Hiccup

So my daily wakeup call from the VIP came just a little further east than Philadelphia. Anyone care to hazard a guess just how far east? No guesses? Okay I'll tell you. Dublin. As in Dublin, Ireland. My 6:30am is 1:30pm over there. He got communication from his cousins two days ago that his uncle is failing. Bizarre, don't you think? My uncle and now his uncle. So he packed his bag and found a flight and got flagged by TSA for extra-special security checks. The flight was scheduled to leave at 8:45pm, but actually left at 12:22am. I know this because I tracked his flight through the US Airways website. When I went to bed he was still in the air, and he rang me this morning on the train from Dublin to Limerick. "It's so incredibly green here, not at all like Utah/Idaho!" *blink* "So take lots of pictures and get me lots of postcards so I can see too." I'll post some photos when he sends them to me, that way we can all enjoy them. And just so you know, I am *really* repenting letting my passport expire.

Things To Do At Convergys When It's Dead

(With apologies to Mr Warren Zevon)

1 -- Knit. That's obvious. What is currently on my needles? Well, it's SSK (Super Secret Knitting). Other stuff is a Miner's Blanket Project square, sock yarn I've dyed, sock yarn I've won, as well as various and sundry UFO's that are *still* haunting me. "Aawooooo".

2 -- Read the news.

3 -- Read and comment on lots of blogs. (Not linking, you can click on anything on the lists at the right.)

4 -- Listen to podcasts. I stick one iPod earphone in my ear, underneath my headset. When a call comes in, I pause the podcast and take care of the customer. If I got caught, my @$$ would be grass, but oh well.

5 -- Make lists.
A -- Stuff I need to pack for my trip.
B -- Phone calls I need to make.
C -- Errands I need to run.
D -- Things to do in Denver when I'm dead. (Just kidding. I meant to say things to do in Philly when I'm there.)
It's pretty much interminable.

6 -- Write blog posts.

~~ETA~~
7 -- Chat with Marti on the secret g-chat!

8 -- Enter Coke Rewards numbers to get cool free stuff.

9 -- Play Bejeweled.

Still Here

So I went to my niece's wedding this weekend down in Salt Lake City. She is actually my cousin's daughter, not my sibling's daughter, but in our family we don't freak out about correct nomenclature. It was a lovely reception, even though I got lost driving to it. I was able to see all my cousins and their spouses, and my aunt's brothers were there as well. I had gone to IKEA first and gotten some more chocolate, which I was afraid would melt. But the reception treats were ice cream sundaes courtesy of Leatherby's which is a local ice cream parlor chain. I was able to borrow room in the ice cream freezer and so my chocolate stayed nice and un-melted.

Afterwards, I went back to my uncle's house, to eat some supper and see him. I told him we all missed having him there. He really would have loved being there. It was a beautiful venue, and there were lots of people to talk to, not to mention ice cream! I also told him my VIP sent his greetings. As I reached down to give him a hug, he asked me: "Why can't I just die? Why am I still here? I just want to go." What do you say to that? I told him that maybe somebody is coming to see him, but I honestly don't know. I reminded him that his father, his brother, and his son are all waiting to escort him when it's time to go. I am going to miss him so much, but for his sake I want him to go soon.

My brother in Idaho Falls apparently has asked my mom a couple of times if he should come see our uncle, but my mom is kinda not able to make decisions right now and she didn't give him an answer. So I called him up yesterday morning and told him if he could manage it, to make a quick trip and go down. I hope he does, but it's all right if he can't. I've no idea if my mother's other daughter has bothered to show up or call. Since she just lives in Layton, you'd think she would. My brother in Brigham City has gone twice, and so have I.

So basically I am just waiting for The Phone Call. We will go about business as usual, with Harvest War and DD's birthday this weekend, as well as a nephew's baptism. And then my trip to Philly is the next weekend. We have so much planned to do, including dinner with my youngest brother in the Theatre District. I haven't seen him since February, and I miss him.

Next post won't be so sad, I promise.

On Going Home

See this handsome guy? That's my Uncle Richard. The other people are my DD and his wife Mary. Photo taken two years ago at my brother's wedding. Why am I posting this? Because my dear uncle is about to be Called Home. DD and I drove down to Salt Lake City yesterday. We literally drove up to the house at the exact same minute as my mother in her car, and my father and grandmother in his car. My other uncle passed away 18 months ago, while everyone was at my great-aunt's funeral in Oregon. My poor grandmother really hasn't quite recovered from that, and here she is, about to lose her oldest son.

