This is the scarf I'm working on now. I'm using Lion Brand Yarn, Micro Spun in Lilac. Looks more blue though. I'm making this for my friend in Japan. I've been promising to knit her something for a long time. I had made an embroidered angel to 'look after her' when she moved back to Japan. I wish I had taken a picture of it. That one took me almost two years because I kept putting it aside. I have a Cats on Fences one I started, well, almost two years ago. Maybe these embroidery projects are a two year thing.
Anyway, this scarf is super soft and has a light sheen to it. I love the color and I think my friend will too. I want make some flowers and put them on one of the ends. Good thing this is supposed to be a Christmas present. I think the flowers will take the longest - I've never even attempted one before. I need to find a simple pattern.
This has not been a very productive weekend. Not that my husband and I didn't plan on getting some chores done. Things just haven't quite gone our way.This is our list of things to accomplish this weekend:1. Get new hinges to replace the rusty ones on our bathroom door and linen closet door. 2. Replace the aerator on our kitchen sink faucet.3. Drive our second car around - it just sits in our garage most of the time. 4. Get yarn and circular needles for two new projects. A sweater and ski cap.5. Clean out the dresser in our bedroom so that we can dispose of it.So, here's how the weekend has gone so far. Starting with Saturday, went to Home Depot Pro and bought the hinges, screws and aerator. Got home, and realized that while we got the straight edged hinges for our doors, the existing ones had rounded edges. The aerator didn't fit the faucet and then when we tried to put the old one back on, we discovered that the threads inside were totally worn down - so it wouldn't go back on. So, that was that. We needed to replace the entire faucet. We ended up watching the season finales of Lost, Alias and Desperate Housewives. I'm so frustrated, but in a good way. Can't wait until the next season starts up again. I love those shows!Today, tried to drive our second car to run errands. It was completely dead. I mean DEAD! Not even the dome light came on. I killed my first baby! So, we got the keys to my parent's car and spent the next 20 minutes charging up the battery. The battery was so dead, it the engine didn't even click until we let the battery charge up a little first. Sad. We finally got the car started. We got to Home Depot Pro and my husband went into the store to get a new faucet set and exchange the door hinges. I waited in the car with the engine running. We didn't want to get stranded out there - just in case...We then headed up to JoAnn Fabrics, so that I could get my needles and yarn. This time my husband waited for me in the car. I walked to the back of the store where the yarn is and was shocked to find that 80% of the yarn bins were empty! Did everyone decide that this weekend was knit weekend or something? There was nothing left except for the really fuzzy yarn that I just can't handle yet. Disappointed, but still hopeful, I walked around to the knitting needles section. Aside from the sizes I already had, they were out of everything too! Unbelievable! Crestfallen, I go back out to the car. Turns out my husband had made a quick trip and bought a soda. "I was going to get you an Icee, but the machine was broken," he told me. Sigh... Last stop, we headed over to another craftstore called Beverly's... Closed. So, we're home now. He's installed our new kitchen faucet and it works great, except that we discovered that the hose for the hot water is too short and couldn't reach the actual hot water pipe of the faucet. So, for now, our hot and cold water comes out the opposite setting now. I think we've both given up for the day. The hinges and my dresser drawers can wait until tomorrow. It's time for a nice dinner. Now I'm just hoping that the restaurant is not closed when we get there. Maybe I should call first?
So, I had my coffee in the morning and a Coke in the afternoon. It's past 1am now and I'm exhausted. And am I in La La Land? Nope, I'm here surfing the web.
I love sleep, but if I have caffeine too late in the afternoon (meaning after 3pm), I've ruined my evening schedule. When 11pm comes around, if I don't make it to bed in that little window where I'm actually feeling tired, my second wind kicks in and I'm on the computer at 1am. Funny thing is that whatever time I go to bed tonight, I know will wake up exactly 9 hours later. It's very strange. I'm so thankful that this is a long weekend.
Spent the night watching TV with my hubby. We're catching up on all the season finale shows. We already covered CSI NY and Las Vegas (the Vegas one was awesome. You go Quentin!). Tonight we watched NCIS (couldn't believe what happened at the end!) and the two hour Alias. To our delight, that wasn't even the finale yet - so we have one more hour of Alias to go. We'll probably watch Lost tomorrow night. I know we watch too much TV, but it's really our time to unwind and just not think about anything for a few hours. We talk and email throughout the day, and of course, if there's something we need to discuss, then that is priority. We love our shows.
