A Blog-iversary Contest and Some Bowling

Contest

Okay, guys, as you all know from this post, I went to A.C. Moore (well, for my first trip of the clearance sale) and purchased quite a bit of yarn and knitting stuff. So, I'm having a contest. Go read the post about what all I bought and guess how much it all cost. The person who comes closest without going over will win a prize of some yarny goodness from my extensive stash. This will all coincide with my blog-iversary coming up this Friday, July 4th. I'll be at my dad's house by then, so hopefully his neighbor with the unsecured wireless still has unsecured wireless and I can go online at 5pm (very near the actual hour of my first blog) or so and see who has come the closest. Leave me a comment either here or on the A.C. Moore post with your guess. I'll make you a deal if you are a non-knitter: I'll either teach you to knit or give you a bit of hand-knit goodness. You really can't beat an offer like that. I know in reality that very few non-knitters read my blog, so the odds aren't too great that I'll have to follow through, but I didn't want the non-knitters to feel left out. Everyone can play!

Bowling Anyone?

On Friday we had a bowling party at work. We all went bowling and it was so much fun. They let us take a two-hour lunch and bowl and the bowling alley fed us really good food. We had lots of laughs! I won in a game with three other girls. I told them it was really sad because I'm a terrible bowler. I only scored an 86, and yet I beat three other people. What's up with that?

See the two guys below? They both went to the University of South Carolina. They are the bosses at the station. It's a very unfortunate situation considering I'm a Clemson Alumnus.

Picture Heavy

A week ago Saturday, the 21st, Seth and I went to Callaway Gardens. We saw pretty flowers and butterflies. . .

in the Butterfly Center.
The butterflies were so pretty.

So were the flowers.
We both took lots of pictures.

We heard an organ concert at the Chapel.

The lake outside the Chapel was so peaceful.

We went to the Sibley Center and saw even more beautiful flowers.

There's a bee inside this yellow flower.

We even rode paddle boats. It was my idea. He wasn't enthusiastic. We got in the boat and it was hard work. He was all, "See, I knew you'd do this. We'd get out here and you'd whine about how hard it is." We just took it easy and it was fun. If you try to go fast, it's hard. If you just take a leisurely pace, it's much more fun.

He has a picture of both of us from where we paddle over to another boat and passed his camera to the people in the other boat and they took a picture for us.

A.C. Moore

I got all of this last night at A.C. Moore. Four skeins of Paton's Divine in Floral Fantasy, two skeins of Paton's Bohemian in Peaceful Plum, six skeins of James C. Brett Marble in MT7 (Patagonia).

Lion Brand size 9 dpn's, Susan Bates Circulars in size 4, 5, and 7, two sets of steel yarn needles, a Knifty Knitter Flower Loom, a Knifty Knitter Spool Loom, two skeins of Knitting Fever Dazzle in Red/Pink/Purple, one skein in Blue/Lavender, two skeins of Knitting Fever Flutter in Lavender, on skein in Berry, six skeins of Lion Brand Micro Spun in Ebony, two skeins of Lily Sugar & Cream in black, one skein in Hot Green, and one skein in Hot Pink.

Eight skeins of Red Heart Soft Yarn (which really is soft) in Fuchsia and the July 2008 issue of Creative Knitting.

I will give you all the opportunity to guess now how much I spent on all this. Let's hear it in the comments. Dawn is not allowed to play, since she knows how much I spent.

Clearance

A.C. Moore is closing. It's all very sad. On the plus side, there's yarn on clearance. I bought some tonight after church. "Some" being a very relative word. There will be photos tomorrow. And a list. A long, long list.

WWKIP Day

Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day. First we knitted at Peachtree Mall's Food Court. From left to right: Pati, Julie, Sandra, Laura, Mona (our token crocheter), Deb, and me.
Then we went to Hobby Lobby to knit. We sat outside, where despite the heat of a south Georgia June, we were fairly comfortable. We had shade, cold drinks, brownies, and - whenever someone left the store - a lovely blast of the air conditioning. In this picture you see Rhonda on the left. Pati left after the mall. She's pregnant and wasn't up to the heat.

I cast on this headband at the mall and bound it off at Hobby Lobby. I like it.

The Log Cabin baby blanket is Julie's. She's using up yarn remnants making it. I just realized it has a Greek Key thing going.

Mona is holding the beginning of another Afghan. She's the Afghan Queen.

Deb is wearing a sock in progress. It's this great yarn that's so soft, but I don't think I could wear it because it has some sort of shrimp content and I'm allergic. She's got such tiny feet, she cranks socks out in no time. It's taking me forever to make my sock with my big ol' feet.

The burgundy baby blanket is Laura's. I hope you can tell it has the prettiest ruffle border. We were all so impressed by the ruffle.

While we were knitting, the Hobby Lobby yarn lady stopped to talk to us. She told us about some new sock yarn they'd gotten in. We told her we wanted to see it. When we were through knitting, we went and asked her about it. It was still in a shipping crate. There were four skeins of Lion Brand Sock Ease. So pretty. We bought all four skeins right out of the crate. They never even saw a shelf. I got the pink. Better get going on my socks.
Thanks to Mona's sister Clair for taking the group pictures for me. For the rest of my photos from WWKIP Day go to my flickr account. What a Fun Day! Knit on!

Photo Friday and More.

