Warm Fuzzies

That's what I get for doing stuff for The Preemie Project. I can't knit very fast, but I can whip up marketing materials! I'm doing my AKPsi roots proud. Stay tuned to The Preemie Project website, it'll be there soon. It's still a bit of a work in progress. Speaking of slow knitting...I've been digging away at the B-A-B-Y blanket. It's coming along well. I do like the CottonTots, it's really very soft when knitted. The Mister is slightly impressed, he'll be more impressed when he sees what it says.

I recently won the TLCforAngels yahoo group bingo. Now, I love me some Bingo! Whether it be in a smoky banquet hall with hundreds of whitehaired ladies or music bingo in elementary music class. Really can't go wrong with a good bingo game. Imagine my excitement when my first time out with the TLCgroup, I won! The wonderful and kind, Kaye sent me a fabulous prize box that was obviously put together with some thought. Thanks Kaye for all the hard work you do for the group. We truly do appreciate it!!

Here is the purple scarf. The photo doesn't really do the color justice. It's a much richer color. Keep your eye on it..you may be given the opportunity purchase/bid on it later on. All money going to a great cause!

And for those of you waiting for a Pepper update, here you go.....She started with the bad behavior again on Friday. We've had six incidents of bad behavior since then. She went to the vet today. Seems that her bladder infection from before is even worse than it was the last time they saw her. The vet said she was a very sick kitty and she was lucky to have a family that paid attention to her rather than scolding her for the behavior. Remember..we've had this cat less than a month. She was supposed to be a low cost pet...we're in for almost $300 so far. She's just a doll and Peanut adores her..that's worth every penny. Here's a new photo of our little patient. Keep positive thoughts that the new little pills and food will help clear this all up and break the cycle.

Unsettling Lunch

Note...this message refers to Friday, but life got in the way of posting it.

By the time lunch rolled around today, I was ready to get out of the office. I planned on making a quick trip to the "big" Walmart by our house and hitting the LYS for new needles. I've heard so much about the Walmart yarn stock that I had to check it out at another store to see if the one I hit before was just a dud.

Second time around, still not impressed. Ok, maybe impressed if I'm looking for a large selection of red heart. Or maybe, fun fur. I'm not in the market to purchase either of these at the moment. I did wind up with four skeins of Bernat Cottontots. 2 skeins of Sunshine for a previously commissioned baby sweater (the little guy lives in Florida) and 2 skeins of Strawberry to make a dishcloth preemie blanket. Now, don't think it's the normal diagonal blanket, because it's not. I'm not going to ruin the fun or jinx myself so that's all I'm gonna say about that. I did pick up some new crochet hooks. I was missing an F and G from my set and I grabbed some newer larger ones as I do not have these at all. I picked up a few other things to send as a gift, but that person does check in on this little blog from time to time..so we'll just not mention those.

On to the LYS! I arrived already running late to get back to the office. I was armed with the gauge and suggested yarn for this . My friend Steph's lil miss will be 1 soon and I thought she'd be particularly cute in this come Fall. Well, the yarn called for is $7.50 a ball. I would need 2 - 3 balls. Now, don't get me wrong..I adore Steph. I love lil Miss...but being the mom of a toddler, I know that knit hat will be in the mud and snow and rain. Hardly appropriate for Debbie Bliss cashmerino. I asked the nice lady at the LYS to help me find a suitable replacement. She asked why and I explained I'd rather not spend $20+ on a toddler hat. She actually said, Your friend isn't worth $20? Um, excuse me? My friend would appreciate a lovely yarn that wears well and washes beautifully. She's not a knitter, so she will be more impressed with any item I send..even if it's in Red Heart economy super saver. She reluctantly lead me over to a Plymouth yarn that was an acrylic/wool blend but seemed disgusted I didn't want the Debbie Bliss. I think I'm done with this LYS except for extreme emergencies. This isn't the first time I've been treated poorly because of acceptance of acrylic fibers. I will take my acrylic liking dollars elsewhere.

Almost like crack...