I already know tomorrow is going to be another day with at least two Starbucks runs. I can't sleep. I'm just so anxious about the move. I'm anxious about packing. My husband is already talking to his friend about painting the place (he's a professional painter). I want a nice light yellow for the living room, and a soothing light sage green for the master bedroom. We haven't decided what to do with the second bedroom yet. I want color on the walls, but nothing where you walk into a room and just notice the walls.
I shredded and dumped more paperwork tonight. Put some more clothes into our donation bags. This weekend, I'm going to tackle the task of completely clearing out one chest of drawers. We have to get rid of it because our master bedroom in the condo is going to be 5 ft shorter than our bedroom now. Aside from the fact that I can't stand the thing, there isn't going to be room for this dresser. It's only three drawers, but there's a lot of stuff in there. Still need to sell some more goodies.
I still have a semi-new stair climber for sale if anyone is interested. $100, pick up in SF.
So, I'm here in the middle of the night, all is quiet in the house - when suddenly I'm hearing this crinkling noise. What the heck is that? Of course, first instinct, as a result of watching all the horror movies out there, it must be a killer who has been hiding in my closet all day and is now coming out to get me. Heart pounding, I search and discover this:
Yes, my own little boogie man, Monte, found his way into this shopping bag. Macy's has been using these noisy plastic bags instead of the traditional paper ones. This one is sitting in front of a chair in our bedroom - for my donations. Amazingly, my husband is sleeping through all this. The loud plastic crunching noise, me telling Monte to get out of the bag, the flash of my camera... how does he do that??? Now I have to get over being freaked out. I'm never going to sleep.
Well, at least I felt like a star. I signed my name so many times this morning, I felt like getting a signature stamp from Office Max. We signed the final papers for our loan today. We also gave them the remaining balance due for our deposit. So, I'm excited and depressed at the same time. We're that much closer to getting the keys to our new home, but we're that much more broke. Scary.
I think I need to get a lotto ticket. $26 Million!!! That would come in handy right about now.
It took me two weeks, a lot of frustration, and a lot of cursing - but I finally figured it out. In case you haven't noticed yet, I put up a picture on my profile! It's my favorite picture of Monte!
This whole picture thing is rather embarassing. I work in the computer support field, but for some reason, 'picture hosting' just didn't make any sense to me. Tonight, I just made myself sit down at the computer and force myself to actually read the Help file. I'm one who likes to try, try, try before admitting defeat and picking up a manual. Once I gave in and read what to do, I was able to post within 10 minutes. Now I can add pictures to my blog! Yea! In fact, I'm going to have to go back and see where I can insert some pictures into my previous entries.
On a completely different subject, my husband and I did a walkthrough of our condo today. We checked to see if all the windows would open and close as they should, ran the water in all the sinks, flushed the toilets, checked to make sure the doors closed and locked properly, etc... We found a couple of items that needed some work, so those have been scheduled to be fixed.
The thing that pisses us off though is that we've been put off from being able to close on this deal for a few weeks. Every time we asked, we got the same answer, "No one has closed yet. No one has moved in yet." Well, as we did the walkthrough today, we found out that, indeed, people had moved in already - TWO WEEKS ago! Walking down the hall with our inspector, we passed by units where people were painting already. One elevator lobby was an obstacle course of furniture from a family who was moving in today. Did the sales office think that we wouldn't find out about this lie? What is up with that? It's even more frustrating knowing that we bought a unit the very first day they were offered, and we still haven't been able to close yet.
