Leaking Brain Day

I read other blogs that have random posts and thought - what a good idea. Some days there are so many things bouncing around my brain I can't come up with a topic. Today is that kind of day. I haven't posted for a bit but really have nothing to post so today is -open up the gate and let the random stuff leak out.

1. I've had the week off and have done virtually nothing productive. Sure, I loaded up the car with donation stuff and drove over to the Bible for Missions store; and I finished my flying saucer socks; and I caught up on sleep and down time; and I got quite a bit done on a sweater; and I got a lot done on my pi shawl; and the laundry is being done as I type and the kitchen was cleaned but - when you think about it - that's a small list compared to the time I have had to do things in. I usually end up doing a lot less than I plan on. It's just the way life is.

2. You can make a meal with virtually nothing in the house. Last night I had noodles, canned diced tomatoes and the usually spices, etc in the cupboard. I made a pretty pretty sauce by adding cupboard stuff to the tomatoes and cooking them down for an hour. Problem is- I have to go shopping today or starve. That's really nothing in the house. Really. The refrigerator has a few cans of pop, condiments, and one bagel. The freezer - one egg muffin; package of corn; and ice. That's it. Really. And I like to cook. I just hate to go grocery shopping.

3. A friend has been having a lot of problems getting her Husqvarna sewing machine fixing (Hi, Toni). This whole story has really bothered me because I was a dealer when I had my shop. I never had a customer wait as long as she has for parts and then have the machine not work properly. I had a great repairman and parts were in within a week - not a month or longer like her took. Toni lives in a totally different state and I am no longer a dealer so I am not able to help her but the story makes me very sad.

4. There are somethings that are so totally unexpected that they give you the giggles that turn into a belly aching laugh - that's a good thing. Last night on Mythbusters Jamie and Adam were testing how far a sneeze will go. They had to make themselves sneeze "on command" and then have the resulting sneeze particles show up and be able to measure the distance. Their method was to use snuff and just before a sneeze came to get some food coloring in their mouths. The result was colored sneezes and leftover color on their faces and in Adam's case, on his mustache. I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time. Chief and Bert both came in the room to see what was wrong with me and I had Chief so worried he kept meowing and pacing until I managed to stop crying and laughing. If you want a good laugh check out this Youtube video of the show. The colored sneeze starts about 7 minutes in. But- go to the bathroom first; it's that funny!

5. I mention above there's been knitting this week. I have been bouncing between projects each with a different needle size and different technique. This keeps the fingers from getting tired and the mind from wandering too far. Right now I've got a lace pi shawl; garter stitch sweater; simple sock; a knit version of Rust Goes Green bag; Tree of Life afghan; then when I have nothing else going on I'm still working on my sock yarn, mitered, haven't decided what it's going to be project. I tell people it's going to be a shawl but - who knows. People have been donating their sock yarn to the cause and right now I think I have enough for a huge shawl or an afghan or???? We'll see.

6. Bubble Spinner is a huge time suck. I noticed a friend was playing it on Facebook and thought I'd give it a try. BAD MOVE! It's one of those games where you have a cannon to shoot different colored balls and try to hit 3 or more to make them drop off the group. The normal group is colored balls coming down from the sky but this one has the group in a circle in the middle and when you hit the circle it spins around based on where you hit it. I've been playing - just one more game - a lot this week. The link above is for the game at deadwhale.com you can try it there or on facebook if you belong. But be warned - it's very adictive!

Where's Step 2?

I'm in a midwinter funk. I get all these great ideas for knitting projects or cleaning the house projects or (insert pie-in-the-sky idea here) and I don't seem to be able to get to step 2.

Step 1 - come up with great ideas
Step 2 - plan great idea

Then of course there's the other steps including getting supplies, starting, continuing, finishing. but you first have to get past step 2.

Current great ideas that have not gone anywhere -
1. Using some of my machine knitting methods to create new hand knitting techniques
2. Make new nightshirt (long t-shirt) to replace the one I'm wearing that is in total tatters because it's at least 15 years old and I've worn it WAY too long.
3. Organize studio area of basement to be able to actually use it as a studio.
4. Design stranded work cardigan to use Kuani rainbow that I bought last year.
5. Finish bathroom remodel (lights, paint, etc).
The list goes on.

In the mean time I have continues to work on the cable sweater; I've made a few sock yarn mitered squares that will eventually be - something; I've purchased cat food (you gotta take whatever goals you can some days!); and I've done the dishes. Guess I'll just have to be happy with an progress I make until I get out of the winter funk.