Well, it's been quite a weekend. That's probably putting it mildly. Peanut started a cough on Friday. Now, this is probably the fourth cough she's had this Spring/Summer. Not something I notice until it becomes a noticeable cough. I guess that's part of my casual mom parenting. Saturday, I noticed at the party that she looked kind of worn out. Unusual for a 20 month old that loves to sleep, and does so at each chance she gets. The Mister spent the night out with his buddy Saturday night, so it was just me and Peanut. The cough became noticeable...oh boy did it. She wound up in our bed, one of her favorite places to be. We were up four separate times that night. Think she'd sleep in Sunday? Nooo, up bright and early in my face at 7:30. We spent Sunday at my parents' house with the rest of the clan. Noticed Peanut was a little wheezy and out of breath after running around. Unusual again. Sunday night was similar to Saturday night, just toss in a low grade fever. Monday, we're at the doc's. Breathing treatments, viral, dimetapp..yada yada. Today we stayed home to rest up and wait for the fever to break. Tomorrow we return to the world of the living and non sick.

What did I (re)discover while home with my sick, hyper toddler? Crochet. Yes, I said it...crochet. Mister came home yesterday and said, what are you doing? I said, Crocheting. He said, But you hate crochet. That's how much I claimed to dislike crochet. I'm now eating those words. It's like a die hard film photographer going to digital. It's instant gratification. I've finished two crochet preemie hats in the last two days. Now, mind you, I have had a bit more time on my hands..but I think I could whip one up in 2 hours. It's nearly instant gratification. What's happened to me?? Here's a photo of the crack hats and I have a feeling there are more crochet items in me waiting to get out...maybe, even, gasp..a blanket!

Here's one of my favorite photos taken on Sunday. My parents have seven acres and we just let Peanut run loose. Much different from our urban dwelling. Like city mouse visiting country mouse's house. Anywho...feel free to note how cute she is. And a side note, that's the outfit Dad picked out and bought for her to wear on Father's day.

Lights, camera....

It's been a while since I posted some photos, so here we go...

The grandpa hat was finished last night. The Mister was kind enough to model it for me:


Here's my progress on the burial outfit for the The Preemie Project, that's the hat and back piece:


And here's the Allison Sweater:


That's all I've got for today. We have a jam packed weekend with a graduation party and Father's day outings. The next several weeks are actually very busy. I thought summer was supposed to be a season of fun & relaxation??

Dept of Public Security

Ok, so we had a user leave their laptop at the airport security checkpoint last night. Amazingly enough, the airport had it! Still in one piece. I volunteered for the field trip to retrieve it. What really made the trip?? Getting to the Dept of Public Safety office and find the spot next to where I parked the merc had the following on it's sign:

Reserved for Director of Homeland Security

This got me thinking two things:
1) How often does the DOHS come to town that he requires his own spot? Does he have a spot like this at every airport across the country? Is he driving himself? Why couldn't his sedan just drop him off rather than taking up a whole spot up front?

2) I seriously need to get a camera phone.

Grandpa's father's day cap out of the Rowan plaid is nearly finished. The Mister is quite impressed with it. He's also now denying that he ever said he did not want a handknit winter cap. It is a lovely hat with a simple cable running up each side. Knowing him, I doubt he'll ever wear it..but it's the thought that counts, right?

Big news? I attended my first Knit Guild meeting. What did I find there? A room full of lovely ladies. They brought lovely treats, which I did not partake to keep with the low carb regimen. I did find that just because I'm part of the TKGA, doesn't mean I'm part of the Plymouth Woolgatherer's Guild. I'm a little unsettled about this, but will worry more about it next month when I return and speak to the lady in white. I never got a name and she left before I could inquire. So, what happened at said Guild meeting?? They had a real, structured meeting. Reminded me of my Key Club & AKPsi days...ahh, memories. Then they had a break for everyone to have time to enjoy the yummies. Then a program, or lesson. This month was different bind offs. They had a couple of variations on the 3 needle, and a suspended and a picot bind off. I'd been intrigued by the picot bind off before, so I was pretty excited about learning it. I had a good time and will probably be back again next month. Check your local guild! If it's anything like the one here, it's like getting together with your grandma and her girlfriends to talk shop, eat some delicious treats and get a free knitting lesson. What's not to love?