If you're at all spiritual or religious, please include our family in your prayers and good thoughts. This man saved my life when I was a child. He has always been so happy, kind, generous, and loving. I have so many stories to tell.

Thinking of Others Today

Go give Alicia some love. She had to put her sweet dog down on Wednesday.

And please go look at what Flo is proposing. Knitters (especially those with Utah connections) let's make some blankets for our miners' families.

~~ETA~~
Go here for an update on Flo's blanket squares, including more details and an address to send them to. C'mon Utah knitters, let's represent.

What I Did Yesterday

Any guesses?
How about now? For all my love of pink, most of what I dyed yesterday is shades of blue/teal. But that's because I had six skeins of nasty-coloured mustard-yellow worsted-weight yarn. Three different dye-lots, so I am not exactly sure what I am going to do with them. I did immersion-bath dyeing, using Jacquard's Brilliant Blue. I am not unhappy with the result, but I wish it had dyed a bit more evenly. The ball is 4 ounces of natural wool, dyed with the injection method. I had a small bit of chartreuse, a bit larger amount of lilac, and a lot of turquoise. It is still wet, sitting out in the sunshine trying to dry. I will probably make Moebius scarves with this, and edge them with purple mohair, to use it up. The bottom row is what I am most proud of, though. From the top: 50 g of Univeral Pace, originally yellow, overdyed with Jacquard's Pink. Turned more orange than salmon, but I may re-dye it at a later date. Next is 100 g of Opal Zebra. Immersion-dyed in the same pot as the Pace. I do like pink and black. Then we have two 50 g balls of Paton's Kroy sock yarn. I used Jacquard's Pink, Lilac, and Brilliant Blue. The next hank is 100 g of KnitPicks Bare. I used only the Pink and the Brilliant Blue, and overlapped them in the middle. After that is another 100 g hank of Knitpicks using Lilac, Brilliant Blue, and Chartreuse. What a violent green it produced! Below that is two 50 g hanks of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool, using the Lilac and Pink again. And at the bottom is two 50 g balls of Sirdar Snuggle Baby Bamboo, in Brilliant Blue and Chartreuse. It's only 20% wool so it took the dye much differently. But I do like it! I won't be giving Scout a run for her money anytime soon, but I can see why she likes to do it.

Memories

La Petite's post today is so sweet. The French translates basically "You excite me more than a 20-year-old girl." I think. VIP?

What A Difference A Year Makes

MCM has been gone a year. The first 10 1/2 months were so incredibly hard, but the last six or seven weeks have been a complete 180* change. I still miss him, I will always miss him. But I don't cry anymore (well hardly, anyway).
So the VIP came to visit. It was wonderful. Now if you'll notice my ticker, I've got a month to go before I see him again. He brought me some wonderful fibery presents, some of which have already been sampled. I got four 50g balls of Soxx Appeal yarn, in three different colourways. One colour there is two balls of, because it is green, and he wants socks out of it. I've already completed one pair of short socks for me. This pair took me a whole week, instead of just three days. The Soxx Appeal yarn only has 3% nylon and 1% elastic, but it is a highly-twisted yarn, so it has a long of sproing. It took me twice as long to knit with, because I was worried about keeping my tension loose. But I really like the resulting socks. Row gauge is off a bit, so keep that in mind if you decide you'd like to try some.

He also got me two balls of Opal Tiger. Two balls will make three pairs of socks! I am going to have to be a bit creative here. And he also brought me eight ounces of Romney/Columbia roving, dyed bright pink. I wound one hank of it into a bump yesterday, and began spinning with it. It is so nice and greasy, it feels wonderful.

And so here is the FO gallery:

Obviously the first pair is Trekking 100. I love this yarn. I think I am going to try to collect as many dyelots of this as I can. Who wants to help me? The second pair is Cat Bordhi's Coriolis Sock from Knitty Gritty. I totally FUBAR'd it up, but it's not too bad for a first attempt. They fit fine, and they are very warm. Instead of using the Austermann Step like she did, I bought two skeins of Brown Sheep sock yarn in two different colours. I really like how they turned out, plus I still have yarn left over for some short socks. The third pair is my Soxx Appeal short socks. You can see that they are quite short. I ended up with two feet of yarn left over. That's a bit too close for comfort, in my opinion. But I will definitely knit with it again, although I will probably go up to a size 3mm needle. The last pair is Fortissima Disco. Although this is very pretty yarn, I didn't like knitting with it. The metallic strand made it not as stretchy as wool yarn usually is. These socks actually went into time-out twice: once while I did the Trekking 100, and again when I did the Soxx Appeal.