Tomorrow I do have to pretend to be a happy camper because I have an interview for a promotion. Don't get too excited the position doesn't exist yet, they're just interviewing in case it opens up. Sounds like a fun day (yeah, sure...).

New Knitting Group

What happened?!?
I've been a little busy to read all the bogs I have listed in bloglines and I just noticed after having read several to catch up I still have 178 to read. Have I been that busy? No. What happened?

My last post was Wednesday. Since then I've done the usual work, sleep,etc. - been to a new knitting group, celebrated a friend's birthday, sorted through more of my parents stored stuff, and knit. Obviously what I didn't do is read blogs. I'll work on that later....

The new knit group is the NW Twin Cities Burbs Knit group started on Ravelry. We met at Grace Church in Brooklyn Park for the first time last Thursday. we'll meet the first Thursday of every month so if anyone is interested - let me know and I'll get you more information or - if you're on Ravelry - check out the group. We had 8 people. Not bad for a first time. Others will be joining us starting next month. We got together about 6pm till 9pm. Some came a bit late, some had to leave early but all had fun.

Friday night my gang knit night did not come together again. That's now a month since we've been able to meet because of multiple life events getting in the way. On the positive side one friend is fully hooked on knitting. She's made several doll blankets, scarves and is working on a pair of slippers. I'll be bringing her to the Yarn Harlot Thursday night to fully get her sucked into this obsession.

Saturday we celebrated a friends birthday by gathering at a restaurant with her family and some friends. Afterward over to her house for cake and great conversation. Afterward I worked on a tam I started Thursday night. I had some Vimar 1991 yarn from Italy. I got it had Needlework Unlimited Outlet and have never heard of it before. It is a loose twist, single ply wool with a bit of other stuff. I made the Urban Necessity Beret from Knitty.com It's blocking right now so I'll get up a picture later this week.

Twin Cities readers take note: Next weekend is free recycling of electronics, mercury items, etc. Go to Kare11.com and you'll get a list of what you can recycle and where.

Enjoy your week and be sure to take time to knit and enjoy the coming of spring, if spring is coming to your area. Northern Minnesota - sorry you got so much more snow but I'm glad it's not here in the Twin Cities.

OH! I can't let an entire post go without mentioning the boys! Chief and Bert are being very quiet and have spent most of the day sleeping. Rain makes for good sleeping weather. Nothing exciting to take picture of unless you want to see yet another pictures of sleeping cats.....

Busy Week - remodeling me

As you can tell from the last post, this has been a strange week. My parents ended up taking a great deal of time. Mom needed much reassuring this week that she indeed lives in "that" apartment and has lived there for 1 1/2 years and that she doesn't drive any more, my Uncle will get her to church on Sunday (not today because today is Wednesday), and several other things. She's finally calmed down and back into her routine. I think this all started because we went out to dinner Easter Sunday and that broke her normal routine, which in turn broke her comfortable thinking patterns. I don't take Mom & Dad out to eat too much anymore because of this. She's always over confused the next week.

Dad on the other hand has a small enough world in his head that he just accepts whatever happens to him now. His thing this week was shopping. He has gained enough weight from the good cooking where he lives to need new clothes. His razor quit working, his socks have disappeared and more. I ended up spending 2 evening hunting up supplies for him and I'll bring them over today once I have them labeled.

All this left little time for knitting but I did manage to keep up with my friends on the She Knits forum over on Ravelry. I also got part of the Sensational Shirttail sweater sewed up. I'll finish it this weekend and post pictures.

There's a new knitting group starting on the north end of town - the NW Burbs. We'll be knitting for the first time Thursday, April 3rd in the evening at a church in Brooklyn Park on Hwy 169. If you're interested let me know and I'll get you hooked up with the organizers.

My friends have not been able to get together for a few Fridays. I come home, clear off the clutter that happened over the past week and wait. Then the phone rings and the first person says they can't come because....... then the next and the next. Sometimes they don't call, just don't show up. They all want to get together but life is just so busy right now it's hard. My cousin's husband had triple bypass surgery Easter week so she's busy dealing with that (he's okay and recovering well), one friend is in the middle of busy time at work with Friday's being especially hard, another friend is having a big party today (I'll be there) to celebrate her husbands weight loss to date (over 100 lbs!), and of course I've been busy with the parents. It's amazing, life is either a big yawn or frantic busy.

