A Little Something

Okay, so it's not really a post, but I did add that little thing to the right where you can see my flickr photos. Cute, huh?

Bad Blogger

Okay, it's been eons since I posted. I'm a Bad Blogger. I had a great Thanksgiving and a busy December. I post photos and stuff at some point. And no, Daddy's vest is not finished, but I am making progress.

Mom's Macaroni and Cheese

Here's the recipe:

8 ounce package of Elbow Macaroni
1 pound shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
One 15 ounce can Evaporated Milk
Can refilled with regular milk
One Egg, slightly beaten
Black Pepper to taste

Cook macaroni according to package directions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a two quart casserole. Reserve a handful of cheese for topping. Mix both milks, egg, and black pepper. Stir in the majority of cheese. Add drained macaroni. Stir gently. Pour into a two quart casserole. Top with reserved cheese. Bake until browning and bubbly -- or as Mama told me "'til it's right on top." YUM!

No Early Morning Fair Isle

I've been chastised by Dawn for not posting to my blog in more than a week. I have just the thing to talk about tonight: If you are not a morning person, you should not knit fair isle early in the morning. This morning I awoke at my customary 6am for Sunday. I use the time from 6 to 7 to eat breakfast and study my Sunday School lesson. Well, last night I had prepared my Sunday School lesson and got everything set up for my breakfast. So, at 6:30 I was done with both and engrossed in an X-Files rerun on TNT. I thought to myself, I think I'll knit a row on Daddy's vest. Well, half way through this purl row of 102 stitches, I realized I was carrying the yarn on the RIGHT SIDE of the knitting. AKKKKKK!!!!!! So I had to pass at least 50 stitches back to the left hand needle and lift the carries over. When I got back to around stitch 5 where all this started, then I had to pass all the stitches back to the right hand needle now that I had corrected my error. Then I finished the row. No more fair isle in the early hours. I'm not cut out for it.



Our news started this week. It's more work for me and my boss than anyone had thought it would be. Anyone. Including the General Manager who's having to pay me overtime to do it. Nobody is happy about that.



We had a nice dinner tonight at church. It was sort of a Thanksgiving potluck. I brought my macaroni and cheese. Well, Mom's Macaroni and Cheese. I love it and other people seem to, too. There was enough left in the bowl when I got home for me to scrape out one serving for me to have later. Good. The bad thing about this dinner is that I have to go have blood work done tomorrow (I had my annual physical on Friday and Dr. Lois orders routine blood work every year) and I'm scared of what the results might be after my pig out. Oink Oink.



My PMF finished his training at his new job and passed with flying colors. Yea!! I knew he would, but he was all,"I might not have a job after this test Friday." Oh, ye of little faith. I'm excited for him.



Oh, again with the knitting: Since we last spoke I made a hat for little Jenna, a church friend:


I'd seen her that Wednesday when it was chilly out and said to her mom, "That baby needs a hat." So last Saturday night, I made her one. It turned out cute, but anything is cute on her. Just look at her. It's unusual that she's not smiling. Usually she keeps a big smile on her face. I think the flash scared her.


And I made a scarf for me Monday night. I showed up at my knitting group with five skeins of pink yarn, my size 50 needles, and a plan. I held the five yarns -- Glittalic, Silverlash, Carmen (from Paton's), Bernat Bling Bling, and Red Heart Symphony -- all together, cast on just five stitches, and just knit. In two minutes it was four inches long.In an hour Beth made me hold it up because she thought it was long enough that I should stop. She was right. It's right around 99". Lacey got real excited and said, "I'm going home and diving into my yarn stash and finding some yarn I can make one of those scarves with!" It's really pretty, too.

I got a great reaction when I wore it out twice last week.

Next, I'm casting on for the Voodoo Wrist Warmers from knitty.com. I'm modifying it to add a thumb. I sought out the advice of three people on ravelry who had made them and added the thumb and they told me how they did it. I think I've got it.

