Knitting Blue (content, not color!)

The Voices In My Head:

2010-10-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

I *love* talk radio. Not the 'talking head' FOX, Rush Limbaugh, Coast to Coast, kind of talk radio though. My love covers funny talk radio.

It started with Mark & Brian on KLOS back in, ohhh, about 1983/84 and carried over to the nationally syndicated Don & Mike Show around 1993-ish. I've been to events and appearances for both and at one time loved them equally but for different reasons.

My nickname for my husband - "The Mike" - originates from The Don & Mike show. Since roughly 2001 I've been a moderator (the first female one at that) for a fansite called Radio Gods Forum. Three of the four show members are named Mike/Michael in real life and I had to figure out a way to talk about MY Mike without confusing all the other members of the website.

Long story short - the Don & Mike Show ceased to exist and then talk radio overall imploded in today's post-Janet Jackson Nipplegate fallout. The talk radio I have loved for so long fell apart and general terrestrial radio meant nothing to me.

I had long ago given up on music radio. The same 5 songs on a station, played in heavy rotation, based on what marketing said should be played . . . No thank you. Even if you picked a different type of station, it was the same story, only a different set of another 5 songs geared to that station's marketing.

Big corporations were getting gobbled up by bigger corporations, and all the corporations had nothing to do with music except it being just another arm of their larger media conglomerate.

CBS
Citadel
Westwood One
BlahBlahBlah
I Could Go On, but
Again, No Thank You

Even Howard Stern. He was probably the biggest name in 'comedy talk radio' a few years ago, and his jump to satellite radio was considered a huge shakeup to the status quo. Huge. But really? In reality he is now just another Name Brand for a large media conglomerate. Don't get me wrong - he absolutely was a pioneer in his day and he most definitely was a major cause of change in the talk radio genre. What most people don't realize though is that he wasn't the first and he won't be the last. I believe his greatest accomplishment at the end was getting people to entertain, and ultimately accept, the demise of radio as we've known it.

Traditional radio in today's world, as a vehicle for people who are mic pros, is dead and I could not be happier. No longer am I, or you, tied to a set schedule in order to enjoy our radio (or t.v. but I'm a radiophile, not a tellyphile, lol).

A few years ago, before iPods and mp3 players were as commonplace as discarded Starbucks cups, some of us had to resort to underground sources for our talk radio show fix. We'd get home, get online and listen to the bootlegged episodes of live shows. Believe you me, it was better than not listening at all and we were happy as hell with the option.

Fast forward to 2009/2010. It has been the best time ever to be a Talk Radio fan and I don't even turn my radio on. At all. Some of my all-time favorite terrestrial radio shows are now only available in podcast form due to layoffs and corporate restructuring and to those corporate douchebags I thank you so much.

Here now is the rundown of the voices I love having in my head:

Every work day I share my commute with Big Fatty. It takes about 20 minutes to drive into work and there is no one I'd rather have kick-start my day. I've learned to roll up the windows at stops though, because his on-air belches may cause streetlights to sway from the reverberation. I hereby request that Big Fatty be the older brother I never had.

Also every day, now that he's back, I listen to 3+ hours of The Don Geronimo Show, aired on KHTK. I know Don HATES hearing this . . . but . . . it's all that is on. Now that I've had several months to check Don out at his latest gig . . . terrestrial radio, 'natch . . . I will always love what he used to be but I do not get why he cannot find a niche outside of the f.m. or a.m. dial.

On Mondays I listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from the weekend.

Those are my stand-bys, based on their regularity.

Now, in alphabetical order, are all the podcasts I enjoy. Be warned though: some are funny, some are educational, some are knitting-based, some are not safe for work, some are all of the above and some are nothing of the above. I've never been a mainstream gal. I am what I am and I like what I like. Promise you though, I'll give a listen to your list if you make one.

My hope is that someone among you enjoys something I've shared and/or we inspire another person to hit the mic.

Drumroll please:

Big Fatty Online
Big O and Dukes
Blow Hard
California Gold (and the man I hope to become)
CogKNITive Podcast
Don Geronimo Show
Doubleknit
Fiber Beat
Funemployment Radio (a huge favorite)
Jay & Silent Bob Get Old (another big favorite)
Mike O'Meara Show (Best. Comedy. Podcast. Ever. And I mean that wholeheartedly.)
The Nerdist
NPR: Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!
Savvy Girls (best knitting-related podcast out there, hands down)
SModcast
Stitch It (another great knitting podcast)
Stuff You Should Know
Tell 'Em Steve-Dave
We're Mean Because You're Stupid (aka WMBYS)

I listen to 30+ other podcasts but the above list is my hands-down favorite.

Yep. I didn't link the list names. Every single one can be found via iTunes. If you really don't know how to find one of them, leave me a comment. That should be after you've exhausted 10 seconds out of your life doing a Google search after your iTunes search.

Now then. What's on your listening list? I hope you share the voices in your head too.

Tomorrow is my Golden Day:

2010-10-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow . . . well, right now, is my first 'vacation' day from my current job.

While I totally intend to sleep in a bit, there's a good chance I will wake up at first light having forgotten I don't need to spring out of bed - and I'll totally spring out of bed with dread.

That's okay because my next thought will be remembering I don't have to be at Soul Suck, Inc. and I'll burrow back down under my comforter in sheer joy.

Man, I hate that place.

I think my next post will be to share all the various podcasts I enjoy, and maybe a bit of my mixed-up musical taste.

I'd much rather do that then spend the day calculating overpaid douchebags' paychecks!

7 Legal Years

2010-10-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

It was an early celebration, but tonight The Mike and I had our 7th wedding anniversary date night and whooo boy howdy it was really great.

If you follow me on twitter, this will be old news so don't read it if you don't want to get another rehash of my mushy evening, lol.

My boss had recommended The Grill at Avila Beach Golf Resort but I wasn't sold until hubs checked out the menu and gave it his approval. He can be really picky (read 'annoying') about trying new places and things he's not used to (one day I'll tell the story of the first time I took him to Benihana's. It was a fucking nightmare).