Monday night, sewing class night. Started the evening by serging the shoulders because I ran out of time last week. Had a VERY close call, because I got a little anxious or had a twitch or something and suddenly pulled my material at an odd angle and serged right across a wide area. Oops! LUCKILY, the material didn't get cut. With my trusty seam cutter, I managed to remove all the extra stitching without damaging any material. Like I said, LUCKY!Next step, we pinned on our pocket cutouts. Sewed them, serged them, and the pressed them. Things were chugging along very well at that point. Last hour of the evening, we layed out our material, right sides together, pinned the sides together. So, after we sewed them, it really became a robe! The pockets weren't finished yet, but that was OK. I could put my arms through the sleeves and actually wear it! We have next Monday off for Memorial Day, so I borrowed my grandmother's sewing machine so that I could try making the cosmetic cases that I had wanted to make two years ago. My dad bought me this tiny, almost toy like, sewing machine for Christmas that year. I was so excited. I immediately bought a 'how to' book and some material... I was ready. Unfortunately, my sewing machine was not. Nor would it ever be. I just can't get it to work. So, hopefully, my grandmother's "real" machine will make my attempt at designing something a little more successful this time.
My husband called me at work today. We're finally going to do a walk through of our new condo this Wednesday! This is one of the final steps towards closing. I'm so excited! Better yet, we may actually close this week. Maybe even by Friday. After weeks of nothing, suddenly it could all be finalized by the end of this week! I can't believe it!
I can't even begin to imagine the moment when the keys are placed into my trembling hands. The keys to the first home we OWN. We will actually OWN something. We've never even been able to go see our unit without an escort this whole time. They're usually kind enough to wait outside - and we're only there to take measurements and such, but still, we knew there were out there waiting, so it was a rush.
Soon, we're going to be able to go in and out whenever we want without an appointment, start moving things in, get things done like the hardwood floors and change the carpeting. It's all just beginning!
I'm working on a new scarf. I bought this yarn that is really thin and feels almost like cool silk to the touch. I love it - but it unravels so easily I really have to be careful I'm catching the full strand when I'm knitting. Plus, per my hubby, I'm not supposed to buy any more yarn until I use up some of the ones I have already. So, that was enough to get me started on this scarf I've been wanting to knit my friend in Japan.
Following along my new favorite book Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook, I'm trying to teach myself how to make a cable stitch. I have some cheap yarn that I use for practice only. I've been using that yarn for the past three days, knitting and purling. Trying to perfect the cable stitch.
I thought I had it down, so I attempted the stitch on a section of the scarf I'm working on. UGH!!! It looks awful! I don't know what I did wrong! I guess the cable stitch wasn't meant to be on something that is reversable. On the back of the cable there looks like a big dent where the cable is. Horrible! I just had to put the whole thing aside. I just couldn't deal with it because I have to rip it to get the cable part out. Ripping it is no problem - just grab the loose yarn and pull. I hate it when I try to get my needle back into the little loops, and they get all twisted or unknitted (is that a word?). I'll deal with it later. I know there are tools out there to help with this sort of thing, but I get to the store and I'm lost. What am I supposed to get? It takes me long enough to choose yarn!
Shred, shred, shred. That's all I've been doing all day long. All that paper work that had taken over our kitchen counter, bedroom floor, and study floor is now sitting in two heaping piles on my dining table. We don't eat there anyway, so it's OK. For the last four hours, I've been going through all the paper, separating them into neat little piles by category, ready to be filed away. I should explain that our small dining table is in front of our filing cabinet. It's not one of those metal ones you see in an office, but it's a nice two drawer lateral cabinet in a nice light wood. My mom gave me a beautiful embroidered runner that I've placed on top and decorated with pictures and such. It looks more like a sideboard. Anyway, that's why I stationed myself at the dining table. All those stacks of paper were going to be organized and filed into that cabinet.Before I could put anything away, I had to go through the cabinet and clear out all the old receipts and such to make some room. I didn't realize how much shopping I really did last year until I pulled out handfuls of receipts from GAP, Banana Republic, Macys... I've been VERY good this year though. I didn't even shop for myself for Christmas. I think I've only shopped for myself twice this year - and that was with gift certificates and coupons - so I really haven't bought anything.Anyway, I just shred everything. I was on a shredding frenzy. Even things that didn't need to be shredded - they're all confetti now. So, my files are pretty much organized now. The two remaining piles are my husband's papers. It's his turn to shred!
I'm sitting in the storage room that was once our second bedroom/study. I don't call it a disaster area only because the room is in an organized chaos. There are books and papers everywhere, but they are in neat piles here and there. I think I would go crazy if they were scattered.