It's good enough for me!

Your IQ Is 110

Your Logical Intelligence is Above Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

What a week!! (and it's only Tuesday)

Oy. That's all I can say about the last two days at work. I don't talk about work here, so I won't go any further. I have a Peanut to keep in fruit snacks.

I've got the back of the teeny preemie sweater finished. I'm working on the left front. I had to put it and the Allison sweater to the side. What do you get the man who has everything for Father's Day and wants nothing? A hand knit stocking cap in a fine fiber. That's what the grandpa will be getting on Sunday. The mister is going to get store bought gifts. The grandfather is 78 and had 7 children. He has everything. He doesn't have a gray stocking cap knit by his favorite granddaughter.

One last thought...my college roommate & AKPsi Brother, Adam is serving in Iraq. His wife gave birth to beautiful little Anna last week. Adam is still deployed, but was able to listen in on the birth via cell phone. Rumor has it, the army is sending him home for a week before sending him back out again for 13 months. If you have a spare minute today, send some good thoughts and prayers their way.

TGIF!!

Ahhh, Friday. I enjoy just being able to wear blue jeans to work. No real thought to it. Standard Friday garb: t-shirt, jeans, tenny slides and a ponytail. Joy....

It's been a busy day here at work. Lots of comings and goings, but that's pretty standard for this time of year.

I finished the teeny white preemie hat! I've updated my number(s) in the Bears&Blankets contest DB. Now I'm at 1! A whole, whopping 1. But 1 is better than none, so I'm ok with that. I haven't been knitting much lately as we've been pretty busy. I am working on the sweater to match the hat just made. The cute (and super simple!) pattern can be found here .

Insane amount of weekend activity happening at our house and we're headed full force into graduation/wedding/baby shower season. Hold on tight...it's gonna be a bumpy summer!

HURRAYYYY!!!!

After a vet tech and a vet looking at me and saying "Sounds behavioral to me" a urinalysis proved that Pepper does have a bladder infection!! This is exactly what we were hoping for. This means we can afford to fix her and she can stay. The family is overjoyed to say the least. Now we have task of giving her liquid medication by mouth twice a day. Easier said than done. Definitely a two person job.

I've been low carbing it for two weeks. Pretty proud of that fact. Today, I was hit by a tsunami migraine. This required 40 oz of coca cola and 2 king size hershey chocolate bars. Luckily it hit prior to medicating myself, so I did skip the one med that helps level the blood sugar. The sugar/caffeine rush in combination with the prescription drugs did work well. If only I could stop shaking and sit still for 2 minutes!! I think my body is in sugar shock! We are taking an advantage and getting chicken shack tonight. If you're going to do it up, might as well do it up right! Back to low carb tomorrow. I am down 8 lbs in 2 weeks. Have to toot my own horn on that one.

The little NICU hat and that Alison sweater and still where they were on Monday. I was too nervous to knit at the vets and was also concerned about the amazing amount of fur coming off Pepper while we were there. Almost like it was her own defense mechanism. The vet agreed we should have her shaved for the summer. Wonder what she'll look like then??

Hoping to knit tonight. The Mister, bless his heart, taped Six Feet Under for me when I was unable to leave bed (due to previously mentioned tsunami). He did have other motives since taping it from HBOWest from 12 - 1 allowed him to enjoy WWE RAW without interruption. We're one of those houses that only has cable in the living room. I'm ok with that, he's not. I refuse to spend $40 an hour to have someone come and "fish" wiring through the ceiling, though. Anywho..I'm off track. Ok, so..knitting tonight while watching taped episode of Six Feet Under.