The restaurant is very open, with light colored walls and ceiling and tons of uncovered windows. Because we went so early, we had the place to ourselves until just before we left. Score!

Mike had a huge rib-eye steak and fell in love at the first bite. Whew. He was happy and that meant we were off to a good start. I had a stuffed chicken breast but forgot to make sure it was boneless before ordering it. Bones in meat creep me right the fuck out. This one did have a bone but they cut the piece of chicken in such a way that it was only one small bone and I could pretty much avoid it. Another score! My appetizer was their sweet potato french fries and I could not have been more surprised by how absolutely fantastic they were. Salty with a bit of sweet and more mushy on the inside than crispy - just the way I like all my fries and I've only recently dabbled in the world of sweet potatoes anyway. They were truly delicious.

Our view was the little inlet in Avila, where the creek meets the ocean. I've been to that inlet so many times but tonight was my first view from the golf course side. We could even see the Avila pier from our table and it was just as the sun was setting. Romantic, no?

The place was a bit pricey for us - $86 for two dinners, two iced teas and a cone of french fries, including tip - but as a once-in-a-great-while splurge it was completely worth it. I highly recommend them if you have a special occasion you're willing to open the wallet for. The pay-off is well worth the cost.

My only criticisms, and I am saying them for full disclosure, is 1) our waitress was a bit morose. Not mean or abrupt or lacking in helpfulness. Just . . . sad? Like she had gotten bad news and was making the best of it. Now this could totally be her everyday personality, I don't know. I'm just going to assume that usually she's an upbeat kind of person - but tonight just wasn't that night for some reason. And 2) the service was a bit slow at the beginning. This might be tied to #1 - again I don't know. We were the only people in the entire dining room is all I'm saying. Neither minor complaint was anywhere near a deal-breaker. We both agreed that we are looking forward to our next special occasion meal there.

So. Enough about our fabulous food and the fabulous location!

Next, we headed out of Avila and into the Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort for some soaking time in one of their hot tubs. Is it just me or do you guys all say "Hot Tub Time Machine" in your heads too?

When my real mom died and I had to go through her hoarded shit, she had two brand-new-in-original-plastic-casing gigantic terrycloth bath robes from CostCo. No lie, each one weighs over 15 pounds. Their inaugural use was tonight at Sycamore. We felt so decadent and ritzy, lol. Thanks Mom. We'll call these my 28th birthday present, mm'kay?

Anywho. We showed up for our reservation and bought a bottle of wine for our Hot Tub Time Machine appointment. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to buy a bottle before we got there and I ended up buying a bottle of red something. I hate red wine. Like really hate. It tastes like gasoline to me . . . if I had to guess what gasoline tastes like.

So we headed to the *restroom/changing room, did our restrooming/changing and then hoofed it up the hill to our appointed tub.

I had been looking forward to this part for weeks and it didn't disappoint. I'm sure, like with any dimly-lit place, the magic would have been less in the harsh light of day but I gladly entered with blinders on. It was a 104 degree mineral spring jacuzzi out in the open and yet secluded. Sold! For the price ($25 for two people for an hour) and for the location (15 minutes from our house), we will be going there more often. As a local, it's embarrassing to admit that I hadn't been there (as a paying customer) since Jr. High! And that was 100 years ago!

The good points of Sycamore: 1) Maybe we were lucky or maybe they were slow tonight, but the check-in gal gave us more than an hour. 2) It rained just a bit and made it more fun. 3) They have strategically placed the hot tubs to have full privacy without feeling enclosed. 4) We won't forget how close and affordable this place is. Mike already wants to come back next month. 5) You can totally bring in your own adult beverages without issue but FYI, they have a 'no glass' rule.

The bad points of Sycamore: 1) If you choose to look closely, it is very touristy. Some stuff doesn't work properly and some stuff would not get a local's approval in the light of day. *2) WTF on their bathroom/changing room?? It was a weird cross between a port-a-potty and a plunked-down guest bathroom. Incongruous, right? To top it off, there was a light fixture over the sink but we could NOT locate the switch . . . at dark thirty. That room-thing was so fucking weird that I will inquire about it when we go again.

Tonight was super fun and we laughed our asses off several times. While most people desire deep soul-sucking kisses and intense gazes, The Mike and I really enjoy cracking up together.

He's the funniest, sweetest, kindest and truest friend a person could have. He's also the most selfish, self-absorbed annoying jerk I choose to associate with.

That's being married though. The good, the bad and the funny and I know without a doubt he'd say the exact same thing about me.

7 years of being married and 8 years of being together. Most days it feels like yesterday we said "I Do".

Political Annoyances

2010-10-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

I've been on twitter for a while now, and I started following our current president as soon as I signed up.

Like everyone else wanting change from the Same 'ol Same 'ol that we'd been suffering through, our vote counted and we created a fresh breeze to blow through the White House.

Or so I thought.

But as a person reading the tweets from our current president (but more likely someone appointed to tweet in his name), I am really fucking annoyed.

I voted for this guy to make change.

I voted for him based on his message of change and non-partisanship.

I planned on whole-heartedly supporting that platform.

A platform of Change and Non-Partisanship. That is the message I got the fuck behind.

I'm not a rube. I know it's a tough sell and that most everyone in power within the D.C. beltway is always scrambling to keep their own power/affiliation/elected appointment. This goes for both sides of the aisle. I think the phrase "both-partisan" should be as equally bandied about, since neither side is innocent of the behavior.

Here's the thing though. I didn't vote for Barack Obama because he's a democrat. I voted for him because he made me believe he was about turning this country around. I voted for him because he was selling a plan that would right what George Bush had wronged. Conversely, I wasn't against George Bush because he is a republican. I was (and still am) against George Bush because he was a puppet president. An entitled idiot that allowed other people to profit off a war, and at the same time allowed our country to tank.

And now we're at the point of this post.