The only area to walk around is in the shape a T. The short path goes from the door to the closet. And the long path leads to the computer. That's it. It's quite ridiculous. And supposedly, I've gotten rid of a lot of unnecessary things in preparation for our move already. I guess I'll be spending a few more hours on Ebay in the next few weeks.
How did we accumulate all this stuff??? It's mind boggling. I look around and there are piles of papers that I have to file. The bookcase is overflowing - so forget about even finding a book in there. On top of the dresser, there's my new beach towel. It's there because the drawers and closets are too full to fit it. One towel! No room. Sad. There is also a bag full of yarn from my unfinished projects. Ski goggles that we still have to return to a friend - and it's May! Books for our upcoming trip to New York and Ohio for a family reunion.
And we're supposed to move all this in a month or so? I'm terrified.
We had to get a graduation gift for a friend's daughter. She is going to be moving into her own apartment soon, so we thought a gift certificate from Bed Bath & Beyond would be nice. While walking around, we looked at the shower curtains they had on display. Our new condo doesn't have the enclosed shower doors. To save a little money, we decided we would just install shower curtains in both bathrooms.
I totally fell in love with this one:
I love vintage pictures and I just loved the colors of this one. Very chic and vogue. Since this would go in the second bathroom, my husband gave in and said he would be OK with it. We didn't buy it, but I am thinking about this one.
This second one, I just think is the cutest thing in the world. If you look closely, there are actually satin pink bows on the jar lids and pink maraboo feathers on the sandals. For some odd reason, my husband vetoed this one for our master bathroom. Hee hee...
Tonight was my second sewing class. While getting ready to head out to the class, I realized that I left my bag with some of my sewing supplies at work! For once I was able to leave on time today, and in my excitement, I left my bag under my desk. I had brought it with me this morning just in case I had to stay late and would have to go to the class directly from work. I was relieved to find out that I didn't need any thing except my fabric, scissors, and pins tonight.
Before starting anything, I accidentally knocked over my little box of pins. You can imagine that mess. Luckily, my teacher came to the rescue. Waving this metal stick in front of me, she proclaimed, "You're going to love this!" With a quick flick of the wrist, all my little pins were stuck to the magnet. I want one of those. My little plastic storage box was broken, so now what was I going to do with 100 loose pins? At this point, I pulled out $2.00 and asked to buy one of those big tomato pin cushions. I didn't want the big tomato. I was holding out for one of those pin cushions that you could slip onto your wrist, but I didn't have a chance to go to the fabric store yet. Anyway, I spent 15 minutes poking all my stupid little white pins into my new pin cushion.
Our lesson tonight included hand sewing 'Tailor Tacks' to our patterns, after which, we were shown how to carefully remove the paper patterns from our fabric. We then learned how to put thread on our bobbin, fit the bobbin onto our machines, and basically how to get the machine ready for sewing. I just learned all this terminology myself, so I'm lucky I could follow along. My apologies for not elaborating on what exactly these things are.
I sewed on my Tailor Tacks and removed the paper patterns from my fabric. My machine was threaded and humming away. It was finally time to, literally, put my foot to the pedal and start sewing. It was very intimidating at first. I felt like I was learning to drive again for the first time, but as the needle made its first slow stitches into my fabric, I knew there was nothing to worry about. It was actually fun! I sewed the two halves of the back of my robe together within minutes.
Our teacher then showed us how to use another machine for 'serging' the edges. This is a great machine. All it does is trim the edge of your material and binds of the edges so that it won't frey. Everyone in the class wanted one of those machines. Of course, one has to be very careful. One wrong pull and you could damage your pattern permanently - afterall, this machine cuts the fabric as it binds the edges. I managed to get my back seam 'serged' without any problems.
I then went on to sew on the two front parts of the robe at the shoulders. All this took the whole of three hours! Next week, I will finish my shoulders with the serger. We will also be doing the sleeves and pockets. I'm worried about the pockets. I can do the straight sewing, but the practice curves I did - not so good. I guess I will practice some more before actually working on the pockets.
I didn't think I would enjoy sewing so much. I'm already thinking about signing up for the next class. And I'll be ready with my pins and big tomato!
