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.

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.

Jury Duty - Day 4

We reached our decision today. It's back to work tomorrow.

Okay, now I can talk about it. It was a personal injury case involving a car accident where a young woman in a Ford SUV was hit by an 18 wheeler. She broke six ribs and her collar bone and fractured six teeth in the accident. She had a collapsed lung, a ruptured diaphragm, lacerations on several internal organs, head trauma. They had to remove her spleen. She's had a lot of emotional problems since the accident. Her medical bills at this point are over $101,000. Her dental expenses for the rest of her life are estimated at $120,000. It was three and a half days of testimony that I'm not going to recount here. (I have 27 pages of notes - and a half a sock!) The judgement we awarded was $750,000. After we returned our judgement, the lawyers told us the defense had offered to settle for $500,000; they declined it and said they would take $1,000,000. We split it right down the middle and we didn't even have those figures going in. I feel good about it - especially after he told us that.

I was surprised they picked me because in the jury selection they asked if anyone had ever been in an accident with a 18-wheeler. I have. They asked if anyone had ever been in a wreck and been injured. I have - different wreck. They asked if anyone had ever been in a wreck and sued the person who hit them. I did. Yet, they selected me. I was seriously surprised. Seriously.

Next time I'll tell you about my 18-wheeler wreck of Thanksgiving 2006. Don't be scared when you see the picture of the car. It's all better now.

Jury Duty - Day 3

Well, the plaintiff rested their case today and the defence began their's. I think the case may go to the jury tomorrow. We have several decisions we have to make. Maybe we'll be done tomorrow, but I'm not sure. I may be turning a heel in deliberation.

Jury Duty - Day 2

Yep, it grew today. I've got a lot of trial notes, too. So it's not like I'm not paying attention. I think it's pretty cute. Maybe tomorrow night, I'll post a pic of it on my foot! I went to Pine Mountain tonight and had dinner with Seth and his family. We went to our favorite Mexican place, San Marcos. It's the best Mexican food anywhere. Generous portions and great prices. Just so good.

Jury Duty - Day 1

I was picked to be on a jury. I was really surprised. I can't talk about the trial. I will say that I know the judge from when I worked at the Government Center. I called him by his first name then. It's hard to refer to him as Judge ___ now. He seemed to be cool with me knitting in the Jury Box when we were coming out of breaks. And I had no trouble getting my metal circs through security. I knitted a little while we watched some video depositions. Man, are those dull. All of us were falling asleep. The only way I can stay awake is to knit. I took some notes, but then they get all blurry because I'm sleepy. I could be there all week. They said four to five days. Vince is thrilled, as you can imagine. Anyway, here's my sock:

Catching Up

Okay, the Bronchitis/Sinusitis isn't really gone yet. I still have the cough and ended up with an asthma inhaler. Today, three weeks and two days after I first got sick, was the first day I didn't have to use the inhaler since I got it over a week ago.

THE YARN HARLOT

We spent the night at Debbie and Pat's houses in Manchester. We had lots of fun. Debbie had a friend come who's a physical therapist. She gave us a hot parrafin treatment and hand massages. Here Debbie gets ready for her massage while Julie lets the parrafin moisturize her hands.

Except when Tara's yarn got knotted.
I helped her untangle it.
Here are Tara, Pat, Laura, and Debbie at the knit it before the Harlot came out.
Here she is. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot.
Here I am with my copy of Stephanie's new book, Things I Learned from Knitting. I was waiting in line to have my book signed. Over my right shoulder you see Debbie, Pat, and Lacey.
Here's Stephanie signing my book. I was star-struck, more so than last time, and didn't tell her many of the things I had in mind to tell her, and I forgot to give her the hand cream I had in my bag for her. I gave her hand cream last time and thought if I did it again, I'd be "the odd lady in Atlanta who always gives her hand cream." Oh, well.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did a article about the event. If you click on the crowd picture it'll get biggger. You can see us in the third row. Lacey (part of her) in white, Julie in green, me in black, Tara's empty chair (she was getting food), Pat in pink, Laura in blue, and Deb in green. We don't know the lady on the right in pink.