I do not want my president (or his proxy) to tweet me about voting democratic. I want my goddamn president to be our president and focus on a picture bigger than partisan votes.

I want him to be Presidential and above the fray. I want him to delegate this piddly election bullshit to his underlings. In my estimation, all he has accomplished by tweeting about "voting party lines" is:

1) His head isn't in being my president. The job I, and some of you, elected him for.

2) He wasn't truthful in his original platform of non-partisanship.

So, in the end, after being privy to his tweets (and how stupid is it that people take to twitter for serious issues?) I'm disillusioned.

I want President Obama to lead my country and not be a first responder/panderer for democratic votes.

At election time, I will pick those I believe in. Some will have an (R) after their name and some will have a (D).

I honestly want OUR President to lead this country as we elected him to do. No more and no less and without ties to future or past puppet masters.

But with this presidency, I think I'm finally learning that us Americans have been duped by smoke and mirrors for years. Bigger names and bigger money are going on behind the scenes. They (Dems & Reps both) make the choice on who we pretend-elect into office, in order for us to have a false sense of say.

Ironic that this was the president I finally and truly believed in yet he's the president I became so disillusioned by.

Non-partisan my ass.

It's Been a While

2010-10-17T00:24:00.000-07:00

As a long-time blog reader of various people, I know that's not the most impressive blog post title . . .

I've been giving a ton of thought to blogging again, and really, if I'm investing that much energy in the Thinking Of, then it's time to make it the Doing Of.

I have a lot on my mind and this was always the place for me to let it all out.

Lemme gather my thoughts and we'll talk again really soon, mm'kay? Just know, this is the place where I'm gonna be the most me, and sometimes (okay, honestly? A lot of times) my stuff is blue.

That'd be content, not color!

Just Say'n What I Need to Say:

2010-02-22T23:43:00.000-08:00

What little I needed to share at work today was just that - very little.

I told my boss that I have to deal with my Mom's death, which means conversations with my BroHam until we figure out what we need to actually finalize.

Then, I told our front desk person, that I love A. Lot. She is our spine, despite our mutual "boss" not understanding that fact.

Anywhoooo. Mom? Still dead. Talked with my brother this morning again and I finally felt heard. He and I agreed that we're on the same page regarding her stuff/crap. She's a Hoarder at heart and with that in mind I'm not into carting her Pile-O-Crap to my residence, regardless of any potential (albeit rare) value.

BroHam is welcome to anything he thinks could have potential resale value.

The only thing I give a Rip about is the chance to get my mitts on my birth certificate. Being adopted in 1975 (ish) and being unadopted in 1983 (ish) has been nothing short of craptacular, in this Post-9/11 era.

Thanks Donna. Thanks Frank & Gail.

And by "Thanks"? I mean "Fuck You Very Much".

Just say'n what I've been thinking and wanting to say for years and years and years.

Shit I can't even talk about yet:

2010-02-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

My biological mother died Friday night.

I've tried to write this blog six times in two days.

Apparently there is shit I didn't know I had not processed yet.

I love my brother, my husband and my BroHam's wife through this craptacular moment.

Good Frigg'n Bye:

2010-01-01T00:46:00.000-08:00

2009, you rocked in many ways, but overall, you sucked.

I am so SO so glad this year is over.

Things are finally looking up in 2010 (oh wait! That's today! HELLO today! I am so happy to see you.)

On the job front, I have a for-sure job (bird in the hand) and an upcoming job interview (two in the bush).

Given the last year, I'm so happy to jump on this bird in the hand. Those two in the bush? We'll see, but I'm not banking on them.

I got a job! I got a job! It's not the best or the most prestigious, but it's a job and that makes me giddy.

Hubs? How he expects to get a real job without looking is beyond me. His plan of action is inaction and that isn't anything I want to take into 2010.

We'll see what 2010 has to bring, overall. I think there will be ups and downs and Ups and Downs but 2010 will NOT end the way 2009 has.

And that's all I have to say about that.

You Win Some & You Lose Some:

2009-10-17T00:00:00.001-07:00

Hello Blog! It's been a hell of a long time, I know.

I could have blogged about when we moved to the 5-Cities. It's fan-freak'n-tastic, where we live. Out in the country (but apparently *too country* because we can't get mainstream renters insurance, due to CA wildfires & subsequent mudslides) - the cats & dog love it, we love it. Sure, there are down-sides like random gunfire (Seriously. What the HELL, people!) and Diablo Nuclear Power Plant sirens scaring our pants right off, but like I said - you win some and you lose some and this place lands squarely in the Win column.

But before that, I could have blogged about moving from the sweetest home I probably ever lived in, given the circumstances at the time. We had moved from the Central Valley, after losing our home to foreclosure. I hated that area so very much that I never tried fighting to keep our residence. No really. Hated. It. As we were losing it, The Mike lucked into finding us a rental back on the Central Coast (my hometown and where we met originally). Initially, I was reluctant but Hubs kept on and on about what a great place this new home was. And it was. That great. For crying out loud, it's a house at the San Luis Country Club. We were over the proverbial moon and we loved it dearly - rent was affordable (remember, both of us were on Unemployment at the time), it was freshly revamped, yet luckily the owner is a fellow bass fisherman and Hubs had an "in". It's that place I blogged (and flickr'd) about several times. Loveloveloved it. Unfortunately, the SLO utilities drove us out.

No really. The rent we pay at this place is $200 more a month, but we save over $500 a month on the costs of gas/electric/trash/water versus SLO.

Thus, the opportunity arose to move here to "the sticks", and we jumped. Jumped high & jumped hard.

It may be smaller in size than our house in the Valley and our place in SLO, but I love it to bits.

Right after we moved here, The Mike got a bona-fide job with a bona-fide plumbing company! Probably should have blogged about that too :chagrin:

His work is hard physical labor. Damn hard. More-so because he'd gotten hired to do commercial plumbing. Ever look at the pipes running through your house? Commercial pipes are easily 3 times larger in diameter and 6 times heavier. Cast iron. It's not a job for the physically or mentally weak. You have to wake up every morning knowing that your day will be nothing but hard physical labor.