Since we purchased our condo a few months ago, we haven't really done much in our apartment in terms of packing. I brought home about 25 boxes. I've sold a lot of things on Ebay. We sold our stationary bike a few weeks ago. We've donated bags and bags of clothes and household items to a local charity. Looking around our apartment, you'd think that it would look different somehow. Except for the space where the bike used to be, the place is still a mess and jammed packed with things. Quite frustrating really.
So, today, after looking at flooring and carpeting options, and a few hours before the Survivor Finale started, we went through our kitchen cabinets. We packed four boxes and set aside another 3 bags for donation. Of course, maybe starting out in the kitchen wasn't the best choice. We're not moving for another two months, so it's not like we're not going to need what's in the kitchen. It does feel good that two whole cabinets are empty now, but we have four boxes sitting in our living room now.
As soon as we close on the condo and get our keys, whatever we can pack now, we're just going to bring over to the new place whenever we go to work on it. I've convinced my hubby that professional movers are the way to go. Several coworkers highly recommend Delancey Street Movers. They sound very professional and they're cheap. I think that's the way we're going to go.
I guess I'm excited about finally packing up some boxes - it's way past midnight. I've only got about five hours of sleep before a full work day. Plus, my second sewing class is tonight (Monday night) too. Last week we just cut the fabric. This week we actually get to start sewing. Funny how little things get your brain going and push the sleepiness right out of you. Or maybe it's the coffee I had at 4pm.
My friend from work sent me a link to the blog of an ex-boyfriend's girlfriend. Don't judge. We're all curious about those from our past relationships. Curious to know how they turned out. Are they happy? Are they miserable? Did they get what they deserve - good or bad?
So, I'm kind of skimming through this girl's blog. I don't know her, but after looking at a few entries and the many, many, many pictures of their relationship, you can't help but see that this girl and her boyfriend know they are 'beautiful' people. Or at least SHE thinks so. It's obvious they have LOTS of money, they're educated, and have the opportunities in life that we all wish we could attain so easily. You can also see right away, that this is a 'Look at me! Look at me!" type blog. I'm not saying that out of jealousy. It's a fact. It's not a sincere blog. How many of you have a younger sister, who just turned 16 and got a brand new 2006 GS430 Lexus? What totally turned me off is in that same entry she writes, "...but daddy said that if i settle down somewhere and get a full-time job he'd get me a Lexus SC430." Whatever.
To be honest, she is pretty. There are pictures of her winning a National beauty pageant. Good for her. And he is cute. I don't know what he does though. I heard from my friend that both graduated in Business Management. He, Stanford and she from Columbia, I believe.
I admit, I do get envious sometimes. I'm only human. I would love to be able to travel and stay at five star resorts. It would be great not to have to limit my vacation activities because each is so expensive (e.g., scuba diving, learning how to surf, deep sea fishing, helicopter to the top of a live volcano, swim with the dolphins, etc.). Heck, I would love to just to be able to travel more in general, but I want to do it on my own, not with my parents credit card. Looking at my life as a whole, I do have a lot that I would never give up for all the money in the world, nor can any amount buy. I have my husband, who I love and adore with all my heart and soul. I have my parents. There's no question about the amount of love we share for each other. And my friends - they are my family too. Oh, and of course, my kitty, Monte! How I love Monte! Feeling his whiskers brush my face in the morning - his way of saying "Mommy, get up!" Now, that's priceless.Sorry if I got a little preachy here, reading that blog just irked me today.
I finally found a use for the practice square I crocheted last week... Cat toy. Monte LOVES it. I've never seen him play with anything with such intensity as he does this little blue square with the long tail. The tail is simply a string of yarn about 4 feet long, and I hold onto it while I dangle it in front of Monte. You should see him. He goes from a curled fur ball in deep sleep, to full on attack mode in seconds. His eyes become dilated. He hunches over, slowly taking a quiet step. The fur on his back twitching. Watching... waiting... Then suddenly, he springs his entire 14 pound body onto the helpless patch of material, sliding a few inches on the carpet along the way. He goes through this cycle for the next half hour.
Monte does have a full basket of kitty toys. One year for Christmas, my dad bought me a little metal shopping cart. It's cute, but don't know what people usually use it for, so we used it to hold all of Monte's toys. We used to come home after work and find random cat toys scattered around the living room. I thought my mom, when she came over to check on Monte, had pulled out some toys from the basket so he could play with them. Nope. One day, I saw Monte poke his head into the basket, and after some digging around, pulled out a couple of his favorite toys. Now, if only he knew how to put them back...
