Late to the party, but who cares!
Kat asked people to see the photos they're using for their wallpaper, and I couldn't resist showing mine (even though you've seen it before) because it's so darn cute.
Here's what I see every time I sign on to my computer at work:
Now, I ask you, could he get any cuter? I don't think so! Who knows what he was seeing/hearing when I took that photo, but I'm sure it was something very upsetting (he's a bit of a nervous Nellie, our boy).
Kat's dog, Lucy was her wallpaper, but she replaced Lucy's photo with one from Cute Overload (you know the one, it's a kitten wearing a knitted hooded sweater). I don't know...Lucy's photo is pretty darned sweet. I think I would like to have that photo of Lucy so Henry could "meet" her. She looks like she might be his type (okay, any dog is his type, really, but it sounds good).
And, since I haven't added any photos lately, here's a picture of what happens when a 3 1/2-year old boy chooses the activity for the day:
Yup, that's bowling, folks. Nephew #2 is obsessed with the game, so we all went along. Hey--did you know bowling ain't cheap? For 2 hours for 6 adults and 3 kids was over $100! What happened to the family pastime? That freaked me out. And, as luck would have it, I don't really enjoy bowling, nor can I participate for long as I have weak wrists. So I was right there with the kids, doing this:
Even that hurt my wrists eventually, so I sat out and knit while the kids finished their game. That same weekend, Nephew #1 said, "Why are you always sewing?" He sounded very put out, maybe that I don't play as much as he'd like, I'm not sure. I explained that I like to make things, and that I would like to make something for him (his birthday is approaching). That seemed to make it more acceptable. Now I "just" have to find the right pattern for some cool kid-appropriate socks...
I did it! I ordered it!
Yes, it's true--I'm now anxiously awaiting the delivery of my iPod Shuffle. It's that cutie-pie little one that clips onto your clothes. I can't wait to get it!I even managed to get myself out walking at lunch today just because I had ordered the shuffle gizmo before the end of my 4-week contract. I must admit it felt good to do the right thing, even though I had a miserable headache. The problem with walking/blogging at lunch is that I have very little time left for knitting, so I don't have an awful lot to report on the knitting front.I'm on the back neck shaping of my vest, which is exciting. I'm hoping to finish that tonight so I can get started on the front tomorrow morning.Those plans might not come to fruition because I have sole custody of the Beast Child while Nerdy Hubby is in Washington, DC, assisting with Miller Center for Political Affairs oral history interviews. Nerdy Hubby is a doctoral candidate in American Political History and also works as a research assistant at the Miller Center. Speaking of my Nerdy Hubby...he had an opinion piece published! Here it is. Go ahead and read it. I'll wait...Isn't he smart? Doesn't he write beautifully? I think so!So I'll be home alone (well, with the Beastie Boy for company) for 3 days. Sigh. I love the dog and love spending time with him, but he tends to get more riled up when I'm around than when he's with Nerdy Doggy Daddy. Why? Maybe because I stop what I'm doing to play with him rather than ignoring his attempts to play like Big Mean Doggy Daddy does. That might have something to do with it. We're very lucky to have generous friends who live nearby who are willing to stop at our house today to let the poor pooch out and to feed him since I won't be home until well after Henry's bedtime. Tomorrow, though, I'll be taking a big long lunch just to drive 25 miles one-way to let the dog out myself. Sheesh--pets! Hee hee. Honestly, I wish I could work it out so I could play with Henry at lunch every day. Wouldn't that be fun!Oh--I've been meaning to write about my latest knitting recruit! Yup, another addict is coming up through the ranks here at the Nerdy Workplace. My friend, C, who has been curious about this knitting thing for quite some time, just decided to teach herself. She bought a book and figured it out all on her own. This was just a matter of months ago, mind you, and she's already made 2 scarves (while teaching herself to purl!) and has moved on to a children's sweater for her nephew! She's a wild woman, I tell you.So now I have my college friend/sister-in-law-in-law, my friend from elementary school, and my work friend all addicted to knitting. I love how far and wide this is spreading, just in my little circle of friends. And that doesn't count the people who already know how to knit, like my friend Michelle, the knitting librarian (her blog is on my sidebar). Knitters are going to take over the world, and when we do--watch out! So go start plotting what our first world domination move should be while I get back to work.
iPod, here I come!
