Lots of random updates

Things have been sort of up in the air lately. The hubby is STILL SICK. Yep, we've moved into the land of steroids and no sleep. He was threatened (By his doctor. Not by me. We passed that long ago.) with being admitted to the hospital. Miraculously he started feeling better that night. However, now he's not feeling so hot again. He's supposed to check in with the doctor tomorrow. That's when the steroids are gone. We'll see what's going on from there. Suffice it to say, I'm worried.

The munchkin is great. She's changing every day. Today she brushed her own teeth for the first time. I loved it. Until she threw a hissy fit when I took the toothbrush away. That wasn't so fun.

Work is great. I just found out today that I've got a big project due by noon on Tuesday. So I'll probably be working this weekend. But that's the way it goes.

And Saturday morning is the book fair where I intend to fight to the death for a Wow Wow Wubbzy doll and book. That is if they have them at this book fair!

Also, my nephew is going to be a big brother! The baby is due in May. Great month if you ask me!

Between Holidays

The excitement of Thanksgiving is over, and the mad rush of Christmas has not yet begun. This is always a strange lull for me.

My thoughts are turning to what projects I can finish before the New Year and what will have to wait. I always have such grand hopes and somehow manage to complete some of those projects.

I went to the library yesterday and got some books on crocheting. In one of them I found a bulky sweater type coat that I want to make for the munchkin. Now I just need to decide what color yarn to use.

But right now the push is to do scarves. I'm hoping to sell some of them. I've sold a few, but I'd like to do some more. I'm just not sure what the best way would be to go about this.

Peanut Butter

So, the munchkin likes those nasty cheese crackers with the peanut butter filling. But she bites on them until the crackers split apart. Then she eats the peanut butter out of the middle and then doesn't want to eat the crackers. It takes the promise of a new cracker to get her to eat the plain cheese crackers.

Family Thanksgiving

My family can never be conventional. We had our extended family Thanksgiving yesterday. Everyone (my parents, myself, the munchkin, my brother and sister-in-law and nephew, my grandfather, my aunt, uncle and their three kids) all met at my parent's house.

There was tons of food, as usual. I made a BLT dip that TOTALLY ROCKED! And there were all the usual delights.

My nephew was in rare form and he and the munchkin played and played and played. Made a scarf and sold it to my aunt. Easy way to make some quick cash. Also contracted with my cousin to make another one. Hoping she can drum up some business around campus for me.

The munchkin played with her cousin and had a great time. She showed everyone her "SURPRISE" face. She sucks in quickly, says, "What's that?" and everyone thinks it's the cutest thing. Of course, it is.

My grandfather, who turns 95 in December, was there. He spent most of the day napping, but I know he enjoyed getting out. We fed him well and even gave him so eggnog with rum in it. He liked that a lot.

Fall is splediferous

I had a craving this morning. I really wanted to stop at my favorite bagel shop for a large Chai tea and a bagel. On my way to work I pulled in.

I got a cinnamon raisin bagel, toasted, with pumpkin cream cheese.

Between my car being toasty warm, the spices in the Chai, and the pumpkiny spices in the cream cheese, my car smelled so good. It was all warm and spicy and wonderful. It seemed a shame to get out and go in to work. MMMMmmm. Fall yumminess.

And Julie brought pumpkin oatmeal cookies. Life is good.

I missed my calling

I had ordered some books off of Amazon.com for work. They arrived today. As usual, part of the packing material was these goofy bags of air. These always just blow my mind. Someone somewhere is making millions by selling air sealed in plastic bags.

And not only are they making money selling air in a bag, but based on how much volume you do per day, you can purchase a system based on your needs. That's right. If you need to produce more AIR per day, you can purchase a larger system.

No joke. Check it out here:

http://www.sealedair.com/products/protective/air/fillair.html

And I'm kicking myself because I know that I could have done this. There are so many things that I could have used to create this product myself. Heck, give me some saran wrap and a curling iron and I could have done the same thing. Just goes to show you that whoever has the silly idea first, wins!

Finished Scarf

Well, I finished the second scarf for the guy at work. Glad that's done. Now that my crocheting obligations for others are done, perhaps I can focus on completing projects on my wish list. As you can see from the sidebar, there's a plethora of objects to choose from. First and foremost is to make some progress on my log cabin. And Wubbzy. Those are the top two!

