Bright Idea #237

Well unlike most of my other *bright* ideas, this one actually worked out, and didn't cost me a small fortune to finish stayed within a reasonable budget. The kids had trashed their old dresser. I *think* it had five drawers originally. At least two were gone entirely, and another one or two were missing the fronts. We had this dresser in the basement, so I got another one of my bright ideas, and decided to refurbish it a little and bring it upstairs. The process *did* take longer than I had originally planned, but I'm blaming that on being very tired this week from stocking rather than working on the reno at work. I had guesstimated that it would cost me about $25-30 to dress up the dresser, and I wasn't far off. The only thing I overspent on really was the hardware -- Derek talked me into spending an extra 50¢ per knob {$1.47 vs. 97¢} for ceramic rather than plastic -- for obvious reasons of course! 4 cans of spray paint, 2 green scrubby sandpaper sheets, 8 new handles, and several sanded-out kids later, we have a nearly new dresser for less than $35!

Here's me painting one of the red drawers. It looks like I'm getting ready to put another coat on my toes at the same time!
Here I am painting a yellow drawer. I wonder how well the yellow and red leftovers would mix to touch up those grey roots while I'm at it?
Here I am painting the dresser itself. It ain't a perfect job by any means, but it looks better, and is WAY cheaper than brush painting it. Plus the kids got to help me out, whether they wanted to or not. Alex and Lissa were the most enthusiastic about helping, which made sense since it was meant for their room!
I feel like I'm painting graffiti on the side of the dresser! Why is it that there isn't even one *remotely* flattering photo of me here???
This is what the finished product looks like with the new hardware and old junk on! You can see that the gloss finish is kind of uneven, but like Derek had said, it's not going to be long before the kids add their own touches to the dresser anyway!

Maple leaf socks - week one progress; FT clogs stash shots

Well I took a pic today of my progress on my Maple Leaf socks for the sock KAL. I have done 4 repeats of the pattern, and started the heel flap. I will be following the heel pattern from a different pattern, and will be reducing the number of foot stitches to about 64, rather than the 72 that the pattern states.
Like I needed any more yarn or patterns, I went ahead and bought the two Fiber Trends Clogs patterns, in adult and kid's sizes. I also bought the wool I'd need for a purple and pink two-tone pair for me, and a bright, Barbie pink pair for Lissa. I'm hoping to start these once my ML socks are off the needles.

Yarn Shots!

Well here we go. Yarn pr0n!!!

This is the Regia 4fadig I bought to make my Maple Leaf socks with, along with the pattern.
Here is a close-up of my progress on Day one of the KAL. I got the ribbing done mostly on the 30th, but the entire first repeat was done on the 1st.
Here is the sock yarn I got in my June sock-yarn-of-the-month surprise package from Ram's. I can't wait to get July's!

Lotsa socks!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

Well I went to Ram's yesterday to pick out sock yarn for the Maple Leaf Socks KAL I joined. I cast them on yesterday, and am nearly done the ribbing. I hope that the colour I chose will turn out nice. I'll post a picture later on when I've got the first repeat of the pattern done. I also bought the June sock-yarn-of-the-month. I'll take some pics of that and post them later too. Looking at the ball, it sould make a really cool looking pair of jacquard socks. Those will be my portable project once Derek's last Mission Falls sock is done sometime this weekend.

Derek finally got back late Wednesday from Edmonton, and he had brought me a present to make up for being gone so long right after I got back from up north. It's a gorgeous gold bracelet that he bought as a belated anniversary present {6th anniv was June 3rd, the day before I went to Thompson}. My weekends are now Thursday-Friday, so we went to the drive-in Thursday night. He's never been to one before, so it was a great opportunity to go. We saw Click and Nacho Libre. We had a wonderful time, and I can see us going again before the end of the season. I have tonight off for the holiday, so we can go out together on a REAL weekend night! The zoo is supposed to be free today, so we might take the kids there. Then tonight we need to decide what time we're going out to play pool since if we decide to go out later on, we can take the kids to the fireworks.

Scenes from Thompson

This is the view from my hotel room window, looking northwest.

This is the view looking northeast.

This is the river that basically marks the northern edge of town. This is where it turns from running relatively east, to a more northerly direction. At least those are the directions it is going here!


This picture was taken facing southwest, from the same spot as the above photo. That bridge leads into town.

Another photo taken from the same spot, this one facing northeast. That's one of the seaplane depots located on the river.

This is probably the most photographed building in Thompson. I'm not sure who painted the mural, but it's breathtaking. The "road" up to the building is a sled run in the winter... kinda scary considering I was standing on the shoulder of Highway 6 when I took this photo.