He did that, every night before work and every morning before work. Running through his mind the upcoming day's activities. Lugging pipe onto the work truck, being on his knees on concrete while drilling, manhandling cast iron tubes while balancing on a ladder 8 feet (or more) up. Outside of that physical work, while in and of itself is enough to tax a person, he worried about his placing in the company hierarchy. He's the "new guy". Times are slow and times are tough for businesses and business owners - in all venues, but more so in "New Construction". Banks are not giving loans to builders, some local builders have burned local banks and businesses (Hi Mr. Gearhart, Mr. Scum.) and across the board businesses are playing everything close to their vests.

I get that. I've worked in the professional world for over half my life. I've done the taxes, given business advice when asked, had to fire people, hire people, let people go through no fault of their own - fielded audits, Labor Board disputes. I've had employer issues as egregious as employee issues. You name it.

For The Mike today? Laid off. Told work is slow. It is! Work IS slow. The thing that makes me saddest the most? He worked his ass off. Never called in sick, always followed his supervisor's instruction, and never complained about his working environment to anyone he worked with. Ever. Things like coworkers smoking cigarettes in the company vehicle (he doesn't smoke cigarettes but had to breath that air while commuting over an hour each way), never complaining about his coworkers smoking pot on their breaks (Why yes, thank you for asking, power tools and heavy equipment are used on the job frequently!), was ready and willing for any changes in work schedule (which happened regularly), accomplished his 90 day probationary period and breathed a sigh of relief.

Here are our questions though:

1) Why doesn't Knect's Plumbing & Air drug test? If they did, their list of banned employees (from failed drug tests) could be the prime start to culling their workforce without any harm to the good employees, new or not.

2) Following #1,Why not ban any employee that goes to ANY work site, let alone the Cal Poly campus, and leaves a crack pipe & pornography in plain view inside the company work vehicle (double parked for double the Stupid)?.

3) Why lay off an employee that has been nothing but positive for your company - in his work ethic and his appreciation of employment? Someone that can pass a drug test on the spot and endured hard physical labor for the privilege of being employed by a business he believed in.

Chris Knect? Today you made a choice, and with your choice you lost a real asset to your company. Too bad you never knew him.

It Can't Be Real If It Doesn't Happen:

2009-07-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

The news, with their reports of Michael's impending funeral/memorial/whatever, is a double-edged sword.

On one hand, I want to attend anything that will be public at Neverland Ranch. It's like 40 minutes south of me and an opportunity to be with other like-minded fans (and yes, some of the nutjobs, but the same could be said for a KISS concert too). On the other hand, the press keeps giving out wrong information in their hurry to be "first" and "breaking" that it's becoming a joke.

The family is being rather hush-hush on funeral arrangements at this point. Staples Center? Gary, Indiana? Neverland Ranch?

Maybe if there isn't any funeral/memorial/whatever, I can pretend this whole thing never happened. Watching the released footage of his last run-through days before he died, I can easily believe Michael is alive & well and doing just fine. No one with that much talent and ability at 50 can be but a mere 24 to 48 hours away from sudden death.

Right?

Never Can Say "Goodbye"

2009-06-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

This is the start of my "OH MY GOD, I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT" blogging about the second biggest thing to shape my life.

Mr. Michael Joseph Jackson, born August 29, 1958.

I was born October 12, 1968, and am the typical product of my generation . . . except when it comes to music.

Music.

Weirdly, I can't sing. Or dance. Just ask my husband. But music is in me, some way, some how.

Michael, as well as many others, speak to me.

When I was a little kid, I remember being given a Beatles record and hounding my birth mother (yeesh - I must have been about 5?) to play it. Play it again. Play it again and again and again.

To this day, I prefer the Beatles over the Rolling Stones - not because the Rolling Stones are in any way inferior. Blame it on "early influence of a 5 year old" lol. In my mind I "grew up" with the Beatles.

Songs resonate in my soul. They just do.

I remember being a little kid (roughly 8 or 9) and putting the 8-track tape into our (me and my next-oldest sister's/youngest brother's - we had to share that shit back then) 8-track player and hitting the 20 acres we lived on, as it pertained to the various machinery and wilderness we played on. Next to the "Old Barn" was a mobile home we played around and near it was various "in-different-states-of-disrepair" vehicles that we loved - especially the one old ice cream truck.

To this day I hear Chicago, and think back about then.

That whole musical era flashes me back to my "life on the farm" - "Comanche the Brave Horse", "Stand By Your Man", "The Gambler", "Wichita Lineman" Kenny Loggins (because he performed here once, when I was a kid).

Music. It's in me, it's formed me and I love it more than I love a lot of things. The surroundings I hear a song in sculpt my memory of that song and cement that moment.

Case in point: The sound-track of me being "un-adopted" is Lionel Richie's "Can't Slow Down". :shudder: It's the tape my adoptive parents had playing as they drove me from SLO to Santa Barbara (on Christmas Eve and without warning . . . HELLO!) to hand me over to my biological mother.

The Mike loves Lionel Richie and plays his songs all the time. I get that. He loves Lionel with a heart that is pure for the music. Lionel is a musical icon to him. Just not to me.

He has musical icons I can't begin to understand - KISS. George Straight. Janie Frickie (sp?) the list will always go one because he always finds new talent to appreciate - Chris Cornell makes the same sense to him that Manhattan Transfer makes to me.

I'll take "black coffee in bed" and he'd rather "rock & roll all night" but we will always agree that "you and I must make a pact".

Michael Jackson has, and will always, transcend. Me and the Mike just can NOT believe he's gone and no way will we ever say "goodbye" to him.

Don't know what my next post will be, except it will be more memories of Mr. MJJ.

'Member? You 'member!

2009-06-13T00:09:00.000-07:00

Remember when I made the comment about "Female Victim-Vision"?

That thing that Frosts My Already Chapped Hide?

Hand to heart, it just pisses me the fuck off, and it's been going on For. Ever. For freak'n ever.