My failed list

Housework is probably half done.

Scarf #2 is progressing. I'm probably 75% done. I hope to finish it up tonight.

The log cabin is still way stuck in un-finished-ness.

Haven't touched Wubbzy this weekend.

Haven't finished my book. Although I have made some progress.

I just haven't felt very well this weekend. I kept hoping it would pass and it never really did. Right now I'm working on some laundry and the scarf. Think kind thoughts of me getting everything done before morning.

On the up side, I did get one of my friend Heidi's DVDs watched. Pretty cool.

That's quite the list

Wow. I listed all my UFOs and FOs on the sidebar. Once I get a working camera, I'll be taking pictures of the finished objects and removing them from the sidebar. Be on the lookout for those pictures!

To Do

So, I'm making a list of things that need to get done in the next three days.

Housework. Of course there's houswork. Living room needs to be vacuumed, kitchen floor needs cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. ad nauseum.

Finish scarf #2 for Edward. Once that's done, my crochet obligations to others are done.

Get somewhere on my log cabin. I'm the host of the blog, so I really ought to make some progress.

Finish the body of Wow Wow Wubbzy doll.

Finish reading my book on the Black Dahlia murder.

I'm sure there's more. There's always more. Just what am I forgetting?

A day off

I took tomorrow off to stay home with the munchkin. It feels so good to be looking at a three day weekend and then a four day weekend next week. I'd like to get some reading done. I plan to get some crocheting done. And my friend Heidi loaned me some DVDs that she wants me to watch. I'm guessing that that and some crocheting will probably get done.

And of course there's housework. There's always housework. But that's OK. I'm really looking forward to trying to finish up some things around here.

Late night television

I went to bed late the other night. I turned on the TV, as I always do, and caught the tail end of a show called Manswers on Spike.

This episode happened to be about how tiny a G-string can be before it becomes illegal. Long story short, the "expert" involved said that any time he could see part of a woman's "vergina" then it was illegal. And this was a so-called expert. Sometimes I wonder about people out there!

My poor family

The munchkin is sick. So sick that she went down for a nap late yesterday afternoon, slept until I woke her around 6, and was back in bed by 8 for the night. As I write this, she's still sleeping.

The hubby is not yet over his pneumonia. Poor guy. He's on the really big antibiotics and they're helping, but not enough. I'm not quite sure what to make of this.

I'm the only one that's reasonably healthy. Last night I finished my pineapple afghan, made a scarf out of a random skein of homespun I had been gifted with, frogged my log cabin (which I'll begin anew tonight during crocheting group), and began the Wubbzy doll for the munchkin.

The doll is looking good so far. Of course, right now it's just the closed end of a pillowcase. But held it up to an image of Wubbzy on the TV last night and it looks spot on. Here's to hoping!

I hate stupid people

Picture Burger King on a Sunday afternoon.

Now, I'll admit I made the first mistake by going through the drive through, but really, I didn't think it was this difficult. I ordered exactly this way:

"I'd like a triple Whopper with mayo, onion, lettuce, and tomato only."

When the order came up on the screen as a plain Whopper with the additions, I thought I was home free.

It was not to be.

When I pulled into a parking space and checked the sandwiches before leaving the parking lot, the triple Whopper had cheese on it. So I went inside and told them what was wrong.

"The triple Whopper always has cheese on it."

"Even when you enter it as plain plus only four other ingredients?"

"They always come with cheese."

"Well then that's not plain, is it?"

Am I crazy here or is plain supposed to mean nothing else on it?

Sick munchkin

We're at home again with yet another ear infection. This one comes complete with chest congestion. They wanted to put her on zithromax, but I suggested perhaps we stick with a less expensive alternative that has worked in the past. We'll see how it goes in the next few days. If it doesn't work, I'll take her back in and cough up the cash for the big gun antibiotics.

Nearly completed Pineapple

Well gang, the pineapple is in the home stretch. I'm doing an edging on it of reverse single crochet. I must say, it looks pretty cool. I had never done the reverse single before. One word of advice, if you ever decide to use it, you might consider doing one round of single crochet all the way around the piece. It seems to make for a more stable foundation for this type of border.

Rip-it, Rip-it

Had to frog 8 rows of the panel of my pineapple afghan that I'm working on. I was in the final row of the panel when I realized an error I had made 8 rows back that fouled the whole thing up. It wasn't too bad. I've finished that panel now and am moving on to the last panel.