Speaking of losing weight (we were sort of- friend's husband weight loss..) my friend, Jan that was up here Palm Sunday weekend from Alabama and I decided to do some remodeling. I had recently bought my exercise bike and Bob Greene's "Get With the Program!" book with the idea of reading the book and making some very needed changes. As we talked over the weekend Jan said things about wanting to lose weight, improve her life, etc. So we decided to go through the book together. We've been emailing each other daily about this. The program is set up in 4 phases. Phase 1 is getting ready and evaluating yourself - why do I over eat, procrastinate, etc. There are 12 written exercises to do. We've been doing one exercise a day and sending the results to each other. This time feels like it will work because I have someone to do this with but - she's not right here to "nag".

Well, that's about it. I need to mark all the new things for Dad with his name and get over to his place, then work on the sweater until it's time for my friend's party. I'll post pics once the sweater is done. Until then enjoy your weekend! Chief and Bert say HI!

Got Turkey?

The past week has been one for the books. I have some things going on that require some big life decisions. Being a single person means no hubby to talk to. Being the daughter of 2 severely memory challenged parents means no parents to talk to. My brother and I are not terribly close (3-4 days a year visit and some emails and occasional 5 minute phone calls). That leaves my friends. Some things I don't want to bother them with because - well - everyone has their own problems and I don't want to dump more on them. So- here I sit discussing big life issues with Chief and Bert. Good listeners. Not good at giving advice. I'll eventually decide to talk to one of my friends or I'll figure things out on my own but it's times like these that get a little lonely.

Enough sad stuff. On to other things - I've been knitting on the Regia socks and the second one is almost 1/2 done. I've been good at using my exercise bike. I decided this week would be "get to know the bike" week so I've only done 15-30 minutes a day and will start with my training next week.

Pet Turkey!?!
I dropped off my preemie hats to Jeanne's place of work. When I pulled into the lot I noticed a stuffed turkey by the building. Why on God's green earth would a company have a stuffed turkey in the front. That is absolutely the most insane thing I've seen at a company. Give me a break! One problem- once I got out of my car I notice the stuffed turkey moved. They did not have a stuffed turkey, they had a real life big turkey hanging out by the building "sunning" himself. I asked Jeanne about it and she said he kind of moved in after they started building a new section to the building and displaced his former home.

Yarn Tasting
This Friday (Feb 8) noon to 10pm is Yarn Tasting at Amazing Threads. They have lots of goodies (35% off yarn-needle sales,etc) according to the emails I've been getting. They also have many national writers and workshops set up for the next couple months. If you live in the Twin Cities or near them, you should check out their web site for schedules and updates.

My goals for the rest of the week are to finish the Regia sock, work on SIL's neverending Maizy socks and make it through the boring stuff like work so I can go to Amazing Threads Friday night before my friends come over for Friday Night Knit group. This weekend I'll deal with life decisions (after all- tomorrow IS another day).

Life is Calling

This week flew by. Between cleaning up after Christmas, shoveling snow way too often, and catching up at work I had little time to do anything else. However, it's a new weekend and I have 4 days to recover from the holidays.

Christmas, as I said before, was at my house. I tend to do things a bit more laid back than some people in our family. I make meals that make themselves. We had spiral cut ham, wild rice, the hash brown potatoes that have cheese and sour cream and stuff added to them - you know - food that you don't have to fuss with.
We have the extended family get together which means aunts, uncles and cousins from Mom's side. (Dad's side lives far away) Part of the family comes for the whole day - part for the evening and part varies how long they stay (all day or evening only) based on an algebraic equation I don't understand. I think it has something to do with the phases of the moon divided by the square root of Christmas presents but I'm not sure. Whatever the secret number is - it came out that this year we would be enjoying their company for the whole day. My cousin J is a few months younger than me and more a twin brother than cousin. He's part of the sometimes yes-sometimes no group so I was very happy to have him here. He pitched right in and helped me do dishes, at the end of the night he ran out to shovel the driveway before people left, and throughout the day J and others helped entertain my parents while I got things ready. Dad didn't seem to recognize the house (their old house) but Mom went around creating a revisionist version of things. My picture I got when Dad's Mom died was suddenly one of Mom's old pictures, the needlepoint family crest I made in college was made by Mom - you get the idea. She had a hard time keeping up with reality and kind of moved in and out of thinking the house was still hers even though I was careful to remove anything that used to be hers from view. I just feel so bad for her that the world doesn't make sense anymore while Dad just kind of goes with the flow (can't remember, oh well....) But outside of that it was a wonderful day to enjoy the company of family.

My cousin that currently lives in Arizona during the winter months is also a knitter. She surprised me with a gift of KnitPicks Essential yarn - 2 skeins just enough for a pair of socks. We talked about the new fibers available so of course I had to go grab a few skeins and projects from soy - bamboo - corn and some other fibers for the non-knitters to feel. My one Uncle used to work for a company that made soy oil so the Tofutsies were very interesting to him. Maybe I'll have to hunt up a "calm" colorway in Tofutsie and make him a pair of soy socks.

