Gripe, pain, relief

Gripe - Working to finish the hoodie for Erin and it's eeeennnnndddddlllleeeesssssss. Sleeve Island? Wish I was there. I'm stuck in Seaming Hell. Remind me to take a picture tonight, won't you? The hood's attached, the sleeves set in and I only have to seam the underarms and sides. And weave in the myriad of ends.

OK, that doesn't sound bad. But add in Erin's constant "Are you going to finish this before the weekend? When will it be finished? Are you almost done?" and I just want to wrap a #8 circular around her neck.

Pain - Aunt Flo has arrived for a visit and with each passing year, she gets crankier. So during this latest visit, I'll be relying on my good friend Ty(lenol) to help me through this. And if Ty bails on me, I'm moving on to Mike('s Hard Lemonade).

Relief - Not mine. Theirs. Join in the fun of knitting (or crocheting!) for a good cause and participate in Dulaan 2006.

GRYFFINDOR! You scored 4% Slytherin, 28% Ravenclaw, 56% Gryffindor, and 36% Hufflepuff!

You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart. Gryffindors are known for their courage, audacity, and devotion to what is good and honest.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 0% on Slytherin You scored higher than 57% on Ravenclaw You scored higher than 48% on Gryffindor You scored higher than 63% on Hufflepuff

Link: The Sorting Hat Test written by leeannslytherin on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Shout out from the G-Dogg*

Lots of things have happened since I last posted and there are pictures so sit down awhile.

Last Wednesday, La Harlot was in Portland and I spent a very enjoyable evening listening to her speak, chatting with other knitters, and working on Erin's hoodie.


Here, Stephanie is preparing to blog about Powells. You can actually see me in one of the pictures in her entry about her Portland visit - In the second photo of the knitters gathered to hear her, I'm in the second row wearing the short-sleeved turquoise shirt with the silver camera blogging her right back.

She was witty, charming and delightfully Canadian in her speech. But standing in her Birks and holding her coffee? She looked like a native.

Rob and I babysat this weekend - Kruz and Khylie came for a sleepover. Saturday afternoon, Rob's brother and his wife came over and brought their grandson Aiden. Aiden and Khylie are pretty much the same age (nearly 3) and I happened to have a great craft - foam crowns decorated with foam stickers. No damage, lots o' fun.




I've been knitting pretty hard on the hoodie. 2 sleeves and the back are complete and I cast on for the front. It would be a boring photo, so I didn't bother yet.

Sunday after Khylie and Kruz went home, all was blissfully quiet in the YarnPig house. Rob was watching TV, Erin & her boyfriend were in her room playing a video game (door wide open and just down the hall!) and I was napping on the couch. The animals were snoozing. Or so we thought.

Tribble had discovered a Rite-Aid bag I'd left on our bed and decided to investigate. But did she enter the bag through the top opening? No, that would be too simple. Why do that when you could go through the handle and get the whole bag stuck around your middle?

She completely freaked out and came flying out of our room like the proverbial bat outta hell. She laid rubber doing a complete circuit around the couch that had Rob & I at first concerned at the cause and then amused when we realized what she'd done to herself. She then tore off down the hall and turned into the spare room across from Erin's door. Erin and Jason then watched her dash into the room and through the window where she proceeded to run down the street. By the time we'd all stopped giggling and realized what had happened, she was nowhere to be found. And don't worry, we live in a single-story.

We searched for about 30 minutes, warned the neighbors about a small white cat with a bag attached to it and started back into the house. Somehow, though, Tribble had managed to circle back and was hiding in the blackberry bushes next to the neighbor's house. Erin rescued her and the offending bag was cut off, but Miss T was one pissed off kitty for the next few hours.

But what we wouldn't give to have had a kitty cam attached to her for that leap through the window.

*Sis 2 of 2 renamed everyone on her phone and G-Dogg is my new name.

Where boys of all ages can find reason to smile

Lots of pictures ahead!

The first is of Kruz - he's now 4 months old and weighing in at 17 lbs, 11 oz. Big boy! Happy baby! And the auntie gets to babysit this weekend for an overnight - yippee!



This next picture is from Stitch N Pitch at the Mariner's game last Thursday.




