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.