Here's my Thanksgiving plan: Wednesday after work, drive four hours to Daddy's house. Assemble Pineapple Casserole. Get up Thursday morning, cook Pineapple Casserole while I get ready. Drive two hours to Augusta to my cousin David's house where we're having Thanksgiving this year. Enjoy the family time. Take pictures. Eat. (Good thing the blood work's not next week!) Knit. Maybe take the Dell along in case David has some wireless - hmmmm. Drive back two hours back to Anderson. Enjoy Friday with Daddy. He loves going to mall and watching the crowds the day after Thanksgiving. Saturday, Dawn comes to Anderson and we check out the new yarn store in town! Yea! Sunday Daddy and I will probably do some more family visiting. Monday I drive back in time for SnB. Tuesday, back to work. Whew!

I've got to do laundry tomorrow around knitting group so that I can pack on Tuesday and get out of town on time Wednesday. I hate hurrying. I'll try not to go another week without a post. I blame ravelry. I'm obsessed. I joined the Ravelholics group.

Another Week Gone

Okay. I'm feeling better. Still a little stuffy, coughy, and sore throaty, but way better than last week.

I've been lost in ravelry tonight. I found a new group for fans of the show "Good Eats". I just love Alton Brown. He's smart, funny, and so much fun to watch. He makes some good tv.

We had a busy week at work, not crazy busy like it has been, but busy none the less. Yesterday they started installing a new phone system. I'm going to have a direct line!! Woo-Hoo!! Actually we all are. Our new news starts Monday. We're launching our new website next week. (Here's our old site. It's pretty bad. Go look now and by next weekend, it'll be totally different. So if you're reading this after November 15, that link will take you to our new site.) Lots of things going on at the tv station.

I'm going to sleep late tomorrow and then work on Daddy's vest while I watch Game Day. Clemson plays on ESPN2 at noon. I'm supposed to do something fun with the PMF tomorrow. We'll see if he feels like coming to town.

The weather is cooling off and I like it!

Knitting Immortality, Part II

If you're on the Lion Brand newsletter list, you might know that they have a new podcast. It's cool; no fancy equipment required, you just go to the website and push play.

Anyway, it debuted a couple of weeks ago. In that one, they asked the listeners to let them know what inspires them. I posted a comment on their blog (same link as the podcast). Well, today I found they had episode two up. So I'm listening, I'm looking at stuff on ravelry, checking my email, when about 30 minutes in, I hear my name and then they quote me. I had to pause it and call Dawn, because I had to tell somebody.

I shelled out $40 at the doctor today. Fluid in the ear. Explains the dizziness. Haven't had that since I was 24 and got my tonsils out. I've got some strong antibiotics ($30) and I'm planning on going to work tomorrow. I also have a wedding to run sound for this weekend. I need something to eat now. My appetite's back. OK.

Go listen to the podcast. Wait for my quote.

Sneeze Sneeze, Cough Cough

Okay, last week when the PMF was particularly stressed over the training classes at his new job, I promised him we would go to Atlanta on Saturday for a fun day. Late in the week I felt the sinus trouble coming, but would not break my promise. I didn't tell him I was starting to feel bad. Instead, I fortified myself with OTC pharmaceuticals and headed to the ATL. We played miniature golf, ate at a new (for us) restaurant, shopped, went to the cool arcade (Jillian's) at Discover Mills, and then headed for home. By then the OTC pharms were wearing off and I was starting to feel pretty bad. I reloaded on the drugs at a BK drive-thru in Newnan. At that point my cover was blown and he knew I was feeling pretty bad. I dropped him off and headed home to find I had a 99.2 degree temperature -- and that's with two Aleve in me for 90 minutes. I took two Tylenol and went to bed around 10:30. I woke up at 2:30am in a sweat when the fever broke. I didn't make it to church Sunday. They have a rule about not being around the kids when you've had a fever within 24 hours. I sat in my pajamas on the couch and watched a "Heroes" marathon on G4. I didn't even feel like knitting. GASP! Dawn called and was surprised to find me home at 2pm and I told her I was sick. She called back later to check on me, still concerned. When she caught me on ravelry around 7pm, she knew I was going to be okay. I went to work today, but I was pretty mopey. I went to knitting tonight, but left early. I'm going to keep taking my meds and hope I can get better without shelling out $40 to Dr. Lois.