Tonight, my local knittas got to gabbing about what they do (and don't) watch on the telly box.

One participant was very honest with her views of what television she enjoys and also eschews.

That part there, though, got me typing about what, in the end, is so very wrong with current (HELLO 2009!) tele choices

Again.

Remember that I am 1000% not behind televised "Victim Vision".

Our house has a ton of T.V. available (part of our living arrangement) but I've decided to step away from the siren song. It was hard, since there is so much freak'n garbage on there that I could easily fall into.

I had to realize it's "garbage" when you get down to it.

Now I knit a ton more than usual and enjoy books like I haven't in several years.

My biggest pet-peeve, regarding "that stupid box in our living room" is what I call "Female Victim-Vision". I am so freak'n tired of noticing women in the victim/provocative role.

1) Cut to the female victim: tied up, scantily clad, then enduring physical abuse before being "saved".
2) Cut to woman wearing provocative clothing and subsequently becoming "the victim" - see #1
3) Scene opens with dead woman, scantily clad . . . 'nuff said.

Keep Breathing:

2009-05-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

About 11:15pm-ish, my phone rang (rather late, but not a total shocker).

Mike answered, since he was closest to it. When he read the display - my brother - it became a very wanted call. See, my brother and his wife had just been in town (Central Coast of CA) and were headed back, via highways & bi-ways, to their home in New Mexico.

This was the expected call of "Hey guys! We're home now! Yeah, it's late, but you demanded we call y'all when we arrived safely, so here it is at 11-something pm. Love ya and talk with you soon! We're home!"

But that wasn't this call.

They were involved in a serious accident about 24 hours ago.

He has a "Frankenstein" gash across his forehead (subcutaneous stitches as well as topical) and his wife has a fractured collarbone.

They were in separate vehicles and hit by the same tractor-trailer semi. First her - hit from behind and then completely run over by the cab of the semi. He was hit by the jack-knifed trailer attached. She was ran off the road and he flipped (once or twice - he's not sure).

Again, this was just over 24 hours ago. Roughly 10:30-ish Friday night. He said they were released from the hospital at about 3/4-ish A.M. Saturday morning. She has an arm splint and he has stitches. One of them has an Rx for a muscle relaxant and the other has an Rx for scrip Motrin.

They're now in an Arizona hotel, with no vehicles, scant personal belongings and left to figure it all out on their own.

My heart hurts for them both, and more-so for my brother because I know he wants to "fix" this horribly broken situation and alleviate his wife's suffering - emotionally, physically and . . . and concretely. To make it like it never happened. All the while with a gash on his own head and his own personal experience of the accident.

Immediately after the accident, while still on the side of the road, his first call was to his wife's mother. I cannot even imagine what that must have felt like, for him and for her.

Here's where I blow my stack, and then let go, something that makes me angry as Fuck.

For real, not even kidding pissed. I know it's my adrenaline and protectiveness taking over but swear to fucking God I am so mad.

After Bro & SIL finally got some real sleep, they called her mom (a very sweet woman and she probably had sat by the phone for hours waiting for an update!) and then our sister (local to me on the Central Coast). They had stayed at her house the few days they were in town.

She then called . . . not me. Her OTHER sister . . . then not me. Then *her* parents . . . then not me.

Lemme break it down for you:

Me and my brother are blood relatives.
We were adopted into our sister's family (mom, dad, two sister siblings much older)
I was "unadopted" at 15
Brother was given to foster family just after that
*Her* parents haven't been in our lives for . . . oh . . . almost 20 years?
Other sister has been married and distant for . . . oh . . . about 18 years.

And me - blood fucking sister, through thick & thin in this fucked up family. No call, no voice message, no email, no fucking anything. Not anything.

Should I blame my brother for not calling me first? Yeah. Honestly, I'm a bit taken aback. I've also been in a car accident (or three - HELLO $4.something million dollar lawsuit) and know from disorientation, shock, surprise, anger, whathaveyou.

My husband, having answered the phone tonight and listened to my brother's ordeal first-hand, later kept saying what he knows I feel in my heart but probably wouldn't have said so soon:

"How could she not call?"

How could she not have called?

No matter what though, he's okay and so is his wife. All we want, all of us, is for him and her to get through this horrible ordeal intact.

Breathe.

For him, for her, and for them when they forget to.

What Medium of Expression Speaks to You?

2009-03-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

Let me first say that I'm absolutely no scholar on anything "artistic". At all and period.

I read all sorts of books . . . in many genres, I gaze upon art in all forms, I tap my foot to music and I know what strikes me in knitting architecture. Tagging isn't art to me, and neither is cookie-cutter design, in any form.

My all time favorite forever artist is Larry Bell. A long time ago, I worked for Robert Higashi, CPA and lucked into meeting a few of his wife's art patrons and clientele. My stereotypical Libra soul felt a kinship in minimalist art. Diptychs and triptychs of solid colors in different saturation (but I didn't know that term then) spoke to me.

It's also where I first learned that our country interned Americans of Japanese decent during World War 2. Americans! I don't think I'll ever wrap my head around that fact.

I've learned and experienced so much in 40 years. SO much. Everything has made me who I am today, and today will help shape my tomorrow.

In the end though, music is the one thing I could not give up. We all have our favorites - swing, do-wop, rap (not so much, but I could pick ONE artist!), A cappella, piss-cutter, oakie, arena rock, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, soft rock, hard rock, glam rock, the Motown Sound, Rockabilly, you name it.

Music speaks to my heart and soul. It's no wonder I married a closet singer from such a musical family, lol.

What medium speaks to you, my friend?

Parents By Proxy:

2009-03-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday night y'all. The night of which we've spent the day excitedly anticipating the newest Survivor episode . . . and it didn't air, no thanks to Basketball. BOOOOO on Basketball! I think it was College Basketball, which is even more of an insult. The only way I will ever find basketball interesting is if they paint gridlines on the court, erect goal posts at each end, use a ball made out of pigskin that has pointy ends and call it football. Not a moment sooner.