So hopefully all these photos will appease you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have about a hundred errands to run today. I need to drop a bag of stuff off to the DI, fetch my meds, print some photos, go to the LYS . . . . . stuff like that.

Too @#$% Hot

I've got FO's to show off, as well as presents. But it is just too freaking hot to go outside and take photos. How I wish my fridge had an icemaker. How I wish my house didn't have a west-facing living-room window.

But, I am grateful that I have a lovely house, with a fridge. (Just in case Someone thinks I'm not grateful.)

Short of showering with my clothes on (which I have done, BTW) how can I keep cool?

~ETA~
I found this short movie about Crown Fountain. I'm going to think cool thoughts.

My SCA Name

I will be registering the following as my official SCA name shortly:

Duchess Tola the Charitable of Wimblish upon Frognaze.

The VIP has been named: Emperor VIP the Idle of New Invention.

Find your Peculiar Aristocratic Title here.

Blasphemy

I do not like Jaywalkers. There, I said it. I love the yarn I used for them, which was Austermann Step, and it was a minor miracle that they match exactly. But I did not enjoy knitting them nor do I like how they fit. To be fair, I will probably try them one more time, but not decrease quite so much during the gusset because I cannot for the life of me figure out why she has you decrease to fewer stitches than what you started with. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate some enlightenment. So fighting with the Jaywalkers is why it took me so long to post. Mleah!
However, I do have a few projects that I finished and enjoyed and here they are. I tried a short-row stockinette heel for the very first time. It was excruciating to work through the pattern instructions, but I made it and here is the proof. The yarn is Online Supersocke and I like it very much. My LYS doesn't have very interesting colourways of it, but I know they exist. The hat is for the DD. She chose the yarn from my stash (yay!) and designed it, and I knit it to her specifications. It is Plymouth Encore in black and off-white, basic stockinette cap. At the end, instead of drawing the yarn through the remaining loops to finish it off, I did a few inches of i-cord. DD made a pompom to go on the end, and she proudly wore it all day every day for the rest of the week. It looks incredibly cute on her and I am proud to say that I made it and she actually wears it! The short socks are made from the Regia that I bought while on my trip in Chicago. I really really love this yarn. And my new KnitPicks size true 2 needles had arrived in time for me to use them and I have found my favourite needles. I did the short-row heel again and I think it looks a bit better. I know it was easier.

And now for something completely different! Look at this wonderful yarn. My friend Val dyed and spun it and was showing it off at Fibre Night last week. Of course since it has so much pink in it, I was admiring it muchly. And she gave it to me! She is not in love with pink as much as I am, and knew that I would give it a good home. I love this yarn! Here is her post about it, you'll need to scroll down a bit because it happens to be a biggish one. She doesn't think it's spun tightly enough for socks, but I think I will try it anyway. I will get some reinforcing nylon for the heels and toes and just see what happens.

And see my ticker? It is slowly but surely counting down the days until the VIP arrives. We are both extremely excited about this event. He went looking for a LYS the other day, and found Woolbearers. He says he is bringing me a bag of squishy goodness so that's another reason to be excited!












And in case you were thinking that I was going to completely ignore the Huge Event of the week, rest assured that I am not. I pre-ordered my copy and showed up at my local Borders store about 1:15pm yesterday to get my purchase wristband. I was #123 in the silver (second) group so I only had to actually wait about 45 minutes after midnight to get my copy. I came home and read the last 2 chapters and went to bed. Now I can rest, and actually enjoy reading the whole thing. And I won't watch a movie unless I am with someone who has seen it and will tell me how it ends. Yes I am very well aware of my extreme weirdness.

More Tomorrow, Let This Tide You Over

Go read this.

So sweet, it made me cry!

Inspirational

Knitting Iris's most recent post has inspired this.

