6.18.2008

A blast from the past

To prepare for my upcoming high school reunion (20th!), I went through some of my childhood photos, and lookie here:

My senior photo from high school (taken the summer before my senior year, so I was 16 1/2):












My mom's beautiful wedding photo:












My 3rd-grade photo (I distinctly remember this being my favorite outfit because "I look like a teenager in this."):











A photo of me in my office window with the Empire State Building in the background (my first date with Nerdy Hubby took place at the Empire State Building) way back when I was a NYC chick:












Enjoy!

6.17.2008

All of the photos I didn't post earlier

Here's my haircut at the salon:








Here's one of the sweet pooches at the salon--this one is Peanut, and then there's Beau--they're siblings. Beau sat in my lap for my whole cut and dry. They're smaller than cats, and so cute!









Here's a lovely scene from our walk on Sunday:

6.16.2008

What a great weekend!

Well, let's start with Friday: I got a new Curly Girl Haircut at Imago Salon (in Richmond). I've been trying and trying to encourage my curly locks for ages, and I think I've finallly found the right combination of cut and product to make me curly-curly-curly. I can't get photos to load from home (darn dial-up!), so you'll just have to trust me until I can post a photo.

So what else happened this weekend? Nerdy Hubby returned from a week away from home doing Nerdy Research (he's a Nerdy PhD student, after all), so peace returned to our Nerdy Home once we were all back together. The Beast is particularly glad Nerdy Hubby returned because he has constructed a fence for the Beast. The renegade beast escaped about 3 weeks ago and scared us to death--now we have a fence to contain his beastly self.

But wait--that's not all! I went to Staunton to celebrate Worldwide Knit In Public Day with the On the Lamb folks. They were great--they organized sponsors that included the local coffee shop. A free drink from the coffee shop for each person wearing a name tag?! Yummy! I had a lovely iced chai. Scrumptious!

Alas, I couldn't do the knitting I meant to do because I lost a needle somewhere between my car & the site. Grrr! So I picked up an old project and worked on it--I think it was meant to be, right?

Then yesterday Nerdy Hubby & I went to the Piney River walkway and walked about 3-4 miles. We saw butterflies, deer, cows, and all sorts of lovely flora. I took some photos which I'll post when I have a fast connection.

Meanwhile, I've finished the knitting on a project for Nephew2's 5th birthday...now I have to sew up a long, tedious seam and sew in some ends...by Friday!

Did that stop me from working on my Swirl Shawl at lunch? Of course not! Seaming is so boring. Sigh. But it WILL be done in time for the birthday, honest.

That's all I've got for the time being, so go play on my new favorite toy: Plurk (I can't hyperlink, so just go to plurk.com). Have fun--my username is nerdyknitter if you want to see what I've been doing over there.

Good night!

6.02.2008

Long time no write

Well, well, well, I do still have a blog--who knew?!

I have no good excuse for my absence except that I've been knitting, and haven't had the gumption to deal with posting photos from home (dial-up. enough said.).

But first, here's my big "you knew me when" story:

Nerdy Hubby & I were chosen to be the first folks on stage for the Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood show!!! We did the "Moving Bodies" game from the "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" program. I moved Brad Sherwood, and Nerdy Hubby moved Colin Mochrie. I didn't drop my performer on the stage, either. It was such a great night--totally fun and funny. The scenario was that it was "Pancake Day" (a new national holiday we might want to consider) in Luxembourg, but the celebration isn't complete without ferrets. Brad forgot the ferrets, so they both had to go jetting off on the moped to find ferrets before the party. It was very funny!

Back to real life, and not associating with famous people....

We have been busy little bees--Nerdy Parents visited for 5 days in May, and we had a lovely time. Nerdy Mommy & I even managed to sneak away for 3 whole hours of knitting time with some of our knitting pals. Nerdy Mommy is making a beautiful lace/beaded shawl (Arabian Nights, if you're interested). THOUSANDS of beads (yes, that's worth all-caps).

We went to NYS for the weekend to meet our friends' 4-month old baby, Jake. Henry had doggy friends, we had a cute baby to play with. It was a nice visit. Too bad it's such a long ride in the car. But then again, Henry was an angel, so maybe we can do this more in the future. We'll see.

I went to the 3rd annual Sedalia Spring Fiber Festival, which was lovely. I met a baby sheep named Rosie--I love her! How could you not love that sweet little face, really? Oh, yes, I bought a little bit of yarn, but Rosie stole the show. The festival was lovely, and I'm hoping to make it a regular entry in the Nerdy Social Calendar.













I have made a pair of socks, a lace skirt/wrap, a baby project (okay--that one still needs a few ends sewn in), and part of a vest (Provincial Waistcoat from IK 2006).

I forgot to photograph the socks, but have photos of the skirt and the partial vest. Here's the Ogee Skirt (IK, but I forget the date). I used Berocco Bonsai (bamboo) yarn, and size 10 needles. The recipient was most pleased with it.


















And here's what's left of the Provincial Waistcoat now that I've ripped a bunch back...for some reason this Nerdy Brain could not handle the increases at the side "seam" and finally had to rip back and start over. The pattern is really crunched into a small space, which makes it messy to negotiate. There aren't any mistakes, just a lot of text in a very small area. So there are a lot of directions that tell you to do something, like the increases at the side "seam," AND AT THE SAME TIME, do something completely different with a completely different set of repeats, etc. Yeah, I'm not so good with that. But I'm enjoying the look of the vest so far--I'm hoping to finish it soon. The yarn is Jo Sharp Silkroad Arah, and the color is much closer to the 2nd photo than the first. I'm using size 7 needles and making a size larger than I normally would to accommodate for the fact that I'm using lighter yarn. We'll see if my math worked...










I spent Saturday with my friend, J and we had a lovely day of everything I love: pizza and salad for lunch, homemade ice cream for dessert, and a trip to a yarn shop (On the Lamb in Staunton). Lovely! Oh, and I can't forget the amazing strawberries from J's garden--yummy!!!!!!

And because my life also revolves around my poochie-poo, a little update on Beasty Boy: I have now taken the Beast for a 2-mile walk 4 days out of a possible 6! Why didn't I take him for those additional days? Well, one of those days I was out searching high and low for a horrible bratty dog who ran away! He was missing for 2.5 hours--I was a weepy mess! We are lucky that a nice woman saw him "in the middle of the road" and brought him home for us. We were out hanging up "lost dog" posters, calling the microchip service, etc. when she saw us & told us she'd found our boy. Hooray for good Samaritans! She put him in our house & gave him a bowl of water--what a nice lady!

Meanwhile, back to the walking...we're using the Gentle Leader gizmo, which he detests, and fights for a bit, because it allows me to have more control over him (which is why he hates it so much), and we're having a grand old time walking. This is good for so many reasons, primarily because it's getting me to exercise again (I've been off the wagon for months), and it exhausts the poor beasty-boo. A tired dog is a well-behaved dog. Here's evidence:
Hanging out on the deck, peacefully minding his own business.












Sleeping in a most uncomfortable-looking position (why do dogs do that to their necks?! Owie!) after a long walk. (It's difficult to make out, but that black thing is the foot-rest to Nerdy Hubby's reclining massage chair.)









So that's the summary of our Nerdy activities--full of fun and craziness with a lot of knitting thrown in for some relaxation. You'll note that I had no comments on my anniversary activities, even though our 6th anniversary was yesterday...well, Nerdy Hubby was out of town, so Henry & I had to do our own thing. Nerdy Hubby & I will be reunited this evening after a long week of separation.

Happy June, everyone!