We lucked into some pork ribs on sale at the grocery store the other day, and knowing our current house-guest and his son love them some meat on the bone (as does The Mike. Me? I have an almost freakish disgust of meat being eaten off bones. The concept is so barbaric I would probably starve to death if that was the only way to gain sustenance. For reals.) we had the big plan of bbq-ing this evening.

As we're starting the grill, our house-guest comes home from work and proceeds to tell The Mike that he's off to stay in a motel in Morro Bay with his girlfriend (who is on her way from Fresno to MB that very moment)and oh yeah . . . his son will be staying the night with us thankyouverymuch.

Here's the deal.

Wanna stay here for a week or three? No problem
Wanna bring your well-behaved and all-around good kid with ya? No problem
Wanna have your kid stay with us overnight while you have "a night" with your gf? No problem
Do not communicate these desires until the last freak'n minute. Big problem

My sneaking suspicion is that he didn't want to give us any wiggle room to say no, which seriously chaps my hide. That's not a real friend, in my book. The Mike though, he'll put up with shit like this even though he isn't impressed either (and I know this because he tells me but no one else, grrrrr).

The bottom line in this latest scenario, for me, is that I feel bad for the kid, J. He's well aware that his dad left him here so said dad can have "time" (wink wink nudge nudge) with the gf. Dad hasn't taken the kid anywhere or done anything with him for the last four days they've been on the Central Coast, but now he's off hanging with someone else. I had a single mom at one point, and maybe this is bringing up my own feelings, projected onto J. He's had a single dad for a long time, and really crappy mom for even longer, so maybe he's more okay with the situation than I am. He's definitely a nicer and less-bratty kid than I was at that age, for sure. 'Course, back then, I didn't have an iPod and a cell phone to keep me occupied . . . just my own inner thoughts and books to escape into, lol.

Lest I make this blog a diary of all my "gloom and doom" musings, here's something I really like:

Knitting.

I love it so very much. It makes me happier than reading books for pleasure and I never thought I'd utter those words. Ever. One of my earliest memories is reading my own book alongside my mom as she read (and who is an avid reader and instilled that love in me). She loved crochet though, and I just can't wrap my head around that craft. Go figure!

You there. Scoot Over and Make Room:

2009-03-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

When plurk came along, I admit I checked it out. There are some really good knitters and popular knitting podcasters on it, so yeah, I spent a tiny bit of time there.

It didn't grab me and keep my attention, so after a few days I pretty much walked away.

Facebook? Nope. Not even close to interested. There isn't anyone from H.S. that I want to find or have find me. I already know what my two best childhood friends have been up to, and I'm pretty up-to-date on my very first love's life since that time. Whatever random stranger from this area is not on my list of "must meet" and really, there's a much better online resource I enjoy.

MySpace? Hell to the No. Last I checked, my age and lifestyle are counter to the usual denizens over there. Think I'm kidding? Meet my niece . . . and her boyfriend. :shudder: Not my thang.

Today, though? Today I climbed right on board the Twitter bus, elbowing my way to a window seat! Not because of my friends Alex, or even CJ! Nope. It's all because of this guy. The man, the myth, the legend, the D.C. regional treasure, Mr. Don Geronimo (Michael Sorce).

I fell in love with the show about 1994-ish. Before I knew my husband, before I knew of this thing called "internet", and well before I ever started knitting. The Don and Mike show is one of my most favorite things in the world, despite it not even being on the air any more. One time, I flew from SLO to DC, stayed in a complete stranger's home and had people in several states all meet up at the station - completely grassroots and one of my treasured memories. On the airwaves, I've listened to his son grow up, him and his wife agree, disagree and laugh together, his heartbreaking talk when Freda suddenly died (and I still tear up just writing that), antics with the other guys on the show, descriptions of his bat cave, the princess phone and his thoughts while viewing television shows. Years and years and years of 4-hours-a-day, 5-days-a-week funny ass shit. There is an entire online community based around the D&M Show (and remember, the "D" in that show left the airways quite a while ago!) and it's where I'm the only female moderator and have been since around 2001. I love the show that much.

Today I found out that he twitters, and so now I'm a bangwagon-jumper-on-er! Oh, you bet'cha I'm following his tweets!

Humanity? Color Me Done:

2009-03-16T22:36:00.000-07:00

The Mike's fishing partner (and a really good friend of ours . . . usually . . .) showed up this last Sunday night. To stay for the week. Not just him, but his teen-aged son. Ayup. Please to be knowing that they live in Porterville. Two-and-a-half-freak'n hours away.

Call me koo-koo-krazy, but wouldn't the average duck either 1) call about a week ahead of time to clear it or 2) at least take 5 minutes somewhere during that 2.5 hour drive to call ahead and clear it.

Y'all know how this story played out, I'm sure. No call until they were a few minutes away.

He shows up, not only with a packed case for him and his kidlet, but gawd-damn pillows to boot. Again, if you have time to put extra pillows in your hooptie, you're thinking about the ending of your journey (our house!) and should take a few minutes to get on the horn and give your "friends" a heads-up. And by "friends" I mean me and The Mike.

Don't get me wrong - we love them to pieces and bits and would never turn them away. Our friend is a pleasure to know and his son is from the same mold.

My only complaint, which starts with them but expands to life in general, is . . . where is the civility any more?

The civility that calls before it shows up?

The civility that uses voice-to-voice instead of text messages?

The civility that says "Thank You" when a food server tops off your beverage.

The civility that makes eye-contact with the person behind the check-out counter.

The civility that hangs up their goddamn cellphone in order to maintain human interaction.

The civility that keeps our middle finger tucked down as we pass the slow driver over in the passing lane.

Really. Just the (used to be) common courtesy we all had instilled in us from our parents.

Maybe I'm turning into that stereotypical old lady that shakes her fist against interlopers on her suburban lawn, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

I'm just so damn done with people who don't appreciate other people's boundaries.