Yahoo! This is the beginning of my 4th week of walking 30 minutes 5 days/week! And that means...I get to order my iPod this week!!!!Oh, wait, you think there should be knitting content here? Even when I have a major iPod-related celebration to post?Okay, okay.Here's my latest knitting news:I'm making this vest (pdf file) with alpaca I bought at the 2006 Fall Fiber Festival at Montpelier (VA), and I love it! I hope I'm not going to jinx myself, but I've been measuring it agaainst a store-bought vest I like, and so far so good--it's about the same size, and I'm using it to gauge how long the body should be before the armholes, so it should fit kind of like the store-bought one which I really like. The biggest part of this news is that (shh...don't spread this around) I knit a swatch! And I changed needle size as a result of the swatch, which I suppose means that knitting the swatch was a worthwhile endeavor. I guess. Maybe.And, because I joined the Purling Pups web ring, I'm going to tell you all about our trip to Williamsburg this weekend. Well, not "all" about it, but the part about our super-star pooch making the trip like a champ. It's hard to believe that he used to drive us so crazy that we would turn around and go back home just to avoid spending any more time than absolutely necessary in the car with him. Yes, that very same pooch spent 2 hours in the car twice in one weekend, and never yipped or panted or drooled. Hooray for Henry! Hip-hip hooray!Our secret? 1/5 the veterinarian-recommended dosage of sedative and liberal amounts of HomeoPet Motion Sickness drops. Oh, and pepperoni and kibble and 1/2 his normal amount of breakfast (to keep him interested in the kibble in the car). That's "all." And pretty much constant feeding in the car. That's the key. But he just lays himself down and watches his Nerdy Mommy, waiting for the next piece of kibble to come rolling down the seat. I took photos of our happy boy, but they're not up yet. This week. Now I have just 5 minutes to go figure out whether I'm done with the decreases for my armholes before I have to go back to work.If any of you are interested in doing a really big favor for a nerdy college librarian, cross your fingers and toes for snow tonight. I know someone somewhere who might just like a snow day tomorrow.
Phooey--those blasted comments!
I just discovered that I'm going to be missing a knitting event this weekend, and if I'd known about my comments earlier, I would have seen Robin's nice invitation to contact her about the event. Now I can't go because we've made plans to go to Williamsburg for a Nerdy Family visit. rats!
Anyway, I've volunteered to be tagged for one of those "6 weird things about me" memes.
THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the 6 weird things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.
6 Weird Things About Me...
1. I eat everything in one "flavor" before I move on to another thing on my plate (for example, I need to finish my salad before I move on to chips, or whatever).
2. I try to decide which taste is the last taste I want, and establish my eating order to make it work out so that "the taste" is the one I eat last. It's so weird, I can't even make my explanation make sense!
3. I feel like my life would be much happier (well, okay, maybe that's an exaggeration) if I had beautiful, corkscrew-curly hair. Sigh.
4. I feel like I need to have an iPod, even though I don't need one...okay, so maybe that's not so weird...
5. I have a hard time making lists of weird things about myself, even though I'm one of the weirder folks around.
6. I wait until the very last minute possible to shower and get dressed for work--this often means I'm late for most things in life because I've put off taking my shower.
I'm late going back to work (it's lunch hour here at nerdy college), so I'll have to tag people later.[edited to add tags]I'd like to tag the following pals:1. Knitting Librarian2. Maia3. Allegra 4. Beth, another knitting librarian5. My non-blog friend, John, who can play along by listing his weirdnesses in my comments.6. Rats--I'm out of names. Phooey!
I've been a very baaad blogger
I just now found out that the comments feature on my blog wasn't workingthe way I'd assumed it would, so I didn't realize anyone was writing comments on my blog. Phooey!And now that I've had the chance to read through all of the fun comments, I'm even sadder that I missed out on responding to them when it was more appropriate. I started out receiving an email every time someone commented, then I stopped receiving that email, and just assumed (you don't have to tell me what happens when you assume...this is the perfect example of that) that no one was reading the blog (well, except for my friends who normally email me anyway). It's kind of fun to discover that someone out there really was reading the blog, but I'm just so sad that those people commented and I never knew, which means they don't know how much I appreciate the comments. So thank you, all of my commenters!I hope I'll get a chance to be more efficient and attentive in 2007!
I'm baack!
Some of you (whoever might actual be reading this...John? Darci? Michelle? Nic?) might have leapt to the conclusion that my blogging days are over, it having been more than a few weeks since my last post. Never fear--I'm back!