Good Intentions

Two weeks ago my doc put me on a low carb diet and meds with side effects that support such a diet. I've been doing really well and am down 5 lbs. Certainly not enough to notice. The Mister calls last night while out with Peanut. He says, "I've noticed you've been doing really well on your diet and thought I would reward you for all of your efforts with a trip to Dairy Dan's!" Dairy Dan's is the hometown equivalent to Dairy Queen. I personally think it's better than DQ, but that's my opinion. Now, the Mister never notices when I'm dieting, so I must be doing a good job. Mister also never makes the offer to do anything. And I adore ice cream. He has good intentions in his offer and that's how I take it...and take him up on it. We walk over there with Peanut and go in. I order Peanut her very first ice cream cone (she normally just eats off ours) and look to find the diet friendly ice cream selection. The only thing that remotely qualifies is no sugar added butter pecan. Now, I love butter pecan. Butter pecan is one of my comfort foods. Both of my grandfathers are/were butter pecan eaters. When I was in college and home sick, a good pint of butter pecan would do the trick. It is my friend. I opted for a single scoop of the NSA butter pecan in a dish. Here's where I have grounds for divorce: The Mister waits for me and Peanut to order and then proceeds to order a chocolate waffle cone with a scoop of black cherry and a scoop of Anniversary cake ice cream. Why is this an issue? It's my "usual" order. I've never, ever seen him eat black cherry ice cream. He never even tasted mine!! He usually goes for the chocolate/peanut butter or cookies & cream kind of ice creams. Cruel, cruel, cruel. We get out the picnic tables and sit down. Not being able to resist, I point out the obvious to him. He looks at the cone dumbfounded and then looks at me and says, "Yeah I guess it is your usual..didn't even think." DIDN'T EVEN THINK?!?! He remedied it with a taste of each scoop and an "I'm sorry". The NSA butter pecan turned out to be delicious. You could really taste the pecans, not just some sugary substance. I'm going to have to try it again sometime. And mind you, if you ever have the chance to try Anniversary Cake ice cream. Do so. Imagine cake flavored ice cream with pieces of frosting throughout. It's de-lish!

Knitting, yeah we've got knitting for you...First off, let me say that I'd been looking pretty hard at the photos of the CIC vest and thinking, it doesn't look like I remember. How could that be? It's been in my possession. No one's had it...then I look at the garment itself. Looks strange too. Maybe, that's because it's INSIDEOUT! I'll have to take another photo of it rightside out so you can see the nice cables.

I seemed up the second sleeve on the baby Alison sweater and am now working on the body. Hope to be finished this week. I think I'm getting a little burnt out on the baby sweaters. Definitely time for some instant gratification knitting...speaking of which, I started a preemie hat in the round with white TLC sport yarn. So far so good! It's a nice switch. Since it's white, it'll count for the Bears&Blankets red,white&blue hat challenge this month. I know there's no chance of winning, but I don't want a goose egg score!

Pepper's appointment is at 4. Please pray for a simple infection that can be cured with diet and a dose of meds. We'll deal with anything else when the time comes.

Oh kitty kitty...

Well, Pepper's been part of our family for a week now. Yesterday, the Mister accidentally stepped on her. Last night, she jumped each time I moved my foot. Today, she peed on our bed. Oy. Mister and Peanut are totally attached just after a week. We called a local vet and have an appointment scheduled for Monday. Funds are tight here at the homestead, so talk of kidney stones and surgery makes me a little nervous. Keep your fingers crossed it's just a UTI that needs some meds. For inspiration, here's a picture of the feline princess:

Last weekend I completed the CIC vest. I finally got around to photographing it. Looks pretty good! After I finish the other magic stripes sock, I'll send it along to CIC. Then it's on to items for the Preemie Project. Quite honestly, I'm itching to do up a teeny pair of slippers...so that may happen this weekend.

Baby Allison arrived on Wednesday! She and mom are doing well and are now home. I'm done with the yoke and one sleeve of her sweater. The other sleeve just needs to be seamed before I can go on an finish the body. The Mister will decide if we go with a bonnet or stocking cap.