This is another one of the many murals to be found in town. It was on one of the main streets, between work and the hotel.

This mural is on a sister building to the one above. It was on one of the corners of the main crossroads, so everyone that goes to Thompson can see this one.

This is the beginning of the boardwalk to Pisew Falls. All you see is the big rock, and the bridge/ stairs disappearing into the forest.

This is what you see as you start on the boardwalk. You really wonder if there is an end to the forest, and a waterfall in there somewhere. You can't even really hear the falls at this point because the trees filter the noise so much.

Nearly the end of the Earth

To be honest, I forget what this area is actually called... the cut-off or something like that. The highway actually cuts the "lake" off. It's about 10 km north of town, so it's as close as I got to "the end of the Earth".

She's baaaaack!!!

Well I only popped online once during my stay in Thompson, and that was barely enough to combat my overflowing email inboxes, and get caught up with Lyz... like we didn't wear out our cell phones with text messages, and I didn't go through an ungodly amount of phone cards calling her!!! Anyway, I had to quickly post this scan of a postcard I got. I will get the info later on how you can order one too. The place where I bought it has gotten phone calls from all over the world asking about it!

Bright Idea #436

Well I had another one of my bright ideas this weekend. Yes... head for cover now!

My original bright idea was to get the yard work done on the front flower beds, but that quickly took a back seat when Derek and I forgot the landscape edging, and bought a new patio set instead! We had a wonderful barbecue Sunday afternoon, since I had Sunday evening off for Victoria Day. We bought a pretty small set, but it fits in perfectly with the scale of our deck. It ended up that one of the deck boards for the back step completely rotted out. Derek removed it and covered it up with one of the indoor/ outdoor area rugs.
After much discussion on Monday afternoon over what to do, we decided that our best and most cost-effective option was to replace the back step section of the deck. After quite a bit of figuring out how to do it, and what exactly we needed, off to Home Depot we went. We came home not quite $100 poorer, and with a bunch of wood and nails. It took the better part of the evening but we had a nice, new, and best of all SAFE back step by the time we all went inside at 9.

I talked to Wayne secretly, and we decided to go get some deck stain and surprise Derek by getting it painted before he got home from work on Tuesday. The bit of rain we got ended up giving us a bit of trouble, but Wayne got a good coat of stain on it before everyone got home from school. He put another coat of it on after supper, so it's all nicely protected until Derek levels out the boards that we needed to "fudge" in order make it work out for the best, and puts the skirting on the one side.

I painted the first board just so that I could say that I helped, but 99.9% of the job was done by him. Even though these are "in progress" pics, the finished job looks fabulous!

Now for your viewing pleasure!

The Evolution of Dance. This is 6 minutes of the funniest video that I've seen in ages. You are going to need the kleenex from laughing so hard! Make sure you have broadband since a 6 minute video on dial-up is just WRONG!! and you'll need your speakers on for this one too. It's kid-safe too BTW! Leave me a comment on how many of them you knew!

Lissa's sweater nearly done.

Here is a pic I took on Saturday to help me decide which set of buttons to use for her sweater. I've really been taking my time with the second sleeve. I got the first sleeve done in less than two days... probably a reward for being so good when I went to Ram's on Thursday to get the dpns. I've done the collar on the sweater, and woven a few ends in as well. The top button is a kitty cat, and the bottom two are a princess castle and crown. With encourangement from others, I have decided to go with the princess themed buttons.
I added this picture because the colours appeared different in the two shots I took. The pattern is from a Bernat booklet. The lilac yarn is Bernat Satin in Stardust, and the eyelash yarn is LB Fun Fur in Fiji.
This is a close-up of the buttons.

The countdown begins...

Well Derek just phoned me 20 minutes ago and he's on his way back with the kids. We're expecting him back around noon tomorrow unless he needs to stop to sleep. My guess is with those two in the truck with him, they'll annoy him awake, and he'll come straight home just so that he can go into our bedroom, and lock the door behind him!

Hello? Ram's? Do you have any Calgon in stock?

I think I need some Calgon yarn... Derek is about half-way to Alberta now to pick up two of our kids. I'm going to have an influx of teenagers here from about this time tomorrow until the end of August... Calgon, take me away!

Distracted to the point of destruction...

I don't know what's wrong with me these days... I've been in such a funk, that even Derek offering to buy me the braided breast cancer scarf kit couldn't snap me out of it, or at least briefly enough to *actually* let him buy it for me. Yes, that's right folks, I turned down the offer of the century {well at least the offer of the month or year from him}. I've admired that kit in my knitting mags for at least a year or more now, and found it at Ram's when we were there on Saturday getting the rest of the Mission Falls that I needed to finish his socks. Part of it was that it was $55, part of it was that I have several scarf kits, and scarves in mind already, and the most important part was that I just wasn't in the mood for *me* yarn.