When DD was born, I was newly-divorced and living with my parents in a house that they rented. We were happy there for almost two years, and then an old college friend invited me to move to Tulsa and tend her daughter for the summer and possibly think about staying. We went, but we didn't stay. When we came back, the people who owned the house my parents were in, sold it. And the house that they found wasn't big enough for us to re-join them. So we found a basement apartment in the same neighbourhood and moved in. I loved that house. It had the Most Hideous carpeting and paneling, but it was warm in the winter and not too hot in the summer. The basement portion was actually older than the upstairs portion as it had originally been a basement house. The upstairs had been added about 20 years later. Of course, when the Teton Dam burst in 1976, it was filled to the top with water and mud. Some of the original beautiful oak paneling was damaged and unsalvageable, and it was replaced with far inferior stuff. It was fairly dark, what with the chocolate-brown carpet and all, but I still loved that house. We were there for six years and would probably still be there, except . . . . .

We were asked to vacate because the landlords had a grandson who had just gotten married and he wanted to live in my house. So we moved. I was (and still am) so sad about that. I have to pass that house every time I go to my folks' place and I still cry, even though it was five years ago that we left. Eventually the landlords bought a house a couple of blocks away, and have turned the whole property over to the grandson. It has gone very far downhill and it is so sad.

But about the photo: I worked at the fabric counter at WalMart and I got that lace there. I had enough to make curtains for both sets of windows in my bedroom. Being a basement house, the windows were quite short so I was able to make the most of the small amount of fabric I had. I liked the fact that it was quite a thick pattern, and although it let light in, you really couldn't see into the house. I would lay on my bed and read, with the curtains wafting in the breeze and watching the light play across the fabric. And one day, I just grabbed the camera and popped off two shots. This is the better of the two, although they are both nice. I took it on real film, not digital, and when I first got my scanner, this is one of the first images I scanned.

Happy 4th!

To celebrate the day, I present to you my first completed pairs of socks for Summer of Socks.









I am not officially enrolled in Summer of Socks, I am just playing along from the sidelines. At first I thought I wanted to see how many socks I could knit in the time period, but now I've decided to use the time to explore new sock techniques and patterns. Obviously I had to get my Stars and Stripes socks done first, so that I could wear them tonight at the barbecue and fireworks our SCA group is doing. But the second pair I learned how to do short-row heels (Cat Bordhi's version) and while I'm not sure if I'm in love with the technique, at least now I know how to do it. It's quite amazing how that pair happens to match nearly exactly, which was totally accidental. For my third pair, I am doing the ubiquitous Jaywalkers. I have never done a patterned sock yet, and this one is fairly easy. If you click on Cara's banner enough times, eventually you'll get to her photo of her pile of Jaywalkers. And I need to post two other pairs that I finished before my trip to Chicago. The short ones are for my doctor, they knit up super fast. The long ones are mine and I got the yarn from my LYS and it is totally bizarre how one pooled like crazy and the other striped up like it's supposed to. Weird.

~~ETA~~
Confidential to VIP:
Pooling happens of its own accord, you cannot really do much to encourage or discourage it. The next pair of socks I have on deck for you are plain green, with yarn I bought in Chicago. And why would I want to knit a sweatband? Are you going for the Mark Knopfler look?

They Walk (Ride) Among Us

Lookie, Logan made the news!

Letting Go

That was the hardest thing I think I have ever done. It feels as though a previously unknown knife has been removed from my heart. But now I can go on and do the things that I need to do, and not need to dwell on the pain.

I had a wonderful time though. I met his friends and they were so good to me. We spent a day in the city, and I took loads of photos and had a great time. Some of my trip is already becoming a blur, so I'll do my best to get it all right.

It all started with my harrowing drive to the Salt Lake airport. Traffic was heavy, and I had drunk too much diet Coke so I kept having to stop. I was afraid of not having enough time to get through security, so I left my house at 6am for a 10:45am flight. I made it, it was all fine. I got to Chicago, and was told to call a phone number to meet my ride. It was a white stretch limo! In the spirit of Stephanie, I took a picture of the sock enjoying the limo ride. It took about 45 minutes or so to reach the suburb of Aurora, where I stayed. His friend MMC (not to be confused with him, as he is MCM) and her sister PC were my lovely hostesses. PC has two very sweet children (LilBoy and LilGurl) and they pretty much accompanied us wherever we went. MMC is the BEST auntie I have ever met in my life. When she built her house, she included bedrooms for these two lil ones, and her garage was stuffed full of their outside toys. I hope I can be like her when I grow up.

We went out to a local Italian place for dinner. I had fried calamari for the first time in my life. I think if you didn't know the difference, you would think you were just eating onion rings. I'm not sure I'd like it prepared any other way though.