I've fallen and I can't get up.

I've fallen into a pit called ravelry, and there's no escape. It's crazy. I sit at my desk and look at handknits and read people's knitting stories and look at all the pretty yarn. Here's the really crazy part: I'm not getting the knitting done that I want to do. It's insane! Knitting is not a spectator sport! I'm putting myself on Ravelry restriction. I need a life!

Dawn and I have been on the phone doing some long distance ravelry-ing. You find a lot more stuff when you work as a team.

Swatch

I did the swatch last night for Daddy's Christmas vest. It's pretty, isn't it? I'm really happy with how it turned out. Even happier that the gauge matched the required gauge on my first try. This is what it's going to look like:I was telling Dawn about the swatch and she wanted to see the back, so this one is for Dawn:
Pattern is from Knitter's Magazine, Fall 2007, page 80. It's called Canyon Ridge and I've added it to Ravelry. I'm knitting it in Wool-Ease.

I have to go get ready to go run audio at a wedding. Yes, another one.

Have a good weekend.

Holly did a bad, bad thing.

I went to Micheal's today to get a size 6 circular needle I needed for Daddy's vest. There hanging above the clearance yarn was a sign, "Manager's Special: Clearance Yarn 4 for $1". Uh Oh!
That's four skeins of Bling Bling in Carberet Crimson.

Four skeins of CiCi in Parade.

And four skeins of Carmen in Violet.

I figure I'll use it up on Christmas presents. I hope. But remember, I only spent $3 on ALL THAT YARN!

My blog buddy, Holly (her blog is Knit on My Cat - over there -->), is supposed to have had her baby today. I haven't heard anything. I hope all went well.

Today just drug by at work. I thought it was 12:30, and it was 11:00. I thought it was 3pm, but it was 1:30. A long, long day. But buying all that yarn sure cheered me up!

Finishitis, Part II

All those Fun Fur pics from last week. . . well, there were two more skeins that were in the process of becoming a scarf some months ago. Last night, with everything else finished and the yarn for Daddy's vest en route, I picked it up and started knitting. You see, my Internet service at home was down and I had two hours of recorded Monday night TV to watch. One hour of it was "Heroes", which requires me to sit on my exercise ball so I can read the subtitles when they talk in Japanese or Spanish. So there I sat on the exercise ball, big knitting needles (US17) in hand, two skeins of Fun Fur in the floor. It's much longer now than it was before.

It gives me something to do until the yarn I ordered from Lion Brand for Daddy's vest arrives. (There was no medium or light brown Woolease in Columbus. I looked everywhere except the Buena Vista Road WalMart, which actually has a decent selection of yarn. I forgot that I meant to go there and went ahead and ordered.) I also ordered a pattern that I have always loved of theirs called the April in Paris Cardigan. I've just always liked it and always thought that the day I placed an order from the catalog I would order the pattern. So, yea! It's coming, too. According to UPS, it all left Secaucus, New Jersey, last night at 1:37am, but it's not showing up in Atlanta yet. Hmmmm.

There were 15 two-year-olds in Sunday School Sunday. Whew! It was great!

Have a great week, everybody! I'm going to go knit some Fun Fur!!

Finishitis

Last week I finished my Yo, Drop It! Scarf. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I've worn it a couple of times now and gotten lots of compliments on it. I'm glad it's over.

Tonight at the knitting group I finished my ballband dishcloth. It turned out really nice, too. I can't wait to make another one in a different colorway.