One thing that's been bothering me some lately is the sheer number of WIPs I have. What's stupid is that I can't even promise myself that I won't cast on, or do a starting chain for any more. I started the UFO project to try and clear a few UFOs, and that made a teeny tiny dent, but I've more than made up for *that* progress by starting who knows how many more projects since. I can't even seem to focus long enough to concentrate on just one project to get it done. I want to become a more monogamous knitter/ crocheter, but I just don't seem to have the will power needed to do that.

So sick it's hilarous!!!

Thanks to a post on KH yesterday I discovered this site. There's a link to a church sign creator, as well as a warning label creator. Here's the ones I made up for Derek, Lyz and myself:

Why do I do this to myself? Episode 142

Well I've gone and done it again. I mentioned it briefly yesterday in my post, but didn't get into details... WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?!??!?

Here's the scoop: I'm doing up a new cardigan for Lissa, right? It's a really easy and really cute purl dot pattern, right? It should be really easy, and my precautions of doing a size 4 instead of a size 2 are unfounded, right? WRONG!!!

Since I'm so lazy about seaming -- my Skacel pinwheel pullover is STILL waiting for a few seams to be done -- I decided to do it up in one piece rather than separate fronts and back. Well from that decision on, this sweater has been a comedy of errors! Firstly, I neglected to deduct two stitches from the back portion, and only did one. That meant that I had to frog all the way back to the beginning after I had the first row done. Next, I didn't increase one stitch after the ribbing on the fronts, so I had to frog back three rows to redo that. Then I realized that I didn't put in the button bands, so I had to tink back and use my crochet hook to fix the stitches on each end for about 4 rows. Then, I had to readjust the dot pattern on the back, so that meant I had to frog half a row of work. The last mistake I made was neglecting to put in the buttonholes. That required frogging the border on one side back about 10 rows, and then reknitting it back up to my work using dpns... *PHEW!!!*

That was all within the first 2 inches or so of work! I'm at the 5 inch mark right now, and I'm putting it aside while I work the heel of my Cascading Leaves sock... hopefully this pattern of errors won't continue! I have to admit though, most of these errors have been caused by doing the whole body in one piece, and not fully reading the instructions for the fronts before going on. At least I had the forethought to do it up in a size 4... she will at least have a bit of a chance to wear it before she grows out of it... once I finally get it done!!!

This and that...

I've been so busy with stuff, and I still seem to be just spinning my wheels! I'm about half-way into my first sock of a pair of Cascading Leaves. It's turning out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. I will be turning the heel on them today, and then it will be smooth sailing to the end.
I started a cute dot stitch cardigan for Lissa out of some Bernat Satin, and will be putting a fur collar and cuffs on it with some LB Fun Fur Prints. The pattern for it is here, it's the pink one on the cover, and I'm doing it in lilac. I've changed the pattern to work it in one piece, and it's driving me nuts with all the silly errors I'm making because of that.
I've also got an afghan on the go. I'm doing up a ripple pattern for Derek in RH Comfort, Bernat Soft Boucle, and Bernat Harmony. It's turning out really great, and if I can stop working on other things at home long enough to make some progress on it, he might actually get it this year!!!
The last project that I'm concentrating on right now is a cute summer tote bag that I'm crocheting out of some Lustersheen I picked up... I still haven't decided if I want to do it double-stranded or not, so it might be getting frogged yet again!!!!

Spongebob and Dory

Well Monday was Alex's 4th birthday and we had a {UGH!} Spongebob party for him. As much as it nauseated Derek and I, Alex loved every minute of it. Here are some highlights:

Happy little guy with his cake that he picked out!

Lissa is as excited as Alex!

Alex's "couch", in his words... a loud, annoying "thing" if you ask Derek or I!

Gotta love a new bike... and the Spongebob clip-on watch! Alex got a new bike because Jackie had broken his old one on the weekend... poor kid had only gotten to ride it for an hour so far this year when it got trashed. =o(

On a sad note, we lost Dory on Monday as well... that's all three bettas gone to fish heaven now, along with Derek's neons which we suspect were sushi treats for his bigger fish.

The kitchen floor revisited...

Here's a few highlights of last week, and the finished product:

Firstly, here's Derek working away on the flooring. You can see the top layer of the old stuff that he's covering with the new subflooring.

Here's Derek in his usual pose whenever I take a pic of him doing something!!!

