Olympic progress & packing

Between last night and today I've made about 9 1/2 inches in progress on my first pair of socks. I really love the happy colors and I ordered another skein to make sure that there would be enough yarn to make these socks really long.

If there is enough yarn left over then I'll make a matching stocking cap using the same swirled ribbed pattern. Afterall, coordinating head and foot wear is important!



A local family purchased and picked up two large curios from us today. Now I can move some boxes down to the garage. It's amazing how much stuff we've accumulated over the years. And of course, the girls don't want to part with anything. They inherited the packrat gene from my late father-in-law. He was a very nice man, but he saved everything from dead batteries and broken coat hangers to old cars. Some of the stuff I'm trying to unload now actually belonged to him and he passed away back in 1999! I wonder if it's only Americans who collect too much stuff or if this is a world wide epidemic.

But wait, there's more...

I was a bit premature in my posting for the day so here's some more. Once again, my dear SP7 Cindy sent me a fabulous e-card for the weekend. This is perfect for my sock knitting endeavor! Thank you Cindy. I must admit that Susan Sarandon's and Yoko Ono's presence at the opening ceremonies were enough to trigger my gag reflux. I'll look past their appearances though and try to focus on the athletes who have worked so hard to be there.




My girls watched Bambi II for their Friday slumber party. Autumn made herself a set of antlers out of some maple branches and her bicycle helmut. This is probably the first time she's worn the helmut
without protesting. She is creative.








Finally, we've been agonizing over what to do with dear old Tasha. We adopted her in May from the Pierce County animal shelter. We knew she was older, but until the previous owner tracked up down we didn't know that she was over 16. It turns out that the old owner had to take a new job that required her to travel for long periods of time and after she made the decision to find Tasha (then Thumper) a new home she changed her mind, but we had already adopted Tasha. Then we adopted Bonny for the girls while Brian was in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina. Bonny was only 8 weeks old at the time, so she is still a very young kitty. Well, Bonny torments Tasha... relentlessly. That coupled with the fact that we are probably going to have a big move makes me question whethor or not we should keep Tasha or return her to her previous owner of 10 years. She is a very sweet kitty and it's hard to know what is best and what will make her happy. Any feedback about this is welcome.




Here is Tasha being adorably available for petting...









And here is Bonny carrying around a bottle cap (her toy of choice).

Go Team USA Socks!

Here is a picture of the official cast on during the opening ceremony! And yes, that is unfinished drywall behind the television, but how often does one participate in an international
event?






My personalized knitting labels that I ordered last month (pre-unemployment) from Heirloom Woven Labels arrived today. Honestly, I'd forgotten all about them. They look blue in the picture, but they are really black. It just happens to be a bright day. No, that isn't a typo, it's actually sunny for the second day in a row. This must be what it feels like to live in California (minus the heat, surfers and palm trees).

The gauge is set, let the Olympics begin!

I made several test swatches for the gauge in the After Bertha socks. Now the countdown starts until the torch is lit.

The ceiling is finally painted in the master bedroom, but because this afternoon is Girl Scouts there probably won't be too much progress with the drywall.

The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. Living in western Washington, it's easy to forget that the sky is actually blue.

Okay, so I am admittedly a strange person, but one of my quirks is that I can't stand to see pets that have been ran over left on the road. I go back and pull the body off so that other cars won't hit it. This morning while taking Amber & Autumn to school there was a dead kitty. So after dropping them off I went back to remove his/her body. As I waited for a group of cars to pass the driver of the last car stopped long enough to glare at me before finally moving along. Now, even if she assumed that I had ran over the cat I had stopped to move it. What else would this woman have expected. Maybe I'll get a shirt printed to keep in the van that reads, "Animal Corpse Removal Service". I feel sorry for the owners when they find their kitty, but at least he won't be completely flat. On that happy note, have a great afternoon and evening.

Friends Rock & so do Secret Pals!

At the risk of sounding corny, I'm going to write today about how fortunate I am. At the end of last night I was ready to take the kids and cats, drop a match on this house and just walk away. Then my old neighbor, Crystal, came over. She had brought boxes, packing paper and even some food as a treat. Then this morning I discovered that another friend, Venetia, had brought a stack of brand new boxes (still banded) and left them. Venetia also indulged me with not 1, but 2 bags of gourmet coffee. Then there is Karen, who has listened to me vent and rant throughout this ordeal without ever once telling me to shut my pie hole. And to top it all off, a package came today from Cindy, my SP7. Included in the wonderful package were, Valentine's Hershey's Kisses, An Orange Dream Scented Candle, a kitty loofah, an adorable card (now sitting on my computer desk), Mardi Gras Beads, a winter issue of Vogue Knitting and best of all, some beautiful, hand dyed sock merino in GREEN! Right now the chocolate is being consumed, the candle is being sniffed, Ashley is wearing the beads, the yarn is being fondled and I anticipate a bath with my kitty loofah while leisurely enjoying Vogue Knitting. Thank you Cindy! Reflecting back on the help and support during the past week from friends and family has made me realize that I need to lighten up on this whole job thing... it isn't that big of a deal. Happy Wednesday everybody!

DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!

I just blew my SP7 cover. I was trying to talk with Amber about her math homework and type an "anonymous" comment to my spoilee's blog. I finished the comment and hit send before changing the signature to anonymous. S#&*! I doubt the help desk at the blog site would jump in and delete this for me either because I doubt they realize just how important SP7 really is. All in all, a crappy day. I'm going to bed, this day needs to end.

Painting & Carnage

On Sunday my Mom, Dad and Grandpa Porgy all came up to help Brian and I on the house. They drywalled about 5/8 of our bedroom, put up trim in the kitchen and started the siding on the back of the house. As usual, there were some obstacles. The biggest was when Autumn rode her bicyle into the back of my Mom's car and split her lip open. That required a trip to the Urgent Care facility in Tacoma and ate up several hours. We are really grateful for all of the help and impressed with the work that was done. My Dad is a boat builder (among other trades) and the repairs he made are truely sea-worthy... much better quality than Brian or I could produce. This will be the second time that we've fixed up a house that we've owned in order to sell it. I don't think I'll ever live in a finished house!

The only knitting I've done has been the swatches for Amber's science fair project. B O R I N G! I can't wait to start the Olympics socks. My first pair will be the After Bertha from Socks, Socks, Socks. I have some sock yarn dyed in a colorway called "Bombay" from Two Waters Fiberworks on Etsy. Her yarn can be found at http://bluedyedhands.blogspot.com . I can't wait to cast on. I may order some more of this yarn colorway to make a hat for my Mom to wear when she's clam digging. I'll see how much is leftover after the socks are done.

This evening I was painting the ceiling in my bedroom when a terrible, crashing noise resonated throughout the house. Even without looking I knew that something had broken and that it was probably something valuable or sentimental. Sure enough, my favorite piece of Fiesta lay smashed on the kitchen floor. It had been a large chop plate in the old radioactive red (color made from Uranium glaze). Even if another could be found I doubt it would be affordable. The pieces may end up on eBay for someone to use in mosaic work. At least nobody was hurt.

Well, I need to wash dishes and cycle some laundry through before bed. And in the words of Scarlett O-Hara (movie only, I don't think she says this in the book), "Tomorrow is another day."