Over the weekend I did audio for a wedding a church. It's a good little gig that pays pretty well for the amount of work required. I have another this weekend, then a week off, then another wedding. Whew! In most parts of the country the summer is the popular time to get married, in the Deep South, it's the fall. Far too sweaty in the summer.

Some - some - of the stress at work is letting up, but some of it is still sitting in wait. Dawn says I need a ball of yarn and some needles kept in the car for emergencies like the one I had the other week. Definitely something I need to work on.

Warning for New Knitters!!!!

Okay, when I became obsessed with knitting three years ago, I have to confess, I fell victim to the Fun Fur.

I knit lots of scarves with the Fun Fur. Lots. Many of my friends have fur scarves.

Another confession: My stash is 150 quarts of yarn. That's a 55 quart tote and five 19 quart totes. I was cataloging my stash last night for ravelry. (This should be a mental health exercise.) Last night I got through 93 quarts of it, the 55 and two of the 19's. Oh. My. God. The Fun Fur.

I remember buying it. I know it came from Hobby Lobby. I don't think it all came home on the same trip. I hope not. It was on clearance. 59 cents a skein. What a bargain! I have 19 skeins of Fun Fur, 3 of Festive Fur,

and one of Jai Alai - Moda Dea's equivalent.

Honestly, there may be some more tucked into one of my knitting bags. I don't have the stomach to check it yet.

So, this brings me to my Warning for New Knitters: BEWARE OF CLEARANCE FUN FUR! Before you know it, you'll be beyond the Fun Fur and will have 19 skeins of it, three of the sparkly ones, and one wannabe.

Me? I think I'm going to get 5 skeins of it and knit a scarf with my size 50's. Who knows? It might be cool. If I do this four times, I could almost eliminate the population of Fun Fur in my stash!

What Fun!

I had great fun today. A girl who's come to my knitting group once, I think, teaches knitting at A.C. Moore, a local craft store. She posted a note on the group message board last week about needing some knitters to come to their knitting festival today to help them publicise knitting and yarn and best of all, they'll pay you $50! Well, I jumped on that opportunity. Get paid to knit? Sign me up! Another girl from the group, Lacey, signed up,too. It was the most fun. We got there and got settled and started knitting by about 10am. I was working on, you guessed it, "Yo, Drop It!" We chatted and knit and walked around and looked at yarn. It was all very fun. Misty, who had done the recruiting, told me, "Go grab you some pizza in the break room." While I was back there I looked at the clock and it was 1pm. I'd thought maybe it was noon. Then, poof, it was 2. And, poof, it was 3 and we were done! Time really does fly when you're having fun. And it was so much fun.

Afterward I went up to Pine Mountain and had some yummy Mexican food with my PMF. We also walked around their Arts and Crafts festival where I saw Beth, from the knitting group checked out her booth and amazed everyone with my ability to recognize yarn. When we got back to his house, we watched the end of the Clemson game. Sadly, they suffered their first loss of the year. Oh, well. All the fun I had today had to be balanced out somehow.

Rough Day

I had a rough day at work today. There's just a lot to do, and I'm trying to get it all done and I'm not too familiar with the software I'm having to use. And I'm waiting for decisions from other people and can't really move on until I have them and they keep changing. UGH! At one point I had to go outside and walk around the building just to clear my head. As I started the walk around back, I found myself yearning for some knitting. If I had been in possession of a project, I would have felt so much better. If I could have knit for five minutes, I would have been in much better shape for the rest of the day. And I wouldn't have needed that Mountain Dew.

So, I finished that Garterlac Dishcloth. It sufficiently impressed the knitting group. I provided the website with the pattern.

Also, I'm moving along on the Yo, Drop It! At the group Monday we devised a way to wrap the skein in a rubber band so that it can be untwisted way more easily.

Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Enough with the ribbon already!