Here's a photo of the nearly finished floor. We still need to put up new floorboards/trim, and a coat of wax to seal the cracks between the tiles... but it's otherwise done. We're very pleased with how it all turned out, and even more pleased at how inexpensive it was!

Another pic of the floor. I tried different angles so that you can see it better.

Eight words you never want to hear...

"Wouldn't it be a cool idea if I...?" If you hear these words come out of my mouth, run, as fast as you can, do not walk, to your nearest fallout shelter. You just *might* be protected enough!

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 7:30 a.m.
I've just finished my last shift of the "week" at work and I had a bright idea overnight. The crud and mess behind the fridge and stove is unmanagable at best. Why don't I get some scrubbies and steel wool, and scour all that crap, even the stuff on the walls, and put a coat of wax down underneath? I know that the kitchen tile is 'no wax', but I'm going to be scrubbing the hell out of it, and it's not going to be seen anyway! $35.00 later, I'm proudly going home with a shiny new pail filled with cleansers in scents I like {instead of Derek's}, scrubbies, and other assorted heavy/ spring cleaning type stuff.

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 10:30 a.m.
I've removed all the crud from the top of the fridge, including the banana carcass with mouse poop all around it {how in the hell did those buggers get up there anyway??? Some questions are better left unanswered methinks}. I've pulled the fridge out and into the middle of the kitchen floor, and managed to control my gag reflex. It's amazing how much mess that spilled coffee, spilled milk, cheerios {for the milk?}, leaking water, and mice can make in one little space! Three pails of super-hot Pine Sol water later, and I've discovered that there isn't two layers of peel and stick tile on our floor -- there's two layers of peel and stick on top of old linoleum tile!!! The peel and stick under the fridge was all unstuck, so I pulled it all off. I have to find my bleach now to take care of the mould and mildew from all of the water and such. I call Derek at work since small repairs are required, here's the conversation: "Hi honey, can we go to Home Depot after work?"; {hesitantly} "Why?"; "I need a piece of ¼" underlay for under the fridge."; {fearful now} "Why?"; "I had another one of my bright ideas... I was going to wax the floor under the fridge and discovered that there's *three* layers of tile on the kitchen floor, not two. I had to pull up all the rotten tile under the fridge, and now I need a thin piece of wood to level it off again and fix it all up."; "I have enough underlay left from the fire, we can use that. But, we can go if you like to check out our options for the floor."

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 4:00 p.m.
I've gotten the fridge corner as clean as I can get it and pulled out the stove too. The girls are positive that Mom has lost her mind. Mind??? I have a mind??? Some damage there too, but not as serious. More importantly, I've gotten most of the grease build-up off of the walls that nothing but a Magic Eraser will remove {or painting will cover-up}.

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 6:30 p.m.
Derek has come home, assessed the wake of destruction that he lovingly refers to as "Da wife", and discovers that the leftover wood from the fire repairs is too small. We calculate the square footage of the kitchen to price out redoing the entire floor and off to Home Depot we go.

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 8:00 p.m.
Back home from HD with three boxes of peel and stick tile, spray foam, scrapers, and paint samples for the planned repaint this summer. Long discussion ensued at HD over tile choices... including the gorgeous high-quality tile that was on clearance half-price. End decision was to buy decent-looking cheap stuff since we are hoping to completely renovate the kitchen {including the foundation issues and moving the sink and such} in the next 5-10 years.

Dateline: Tuesday, April 11, 2:00 p.m.
Derek is home from the dentist, and my hands are beginning to function. Time to start scraping off the old tile. After about 10 sq. feet, the decision is made that putting a whole new subfloor on TOP of this mess would be much easier. A quick check of floor clearances at the back door detects that we will need to have a small sunken area at the doorway. Floor mouldings removed and trashed while waiting for the girls to get home from school. Measurements taken of what edgings we will need and new floor register for the cold air return, and duly noted in my day planner.

Dateline: Tuesday, April 11, 5:00 p.m.
Good deal on wood -- $12 a sheet; got edgings and a huge pail of screws -- a-home we will go.

Dateline: Tuesday, April 11, 8:00 p.m.
Oh crap, we forgot the heat vent!!! We'll need to go back for something, so we'll wait to run back to HD. Wood is going down nicely, and the kitchen is a *lot* less square than we thought! One fiasco with the new tiles and a full cup of coffee later, and things are progressing well. We might be able to finish the majority of it before midnight tonight!

Dateline: Tuesday, April 11, 11:30 p.m.
Done for the night. Decision made to put new wood even at the doorway. Clearances will be tight, but we can get a new threshold for the door and remove the weather stripping to prevent damage to the new tiles there. All that's left is a couple small cuts to bring the wood up to the edge of the basement stairs {requiring a stair nose piece}, using the foam to fill in various gaps, and laying the remaining tile down.