The next day was June 14, his birthday. MMC worked half the day, so PC took me with her to run her errands. She dropped me off at Fringe where I browsed for awhile. After the huge brouhaha over at Alison's blog a couple of weeks ago, I am going to be very careful about what I say. The staff was very nice, I didn't feel ignored or hovered over. They have a lovely selection of books and yarn and accessories. There is a huge table where you can sit and browse a book, or knit, or chat. If you buy yarn that is in a hank, they will wind it into a cake for you (I asked). However, there wasn't a very big selection of sock yarn, and all their other yarns were arranged by colour. It makes for a very beautiful and striking display, but it is very difficult to find what you want. I bought 100 gr of dark green sock yarn to make a second pair of socks for the VIP, as well as a house-brand needle gauge.

MMC met us for lunch at a soup/sandwich place in the mall, and then she and I went on to the cemetery. She stopped at a grocery store so I could get some flowers to bring. I chose some pink gerbera daisies, and some green fluffy things that are kind of like chrysanthemums. I liked them, and the colour went well with the salmon pink daisies. After I laid them out, I added my LiveStrong wristband. I know it all won't stay forever, but I feel better now.

To cheer us up, we went to Trader Joe's. I bought chocolate. Lots of it. It is very good, and if any of my readers have a Trader Joe's nearby and wish to supply me with chocolate, we can definitely work something out.

The next day was Friday, and our adventure in the city! We started out by walking to the shores of Lake Michigan, then we went to the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park. The kids splashed in the reflecting pool and I enjoyed watching the faces change on the glass towers. Then we walked over to the Cloud Gate sculpture, which is more affectionately known as "The Bean". I absolutely LOVE this thing. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it. If I lived there, I would go all the time. I would play in the fountains, too. Then we caught a cab and went over to Navy Pier. I made sure I got my pressed penny and my caramel corn from the Popcorn Palace. I am not a huge popcorn fan, but I could eat loads of this stuff every day. I am going to have to see about mail-order because it is so yummy! There is a lot to see at Navy Pier, but as we had the two lil ones with us, we didn't want to drag it out too much. So we grabbed another cab and hopped over to the American Girl Place. MMC collects dolls, and LilGurl has a birthday in a couple of weeks. My DD has never expressed interest in American Girl stuff, so I didn't get her anything there. Of course, now I am sure she will tell me she just LOVES it all and why didn't I get her anything there??? Mleah. And across the way from there is a Hershey's store. I bought chocolate. And then we walked. It seems like we walked for miles and miles, but I'll bet it was actually less than one mile. By chance we decided to have dinner at a place right across the street from the AMA building, where he worked. That was hard for a couple of minutes, but I was able to put it aside and enjoy the company. A friend joined us for dinner, and it was good to get to know her. Then we walked a whole lot more, across the Chicago River, past the Chicago Theater, and back to the parking garage. It was a long day, but so much fun. I want to go back and do it all over again!

Saturday dawned, and I slept in, resting my aching bones. The kids and MMC were up and playing in the water in the backyard. It was a really low-key day, which was very nice. That afternoon, PC came by and she took me into Downers Grove to Knitche. Now that is a way cute shop. Again, the staff were friendly and helpful, but not hovering. They had a nice selection of Lorna's Laces and Cherry Tree Hill, but as for the "regular" sock yarn, only Opal and Regia. I was a bit disappointed about that, and bought just 50 gr of Regia. But if I lived there, I would definitely shop there. Then we took the long way home, and I asked her to stop at Target so I could grab a couple of necessities. Like chocolate.

That evening, MCM's former long-time girlfriend RK came by. I would just like to say that I admire her so much. I didn't feel weird or anything, she made me feel so comfortable. The more we chatted, the more I liked her. I am so glad I had the opportunity to meet her. We ordered Chicago-style pizza, and while it was yummy, I find I prefer the thin crust rather than the deep-dish. But I am glad that I tried it.

Sunday was church. Being of Irish heritage, my hostesses are very definitely Catholic! I requested to attend church with them, and I had a lovely time. The church is HUGE! You could hold Stake Conference in there and not need any overflow rooms at all. There are beautiful stained-glass windows all around, which I was informed had been reclaimed from a church in the city that had been demolished. As I love to sing, I was hoping I would be able to follow along with the hymns. To my surprise, the opening hymn was "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" but with different words. I really miss that hymn, as it's not in our current hymnbook. And then there was a lovely sermon, and a darling little girl had her first communion. The closing hymn was set to that old familiar Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts". Afterwards, I asked MMC to take me to greet the pianist. He was amazing, and his playing really set the tone for the meeting.