Okay, Yo, Drop It! is a beautiful scarf. I'm going to love wearing it. But at this point, it's time to add the second skein of yarn and I needed a little break from all of the untwisting first. This is what I came up with:

It's a Garterlac Dishcloth in Sugar 'n' Cream, colorway Over the Rainbow. Pretty, huh? Find the pattern and tutorials here. There's a photo tutorial that I found particularly helpful, especially when it comes to picking up stitches. If you've ever wanted to practice short rows, here's your chance. It doesn't take long to make one, and it's really cute. Looks great in the variegated. Don't know if it'd be worth the effort in a solid. Thanks to Dawn for showing me the pattern.

Have a great week!

Immortality

Y'all, I have achieved knitting immortality. The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, has put a picture of me and my sad sock on her blog. I am overwhelmed.

In other news, "Yo, Drop It!" is at the half way point.

It's slightly over 40", or half of the 80" I'm shooting for. See the nice detail of the dropped stitches in the second photo? It's pretty, but the ribbon yarn is a pain.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love knitting? I really do. I love the yarn, the needles, the fabrics. I love how with just two stitches (one the opposite of the other) , you can create all different kinds of fabric. I would knit 24/7 if only I didn't have to work and sleep.

More Harlot Pics

You can see more pictures at my flickr site.

The Harlot Hang

Today Debbie, Tiffany, and I went to Atlanta to see the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. First we went to the yarn store sponsoring the event, Knitch. Oooo. Pretty yarn.We walked in and immediately found Angela and Becca from our knitting group. From left to right: Debbie, Angela, Becca, Tiffany, and Me.

Here's the line in front of us to get in the theater.

This is the line behind us when we got to the door.

Here's Tiffany, Deb, and me knitting while we wait on the Harlot. Here's Stephanie when she came out. She was so funny!! We rolled with laughter.

There she is over there sitting at the table, see the curly hair? She autographing books. We waited in line for our turn.
When we finally got there, she signed all three of my books. I told her I had a sad little first sock. She looked up and laughed and said, "Hold on, Holly. I've got to get a picture of that." She took my picture with my sad sock.
I gave her a little sample of hand cream from my dermatologist's office. I told her I keep one in my knitting bag. She thanked me said she understood because if your hands are dry, they snag on the yarn.

Ravelry & the Harlot

Okay, Ravelry is dangerously adictive. I like it so much. There's so much to see and look at and lust over. If you're not on the list, go, get on it.

Tomorrow, or in a little over 21 HOURS we'll be with the Yarn Harlot. I'm so excited. I'm off from work on Thursday, too, so I can recover. I'll be hanging with my PMF in the afternoon.

I plan to do a blog of the Harlot hang so I don't have to repeat it over and over. I'll just send folks here to read it.

Hasta La Vista.

I'm In!

I got my Ravelry invite!!! I'm in. My ID is "Hotpink". (I've used that one here and there since college.) I'm so excited.

And. . . three days to the Harlot. It's setting up to be a banner knitting week.

Football, Knitting, and Theology

I had a lovely day today. I got up around 10am, made some bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee, then sat on the couch and knitted and watched football for several hours. Ahh. Perfection. I finished this:

For those of you who don't know the story, it was supposed to be a Christmas gift last year, but wasn't done. Then I started working the ends in and it was a nightmare. First, there's a zillion of them; second, the yarn's not the best for working in ends (Lion Suede - beautiful and soft, but the weaving in is horrible). So I made the decision to fringe the long ends instead of weaving in. I really think it works. I finished fringing today about the time Auburn lost to Mississippi State. My Auburn alumni friends probably would prefer me not to watch them. Whenever I watch, they seem to lose. Clemson beat Furman today. Duh. 38-10. My PMF went to Athens today to see UGA play. Big point of contention between us: He likes Georgia and my favorite teams are Clemson and whoever's playing Georgia.