I took this picture on Tuesday when I was leaving work. I walked outside and looked up and there it was. I put my lunch bag, water bottle, and purse in the car and pulled out my camera. The sky was just so beautiful. It was one of those summer afternoons where you wonder, "Is it going to rain? Storm? Will it be bad?" None of the above. It did make a great picture, and it's the reason I always carry my digital camera in my purse. You never know when God's going to put on a show like this.

This afternoon I took some tapes upstairs to the receptionist. She looked up from her computer and said words that shocked me: "Tim Russert died." I couldn't believe it. I immediately ran down to the studio to tell the news director. He was floored. There's a very well written story on MSNBC.com. There's lots of stuff on TV and the Internet about him. Here's my personal feeling about Tim Russert: No one has their finger on the pulse of American politics like Tim Russert. Election season will not be the same without him. I've been watching MSNBC since I got home. Keith Olbermann and Andrea Mitchell have provided personal, insightful, excellent coverage of the career and the man who was their boss. He is portrayed as a teacher, an encourager, a thoughtful friend, a family man, and especially as a respected colleague. Many prominent journalists have teared up recalling this honored broadcaster, author, lawyer, and avid Buffalo Bills fan.

Amidst the sadness tonight, I remembered to bring in my car knitting to take a new picture of my sock. What do you think? I did two rounds of cuff at Taco Bell today at lunch. The cuff is maybe 3/4 of an inch. Sock knitters, here's a question: When you're knitting two socks from a single ball of yarn, how do you know when to bind off the first sock? I'm wondering how far up the cuff should go? If you know, please leave a comment.

Tomorrow night, I'll have pictures of WWKIP Day. I need to go get ready for it. I've got a six pack of bottled water chilling, I need to come up with some snacks. I also need to pick out a project to take along. I know I'll take the sock, but what else? Hmmmm.

YARN!

I had a package notice in my mailbox on Monday. When I get a package, the carrier leaves it in the apartment office for me. The office works the same hours I do, so I rarely see them. Yesterday I came home for lunch so I could pick it up. When I opened it, this is what I saw:
Can you tell what it is? It's yarn, yes, but what kind of yarn? It's a new yarn. This may very well be the first skeins of this yarn to have entered Metro Columbus. I can't be sure. The really amazing part of it is this: I got it for free. Yes, you heard right, FREE. How? Well, several weeks ago on ravelry I read a post about Lion Brand needing beta testers for their new website. The first fifteen people to sign up got to do the test. I was number eight. I got an email with the details. Visited the site, provided the desired feedback, then last week I got an email from Zontee at Lion Brand telling me they were sending me two skeins of their new Sock Ease yarn. I jumped up and down and clapped my hands. I was at work at the time. Here's a closer picture of my new yarn.

Yay! The top one's colorway is called Toffee, the bottom one is called Red Hots. I'm still working on my first toe-up sock (remember Jury Duty?). I'm on the cuff now. I'd take a picture, but it's one of my car projects, so it's out there and not in here. I'll get to it this week.
Remember Saturday is World Wide Knit in Public Day. So, fellow knitters, please go out and Knit in Public. It's your duty as a knitter. I'll be knitting with my peeps at Hobby Lobby from 2pm-4pm. I'm very excited about it. I sent a press release to the newspaper, posted it on the tv station's web calendar, and I also submitted it to the official Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau Calendar. I would love to meet some new knitters. I love my current knitting friends, but it would just be cool to meet up with some new folks as we celebrate on Saturday. Knit on!

Wow

Y'all, seriously, Hot & Spicy Barbecue Lay's Potato Chips are devastatingly delicious.

Whew!

So Saturday in 95 degree Georgia heat, my car died on the side of the road. I called AAA to tow it to the Honda place and called Seth to tow me home. I was so sad. I went home and moped. I didn't even think I'd feel like going to church Sunday, besides how would I get there. At 7:05 Sunday morning, I woke up and thought (maybe it was God saying this), stop feeling sorry for yourself and go get in the shower. When I got out of the shower, I called Arnold and Terrie, Catherine's parents, to see if I could get a ride. They always tell me I'm part of the family, and Arnold's my deacon, too. So I had a ride to church and home. Sunday evening I called Vince, my boss, for a ride to work on Monday. One of the girls noticed my car wasn't there and asked me where it was. I told her the story. She asked me how I got to work and I told her Vince brought me. She said, "That's why he was here so early!" He's usually late. So the culprit was the crank shaft sensor. Whatever that is. Apparently it's something that makes your car go, because mine wouldn't go. It would crank and when I pushed the accelerator the tachometer would go up really shaky. Then when I took my foot off the gas, it came down, the car stalled out, and the dashboard lit up like a Christmas Tree. It's all better now. $235 later. I got it back Monday after work. 48 hours without a car. It could have been worse.

On the positive side, while I was stuck at work for lunch on Monday, I was sitting in the break room knitting on my sock while my Lean Cuisine cooked, in walked our fairly new receptionist. It turns out she is also a knitter. Yea! I invited her to join us at Panera some Monday night.

I babysat the boys on Tuesday night. The three-year-old pooped in the potty for me. This was a huge deal. It was very exciting! Crazy, I know.

So, I have been seriously broke. I mean seriously. As in - the car insurance payment comes out of my checking account tomorrow and I didn't have enough money to cover it. This morning I scored a freelance video gig for someone who paid me $100 cash tonight to do the video for him. I told him he was an answered prayer. Honestly. I didn't know what I was going to do. Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Provides. Thank you, Lord. Amen.