3 Miles and 30 Years

Team Lainey participated in Walk America this morning. We had a fabulous time! The weather was perfect! So perfect that it could have been custom ordered! Peanut rode in her wagon rather than the stroller this year. I think she enjoyed being able to see around her a whole lot more. She certainly enjoyed yelling out "baby!!" and "dog!" every chance she got. There were a lot of babies and dogs there today. I'm not sure as to how much our team raised this year. I do know it's not as much as last year. Doesn't matter, though. Every dollar counts! We're looking forward to next year and possibly having t-shirts done. I'm tired, but what a great feeling.

I've been working on old projects in an attempt to get them finished up. I've added a couple of inches to the Larry scarf and Peanut's jumper is coming along. Nothing too exciting to photograph just yet. I am totally in love with the Reid sweater from Knitty. I can't help it, I have a thing for girly little sweaters. I will resist a) purchasing yarn for it or b) starting it before Larry and the jumper are finished.

My friends Meggan, Michele and I all have birthdays within a two week period. We're all 30 this year. Meggan is marking the day by traipsing through Ireland with her family seeing where her Grandfather grew up. How utterly cool is that? I'm so jealous. She and her sister are spending the last two days of the trip in Paris. She has promised to bring me back yarn. She's a sometimes knitter, the kind that has to be re-taught each time she picks up her needles. I've been very vague about what I'd like. Something Irish that is not acrylic. Told her to do the same in Paris if she gets a free moment. Can't wait to see what she picks. My friend Michele is marking the year by selling her house, quitting her job and moving to Arizona to live with her sister and return to school for her Master's. My 30th is Wednesday. Mister has hinted there won't be much to mark it. Hey, thanks. I have to work this year, normally I take it off. I think I'm going to try and do something for myself and try to live a healthier life. That's the greatest gift I could give myself...besides yarn. :)

Called Back to Work!

Mister's been unemployed since early February. Two weeks ago, we had a conversation about him possibly getting a part time job at the local auto parts store to save his sanity. We looked at the financials and decided against it. Yesterday morning, the union called. He's been placed on a job site at the hospital Peanut was born at. It's potentially a two year gig, but it's not plumbing. He called this morning to say it's the easiest job he's ever had by far. So with our day care provider on vacation, I'm home with Peanut until Monday. It's been fun so far. 2 1/2 is such a cool age.

As a celebration of his new job, we took Peanut to see The Wild yesterday evening. I did my homework. It's a rated G movie and it was rated along the same lines as her favorites (TS1 & 2, Monster's Inc, Finding Nemo, etc) I was confident The Wild would be appropriate as a first movie for our little miss. I would like to personal slap the person(s) that decided it should be a G movie. It should have been PG for sure. We would have done better with the scary crocs in Ice Age 2, I believe. She never cried or anything and acted fine in the theater, but insisted on holding my hand the whole way home and kept saying "Don't let go, mom". A large portion of the movie is quite dark and any scene with the wildebeest is kind of scary. It was not funny. There were plenty of one liners we chuckled at, but not enough to make the entire thing enjoyable. Don't go see this movie, kids or not. It's not worth the money. I love Eddie Izzard, but even he couldn't save this one. It was just bad.

I'm still working on Sisters. I think I'll be saying this for a while now. It's about 3" long now. The lovely, in blog limbo, Erin gave me some advice on continental knitting. By golly, it finally worked. I've tried this several times before, but it was Erin's suggestion of the double wrap on the index finger that finally got it. I've even figured out how to purl. This makes the 12+1 rib go a lot of quicker. I tried it with the Larry the Trapper Guy scarf, but it was too much back & forth to make it worth while. Also, it made the CottonEase feel like rope in my hands. Very strange.

I'm about halfway through A Million Little Pieces. Very good book. Two more books arrived this week from Paper Back Swap. I think I'm all set for summer deck reading. I've got about 3 hrs into Kingdom Hearts. I am so in love with this game. I can't believe I didn't like it when we first bought the PS2. It's so much fun!! That's about it from here. Peanut's in bed taking a nap, so I may watch Narnia. Or I may grab my book and go bask in the sunshine on the deck. So many options!

Project Spectrum - April's Oranges & Yellows

Here are some photos of the orange and yellow things around the house.

Vintage CMU Bookstore Bag My favorite notecards CMU baby blanket on USM

Afghan gram made circa 1977 Unity candle, fav frame good ol' Tide

New project bag Mister's drink of choice Favorite lotion


We have new neighbors. The house next to us has been empty until last month. We didn't see or hear them much until the weather got nicer. They aren't really friendly and she could win a prize for the number of four letter words in her vocabulary. Problem is that she tends to string them together at a high volume with the windows open. Oy. I feel just awful for their 7 year old daughter. Mister and I have talked about trying to become cordial with them and invite her over to play with Peanut. Poor Peanut stands at the dining room window and yells out "Hello girl!! Girl come play?" We don't know her name, but Peanut has decided to call her "Girl" until we do I guess. Our other neighbors, who are beyond fabulous, have 3 boys that she normally plays with. They're on vacation for the next 10 days or so, though. She's a little starved from kid action.

We may take Peanut with my nephew, brother & sister-in-law (little man will stay with g-ma) to see The Wild tonight. Peanut's never been to a movie, so we thought it might be fun to go. I adore Eddie Izzard and he's the voice of the Koala. We had plans to see him live, but we found out Peanut would be due around the same time of the show. Some day.