Next: Wow Wow Wubbzy doll for the munchkin

Life is good

Book group was at my house tonight. I made sweet potato fries for the first time. Here's the recipe:

5 sweet potatoes, cut into about 1 by 5-inch "fries"

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the sweet potato "fries" on a foil-lined baking sheet and toss with the olive oil. Bake until golden, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile combine the basil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. In another small bowl combine the mayonnaise, garlic, and lemon juice, and stir to combine.

When the sweet potato fries come out of the oven, sprinkle with the basil salt. Serve with the garlic mayonnaise alongside for dipping.

They were super good. Everyone, including the hubby, chowed down.

In other news, the afghan from the Vanna pattern is coming along beautifully. I'm approximately 65% done. And I'm considering frogging my log cabin and starting over again with a different stitch. I'm just not thrilled with it so far. I don't know. Maybe I'll start over again with a different stitch before frogging.

Log Cabin

Well, I'll admit that my log cabin afghan has not grown at all since the first night I worked on it. But I will get back to it. I swear. I've been working on the other afghan that I mentioned in a previous post. I don't know why, but I've picked the 15th of December as the date by which to have it finished. I wanted to give it to a girl in my crochet group who just went nuts over it, but then I decided that if I did that, I'd have to make each of them one. I'm just not prepared to do that. So it will go to Project Linus. Worthy cause.

Tonight is book group. And it's at my house. Can't wait. Should be a whole lotta fun and a bunch of girly time. That's one of the things I love best. The girly time. :)

Finishing things

I've always been one to start things and then not necessarily finish them. So, once I finished the hubby's ripple, I started my log cabin. It's going fine, but I'm not really sure what I think of it yet. So I pulled out a project I had started years ago.

I'm working on an afghan this weekend from Ms. Vanna White (I know. I hear you groaning). It's from her Favorite Gift Afghans book. The pattern is called Welcome Neighbor and is deceptively simple. The pineapples appear more like strawberries to me and my crocheting group, but it's lovely none the less. I'm working with some older Red Heart Jewel Tones that I had stashed away from when it went on clearance. I got approximately 10 skeins (all the same dye lot) for 50 cents each.

It's cheerful, I just don't know who will be the lucky recipient. Maybe Project Linus.

Everyone at my house is napping. Or, at least they were. I think I just heard the munchkin. That's all for now.

Looking for help

What you're seeing here is an assortment of images from a show called Wow Wow Wubbzy! that my daughter is obsessed with. I got the idea of crocheting her a Wubbzy doll. I can handle the body easily. And the tail is a snap as well. I'm just not sure how to do the ears, the fingers, the arms, and the legs as all one piece.

The idea that I've come up with, and tell me if you think this will work, is to crochet the body leaving a hole on either side where I can come back, attach the yarn and create the arms. I'd do the same thing at the bottom for the legs.

I see the fingers as more of a challenge. My thought is to crochet the palm and upper portion of the hand and leave four rings of stitches for spots where I can attach the yarn and create the fingers. But I'm open to suggestion. I am SO open. Please help here. I've never done anything like this.

Ripple is done

Well folks, I have another finished object. I finished the hubby's black and grey ripple last night. I'll post a picture here as soon as I can get one. I'm pretty proud of it. It's just short (about an inch and a half) of seven feet. In order to get it to be at least seven feet, I would have had to repeat the grey and black one more time and that would have made it approximately 7' 4". I thought that was a little too long and unwieldly, so I stopped just short of seven feet.

I have to say that I think it looks great. I know that I wasn't really thrilled about working entirely in black and grey, but I think it really looks sharp. Be on the lookout for a picture!

I stole this from Stephanie's blog. I liked it so much, I thought I'd do it.

57 Confessions



1. The phone rings, who do you want it to be? Someone telling me I've won something for free. I love free.



2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart? Yes. Must set a good example for the munchkin.



3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener? Both, probably leaning more toward talking.



4. Do you play Sudoku Puzzles? Sure do, but not often.



5. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive? I'm going to say a big, fat no on that one!