I had a wonderful trip, and I am so glad that I went. My greatest thanks to MMC and PC, and RK. I don't know if I will ever get back to Chicago, but I enjoyed my time there. For some reason, MMC wound up with all of MCM's family photos. She allowed me to paw through the boxes (out of six boxes, I only had stamina to go through two) and I chose a few photos to keep. I'd love to have more, but just going through those two boxes took so much psychic energy.

Here are some photos. Clickety Biggety!

On My Way

Doing my last-minute packing and cleaning. I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights, so I've been coming home from work and crashing for an hour or three. I had a scary experience last night, and I know that's why I wasn't able to sleep. As for the other days, I'm not sure. I finished two more pairs of socks, including the ones for my doctor. Yesterday I cast on for another pair, and finished the first one this morning at work. These are just shortie socks, but I am feeling a great sense of accomplishment because I am using leftovers from other socks to make them. My KnitPicks 24" size 1 circulars broke yesterday. Right at the join. I called them today, and she was so incredibly apologetic about it. Is sending out a replacement posthaste. She said they are guaranteed "forever", and I said they are my favourite needles, because they truly are. I love everything about them except the fact that they aren't in stores.

My emotions are running all over the place tonight. Sadness, depression, despondency, despair, mixed with a bit of apathy. My flight leaves at 10:45 am, so I am leaving for the airport at 6am. I have this fear of missing my flight, and of course I can entertain myself by knitting. Maybe I should run up to Beto's and grab something to eat. I don't remember eating today, so it's probably safe to say that I haven't.

See you when I get back from Chi-town!

PS Go read KnittyOtter's post. She said basically how I feel.

FOs and Presents

1, 2 & 3 -- The VIP socks and the Time-Out socks. Note the tons of ends I had to weave in.
4 -- Socks made from the scraps of the two pair of wool/alpaca socks I made last year and loved to death. Note the short-row garter heels. Jury is still out on how I feel about those.
5 -- Above-mentioned socks.
6 -- The blue socks made from the leftovers of what I made MCM's socks from, along with the remainders of a pair my friend made, augmented by some stuff I had in stash. Kind of amazing how they all go together so well.
7 -- Another Moebius. Made from BFL, edged in mohair. I had 2 feet of yarn left over. I like when that happens!
8 -- A present from my friend BT when she accompanied her son to NYC for a concert at Carnegie Hall. She knows I love me the M&Ms!!
9 & 10 --The best birthday present I've gotten in a long time. I don't know its provenance exactly, but as far as I know, it's official and vintage. And if you still had any doubts that I am the YesGirl, all doubt has now been removed! (ETA ~~ The VIP informs me that he got it at Wembley Stadium during the YesSongs tour, right?)

I went down to Ogden last night to fetch the DD so that she could come home and finish cleaning her room. I was invited to swim, and since the water temperature is only up to 77*, the best thing to do is just jump in all at once! We had a lovely supper outside on the deck, and Aggie attached the license plate onto the front of my car. Now maybe I'll quit getting pulled over!

Feeling Uninspired

I haven't photographed any FO's, I'm just going to tell you that straight off. But the pink time-out socks are done, the blue scrappy socks are done (no I never did talk about those, I will when I photograph/post them) and of course the VIP socks are done. I also finished a Moebius, and bought another skein of yarn to start another one. It's not cast-on yet. I'm working on the second sock for my doctor, but there's no hurry because I can't get into see her before my trip to Chicago anyway. I'm halfway done with the foot of the second wool/alpaca sock that I am making with leftovers from the first two pair that I literally loved to death. That stuff is much harder to work with, and so I tend to put it down after five rows or so. My LYSO dyed some sock yarn in preparation for Snake River, and I bought one of those skeins. It's not pink, it's shades of blue and purple. She had one that had pink in it, and I may get it after I finish these socks.

School is out for my DD, so she is spending lots of time with Nana down in Ogden. I took her down on Friday. She will be going to Uprising with them, while I go to Chicago. I miss her, but it's good she wasn't here this weekend. I didn't do a thing. Okay well Saturday I did do a load of laundry, and I picked up a few things. But today I have done nothing but sleep on the couch, watch TV and knit. And eat. I didn't even go to church. I got up and I got ready, but I didn't actually go. I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself I guess. I didn't have anyone yesterday to ring up and say "Let's go do something". If I had been in Idaho, I have half a dozen girlfriends to go do stuff with. And it's obvious nobody in my ward here is the least bit concerned about me. I guess I should be bigger than this, but it's hurtful.