Oh, and our friend that showed up Sunday with his kidlet? He's here working for this week (and many more after)and his son J is "off on break" from Monache (yeah, where we just escaped from) and "would it be okay if he (J) hung out here?".

Ain't no way we're saying no. J is a very good egg and we respect him immensely (yeah, I just wrote that I not only just respect a teenage boy, but that I respect him immensely. So. Get. The. Irony.)

Bottom line is, our very good friend dropped his (and his kid's) visit on us Last Effing Minute. When did that behavior become not only passable, but fucking acceptable?

Brass Tacks:

2009-03-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

I know (I know, I know I know (hides head in shame, trust you me) it's been a Coon's Damn Age since I've talked over at my Blue Content page.

Here's where I talk The Truth, ugly as it may be, and trustyoume, it's fucking ugly.

The economy (lower case) is in the toilet. Everywhere we turn, we're bombarded with Bad Economy, Bad Investment, Bad Investors (Hi Mr. Madoff), bad start-ups, BAD BAD BAD.

Who lost this round? You, me and every small business owner we personally know. Who won this round? I'm thinking every Insurance/Investment/Government Contract Holder tied to big business six ways to Sunday.

That's my Brass Tacks vision at the moment. We (as Americans) have some big damn issues to deal with. Don't think we don't, because we do. We certainly do.

What are you all doing right now?

We'll Call This One a Coincidence, Okay?

2008-12-23T21:49:00.001-08:00

I noticed my eye twitch seems to have corrected itself right around 9:00 am today.

Hmmm.

Interesting . . .

The Mike hit the road about 9:00 am today.

[sarcasm] What an odd coinkydink [/sarcasm]

Once he left, all my gift-knitting tension seemed to have abated and things are going VERY well here at Chez Knitting Blue Content. I think tomorrow's forecast calls for more of the same! :contented sigh:

Tick Tock:

2008-12-23T01:57:00.000-08:00

An eye tick is the first sign that I. Am. Stressed. Out.

The second sign is when my back gives up the ghost and that second sign shows up pretty soon after the first sign.

Please Be to whatever makes this crazy world spin that my back doesn't give out.

I promise that I get it - Too Much.

As I'm ass-deep in Too Much, the only thing I'm noticing that isn't ass-deep in ANYTHING is The Mike.

This may very well be the last holiday I put up with his lazy-assed Ass Self.

More to come while I'm home at Christmas and he's at The Parents for the 39th year in a row . . . opening presents that *I* made while he slept through the last 50 afternoons.

Eye. Still. Twitching.

Change Is Upon Us:

2008-11-04T22:58:00.000-08:00

First off, yes, I voted Obama today and the results tonight have me over the moon.

Here's the thing though. I have no real deep problem with Mr. McCain being our commander-in-chief either. There are some issues I don't think he addresses as well as I would have liked, but I feel that for Mr. Obama as well . . . just to a lesser degree.

Both of them picked running mates I am not for . . . just to a lesser degree with Mr. Biden. Mrs. Palin, quite frankly? I don't think there is one thing she's about that makes sense to me, outside of being supportive of Mr. McCain.

I would have like to have seen Mrs. Clinton on the ticket with Mr. Obama. Maybe that would have been too polarizing for the fence-sitters? I don't know. Political strategists and pundits can answer that better than me.

It just seems that Mr. Obama has *it*. That *thing*. A way of communicating hope and change and of feeling represented that no one else in this election has shown me. That I haven't felt for a good long time.

I feel a sense of peace now, knowing that in a few short months our country will be on the start of correcting its path - back towards prosperity, greatness and hope.

Enough with the fear and despair and oppression. Enough with our rights being snatched away under the guise of "in our best interest". Enough with the last 8 years of tanking this country and not looking out for our best interests.

E damn 'nuff.

Tonight I feel the change we're embarking on, and I want to be a part of it and our country again. Barack does that. He has the *it* and a grace about him that makes me believe in us again.

Plus One Minus One Equals Zero

2008-11-04T13:30:00.000-08:00

Mike and I voted today, and we voted the complete opposite on everything except for Proposition 2 (you can read an overview of it here).

That means we basically cancel the other out with our votes.

Oh well, at least I made it so his vote doesn't count and I'm sure he feels the same way.

Fingers crossed there are less of him out there in our country, and more of me, LOL.

You know I took pictures!

"No on 8" Rally/Picnic in San Luis Obispo

2008-10-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

If you have interest, there will be a rally/picnic to get out the "NO ON PROP 8" word.

Details:

When: This Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 2pm
Where: Mitchell Park in San Luis Obispo (Santa Rosa and Pismo streets)

More information can be found by clicking here.

It's the least I can do to help my fellow Californians in their fight for legal equality.

5 Years Ago Tonight:

2008-10-21T23:14:00.001-07:00

I was a single gal, sleeping my last evening as an unmarried person, both nervous and excited.

The last five years have absolutely flown by and it blows me away.

Tomorrow, we celebrate another milestone anniversary and either commit to one more year or quit.

Something tells me we're both re-committing, although sometimes I wonder if one of us just needs to be committed, period, lol.

HBD To Me:

2008-10-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

I'm a day late, but still. It's my blog and my 40th, so I make the rules, lol!

So much to catch up on and sorry to disappoint, but no pics at the moment.

If y'all remember, I made mention a while ago that I was planning a "Day of Crafting" the weekend of my birthday, and I cyber-invited all my friends (and even someone I haven't met in person but would love the honor of hanging out with *waves to Ellen*).

Between the original idea formulating and this last weekend, Suzanne, Christy and Carolyn all visited one right after the other and it wasn't feasible for them to come right back over again. The only other person I miss terribly since moving - Diana - is going through a hard time and I knew it would be nigh on impossible for her to make it over.

Despite all who were not there, there was a lot of fun had by those that did make it.