6. Do you like to ride horses? Yes, very much.



7. Did you ever go to summer camp as a kid? Nope.



8. What was your favorite game as a kid? When my brother and I would use a balloon to play volleyball in the livingroom.



9. Use three words to describe how you're feeling at this moment: Content, Happy, Sleepy.



10. Do any songs make you cry? I'm Already There by Lonestar. Check it out on Youtube.



11. Are you continuing your education? OH YEAH! Going back to school in the spring to get my Master's in Language and Rhetoric. Can you believe how much of a nerd I am? This is what excites me!



12. Do you know how to shoot a gun? Nope. But I would love to learn.



13. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you would grab? My daughter.



14. How often do you read books? All the time. Do you see the sidebar. Yep, I read more than one at a time.



15. Do you think more about the past, present, or future? Present and future. Trying desperately to let go of the past. So much of it's not worth remembering.



16. What is your favorite children's book? Emma Bean.



17. What color are your eyes? Grey to blue...depending on what I wear.



18. How tall are you? 5'2"



19. Where is your dream house located? Near my family.



20. Are you married? 2nd time around.



22. Do you have any kids? One beautiful munchkin girl.



23. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth? Yep. A couple of times. SO fun!



24. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden? Too long ago!



25. Do any of your friends have kids? Most of them. I love it.



26. Where was the furthest place you traveled? Probably either Florida or Texas.



27. Do you like mustard? More and more as I get older.



28. Do you prefer to sleep or eat? Truly a toss up here.



29. How long does it take you in the shower? 15 mins. The new short "do" sure helps with that.



30. Can you do splits? HA HA HA HA HA HA. no



31. What movie do you want to see right now? There's a new one out with Dustin Hoffman that's rated "G" that looks pretty good.

32. Do you think The Grudge was scary? Never seen it.

33. Do you own a camera phone? Nope.

34. Were you a cheerleader? I tried. They didn't want me. :(

35. What's the last letter of your middle name? N.

36. How many hours of sleep do you get a night? 6-8.

37. Do you like Care Bears? I used to have figurines and cups.

38. What do you buy at the movies? Popcorn and something chocolate. Or Twizzlers.

39. Do you like Sci-Fi? Not particularly.

40. Do you wear your seatbelt? Always.

41. What do you wear to sleep? That's some pretty priviledged info.

42. Anything big ever happen in your town? We had a murder not too long ago.

43. How many meals do you eat in a day? Two, sometimes three.

44. Is your tongue pierced? No. EWW.

45. Do you read Myspace bulletins? I don't have any space on MySpace.

46. Do you have your nose pierced? I like my nose just fine with only two holes.

47. Do you like funny or serious people better? Funny.

48. Ever been to L.A.? Never.

49. Did you eat a cookie today? No, and please don't make me think about it. But I did have a couple of cupcakes.

50. Do you use cuss words in other languages? On occasion.

51. Do you steal or pay for your music downloads? Haven't downloaded anything in quite some time.

52. What do you and your parents fight about the most? We don't really fight anymore. Thankfully.

53. Are you a gullible person? I can be.

54. Do you need a boyfriend/girlfriend to be happy? No, but I sure do like having my hubby!

55. If you could have any job (assuming you have the skills) what would it be? I would read books to decide whether or not they should be published.

56. Are you easy to get along with? Not so much.

57. What is your favorite time of day? Probably any time that I'm spending with my family. I guess that means 5 p.m. and later.

Dreaming

I've begun dreaming about yarn. Not just standard, Red Heart, acrylic yarn. But the good stuff. The cotton, the wool, the alpaca, eyelash, boucle, and everything in between. And I'm not talking daydreaming. Oh no. This is where it enters the nighttime world.

I work for a rather large company in my hometown. (OK, so we're a Fortune 500 company) I had a dream the other night that I was working out on the manufacturing floor. It involved large (read: 10ft x 10ft x 4ft) wooden crates with smaller boxes packed inside.

And guess what the packing material was. YARN! Wonderful mill ends of yarny goodness.

And the person in charge said, "Yeah, we just throw it away. So help yourself."

And all I could think was, OMG, this is thousands of dollars worth of supplies. How will I ever get it home? What will the hubby say. Who cares? IT'S ALL MINE! GET OUT OF MY WAY! DON'T YOU DARE MENTION THIS TO ANYONE ELSE!

And I've had other dreams about yarn too. I wake up covered in slobber. Life is good when you dream about yarn.