I drug myself to the shower about 4:30 and was ready just in time to go to church for a Sunday School teacher dinner at 6pm. We had a good speaker , Dr. Charles Lowery, and I really enjoyed it. He talked about how we don't need to let things that don't matter bother us. How if something is out of our control, we shouldn't worry about it. We are not in charge of the Universe. That's God's job. Our job is to have fun and let Him do His job. Cool.

This is what my dad says he wants for Christmas:

While I was at his house last weekend, he was looking through my knitting magazines and I went to take out my contacts and wash my face. When I turned off the water, I heard, "Come here, Hon. I found something I want you to make me for Christmas." (FYI: It's "Canyon Ridge" in the current Knitters.) Thanks for not waiting until Thanksgiving, Daddy.

Two Great Knitting Numbers:

4 Days until I see the Yarn Harlot.

134 People ahead of me on the Ravelry waiting list.

Family Reunion, Etc.

This weekend I'm in South Carolina at my dad's house for a family reunion. It's for my mom's family and she died nine years ago. It's really just about the only time I get to see them all. Here's a picture of some of the ladies singing some gospel music.

While I'm here, I'm knitting this:

It's called "Yo, Drop It" from my Stitch & Bitch calendar. It's a drop stitch scarf (duh!) I really think I'm liking it.

I head back to Columbus on Monday. Dawn in coming over tomorrow for dinner. I'm making spaghetti. Yum!

Gifts, Mistakes, and Nightmares in Finishing

Gift Yarn!!! How cool. Debbie from the Stitch & Bitch went to Las Vegas last week. Before her trip I did a search for Nevada yarn stores for her and emailed the results to her. The yarn above is a present for my efforts on her part. She is so sweet!

The other day I was working on my sweater. Sixty stitches in 1 x 1 rib. Supposed to end on a purl. Well, this one row ended on a knit. Uh oh. I counted. 63 stitches. Oh, crap. I can't see the stitches well enough in the fluffy yarn to fix it. I started to frog it and it gets all tangled and breaks not once, not twice, but three times!I'm going to put it in a bag for a few days. Maybe when I come back to it, I'll know what to do. I know one thing: I'm going to pull out some Woolease or Cottonease to make this sweater. I need a simpler yarn.
This is a scarf that was supposed to be a Christmas gift last year. It wasn't even close to done at Christmas. I finished knitting it in March or so. See all those stripes? Well let me tell you, it's not self-striping yarn. I tried to weave in the ends, but it was a nightmare. So, I decided to fringe the sides. I really think it's going to look really cool this way. Anyway, the giftee's birthday is coming up and I'm working on getting the fringe done.

The Stitch & Bitch moved to Panera tonight. I got a Chipotle Chicken sandwich and an Orchard Harvest salad. All very good. I'm going to like this place.

Computer

Here's a picture of my new computer: Oh, the irony: a picture of my blog on my new computer on my blog written on my new computer.

Debbie from my knitting group called me today from a Las Vegas yarn store. She says, "You want some yarn?" We are so starved in these parts for quality yarn, I had no idea what to say. You see, we only have craft store yarn. That's all. No premium yarn within a 45 minute drive.

It's a long weekend this weekend. Another touch of irony for today: No laboring on Labor Day. I'm going looking for a mattress this weekend. I so need a new one. My chiropractor agrees.

New Computer!!!!

Y'all, I got a new computer. It's a Dell laptop. 2 GB of memory, 120 GB hard drive, DVD burner, and a wide screen. It's so nice. I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up on one of the many yarn totes and the computer in my lap. I'm wireless, baby!! I could be sitting in the bed doing this. To put this in perspective, let me tell you about my old computer - it was an eMachines desktop, 8 GB hard drive, and I bought it EIGHT YEARS AGO this month. Yes, I own a computer from the twentieth century. Today I upgraded from Windows 98 SE to Windows Vista Home Premium. Holy Cow! My PMF installed my wireless network and did a bang up job for me. I enjoy all the little flashing lights on the router.

