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.

More Grief

This is Scarlette. She was born August 25, 1991. I took her to my parents' house as a gift to them that October. She was spoiled and much loved. I called her "Sissy" - because we're sisters - same parents. When my mom died nine years ago (after a series of strokes over several years), it was Scarlette who let Daddy know. You can see by the picture that she doesn't like having her photo taken. One day I was following her around the yard trying to take a picture of her. She didn't like it. She went around to the back door. I told her I just wanted to take a picture of her. She hissed, swatted my foot with her paw, then jumped through the storm door where she'd pulled the screen off one corner producing her own cat-door. Scarlette died last Wednesday. One month shy of her 16th birthday. She will be terribly missed.

There was a lot of grief last week. I cried for several days in a row over Scarlette and my friend from church. There was a very nice funeral on Saturday. Over the years there were many times at drama rehearsals that Cindy would come up to me and say, "Would you go run sound?" It happened a lot. They would need microphones and there wouldn't be anyone to run them. Saturday I arrived for the funeral and sat down in a pew. After only a few minutes, I got a tap on the shoulder and was asked, "Would you go run sound?" It was fitting. Running sound one last time for her. She will be missed, too.

I'm still trying to learn to knit socks. I have still been getting up in the morning and exercising. I'm eating my fruits and vegetables. Ready to see some results. Come on fat, get the heck out of here!

Grief

A friend of mine from church lost a six month valiant battle with cancer this week. She was creative, funny, caring, smart. She was a great wife and mother. She had a beautiful singing voice. I'll miss working with her in the drama ministry and her friendship. Visitation is tomorrow and the funeral is Saturday.

There's other sad news that I'm just not ready to share yet. I'll get to it later.