers. Then you frost the whole lot with frosting with a touch of lemon juice in it. Sounds so damned weird, but they are soooo good, lol.

And of course I found the old Christmas recipes. Recipes I haven't made the last few years because we haven't been doing the turkey and stuffing routine. See, I have a secret...

I go into my local grocery store and I order Christmas dinner ;) This year we had a lovely spiral cut ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole and a truly tasteless apple pie. Everything but the pie was delicious. We ate every last bit of the ham, making ham and bean soup with the leftovers. And the only dishes I had were the pan from heating the ham and the plates we ate on. Brilliant! No one spent the day in the kitchen and we had an amazing meal.

Tonight I am using up the massive container of dates that I bought because I hadn't had dates in years and had to have them (yeah, I do that a lot) by making date bread. It's a new recipe, hopefully it will be good.

Anyhoo, better go check the bread. Catch y'all next year!

Edited to add: Bread was not so good. I love allrecipes.com most of the time, but occasionally no matter how good the ratings are on a recipe they turn out to be stinkers. :(

Post Christmas Consumerism

Apparently the new Black Friday is the day after Christmas now with stores offering deep discounts to after Christmas shoppers.

Me, I'm not really planning on taking advantage of any of these sales. But my dear big brother sent me some money for Christmas and I plan on hitting the yarn shop. I originally started knitting the free smaller size version of this pattern. I was quickly distressed by how small everything seemed. I mean I was using the shortest circular needle I could get and I couldn't join my stitches, even following the hint to use two needles together for the cast on. So I switched to DPNs and it still seems very small. And it's supposed to be felted...

The whole thing is tucked away in a Ziplock bag where I glance at it now and then and shake my head, lol. I think I decided a while ago that it was never going to be completed in its current state. So thanks to my brother I can go buy the full sized pattern and more yarn. I'm not worried about matching dyelots, since I am working with two strands held together. I'll just hold one of each dyelot and it will all be good ;)

And now that the weather is cold again I am thinking of picking up my needles and starting my socks again. I actually wore my wool socks the other day and loved them. This next pair is going to be a normal sock though, instead of just the footie socks. My ankles get cold lately, lol.

I've also promised the kiddo we could scrapbook tomorrow. We got my mom a digital picture frame for Christmas, so scrapping for her isn't such a big thing, but Nanny and Granddad haven't gotten a page in over a year. And we've a new scrapbook just waiting for them. (It was actually supposed to go home with Uncle Andrew last Christmas, lol).

Anyway, have a lovely Boxing Day ;)

Happy

Christmas y'all! Hope it's been a lovely one for everyone!

Exploding muppets

My daughter has a couple of eyelash scarves that I knit (my first knitting projects actually). One is adult length because it was originally knit for someone other than my munchkin. That is of course the one she chose to wear to school last week when the temps were below zero.

So long story short, she was carrying it home one day and her hands were full and it was dragging and sploosh! Right through a muddy puddle. Hubby washed it yesterday. It's acrylic. It's machine washable, right? Lol. All the clothes in that load look like an orange muppet exploded on them. We will be picking orange strands off of things for a while. Luckily the black pants I wear to work escaped with only two strands that were quickly picked off.

Baby it's cold outside!

On Saturday the temp was in the 50s. On Sunday the snow was falling and the temp had dropped to 3 degrees. Yesterday it was -15 when the kiddo went to school. Brrrr. Today looks a bit better. We actually have a chance to get above freezing, lol.

It could be worse though. I talked to some WoW guildies that live in Canada. Temps are 30 below in places there (an apparently in some places in Montana too). Yikes!

We didn't let the cold keep us home though. Hubby and I went out and did what I hope is the last of our Christmas shopping. Gifts are in the mail to my mother. Cards will soon be in the mail to those that I could be bothered to send them too, lol. And last night was the dear daughter's Christmas show at the school. So we all trekked out to that.

We certainly didn't stay outside any longer than we needed to, that's for sure.

Anyhoo, I'm off to get dressed for work. See yas!