I won't say "with a vengeance" because that would imply I've got an attitude, which we all know would be such a big fat lie.What have I been doing with all of my "free" time, you ask?Let's see...I started by almost-2-week "break" with an evil, evil cold that stuck with me for the duration of my break minus a day or two. What a lucky girl, eh? Yup, I was even (gasp!) too sick to knit for a lot of that time. Sigh. I was so annoyed that not only was I away from work for 2 extra days, which would normally translate to 2 extra days of knitting, but I was so tired/sick/out of it that I couldn't summon the energy to do anything at all. What a waste of good at-home days!Luckily, Nerdy Hubby gave me my 2nd Christmas present before Christmas arrived, and I was able to spend all of my sicky days watching the first half of the first season of my beloved 'Perry Mason.' Yahoo! Those were the days--a whole season was more than twice the length of a current tv series because my first half of the season has 19 episodes. That's more than a lot of full seasons include these days! Boy, do I love Perry--he always wins, he's always principled, and he always waits till the last minute to pull the rabbit out of the hat. Such a good (yet corny, I admit it) show!We spent a good amount of time in New York State with Nerdy Families, left and right. The Beast Child made the trip without too much drama, although we wish we'd learned about the high value of distraction treats (aka made-for-human-consumption pepperoni) a little earlier on in our car-riding lives. That pepperoni must be like crack for humans, because it keeps nervous nellie dogs distracted through almost anything! We made it back to VA without losing our minds, which wasn't for sure until we were almost all the way home. Then we had 2 nice, relaxing days at our house before we loaded everyone back into the Nerdy Nissan and headed to Williamsburg, VA (luckily, only 2.25 hours--a big improvement over 10.5!) to see another set of Nerdy relatives. Much fun was had by all...excpept for poor little Henny-Penny...too much excitement all around him, especially new year's even when the fireworks started. The poor guy didn't get much sleep. Riding in Car with pooches lesson #2: fatigued dogs are calmer dogs, at least in our case, which is really all we care about when we're the ones making the carrides. Was I knitting during this mini-break? Of course! I had a pair of light-up needles to test while we drove north, so I purposely bought yarn to go with them (Lion Brand Cashmere blend), and made a seed-stitch scarf on the ride to/from NYS. The needles really do work in a dark car--what fun! Nerdy Hubby said it's like riding with a UFO in the car, and I made sure to point out that, in knitting terms, he is riding with a UFO (UnFinished Object)! Hee hee. I also worked a bit on my complicated lace shawl (using the drop-dead gorgeous yarn I bought at Stitches East), but then thought I'd made a complicated mistake, and started to rip out, only to discover that I think the mistake was a figment of my imagination! Now I'm not sure I can repair my ripping out (ripping out lace is so complicated, what with all of the yarnovers, the knit-two-togethers, etc.)! I may end up redoing the majority of the blasted thing. For now, it's sulking in the living room as I take on some smaller, simpler projects.Just last night I finished the cashmere (yes, 100% cashmere) scarf kit I bought at Stitches East. It's a purple scarf knit just for me. Did I mention it's cashmere? I've never knit with cashmere before--yum!I also made a cowl/hat from a free online pattern (link eludes me right now) that I found myself wearing every day for over a week. I love it! I used a skein of gorgeous yarn I bought at the brand-new LYS near my parents' house. It's called "Crazy as a Loom." Cute, no? I also bought some fiber for spinning--oh, it's beautiful! I'll have to wait for another day when I have more time to deal with posting photos to show off the things I've made and/or received. I'm a lucky knitter!
But before I go, I need to make public my "contract" with Nerdy Hubby. Said contract was created to get me back into my exercise regiment (exercise=walking at least 30 minutes 5 days/week). So, when Nerdy Knitter walks 5 days/week for 3 weeks, she gets to order an iPod, which should arrive at the end of the 4th week. From that point on, she gets to keep the iPod unless she fails to walk 5 days in a week. Such failure will result in the loss of the iPod for a week, during which time Nerdy Knitter will be walking to regain usage of said iPod. Nerdy Hubby's part of the bargain? He has promised to walk with me one day/week because there's usually the One Day when I'll stay home unless I know I have someone to accompany me. I've already successfully completed 2 1/2 weeks, so by the end of this week, I'll be shoppin' for an iPod of my very own. Yeeha! Do I need an iPod? The answer is a resounding NO. Do I crave an iPod like nobody's business? Yes, actually, I do. So there.I've been trying to get ahead of myself by loading my already-in-my-CD-collection music onto my computer so I'll have stuff to play right away. What fun!If you need me, I'll be surfing iTunes. Hee hee hee.