Speaking of shows....I'm going to be 30 this year. (and I'm ok with that, 25 was hard 30 will be easy) Before Mister, I attended concerts like most people go to the movies. That was back when I lived with the parents and had a lot of disposable income...and before I really got into knitting. I haven't been to see a show since May 2003. This is huge for me. I saw Poison with Cinderella & Skid Row while six months pregnant. Not a whole lot kept me from going...except now. Peanut's expensive and so is a house. Anyway, back to the birthday...Kenny Chesney is coming in August with Carrie Underwood, Gretchen Wilson and Dierks Bentley. Mister and I got tickets for our birthday presents. I'm so excited about it, it's not even funny!! We were huge American Idol fans and never missed an episode the season Carrie won. Mister has a crush on Gretchen Wilson and we both like Dierks Bentley. It should be a really fun time.

Just Checking In..

Peanut and I visited the Easter Bunny at the mall yesterday. What a nightmare. She was a trooper. Not a tear was shed, but she refused to sit on his lap and they wound up having to crop me out of the photo. I'll take it. It almost looks like she's imitating him.

I think something's up with Yahoo. Well, when isn't something up with Yahoo? I've just noticed today that my daily digests from my groups aren't coming through. Interesting. Who knows what I've missed, but I'm sure I'll survive.

I've done some Project Spectrum homework, but need to get the photos uploaded to post them. Knitting photos will be here soon, I promise.

In exciting family news, we did the taxes tonight. Nothing like last minute, huh? Good news is that it looks like we're getting enough back to carry out the plans we had for it and buy the porch swing I've fallen in love with at Costco. You will be mine comfy green swing! This is also good news because Erin and I have decided to give Clapotis a try. While neither one of us can justify the Lion & Lamb purchase, we're going to find something else worth of it. I think the swing will be a great place to work on it.

Oy.

That sums up the night. I e-wrapped 160 needles on the USM. Yeah, that's a lot. I don't like to do panels, so it's gotta be all one piece. It took about 3 hrs to get it all set, the hem hung and 6 rows knit. I got a seed stitcher, so I figured I'd do the edges in garter stitch. Tonight I realize it's a bit more than I want to convert by hand. I did two rows of waste yarn and walked away. I'll decide tomorrow night how I want to proceed. I was hoping to have a baby blanket done by Friday for our good friend's sister's baby shower. If I'd stuck to my tried and true pattern, I'd be nearly finished by now. Bummer. Live and learn. It'll learn it's fate tomorrow once I figure it out.

I heard from my Project Spectrum Post Card Swap buddy, Aleta. Not sure if she has a blog just yet. She does have twin 8 year old boys and a menagerie of pets. This is going to be a lot fun! She lives on an island near Seattle with a ferry and bridge to get around. So cool!!

I'm finally through the lace edging of Peanut's tunic. Now it's just a 12x1 rib for the skirt. I'm not putting pressure on for it. Just needs to be done by the time she has pictures at preschool.

I don't have pictures of any of my knitting WIPs, but here are some of Peanut over the last few weeks. Including her big road trip.
Here we are ready to go!!!

My hair is at the mercy of 2 men!

Dear Mom - send pretties & detangling spray
I'm in here somewhere...

Home Safe and Sound

Mister and Peanut arrived home Friday night around 10 o'clock. Peanut was slumped over the seat like she hadn't slept in days. I carried her in and then watched her weave a staggered line into the family room to catch a few minutes of SpongeBob before going to bed. She and dad had a great time bonding. She only wanted dad to help her get ready for bed or to snuggle with. Old habits die hard, though. At 4 a.m., I heard a faint "mommy, moooommmm" coming from her room.

We had a birthday party and a neighborhood get together yesterday. Today, it was my Grandparents' 57th wedding anniversary. We spent the day at their house. The grandparents that have everything were thrilled when the family landscaping team showed up to clean up the yard. Mister overheard Grandma say they were considering paying someone to come in and take care of it. Yard work is a much better gift than another knicknack that'll only collect dust. Peanut got to ride the electric car her aunt bought her last year. I got some great photos of the day, but they're still in the camera.

On the knitting front, not much has been done since Thursday night. I'm 7 rows into the Sisters pattern. I should be twenty rows...I got 13 rows into what I thought was a flawless project and found that with 260 stitches crammed onto a 24" needle, I'd missed a tiny twisted stitch when joining and hadn't noticed it until the fabric was long enough to see the flip. If you're doing the math, let me just confirm...that's 3,380 stitches + 260 cast on stitches that had to be ripped out. To add insult to injury, it wasn't plain stockinette either. In my frustration, I pulled my 32" needle out of the new shawl project (Don't ask) and cast on again. So much easier to deal with on the 32" than the 24". It's taking a bit to get through the rounds, but the 12 by 1 ribbing making up the majority of the skirt should go a lot quicker. I'm hoping to have it finished in time for her to go to preschool.

Ok, so I'm watching Gray's Anatomy. They claim to have made a sweater in a single day. Now, the needles and yarn were quite bulky...but seriously. I think it's fabulous the lovely docs are knitting while observing surgery and checking in on patients but a single day sweater is a bit of a stretch to me. My relatives are going to see this and wonder why I don't have sweaters done in a day. My butt will never be as small as the girls on TV and my sweaters will never be done as quickly. Next thing you know, they'll be airbrushing cables into plain sweaters.