And I'd once again like to express my hatred for Utah law enforcement. I got pulled over twice in 72 hours for not having the front license plate attached to my car. It's not on there because the holes don't match! One was a USU campus cop, and the other was USP. Both out of their jurisdiction, I might add. And yet, there is STILL a meth lab operating next door to me.

Training at work is excruciating. Our trainer is doing her best, and she only learned this stuff a week before she had to teach it. I didn't used to like her at all, in fact I quite hated her. But this week hasn't been so bad. I hope I still like her after this is all over. But the training is too much info trying to be stuffed into our heads far too quickly. I think we get 6 days of training and then we are on the phones. It's an entirely new product, with different packages and prices, depending on what market you're in. And the computer systems are foreign and while they aren't necessarily more difficult, they ARE new and will take time to learn. The Powers That Be seem to think we will be able to hack it, and I want to show them that I can, but this is adding exponentially to my freak-out factor.

I leave for Chicago in 10 days. I've got the addresses of 2 yarn shops I've heard nice things about, and I bought a travel book at Borders last night with my 25% off coupon. I have all kinds of socks to knit on the plane, and I found a suitcase in the storage unit last weekend. I've been looking forward to this trip for months, and now that it's upon me, I'm scared.

So since I slept basically all day, of course I'm not sleepy now. I'm blog-surfing, and knitting, and listening to Stevie Nicks on my desktop iTunes. I've got all the windows open, trying to cool off the house, as it's still 80* upstairs at nearly 11pm.

After getting the storage shed all mucked out, now I need to do my house. First up is to weed through the books I'll never read again, and ship them off to Granny Mindy. I used to date her son, but that was a long time ago. She and Grampy Bob live in the middle of an Ozarks forest (talk about a magical place) and they have very very little. Whenever I weed out my books, I always send them to her. She reads them, she shares them with her friends, then she donates them to her local library so others can enjoy them. If you'd ever like to make someone's day for not much money, let me know and I'll send you her address. I wish I lived closer to her, I love her very much. I should ring her up; she stays up late.

Whoosh!

Has it been nearly two weeks already? Wow how time flies. A quick catch-up is in order then:

My dad got back from Oregon. The funeral was lovely, he brought back a program and I was able to read it. My poor uncle is still devastated, understandably. I've spent the past two weekends up here in Idaho. Last weekend was the Snake River Fiber Fair.
I didn't buy a whole lot of stuff, but I think I'll have fun with what did come home with me. I got 4 oz of a hand-painted roving from Woolly Wonka, two 50 gm balls of Regia sock yarn in a very discontinued colour, and 4 oz of prize-winning alpaca fluffy stuff. Haven't touched any of it yet, but I will! Had a lovely weekend, full of fun and good times. Got back to work Monday morning with the bombshell news that our call center has dropped DirecTV as their client, and is picking up Comcast. So we are all in the middle of a huge shuffle there, and it will take some time to get everything sorted out. Since that went down, we all had a 3 or 4 day weekend, so I came back up here to Idaho to spend some quality time in the storage shed. I went through every single box. Some stuff got consolidated, some got donated, some got tossed, it ALL got re-organized so now it is easy to find and remove when the time comes.

It's my dad's birthday tomorrow, on Memorial Day. We are planning on a barbecue and then I'll head out about 6pm to go back to Logan. I spent some time Friday out at the cemetary, tending my nephews' grave. I don't think my brother goes out there much, if at all. I took away all the trash and the broken decorations and toys, swept it all clean, and brought new decorations and toys. In case any of the family wants to go out and visit this weekend, it is all ready for them. I think tomorrow I'll go back over and take some photos.
In knitting news: The first pink stripy sock has come out of time-out and is finished. The second one is getting its heel flap knitted right now. The Very Special Socks for the VIP are all done. The slog-along continues with various and sundry items each getting a row or two.

In health news: I've been switched to Prozac, and I like it. I'm not napping as much, and I'm sleeping well at night. I seem to have mental energy to get things done (like cleaning out the storage shed) and things don't seem to be weighing down my mind as much. Yay for modern medicine!

Have a lovely Memorial Day and Happy Summer!