Dateline: Wednesday, April 12, 2:00 p.m.
All full tiles have been laid except at the top of stairs which cannot be laid until the last piece of wood is put down. Tile cuts by the sink are done so that I can get some cleaning and dishes done. The microwave cabinet is a heartbreaking mess. Even cleaned up, the kids have trashed it, and I can't stand looking at it that way. I still love the functionality of it, and wish that it still looked like it did when we bought it. I don't even know where to begin to repair the damage. Replacement seems to be the only option since I don't even know where all the pieces to it have disappeared to.

Dateline: Wednesday, April 12, 6:30 p.m.
At HD for our third trip in as many days. Returned the piece of edging that wasn't needed. Purchased stair nose, new threshold pieces, and heating vent to match the one by the fridge. Looked longingly at new hardware for the microwave cabinet {they still sell the ones we bought for the kitchen cupboards 2 years ago}, and discovered that the HD website wasn't *that* crappy when it comes to looking for microwave carts... they simply don't sell them! We're now sitting at approximately 10 times my original $35 purchase... I don't think I'm allowed to spring clean anymore!!!

Dateline: Wednesday, April 12, 11:00 p.m.
Another evening done in the kitchen. This *did* start off as a couple hour project to scour and wax the floor under the fridge, didn't it? I was supposed to be done before Derek even got home from work on Monday!!! Wood done by stairs, tile cuts done in that corner, and stair nose installed. Cut made for cold air return. After a game break, the spray foam was done, and the last few tiles laid that could be done.

Dateline: Thursday, April 13, 1:00 p.m.
All that's left to do now is to trim the excess foam, try to clean the tiles that got foam on them {Thanks honey for being the first one to make a mess like that... not me or the kids!!!!}, put the new threshold on the door and move the last of the stuff in the kitchen. I wonder if I will cook tonight? Nah!!! I have to work tonight!!! Happy weekend gone!

March FOs

K- Hockey Socks for Derek; these were done in Briggs & Little Tuffy, from their Heavy Socks pattern. I changed it a little to have the contrast heel and toe to match the stripes on the calf. They were supposed to be a Christmas present for him, but I knew they wouldn't get done in time, and I didn't quite make it to get them finished before the KO.
K- Ribbed Pullover for Alex; this was knitted in RH Kids from a slightly modified pattern out of the January Creative Knitting. I will *never* use this yarn again... it did nothing but split and make my life miserable. I'm glad I bit the bullet and finished it though since Alex is so proud to wear it. And besides, I finally learned how to do the mattress seam for this one!

UFO Extinction Project
Homespun Sweatercoat still being knitted.

Sock addiction??? What sock addiction???

It's all Derek's fault... I SWEAR!!! He's the one that sent me across town to drop off some papers for a loan. It's not my fault that my fave LYS {Camille's} is on the way... and that I haven't been in there since November due to the Redwood Bridge reconstruction. It's also not my fault that she's selling/ closing and had great deals on sock yarn. It's also not my fault that she had some Bryspun dpns and some Skacel dpns that begged to come home with me... not my fault, not my fault at all. I'm not addicted, no way, no how.

BTW: the sock yarn is Scheeepjes Invicta {#1364, a grey/ blue tweed}, Dazzle Super Socks {#714, a teal/ white/ blue/ grey jacquard}, and a single ball of Lang JaWoll Jacquard {#0158, charcoal/ white/ grey/ fuschia/ burgundy wine}; the dpns are 9"-3 mm {2.5US} Bryspuns, and 7"-2.5 mm {1 US} Skacels.

Alex's pullover revealed finally!

Well I finally did the last bit of seaming on Alex's ribbed pullover. It sure was a PITA learning how to do the mattress stitch... especially on knitting that isn't plain stockinette. The finished result is worth it though. It would have looked awful if I would have just overcast the seams.
I've been quite sick lately, so I just haven't been at the pooter at all really for the last week. I picked up a shift for tonight, so I'll be busy with that again! I've also finished my Bernat Sox socks for myself, but I still have a few more ends to weave in on one of them. I have started a ribbed sock for myself out of my Kroy, but I haven't gotten around to frogging the other one yet. And I've started a ribbed pullover for Lissa out of some pink vari I picked up nearly two years ago at a garage sale! I've bit the bullet, and I'm working on the seams for my pinwheel sweater too... gotta get a few of those nearly-FOs cleared up.

Finny and Furry Pics...