I don't particularly care for the picture - I think Rob could have taken a more flattering photo, but he was willing to sit among 1600 knitters to watch the game, so I really shouldn't complain. Much.

It was a lot of fun and I did buy a pattern for socks from one of the many vendors. Doesn't sound like much, but I could have easily spent a lot of money. There were some really cute kits offered in Mariner colors.

The next day after the game, we went up to Mulnomah Falls to hike to the top.



There's a bridge across the lower portion that's easy to get to - a couple of switchbacks and you're there. Getting to the top? Pain in the butt! It was 1.2 miles straight UP and switchback hell. Erin took off and reached the top first. Rob tried to stay with me, but I wasn't moving fast and the not knowing just how many switchbacks I had to endure was killing me. I told Kim (little sis) that it had reminded me of the training run up to Terwilliger when we were training for the Marathon.

But look at this guy -


You can't tell, but he's really happy. He'd been wanting to do this for a long time and he's finally done it. And for a little while I was happy that he was happy. Until my knee started to hurt on the journey down and I twisted my ankle. Feh.

Vertical hiking? Never again.

All the news that fit to print

What's happening in my life . . .

Finished the 3 sweaters for niece Samantha's doll, Princess Ballerina.



One hoodie in a light purplish-blue, 1 peach gansey and 1 lilac lace tunic. Sam said she wanted knit clothes for her doll rather than herself for her birthday this year. I'll probably go on a hunt for pants or skirts to coordinate or buy material and make them myself. Gotta use the sewing machine at least once a year, ya know.

Trying to make sure I get a backup trained at work so I can take time off for Ryan's Stitch 'N' Pitch event. (Thanks, Ryan for the link!) Go M's! Rob, Erin, Rebecca, Katherine have agreed to go with me, but I think only Rebecca and I are truly excited about the yarn.

Lisa asked on her blog earlier this week how many projects did we, as knitters, typically work on at the same time. I had to take stock and here's the new lineup:
- Branching Out scarf in yellow silk/wool blend
- Baby blanket in KnitPicks Crayon (blue)
- Hoodie for Erin in Bernat Denim
- Buffalo Plaid blanket in red & black Red Heart for Sean
- Socks in KnitPicks Daffodil colorway

And waiting in the wings:
- The Shoalwater shawl
- Paws to Remember scarf
- Socks in KnitPicks Spring Prairie colorway
- Socks in Cascade 220 oatmeal colored

As for books, I like others in the knitting blogosphere am in process of reading Harry Potter. But I'm also reading Madame Secretary (still!), started Galileo's Daugher and have Life of Pi in the wings. This Tuesday, Jasper Fforde will be at Powell's so I'm going to try to get to that and the week after it gets better.

The Harlot will be in Portland.

Birthday greetings from Vancouver!

Today I'm 36 years old. I'm not 29 for the 8th time. I'm celebrating 36 years of life.

Not bad. And neither is this:



Gifts from the Hubby. Knitter's Stash which already has me planning a few things (Yes, Kim, at least one project for me), Life of Pi which looks to be a very good read and the first season of Friends (I happen to have a couple of other seasons but somehow missed getting Season 1).

After dinner (turkey burgers made by Rob), he went off to the store and I watched Tour de France footage, 30 Days and Clean Sweep (rerun and deleted from TiVo quite quickly).

We went for a 30-minute walk and I came in to blog about the birthday. It's going to be a quick one because I have this waiting for me:



Yum!

Make yourself comfortable, it's been awhile

Picture heavy post ahead!

Mom left on June 29th for San Diego. The weekend prior, Sis 1 of 2 came down with her girls. We decided to have a July birthday party for Mom (3rd), me (6th) and Samantha (29th).

We had cake, wore crowns had fun.


Everyone left on Tuesday, and Wednesday night our water heater threw up. We'd hoped to be able to deal with it on the weekend, but no way. Rob & I stayed home on Thursday and tried to clean up the mess. You can see that we had to remove some of the sheet rock. Luckily, the linoleum extended under the carpet in our closet and we just have to deal with cleaning it.

But we did get a new water heater out of it and gained a little plumbing experience. Gotta find the upside right?

Arrgh! Ewww! Ahhh!