My sewing class went very well. We haven't sewn anything yet, but we learned the basics and importance of laying out your material properly and evenly. How to read your pattern instructions. How to lay out your pattern on the material and pin it down. Measuring the grain. And finally, cutting out the pattern from your material.
The first hour was spent smoothing out our material on these wonderful oversized tables. I wish I could fit one of those into our condo. We had to make sure that all the wrinkles and folds and creases were flattened out as much as possible before pinning the pattern on. I managed to poke myself good with the little pins a few times, but it was OK. I had to keep reminding myself that you can't hand smooth the pattern down anymore once the pins are placed. It just doesn't work - your hand ends up being a pin cushion.
At the end of the night, all the pieces were cut, carefully folded, and placed into our own personal oversized baggie. Next week, we will be introduced to the sewing machine - and begin creating our robes. I can't wait!
I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I'm happy that my voice is back. I still have a little residual coughing here and there, but on the whole, I'm back to my loud self. Unfortunately, being healthy again meant that I couldn't ignore that annoying alarm at 6:30a like I did last week. That's the sad part.
One thing I am looking forward to today is my very first sewing class. I'm one who wants to try everything, but have a hard time getting out of the starting gate. For Christmas, my hubby gave me a gift certificate for a beginner's sewing class at the The Sewing Workshop, . Since we're moving fairly soon, and the class is only a few blocks from where our apartment is now, I knew I had procrastinated long enough and finally signed up for the May class.
The weekend before I became sick, I had received my materials list from the sewing school and we went to JoAnn Fabrics to get my supplies. I felt like a kid again - except instead of buying new crayons and notebooks, I had to chose from an overwhelming rainbow selection of materials. I was supposed to select a simple cotton material. No flannel, not too silky, and nothing you wouldn't mind making mistakes with. The one I liked the best was an off white cotton with beautiful beige flowers that looked almost painted on to the fabric. In the center of each flower was the most delicate brush of pale orange. It was a stunning fabric. Stunning until I saw that it was $6.99 a yard.
$6.99 doesn't sound like a lot, but I had no idea how much I would need. As a complete beginner, it was just too much $$ to start with. My beautiful flower material was going to have to wait until I knew how to turn on a sewing machine. I found another cotton with the word "Meow" in several fonts and colors printed between tiny little paw prints. At $2.99 a yard (the cheapest I could find), this would be my premier project. Plus it reminds me of my little kitty, Monte, so it's a good find. With a lot of help from a sales associate there, we figured out that I would need 4 yards of fabric.
Last night, I spent almost an hour cutting out the pattern that I received with my materials list. We're going to make a robe, and we are supposed to have our pattern cut and ready for class tonight. Upon opening the pattern, I was lost. I had no idea what I was looking at. What do all those lines mean? Why are there arrows here and there? Why is there a line within an inch of the other line? Why are some lines solid and others in dashes? What if I cut it out wrong? I don't have time to go buy a replacement pattern!
In a panic, I pulled out my Welcome letter/materials list again. "Cut on the dark black line." Ah! There is a dark black line! And as I surveyed the large brown paper on my living room carpet, I realized that each section of the paper was a different part of the robe. HA! No longer in a cold sweat, I finally had my pattern pieces cut, carefully folded, and put into a plastic ziplock baggie. I had washed, dried, and ironed my material as instructed earlier in the day.
I am ready to sew.
I love this scarf. I was a little sketchy about the color when I bought the skein, but it was so soft, I couldn't resist. It's Patons Bohemian yarn in Poetic Pink. I have really sensitive skin, so I can't really wear wools that much. I wanted to have a pinkish scarf, so during my little shopping spree on our anniversary, I picked up a skein of this chennile type yarn. It's surprisingly warm, and there are so many shades of pink, with touches of light blue and yellow, that it compliments a lot of my wardrobe.
I had completed a scarf with this yarn once already, but I had made it too wide, so it came out really short. I had to rip the whole thing and start over. The only bad thing about this scarf is that it does stretch out in the middle part where I wrap it around my neck, so it ends up looking much thinner than the ends. I keep having to reshape it.