Here you can see one of the shots of Derek's aquarium. The sunlight from the living room window makes it difficult to take a good quality picture. On the right you can see his diver floating. It's attached to a neat treasure chest that blows bubbles. The orangey fish in the centre of the tank is "Cheeto", he's an albino barb. Just to the upper left of Cheeto is Charlie, but you can see him a bit better in the next shot. In the lower right corner of the picture, you can make out a few of his neon tetras, collectively known as "Blue Lightning".

Here's another shot of Derek's aquarium. If you look carefully at the centre of the tank you can see Charlie, the green cory, just above one of the plants. Just in front of him is Gill, a tiger barb. Cheeto is also visible in this picture, as are the neons. You can see the castle on the right side of the tank, which is the other air outlet for the fish. The tiny bridge that was rescued from Nus' tank can be seen in the foreground, as well as the rock on the left hand side. His sunken ship is in between the castle and the bridge, but nearly impossible to see in this picture. All totalled he's got 19 fish in the tank. Unfortunately, we've already had our first casualty -- "thing one" has gone on to the big fish tank in the sky -- keeping Nus company, no doubt.

Here's a pic of Jackie's hamster cage. It's a modular cage that she's looking forward to adding on to. We've already got a bit of tunnelling and a loft for it, but Jackie needs to do some extra chores to earn them for Ally. The setup here is a bit more than what came with the cage. We bought a water bottle and a food dish, as well as some bedding. It's not typical wood shavings, and Ally thinks it makes a nice soft bed!

Here's a closer pic of Ally. This is actually the first time I have seen her in the loft area of her cage. She's usually tucked in between her wheel and the corner of her cage. Since she's a nocturnal pet, she's sleeping now, and will be up all night running in her wheel... keeping Derek awake with the constant whir! At least it's a plastic resin wheel, and not a squeaky metal one!!!

Fins and fur...

Well I wanted to post pictures of Derek's new aquarium setup, and Jackie's new hamster, but Blogger is PMS'ing again. We've had Derek's new tank set up for nearly a month now, and he's having a blast with it. Jackie's hamster came home on Thursday of last week, and she's thrilled to the gills about it! I'll try again later on to add the pics.

I've been busy knitting like crazy here. Alex's pullover is nearly complete. I have a few more inches of sleeve to do, and then I get to set in the sleeves and pick up the neck. I've been working on my socks too... the sock I'm currently knitting is nearly finished the foot, and then I get to start the toe decreases. I also need to frog and redo the toe on the first sock -- it's much too pointy, and I know how to Kitchener the toe now too. I picked up some odd yarn at WM on Friday. When I swatched it, it didn't work out to the tension I needed to make the sweater I was hoping -- a freebie from Ram's. It took a bit of hunting online and in my pattern stash here, but I found one that I think will work out not too bad.

Brainless knitting? or brainless knitter?

If you're smart, when you go to a SnB, you bring brainless knitting with you -- stuff that you don't need to think about since you are so busy chatting away and such. Well I *thought* I had brought some with me last night! I had just finished the body of Alex's sweater, and had cast on the sleeves. I did up the garter ribbing rows, and switched my needles to the larger size. I figgered it would be easy since it was only an increase every 4th row... lots of increases, so I didn't have to worry about doing too many... and I had even put a stitch marker in between the sleeves so that I'd know whether I was in the middle of a row of sleeve, or finished a row. I can't remember where I heard that trick, but I sure like it! I was happily knitting away, not getting as much knitting done as I would have hoped, but still progress nonetheless. Well about a half hour before we were due to leave, I realized that I hadn't done my increases!!! I looked over my work carefully to see if I could fudge it... since working on both at the same time would make any alteration a "design element" and not a "mistake". I was already on at least the 7th row of the pattern, so fudging wasn't really an option. I had to frog down to the first row of knitting with the larger needles. Since I'm doing both sleeves at the same time, it was the only way I could get my head around making sure I had the same number of rows on both sleeves, as well as making sure the yarn tails were in the same spot and all that other stuff. I worked on it some more last night after I got home while I was fighting with Blogger *again*, and continued on when I got up this morning. I'm sitting at about 2-3 inches right now, and am hoping to have these mostly finished today. If Blogger decides to cooperate at all, unlike the last 2 days, I hope to get my sidebar updated too.

Today's Quiz...

Your Birthdate: July 20

You are a virtual roller coaster of emotions, and most people enjoy the ride. Your mood tends to set the tone of the room, and when you're happy, this is a good thing. When you get in a dark mood, watch out - it's very hard to get you out of it. It's sometimes hard for you to cheer up, and your gloom can be contagious. Your strength: Your warm heart Your weakness: Trouble controlling your emotions Your power color: Black Your power symbol: Musical note Your power month: February

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

What song makes you cry?

