Lock me up and throw away the key!

When the men with white coats show up to take me away, I will go quietly, I promise.

When I was leaving for work on Friday morning I noticed a package in front of the garage. The Fed Ex man had been here some time on Thursday, we were all too busy with Renaissance at South to realize there was a package outside all night. Inside the box was MMT's dress for the big wedding. So last night she tried it on, it was TOO SMALL. The whole reason we paid $9 to have it shipped here from Green Bay was fact that the 3 was too small and the 7 too big. The 5 was so tight I could not zip it!!! What is up with that? So today after the Farmers Market (with CB) MMT and I trekked off to the mall to return the dress. Just to humor myself I held the 3 and 5 together, they were the same exact size. The sales clerk was like "wow" here is your money back. Sorry. Sheesh give me a break. After a brief yelling match between MMT and I, I convinced her we needed to venture back into the scary mall and find her a dress. She went, not willingly, but she went.
We found a HUGE sale at JC Penney's. All dresses 50% off. Lo and behold we BOTH found dresses! Now this presents a big problem. Remember I all ready have a dress that I have bought matching shoes and jewelry and lost weight to fit into. Yep, I am completely insane. But in my defense, the new dress has green in it!!! :)
Now I have to dash off to Payless and find new shoes and hand bag. (I suppose I probably should not tell you that I took back the original jewelry and handbag before I found the new dress.) It is my hope that the Guild will adhere to our bylaws and visit the crazy member in the funny farm.

I won!

Whew, it was rough, but I wrestled the computer away from the boy long enough to check the blog! Yeah me!
We have a wedding on April 21, let me tell you getting the old body in shape for this wedding is a lot of work. First there was the quest for the dress. I am caught in this nexus zone. I am not young (at heart maybe with a little help from Clairol) and I am not in a wheelchair, so finding a dress was nearly impossible. I complicated the issue by buying a dress that was slightly too small, thus adding the pressure of losing a few pound before the wedding. (Goal accomplished!)
Next I had to find shoes, not too high, not too casual, not too expensive. After 3 stops, that mission as too been accomplised. Onward to handbags. Finding a handbag to match the shoes. Yikes. $28.00 I don't spend $28 on a handbag I use every day! Next stop??? Jewelry. Again, something that looks nice and does not cost an arm and a leg and will match the dress and shoes. I don't think I am cut out for all this.
The worst part is getting the old bod in shape for this affair. In addition to the weight problem, I felt the need to tan so I don't look like a dead smelt that washed up on the Lake Superior shore line. So 3 times per week for the last 2 weeks (and until the 20th) I have to shelp myself to tan. I had my hair cut, I will save some dough this weekend and color it myself. I still have to get my pedicure and manicure before the wedding (the appointments are all ready made). This is worse that the stinking prom!!!
Did I mention that daughter #2 needed a dress for said wedding? That is a story in itself. For all I know, the boy and the husband will arrive at the wedding naked. I have spent all my energy and the family savings on getting myself ready!
Knitting, who has time for knitting when we are at t-2 weeks to the wedding!

Easter is done!!!

I have made it past Easter and the Easter Brunch for one more year. Really is not that hard, just difficult to judge as to how many people will be present to eat our meal. The kids worked hard and was nice to have my girls KMK, KAK, and SSK there to help me out and do it willingly. I am really lucky to have them. After Easter dinner KMK and her boyfriend emptied the dishwasher for me. Then I went and took a nap. When I got up and went to the kitchen the dishwasher was loaded with all the dirty dishes and was all cleaned up. KMK went to a movie and they came back with a big bag of movie popcorn for me. What a way to suck up to the girlfriends mom. There is nothing better than movie popcorn!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and the easter bunny brought lots of goodies!!!

Just another day at the looney bin

I really meant to get to this yesterday, but you know how that goes. What a long week it has been, even though it was a short one for me. The natives were really restless this week, I was told by one of my charges that I lacked the people skills necessary to be the greeter at Wal-mart. Yikes, after this week, I fear he may be right. Today, the only thing that prevented me from writing out more lunch detentions was that I ran out of the forms. Long week, I think so. So as I was feeling all sorry for myself I thought I would treat myself to the Yarn Harlot's blog. After reading her post from the 4th, I no longer feel sorry for myself and if she can find humor (or humour as she spells it) in her day, I can too. However, I have yet to figure out what were funny parts of my week.
I managed to get the black and white mittens cast on, but that is about all. I am almost done with the body of the baby top down, this baby stuff is too cool, it goes so fast. There won't be much knitting for me this Easter weekend, end of quarter and I have grades due. So I will just think about and talk about knitting with my knitter friends while preparing the Easter breakfast for church.
The bathroom is textured, primed and painted a lovely shade of ice blue. Next up: the floor. Still no word on the tops for the cabinets.
Happy Easter everyone!