KNITTING LESSONS

I've talked much about my young friend, Catherine. I babysat Catherine last weekend. I was doing a hat on my Knifty Knitter. I took another Knifty Knitter with me and taught Catherine to knit on it. She'll be six next month and I've been telling her since she was three that I'd teach her to knit when she turned six. I've got a "learn-to-knit" kit for her birthday present, so the Knifty Knitter is only on loan.



She's so proud of what she's doing. She says she's making a hat for her mom to match the one I made her. Too cute!

JURY DUTY

Tomorrow I report for Jury Duty. I worked at the Government Center for over four years, but that was nine years ago. It's a little weird going back. I've got a sock pattern printed out. I need to get it cast-on tonight. I'm putting it on two metal circs, but I'm packing plastic dpn's and going early in case there's a problem. I'll keep you posted. People say I won't be selected because I work in media. I think the fact that I've lived here a long time, had lots of jobs, go to a big church; and, therefore, know half of Columbus, will keep me from being selected. I'm excited about the knitting time I hope to have. Vince, my boss, not so much.

Silver, Shopping, Knitting, Silver, Church

Today is March 1st. Did you know it's Big Bonanza Silver Day? You do if you watch QVC.They call it Big Bonanza Silver Day because it was March 1st however many years ago that silver was first discovered in Nevada. I love sterling silver jewelry. If I didn't live paycheck to paycheck, I would have bought a lot of silver today. It's so pretty, and they have so much of it. I've been watching all day and looking at all the pretty jewelry. I haven't ordered anything, but it isn't midnight yet.

I had lunch with PMF today. Subway. Then I went to Bath & Body Works to use coupons. I had four coupons so I had to make four transactions to use them all. I got all this for about $35. I calculated the actual price if I didn't have the coupons and it was around $105 (that doesn't include the Fekkai sample). That always makes me feel better about spending, when I save so much! If you haven't tried the Dr. Patricia Wexler skin care, you should. It's amazing. Then I went to AC Moore and got this:

That's a size three circular needle. I need to get one more (once I have another coupon), so I can do socks on two circular needles. I'm just a little tired of dealing with the dpns.

Okay, it's midnight. It's now or never. I went to qvc.com and ordered these: Item number J14149. There are Guardian Angels on the earrings. Cute. Leverbacks. (I love a leverback earring!) On waitlist. Well, if it's meant to be, it'll happen. If not, then I know it wasn't meant to be.

Our new senior pastor starts tomorrow. I'm so excited. This is the most optimistic time I remember at church in a long time - more than 6 years ago IMHO. There's also a reception for his family tomorrow afternoon. I'll report on the day tomorrow night.

Go Tigers!

Look what I got today! I'm so excited! I tried to get it last month when I had to renew my tag before my birthday. The folks at the tag office couldn't get the computer to let them issue the tag to me. They took my phone number and said they'd call me when they figured it out. A month later, I got a message saying they had it ready. I went downtown at lunchtime today and got it. Had to turn in my old tag. I had to take a wrench and remove my old tag on the street across from the office. When I went in, the security guy had to hold my wrench. I don't know what he thought I might do with it in the tag office, but he held it while I went and claimed my tag. So, they gave me my new Clemson tag and I went out, showed it to the security guys and got my wrench back. Then put it on the car right there on Second Avenue. I called my dad to tell him about it. He wasn't home. I left a message. I called Dawn because I knew she'd appreciate it - or at least appreciate my enthusiasm for it. I made everyone at work go look at it today. Especially the two guys who went to Carolina. Can't wait to show it off at church tomorrow! It's the only one in Columbus! When I got home I had my Clemson World Alumni magazine in the mailbox waiting on me. It was a very orange day! I even wore an orange shirt today.

Be very afraid: I'm sitting here with Magic Stripes yarn, size 3 needles, and a Cat Bordhi sock book.