No matter what... no matter where you are... no matter what you are doing... what song can't you hear without running for the kleenex box? For me it's a song by Rascal Flats, I call it "Sara Beth", but the DJ on the radio said that the name of it was "Skin".

I was on my way to my SnB tonight when that song came on. I *could* blame it on the fact that I was in Derek's truck, and hadn't bothered changing the radio station -- the Disturbed CD in my car right now would *not* have that effect -- but I won't! Problem is when this song comes on, on the radio, tv or whatever, I cannot change it. The main theme of this song is a teenaged girl that gets leukemia, and is worried about going to the prom with no hair. It's a beautiful and extremely touching song. I'm not sure what exactly it is about it, but I start bawling like a baby. I *do* have to say that I'm very happy I wasn't wearing much makeup today, and that the mascara package wasn't lying when it said that it was waterproof!

I guess you get what you pay for!

Well I definitely got what I paid for with Blogger today! I've been trying since just after 6 a.m. to access my dashboard, and all I was getting was error messages! Talk about aggrevating. In better news I've gotten an amazing amount done on Alex's pullover today. I've got the back done, the left front done, and am nearly finished the right front. I'm hoping that by the time I leave for my SnB tonight, I'll have the sleeves cast on.

Today's Quiz...

Your Hidden Talent

You're super sensitive and easily able to understand situations. You tend to solve complex problems in a flash, without needing a lot of facts. Decision making is easy for you. You have killer intuition. The right path is always clear, and you're a bit of a visionary.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

Alexander the Fishsitter: Part II The Sequel

Well this time is not as bad as last time, but nonetheless, Alexander the Great has struck again!!! This time the victim... err, recipient, was Dory. That poor little guy is still recovering from Friday's tragedy when this happened. When I got home from work this morning I noticed that his tank looked kinda filthy. I looked inside and saw that there was quite a bit of food on the surface of the water, and decided that I will clean the tank later on this afternoon. Then I found a bunch of goopy fish food in the sink. ALEX!!! Thing is, I could have sworn that I put the food back in my room last night. I *was* in a rush to leave for work, but I took the time out to feed the boys. I can't remember for sure if I put the food and medicine away. Regardless, Alex decided that Dory was still hungry. When Derek phoned a little while ago, he confirmed that he had skimmed a bunch of food from the tank before going to work.

To err is human... to forgive, divine

I have forgiven Alex for Friday, as well as today -- as evidenced by me taking out his pullover again to get some work done on it. I've got about another inch to go before I need to divide this for the armholes. I *just* did a quick measure of my tension, and it seems to be off a bit. 1½-2 stitches for every 4 inches. The pattern calls for 18 sts over 4" in st st, and I have 19½ sts over 4" in pattern. The type of ribbing that this is seems to actually stretch it out a bit, so I may be okay. Before I actually divide it, I will give it a little test fit on Alex and decide if I'm going to lengthen it a bit. I have plenty of extra yarn so an inch on the body, about half an inch or so on the chest, and an inch to two inches on the sleeves will not be a problem. Since I'm doing a size 6, this will fit him no matter what, but I'd like for him to get as much wear out of it as possible.

Sock, sock, sock

My socks are nearly done as well. I've finished the gusset decreases and am at three inches past the heel. I can't reemmber offhand where I change to the toe, but stockinette flies by on dpns! I am going to frog part of the toe of sock #1 though. The toe is way too pointy, and I had finished it off with a three-needle bind-off because it was the neatest way I knew how until I found that great video at KH. I should have those done "this weekend", and I should be nearly done the body of Alex's sweater if I don't work on anything else over the next two days.

Today's Quiz...

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

It's not the weekend yet!

Well, I've gone and done it... the second time in less than a month that I've broken my rule about not accepting extra shifts. The last time I did it, I actually survived, and didn't curse myself! For some reason, everything seems to go to total crap when I go in for extra hours. My manager asked me Saturday night if I could come in Monday night. She knows that Mondays aren't good for me... try *HORRIBLE!!!*... but could I come in to help out getting the store ready for the HO {home office} visit? I cringed as I thought about how I was going to get enough rest to function, and agreed to do it. Hey, that's about enough for half a month's Shaw bill, and that paycheque will be in around the same time all the bills come. My manager has actually been something akin to humanesque lately, so it might not be *all* bad after all.

The weekend -- Socks and fish.

I still haven't taken a pic of Derek wearing his socks yet. He's tickled pink with them, but this weekend {for everyone else!} was a total write-off for me. Alex and Lissa were "playing" with Dory while I was napping on Friday -- they were supposed to be napping too -- and everything seemed to go downhill from there! Good news though. Dory seems to be recovering quite well from his near-death experience. He's one tough fish!