Holy Week + A Cold = No knitting

or ( = Knitting + Errors)
or (= Knitting +/= Bad Judgement)

Holy Week (I work for a church) plus a cold (first one all season long, figures it would come Holy Week). Not ideal knitting circumstances. Okay I did not take Nyquil and knit. That is just a bad combination. Not unlike knitting and margaritas, and we all remember how that turned out. Also, I did not attempt to knit on the dreaded pink cardigan, (so far so good, I am closing in on finishing that puppy off and I do not want to mess it up now). So I decided I needed to knit something. Felted bag for the island . . . because we are going to practice needle felting. I looked at the pattern, thought it seemed a little too small, I will make it bigger. This where I think my whole problem started. I cast on way too many stitches. And now after knitting approximately at least 8 to 10 inches, I have decided that I was delusional with a high fever with how many stitches I needed. No black hole here (refer to Harlot Book). So now I am going to have to rip the whole bloody thing. Either that or felt a bag large enough to be a bed for Miss Sadie. There is not enough hot water in the world to felt it down. Next cold, no knitting at all.

To knit or eat bread with cheese?

While lunching at Cafe Latte on Saturday with the Guild the discussion came up. (CB and I were sharing the salad sampler and spead platter--yum!) As we discussed, planned and dreamed of our trip to the Island, the dicussion turned from knitting ( fav topic #1) to food ( fav topic #2). We came to the conclusion that what more in life do you need than knitting, cheese and bread? We could survive on the Island for weeks if we had both. Also, you can participate in both activities at the same time (unlike knitting and drinking!).
As for knitting, the green top down is done. I cheated and wore it to church today even though it is not blocked. But I wanted to wear it once before the weather turned nice (spring is coming right?). I did not cast on the mittens I need to make for a friend at school, but I did cast on a top down baby sweater. It is making me wonder, why don't we just knit baby stuff? I am on my 2nd ball of yarn, the sweater is 1/2 done and who cares if it is running big, babies grow! How fun is that?
I pulled out my new sock yarn and I am again optimistic that I can become a sock knitter.

The husband worked on the bathroom most of the day, the walls are now textured and ready for primer. The cabinets are here and beautiful, the tops, are not. This week we are planning to prime and paint. Wish us luck!

Let me run my fingers thru your fibers Baby!

Oooooh! Words cannot express. But I will give it the old college try.

Coffee at Starbucks before we leave rainy Eau Claire. Happy B-Day Annie & Mom.

Color Crossing: Wonderful little yarn store in Roberts. Who knew. Totally do able trip from EC. Lots of yarn. A totally delish purple color of Katmandu (we did not let CT buy it). A lovely book selection. I picked up Interweave Press new sock book. What fun. Wonderful patterns.

Cafe Latte: The MN people were hiding in their warm dry homes to we got a Kick A** parking spot (yeah CT). Lunch at the GA Cafe, always delightful. I wish they would share their recipes.

The Yarnery: Two doors down from the GA Cafe. Koigu! I only left with three skeins of Koigu in what would call a very vibrant color. BUT . . . they had Fleece Artist Sock Yarn. WOW. I could not decide what color to get, I finally decided on a beautiful moss green.

Borealis Yarns: (St Paul) A new store for us. We were totally psyched (attached coffee shop). The first thing I spotted as we entered was a basket full of Cherry Tree Hill Sock Yarn. I fell to my knees in wild abandon. Then as I was up to my arms in sock yarn, one of the sales people very casually mentioned that if I went to the back room there would be a whole wall of sock yarn! Be still my heart. Throwing caution to the wind I literally ran to the back room and low and behold. A whole wall of sock yarn. I would like to mention that it really was a joyous experience to stand there with my cup of coffee and fondle yarn. I picked up a couple of skeins of Claudia Hand Painted Sock Yarn. The sales girls were lovely, and encouraged us to go, where we said we would never go again.

Three Kittens: Under new ownership! Wow what a transformation. We will definitely go back there again. More Koigu in an awesome green speckled color. The color I really wanted they only had one skein of, but they gladly took my order and will send it to me post haste when the shipment arrives. The yarn was neat and orderly and was their book section. Unbelievable. I can't believe it was the same shop.

Next cities trip "Depth of Field Yarn." And we check on something called the Yarn Garage . . .