I missed knitting tonight. I babysat for my boys, Jack and Gray, tonight and thought their folks might get home in time for me to go to knit for a little bit, but alas, they came in too late. That's okay, though. Next week we go to Panera. Yea!!

Kids and Knits!

These are the Sunday School kids (along with one mom - he wouldn't stop crying, it's his twin sister who has the broken leg and we think he misses her.) Anyway, I'm in the back with the two cute little girls in my lap. That's the PMF on the left. I love the picture below where it looks like he's getting a "wet willy." They're a great bunch of kids. Our lesson was "God wants us to get along." After the lesson I broke up two fights by saying, "Hey! God wants us to get along!" I don't know if they really got it, but they stopped fighting, so there!
That sad little white blob there on the left is my practice sock. The heel looks great. For some reason though it's kind of blobby in the instep. I think I'm trying toe up next time. The one on the right is Debbie's. It 's not blobby, though there is the interesting accent of a purl row on the right side. (Oops, she said.) Our group has one more week at Burger King and then we move to Panera Bread. I'm excited. Better food! And we get to knit in public again. I so miss knitting in public (KIPing).

The Yarn Harlot posted details about her Atlanta visit. I've made my reservation. I'll have to show her my sad little sock. How embarrassing!

Bubbles, Knitting, & Recipes

My PMF and I went on a Gazillion Bubbles buying spree yesterday. He found them on clearance at Kmart, so we had to hit all three of the Kmart's in town and scoop them up. It was hilarious. We bought 38 bottles. 304 ounces of Gazillion Bubbles. We spent $28.46. On Sunday we had bought some at WalMart - 120 ounces for $20. (Those are going back to WalMart.) We use them in Sunday School to help the kids transition from Mommy & Daddy time to Sunday School time. Also, we like to give them to our kids when we have the need - like the little girl who broke her leg last week. We sent some home with her twin brother Sunday.

After the spree he came to meet my knitting group. He calls me while I'm there and now they - well, especially Rhonda - have a face to put with his voice and name. Once he left I worked on my practice sock. I got to the point where I need to do the toe decrease and checked the time. 9:00pm. Didn't want to start the toe decrease at 9:00pm. I probably should have done that tonight, but instead I got online and started surfing and here I am - Yikes! - four hours later in the same chair.

Tonight's Dinner Recipe from Fitness Magazine:
Mediterranean Penne (approx. 500 calories)
2 ounces whole-wheat penne, uncooked
1/2 cup canned white beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 garlic clove, minced
Cook penne and drain. Toss all ingredients in pot and warm for about 7 minutes.

It was good, though my oregano may have been a little past its prime.

Here's what I'm having for lunch tomorrow, also from Fitness:
White Bean & Pesto Pita (approx. 400 calories)
1/2 cup canned white beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp pesto
1 cup spinach
1 medium whole-grain pita.
Mix it up and fill the pita.

Have a great week.

New Year. Lots of Kids.

We had ten kids in Sunday School. A few tears on arrival, but they did great in story time and snack time. The 11:00 teachers had five more kids arrive!!! Wow! We're going to have our hands full, and it's going to be great.

Friday after work I went to Michael's to get the new Knit Simple Magazine. When I was leaving and pulled out onto Whitesville Road, the car sputtered a little and then the check engine light came on. I looked at the clock and it was 6:18. Roy, my car guy, gets off work at 6:00, but is often there later. I pulled into the Steinmark parking lot and called. Stupid voicemail. Left a message. Got out the owner's manual and looked it up. I got from the owner's manual that it's okay to drive if the car seems to be performing okay, but have it checked asap. I looked up the office number for the Honda place and left a message for the general service department voicemail. So Saturday morning at 9:30, Libby, who works with Roy, calls about my message. Can I be there at 10:30? Yeah, right. I'm still in bed. 11:00? Yes, I can do 11:00. So I worked on my practice sock knitting while they checked it out. The computer told them it was an "Intermittant Failure". They reset it and drove it and the light didn't come back on. Libby says it might never happen again. If it does I'll have to leave the car with them for more tests. (Vaguely sounds like a medical procedure, doesn't it?)