And an upside is also that I finally sent my Dulaan knits. I sent the 3 hats, 2 vests, 1 sweater and 1 scarf shown here. The scarf was a started by niece Samantha who did the first 5 or 6 inches and I finished it for her. I also managed to get another couple of hats banged out one evening.

Rob got them sent out for me and my procrastination cost us, but it's worth it.

and

So now what to do? I've got a hoodie to make for Erin from the new FCEK (the only pattern in there that caught my eye), socks for 3 people, a lace scarf for a friend using the Paws to Remember pattern from FiberTrends, the Shoalwater shawl also from FT, a baby blanket in blue Crayon from Knitpicks, a couple of doll sweaters for Samantha and find something to make for myself. I'm thinking socks at this point.

The weight loss is going slowly but positively. I'm down 10 pounds, but I need to add some walking. I'm so lazy that I just want to knit, I don't want to give up time to other things. But if I don't then I'm hurting myself in the long run.

Short term weight goal: Hit my 10% by Labor Day. Only 9 more pounds to go.

3 years, 20 days and counting down

Erin's wrapping up her first year of high school soon. Last official day is 6/22 and she's looking forward to doing nothing. Well, not exactly nothing since she'll be working for her mom and stepdad 3 days a week. Then it's just 3 more years before she's out for either college or the military.

Mom's just 20 days from leaving for San Diego. It's been nice having her around, but I've gotta say, I'm looking forward to her leaving. And yes, I've said as much to her. It's just that I'll be able to reclaim a bedroom and find places for everything again.

Last night we turned the TV off and read for awhile. It was peaceful and snug with the cats and the dog lounging around with us. Erin was working on the computer and Mom was in her room. It was a small glimpse into what our lives will be like in 3 years, 20 days and counting.

I've been knitting for Dulaan finally. I've completed 3 hats, 1 vest and a sweater. I'm going to cast on for a couple more vests and then go buy the supplies for the blankets and put a couple in there. I also have a scarf to put in the box. 6-year-old Samantha knit the first few inches on the scarf and I'm finishing it up for her. She wanted to be able to contribute in some way and this worked.

Mom's offered to ship the box for me so I'll have to get cracking and finish these in the next 12 working days (gotta do it before she leaves!)

I'll post pics as soon as I get up off of my lazy bum to take them.

Past, Present, Future: My life in three acts

The past is on my mind today as I watch the news leading up to the 25th anniversary of the eruption of Mt.St.Helens. I'd gone to church with my friend Leslie's family and we could see the plume of ash as we drove home. We lived outside Battle Ground at the time and a short trek through the woods behind our home brought us to the edge of a neighboring field where we could watch the dark grey clouds billow over the mountain.

I remember wearing a mask over my nose and mouth to walk down to catch the school bus, the ash that built up on the cars and the concerns about what the ash might do to the engines. When the Toutle River highway opened up again, we drove down it and saw the twisted wreckage of bridges, buried cars and houses and wondered at the destructive force of nature.

Now when she belches smoke, I can see it from the 3rd floor of my office building in Gresham. I can see it rise over Prune Hill in Camas and reassure my colleagues who weren't here 25 years ago, that nope, that was nowhere near as big as 1980. And no, Mt.St.Helens isn't the one to worry about. If we take a look to the right, there's Mt. Hood a heckuva lot closer to us. It's only 26 miles from work to the foothills! Focus, people!

Anyhoo, in my present, I've finally completed the KnitPicks blanket.

I don't know what book the pattern came out of but their Crayon yarn is wonderful. While I got annoyed with my apparent inability to follow a pattern correctly the first 2 times, I was still enjoying the yarn by the end. I enjoyed the project enough to ask for the blanket back once they've finished taking pictures for their upcoming catalog. Nice people, good yarn. Can't wait for the next project in June.

And my knitting future? It's Dulaan, baby! (just had a flashback to Austin Powers and his attack on Basil's mother "that's not a woman, it's a man, baby!")

So far this week, I've completed 2 of Norma's pinwheel hats in Encore and Wool-Ease and I've got another headed to the needles. I've also got some bulky yarn I'll use for the pattern from the Harlot.

A brief break to FINALLY finish Mom's Berry Freeze vest today and then back to the charity knitting.

All the above is little stuff. Here's my past, present and future:


Happy Anniversary, honey. Here's to another 7 years.

Go Me!

I am my own cheerleader.