After a restless night of coughing, I woke up this morning and realized that I had completely lost my voice. It's gone! It's taken a vacation or something, because no sound is coming from my throat. Now, I'm really annoyed.
I've been puttering around the house all day. Actually logged into work to check my emails and do some follow-up work. Yes, that is how bored I am. It's one thing to take the day off and go run errands, go see friends, do some shopping... but to have the day off, and not be strong enough to go out. I don't want anyone to come over because I don't want to get them sick too. Obviously I can't even call anyone because I can't talk. I've been having to email my husband when I want to tell him something.
So, what else have I been doing all day? I finally finished knitting a scarf. It's only the second one I've made, and it turned out pretty nicely. A little short though, but oh well. Now I'm trying to teach myself how to crochet from a kit I bought. I've made a little 4x4 square patch so far. It's not really supposed to be anything. Just practice. I would like to make a cap.
How did I get interested in learning how to crochet? On Tuesdays, near the Ferry Buildling in SF, the farmer's market sets up shop. Boothes of handmade goodies presented in all their simplistic glory are everywhere. Paintings, earrings, soaps, tamales, you name it, it's probably there. At one booth, there is a man who crochets caps and hats all day long. His hands are constantly working on his latest creation. His finished designs sit atop the tables in a rainbow of colors and styles. One day, I was walking by and he was working on this beautiful light blue cap. His fingers manipulating this little stick with a hook on the end and a ball of yarn. By the time I got my lunch and walked past him again, the cap was already sitting on its own little display. It was fascinating to me how he made something so quickly from a ball yarn and a single stick. How do people figure out how to do these things?
So, here I am, with my little square patch, feeling like I can conquer the world of caps and hats with my own little stick and light blue yarn.
I don't know what is worse. Having a cold or suffering from allergies? I'll tell you the answer. Having a cold AND suffering from allergies at the same time. Yes, that is my physical dilema of the week.
I've been popping Vitamin C, drinking green tea, putting lotion on my nose because it is now raw from blowing it so much. I'm just miserable. My voice is almost all gone from sneezing so much today. I guess my hubby will get some peace and quiet tonight. I like to talk a lot with him.
I declare tonight to be 'catch-up' night. We watch a lot of TV. Let me emphasize A LOT. I tape about 16 hours worth of shows each Sunday through Friday. It's quite ridiculous. Good thing is that a lot of the shows are back to back to back on the same night and channel - so I just set the timer and let it go. The lightbulb finally went off in my brain last week to set the VCRs to record the same times weekly, instead of the one time deal I've been doing. Now I just have to remember when each tape is full and replace them before that wonderful discovery that the tape popped out in the middle of a show because it's full.
It also took me a while to figure out why shows like Lost or Desperate Housewives kept cutting off at the last minute. ABC has been doing this 'extra 2 minutes' thing with their popular shows. It's great that you get the extra two minutes of your favorite shows, but it sucks big time when you forget they do that, and set your VCR only to record for that one hour.
Sorry, I'm just blabbing on today. My head still feels like a cotton ball.
Woke up this morning with a sore throat, stuffy ears, and my brain felt like it had gained five pounds over night. What is it that make you feel like a brick is resting on your forehead, preventing you from lifting it from the pillow? I couldn't believe it. Without warning, I've caught a cold.
The world ran in slow motion for me today. We went to Home Depot and Lowes to get some quotes for the flooring we want to put in our condo. That was the main purpose of our trip. I walked in the store and while I was following my husband through his 'toyland', I completely blanked out on why we were there. When I asked my hubby, he just gave me this look like I had lost my mind. And he was not far from the truth.
I guess I haven't lost it completely. I can still smell a little, though my senses are defintely delayed. We walked through the food court, and I didn't smell the grease until we were in another part of the mall.
My hearing is a little muffled too, but it was well enough to witness this strange scenario of the day... We had just parked the car and were walking into the mall. We passed by a group young guys standing outside one of the entrances on a cigarette break. They've got their 'cool' thing going. Cigarettes in hand, baseball caps on backwards, pants lowered to you don't want to know where (isn't that trend over YET?), and tattoos galore. As we walked by, swerving past one kid who just hocked a loogy onto the sidewalk, one of the guys says to his friend, "You should let me color your hair." ???