Fishy... why are you sleeping???

Which brings me to a sad bit of news that happened over the KO, and I never got around to posting it... Derek's betta, Nus, is sadly no longer with us. He'd been acting kinda strange for a little while, and Derek found him floating one day when he came home from work. I could tell that Derek was upset, but I didn't push him to get another fish right away. This ends {continues?} in a good way though. It took about a week or so before he decided that he wanted another one. We went to Fish Gallery, and Derek was fascinated with all the various fish there. I could tell then that he didn't want another betta, but something more active. Unfortunately, they didn't have any clown loaches, but he found a handful of barbs {albino tiger, green cory, and tiger} that really caught his eye. That purchase ended up snowballing {this seems to be a trend when it comes to Derek!!!}, and we went off to Petcetera and got him a proper aquarium setup so that his tank would have a filtration system as well. Several neons followed us home that day. A week later, Derek decided that Charlie {the green cory} was getting bothered too much by Cheeto {the albino tiger}, and off we went to Fish Gallery again to find some other tankmates to join in the fun. Four more fish came home from there {can't recall the species}, and we got 6 more neons from Petcetera. Derek couldn't be happier with the setup now. He has a blast watching the fish chase and nip at each other. With all of his comments about how he doesn't like boring fish, I can tell that even though he misses Nus, that he's so much happier now with what he has.

Today's Quiz...

You Are Lightning

Beautiful yet dangerous People will stop and watch you when you appear Even though you're capable of random violence You are best known for: your power Your dominant state: performing

What Type of Weather Are You?

First FO of March!!

Well *nearly* FO. I'm just doing up the ends on Derek's second sock. I *had* gotten the toe all grafted and such, and was working on the ends when I decided to compare it to the first sock. I nearly died when I saw that I had worked the toe differently on that one. *DOH* So I carefully took out the end weaving, the grafting, and then frogged back to where I had finished up his first sock. I slid the stitches back onto needles and re-grafted it. I still have a few more ends to do, but those will be done shortly. I'll take a pic of Derek modelling them later, and get it up tonight or tomorrow when I get home from work.

He's been pretty patient all things considered. When I finished the Booger, I had picked up his sock again. He had commented on that, and I had simply replied, "You thought that I wasn't going to finish these ever, did you?" He said that he didn't think that, but you could tell that he was happy that I was working on them again. Now I just need to decide what I'm going to work on next.

Today's Quiz...

You Have a Phlegmatic Temperament

Mild mannered and laid back, you take life at a slow pace. You are very consistent - both in emotions and actions. You tend to absorb set backs easily. You are cool and collected. It is difficult to offend you. You can remain composed and unemotional. You are a great friend and lover. You don't demand much of others. While you are quiet, you have a subtle wit that your friends know well. At your worst, you are lazy and unwilling to work at anything. You often get stuck in a rut, without aspirations or dreams. You can get too dependent on others, setting yourself up for abandonment.

What Temperment Are You?

Gotta love Winterpeg...

... emphasis on the *winter* part of it, of course! Here it is, the first flippin' day in March, and we've got a freakin' blizzard out there! I still ventured out to my SnB, but next time the weather is like this, I'm INSISTING that Derek drive me. My little car was *not* happy on those sloppy, slippery roads. It was fun there, as usual. I'm beginning to really look forward to these meets... to the point that I'm thinking of booking off the first Wednesday of every month from work so that I can go. I got lots of "oohs" and "ahs" over the Booger. One of the ladies there had asked me as I was getting my tea if I had brought it with me. I simply replied, "of course I did... you ladies would have tossed me out on my ear if I hadn't!" When I brought it out of my bag, everyone was complimenting me on how cute it turned out. Those that were at last Tuesday's meet were properly shocked at how small it had turned out compared to the behemoth I showed off there. I would have finished off Derek's second sock there, but I didn't trust myself to do the toe decreases right while chatting away, so I put that away and pulled out Alex's pullover -- which I promptly goofed up the ribbing on and had to rip back about half a round! I didn't bring my Skacel sweater to seam like I had originally planned since it wouldn't fit into the little breifcase tote I had. With all the snow and slush out there, I didn't want to use my Payless Show bag.

Well I'm off to decrease and graft a sock... if I can get the ends done tonight too, Derek will have new socks to wear at work tomorrow!!!

Today's Quiz...

Your Observation Skills Get An A

Hardly anything gets by you... You have a great memory and eagle eyes

How Observant Are You?

Note from Nicole: Not too bad considering a couple of the questions are *definitely* American!