Well, not really. I'm more dance team or pep band than cheerleader. Although, I'll cop to watching cheer competitions on ESPN (oooh, they dropped her! THAT's gonna leave a mark)

Anyhoo, I weighed in yesterday and I'm down again. Yee haw! I'm now at 190 and have dropped 7.6 lbs over 3 weeks. Makes me feel better since I didn't feel like I'd done well staying on plan. But apparently 3rd time's a charm and it's starting to sink in.

If I keep going at this rate, I'll reach my 10% goal by, hmmm, today's the 5th, my goal is 19, add my age, subtract the number of times I've done WW and divide the pie to share and let's see, the 2nd week of June? That would beat my time goal of end of July to lose 20 lbs.

Not too shabby.

I dream of Gina with short brown hair

Lookie! Finally got my hair cut after a couple of years.


It was nice to get it cut off. Yeah, I've had the cut before and didn't really go in for anything different, but I thought it would be a nice start. I can go shorter in another couple of months and shoot for a different style then.

I've also been going to WeightWatchers with Rebecca. So far I've lost 4.6 pounds, so not too bad. The goal is to lose 5 a month since that's nice and safe. That should also get me to my 10% goal by the end of July. I'm happy to have Rebecca and Karen to hold me accountable. Otherwise, I'd be blowing the whole weight issue off.

Brother brought by the new nephew, Kruz. Here's Nanny holding her new grandson while on the phone with Grandpa.


He's already grown so much! He's over a month old now and a total sweetie. And Sis, here's evidence that Art's actually taking an active role in his care.


Yeah, I've been knitting on the KP blanket, but I've got nothing I want to show. I only have 9 more days to finish it and turn it in. AAAGHHHHH!

But other than that, I'm OK.

I need to start me a band

My Aliases

Your movie star name: Zingers Ray

Your fashion designer name is Regina Rome

Your socialite name is Beana Portland

Your fly girl / guy name is R Woo

Your detective name is Cat Battle Ground

Your barfly name is Chips Ahoy Cape Cod

Your soap opera name is Elaine 176th Street

Your rock star name is Butterfingers Cheetah

Your star wars name is Regsmu Woojas

Your punk rock band name is The Overwhelmed UFO

The Amazing Meganame Generator

New leaf

I've decided to go back on W*ightW*tch*rs. I've been creeping back up to my all-time high and I don't want to go there again. Lucky for me, Rebecca is willing to do it with me too. We've decided to attend the meetings rather than do the online thing.

Now, I lost 25 lbs 3 years ago doing the online version, but I need more motivation this time around. More accountability too. So here it is. On Tuesday, April 12 I weighed in at 197.6, and started counting points on Wednesday.

Keep an eye on me, OK? I'm taking on two jobs and only getting paid for 1, I just paid taxes to Uncle Sam and I'm HUNGRY.

How many activity points can you get with knitting?

Saturday in the Park

Clock tower at Esther Short Park

Last Saturday there was a walk and a health fair down at Esther Short Park. Mom was manning the booth for Walk About magazine and I showed up at noon to keep her company.

Here's Mom standing below the clock tower. Water runs down the sides, not quite a waterfall, but definitely a water feature. There are sculptures of salmon at the base as if they are going to jump up the clock's watery sides.

But was Mom feeling a little hungry? Or having a private moment with one of the salmon?

At noon the tower has doors that swing open and a story is told about the Indians that fished the Columbia River for the salmon. I'd never been down there for that before and it was pretty interesting to watch everyone stop and listen.

Like a knife to my heart

My poor car!

So I'm walking out to my car this morning, planning my day. Get to work early, run the reports, work the issues, leave early since Rebecca's coming over for Craft Night.

Ran into a small problem though. It didn't look like I'd be able to tell what speed I was going. Someone apparently needed my gauges more than I did. After checking if anything else was missing, taking pictures and trying the Sheriff's office, I took a few minutes to cry.

This car, my lovely 1993 Honda Civic, was the first car I'd ever purchased. I've been the only owner and we have shared over 209,000 miles together. We have been violated.

At least they were nice and left the screws behind.

Breezy with the start of the KP blanket

What Book Are You?

You're Catch-22!

by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you
see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense
of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an
ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You
could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of
people.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.