Brazil is Calling

I have a friend I met when we were both youth delegates to the UN in high school. I was one of the Minnesota kids and she was from Canada. We hit it off and became close friends over the one month trip. We wrote back and forth, visited each other homes and tried to stay in touch with each other. She became a missionary and moved to Indonesia, eventually Brazil, while I stayed in Minnesota. She's home in Canada for a few months leave and called last night to chat. Unfortunately we can't work out our schedules to get together but talking is almost as good. We talked over 1 1/2 hours just as if we had been together the whole time. It's great when you meet someone who is just your type of person. Even if you don't see each other more than every 10 years or so - you're still friends. I've told her about the blog so maybe she'll comment occasionally and the rest of you will get to meet her that way. Joyce is the best. She has been down in Brazil for almost 15 years working with the city kids in the Brasilia area teaching them skills to help create a better life but more importantly teaching them about Jesus and how to create a really better life - now and forever. The world needs more people like Joyce!

Knitting is Calling

I'm starting to ramble with minimal knitting talk going on. So -what have I been knitting? Nothing. I said it was a busy week. I came home after work and fell asleep almost every night this week. I haven't developed the knitting in your sleep skill set yet but I should work on that.
I did give away some knitting Christmas day. My (extended) family doesn't trade gifts anymore but I sent home several people with dish rags.
I have a couple projects I need to finish up this weekend for gifting, the 3-1 fire socks are still in progress (very slowly!), the green soft shoulder sweater has the front completed, but that's about it.

The Dentist is Calling

I was so good Christmas and only had 1 cookie. Did you read that - ONE! So I treated myself to a cherry bar a couple days ago and after talking a bite I realized the back of my mouth felt different- half my tooth was gone. No pain, just a big hole where tooth should be. So - this morning was a trip to the dentist who I haven't seen for so long they put me on the inactive list. Over the next few weeks I'll get a crown for that tooth and set up an appointment for cleaning. This has become my New Year resolution (which I usually don't make) I decided to make this year about me, at least health wise. I will get myself back on track with doctors and dentists and other people I should be seeing regularly to keep myself healthy. I spent the past 1 1/2 years going to many doctors but always for Mom & Dad. I need to be a bit more selfish - at least when it comes to finding time to go to the doctor.

The Koala is Calling

I'd love to show you the little koala my Bro and SIL gave me for Christmas but it was in my possession for about 2 minutes. Bert saw it and knocked it to the floor where upon Chief came over to investigate and when I looked a minute later - it was gone! I have looked in every kitty hiding place I can think of - the kitty cottage, the jungle gym, the tunnel, under the sofa, in their toy box, the koala is nowhere to be seen! If anyone sees him, tell him to come home and I'll find a safe place for him to live.

If I don't post again for Tuesday - Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

Writing - good and bad

Pictures - I got nothin'

I have spent the past 2 weeks going to different sites our company has people at and writing down all the stuff they do at the site - good and bad - and giving them scores to be certified or not. Does the staff answer the phone in 3 rings? Are they friendly? Is the Site Procedure Guide complete, to to date? Does the mail cart work properly? It's been rather boring and I got to the point where I was confusing one site for another. But 2 more days of this and I should be done. We have to have all the sites certified by the end of the month. When that's done - I hope to have time to get out to several of them and help rewrite procedure guides that are wussy.

I tend to write procedures that someone who never saw the site could use to complete necessary tasks. That's the way I used to write my machine knitting patterns. I'd turn on the tape recorder and say everything I did. Then, I'd take that recording and turn it into a pattern. It's amazing how many things we do automatically without even realizing it. In a pattern you make write M1 stitch but - what type of make one did you use? The different types will affect the look of the finished product and some times the wrong way will make the garment turn out wrong.

Total change of topic. There's a story on the news tonight about an 8 month old boy in our area. It's a story of child abuse. He had to have part of his skull removed because of baby sitter abuse and a swollen brain. The pictures of him now - he is missing half his skull so half his head is caved in. It's a frightening story, it's frightening pictures.

Bert's been coming in here asking for attention. He knows how to say "mama" in a very whiny voice and it's pretty bizarre. Some day I may manage to have recorder close by so I can get it on tape. Of course, no one else have ever heard this because he is my mythical kitty that no one has ever seen in person. Many of my friends doubt he really exists. Any noise in the driveway will make him disappear faster than chocolate at a knit-in!