It was 103 in Columbus yesterday. It's been outrageously hot for a week now. With no end in site. It had gotten up to 98 or so today when a thunderstorm broke out. It rained really hard for a couple of hours. In two hours the temp dropped 20 degrees. Eventually it was 72. It hasn't been below 78 in over a week, so this is a treat. I'm going to do some laundry. My laundry room is on the patio, so it's really not pleasant with it 90 out.

Back to work and knitting tomorrow. Have a great week.

Miscellanea

I had lots of fun at Six Flags on Monday (congrats to Dawn for following the link and figuring it out), though the heat was a lot to take. So much that I was persuaded by my PMF to venture into Skull Island fully clothed. I did feel much better afterward, but walking around in wet heavy knit fabric shorts for the rest of the afternoon was rather uncomfortable.

Work is very busy. I got back Tuesday and found I was scheduled to do two new commercials. It was a busy day. As was today. Plus, the GM wants me to continue to work on our design for our new logo. I thought we'd settled on the new logo. Guess I was wrong.

Tonight I was in the church nursery and got a call from the Children's Minister letting me know that one of my new Sunday School students (who is supposed to start on Sunday) is in the hospital with a broken femur (thigh bone). She has a twin brother. They'll be two-years-old next week. The PMF, who teaches with me, and I went to the hospital to see her. Those poor parents are going to be pulling their hair out with her in this horrendous contraption for four to six weeks. Cast from left foot to waist, then down right leg and the legs attached by a bar at the knees. I asked her mom how she's going to change a diaper in that contraption. She said, "They tell me it's not easy." They said when they were in the ER with her last night she kept telling everyone, "I sorry." All together now, "Ahhhhh."

I did miss knitting on Monday night. I called them from the Interstate outside Newnan to check in. A couple of the girls who've missed lately were back, and I was gone. It happens. I really should have taken some knitting with me. I could have made some progress on the sweater while the PMF drove. Well, hindsight's 20/20.

It's a New Year!

These are some of my Sunday School students hiding in the "Rabbit Hole". Today was our last day with this group of two-year-olds who are pretty much all now three-year-olds. They are smart and sweet and really "get-it". Following a lesson about King Saul and how we're supposed to trust God and not worry, the one on the left when his mom was stressed about money problems told her "Mommy, don't worry. We're supposed to trust God." How. Cool. Is. That.

These are the new two-year-olds. They are a super sweet group and lots and lots of fun. We're going to have a great year with them.

Tomorrow, I'm going here! Oh, boy! Can't wait.

End of July - not that that's relevant

I got a pedicure today. It's Opi Sugarplum Yum. The sandals are Easy Spirit from the Easy Spirit store at Discover Mills Mall north of Atlanta on I-85. It's more plummy than it looks here. It's got this shimmer that makes it change color when my toes move. Totally cool!

I received my copy of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off last night. Our Stitch & Bitch did a Knit Picks order and that was what I ordered. I worked on my sweater a little and read the book a little. Then I left early because it was really cold in the room at Burger King. I was home in time to watch The Closer and in bed shortly after 10. Yea!

I went to see The Little River Band Friday night with my friend Debbie. They sounded great and it was very reminiscent of high school and college. I was so tired. We left at the intermission. I was ready to go and Debbie was, too. But the concert was great and the venue, the Phenix City Amphitheater, was great. You can see the river and the bridge and there were boats and trains and kayaks! I haven't been there in years. It's really polished and nice. It'd be nicer on a day that's not in the 90's, but we really enjoyed it. Next time I'll take a chair and some knitting. :)

Have a great week.