My BIL's girlfriend Misti brought the set-up to make one candle, which she did and then gave to me :grin:. I got to turn her on to the BPAL site Ms. Violet is always talking about for her soap-making supplies. Misti also got to listen and participate in a spirited discussion between me and my sister, regarding California's Proposition 8. It was great having Misti see me among "my people" and not as only another member of my husband's (and her boyfriend's) family!

My sister brought a metric ass-load of rubberstamping supplies and I gotta say . . . it was SO. FUN. !!! More on that later.

My photog friend Alex was in attendance and was such a good sport, she made a card and embellished it with some beads and shiny yarn from my enormous stash. She's not crafty, but I think that's only because she's never been exposed to stuff like this. Her grandmother is a knitter though, and she's said she MAY be interested in trying it "one day" . . . y'all know I'm slowly working that addiction, right? :evil laugh: Although Alex is only 20 y.o. she and I have hit it right off. She's really a tough nut to crack and she reminds me of myself at that age in a ton of ways. She also looks ALOT like my 16 year old niece, which is familiar in a way, but kinda freaky in another, lol.

Sheila eventually made it over after a very long day (and week) of work (she works in the government - elections - and this is pretty much her "tax season" and LORDYLORDY I know exactly what that's like!) She didn't have any knitting with her, so she worked on rubberstamping as well.

The afternoon/evening was slow to start and then ramped up quickly - I didn't even get to the dinner part until 8pm, although I made sure to have dessert ready just as people started to show up. It was my day and I gave license to eat dessert first! Due to the hectic-ness (it so too is a word) my time to craft didn't get going until late in the evening. Eventually everyone wandered towards home and my sister stayed over. I continued to play with all the stamping/crafting stuff until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

The next morning, my sister and I continued to play. That woman has, no lie, a stash of rubberstamping stuff six times larger than my stash of yarn! She's been into it for 20 years too, and has done it as a 'business' for several years.

When she finally left around 2pm, I got myself together and picked up Alex so we could head out and take pictures at Montana De Oro.

I did not bill this "Day of Craft" as a birthday party. I just wanted my friends to come together, meet each other, and have a fun time. Mission Accomplished!

Other Little Bits:

I blew Alex away with my "craft room". She was genuinely taken aback by the volume of my stash and my deep love of knitting. She had no idea from the times we've gone on photog excursions and the look on her face was priceless. My friend Rhonda didn't make it, which surprised me, and my sister gave me the best presents! A "starter kit" of rubberstamping and (drumroll please . . . ) a camera tripod. If you could've seen me opening it on Sunday morning. Snoopy Dance and whooping right in my living room. I'm SO stoked about it . Also, Mike is getting me the only present I requested - (and yes, CJ, I absolutely stole this from you!) - low-top CLEAR Converse All-Stars to wear with my colorful hand-knit socks.

How frigg'n cool are THOSE babies?

Now I'm 40 and it doesn't feel a damn different than 27 or 34.

Halloween Options:

2008-10-10T23:39:00.001-07:00

It just dawned on me tonight that Mike and I are ready-made for the perfect Halloween costume.

Don't laugh. Give it a moment . . .

For your consideration, the roles we were destined to play:

I'm the thinner blond one . . .

And a certain someone - after letting their facial hair grow a bit - is the other one . . .

What say you?

I think we could rock a costume contest with this get-up. The Mike just has to remember that he's the SILENT one, lol!

I Like to Die:

2008-10-07T16:19:00.001-07:00

It is so incredibly warm here today. Three months away from the Central Valley summer heat has turned me into a mild-temperatured pussy apparently! That and no air conditioning. SLO doesn't believe in it.

99 degrees today.

CJ, you really picked a great time to visit! The crap overcast weather had just passed, and you got in when it was about perfect.

Today, we're miserable hot.

More to come - once I dry off my sweaty palms and neck!

Crash and Burn, Bass Style:

2008-09-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Do you see them on the list here?

No?

You have to squint and start from the bottom up . . .

Now?

Yeah, 53rd place. What a difference a day *does* make, LOL!

I've come to realize that while he and I can compare our passions, there is a point where we aren't comparable at all.

We both need tools: Multiple rods & reels versus multiple types of needles

We both need inventory: Multiple type yarns versus multiple type lures.

Here's were the difference lies.

I don't "bet" on my passion. I can sit in my living room and be content for hours upon days upon weeks. He on the other hand is not content to take his boat to a local lake and just sit and fish for hours upon days upon weeks. He has to enter competitions and basically bet on the activity. Paying money to "win" a game.

Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods didn't sit in their living rooms dreaming of skill. They got out and practiced, practiced, practiced and practiced some more. Mike wants to only fish for competition and apparently he's not that great at it. I'm guessing this is because of the hours he spends *dreaming* of winning versus the hours he never spends practicing.

The betting is the part I'm really souring on.

Thank you Diana, for the info on the Patron Saint of Fish! It didn't even dawn on me that you'd have the answer, LOL. I just love how there is a saint for everything.

I think I need to get in touch with the Patron Saint of Bettors, or Debtors, or something :eyeroll:

#10 With a Bullet, Baby!:

2008-09-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

Check that out!

Out of 96 teams (2 people to a team) Mike and his partner are in tenth place for the first day.

AWESOME!

Tomorrow is another day, and anything can happen (and what other sports platitudes can I throw in there, LOL!) Another team can snag a 10lb slob right off the bat tomorrow morning and change everything. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

Everyone practiced Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and Mike didn't catch one fish those first two days, and caught just a few yesterday.

All that matters is today and tomorrow though.

Which one is the patron saint of fish? I need to talk to that guy, LOL!

I'm really happy for his results today - because he's just over the moon about it.

Pictures when my camera gets back, and news as it happens.

And Thus it Starts:

2008-09-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

After the visit with my sis last Wednesday, we made a date for her to come over this Wednesday and we'd work on my craft room.

Then I remembered that The Mike was going to be out of town and I have zero interest in doing anything responsible (outside of the care of my pets, of course!) while he's gone so I changed the plans to me going over to her house so she could show me some of my manual camera's features and settings.

Fast forward to our date day today. She already called crying about how she doesn't 'feel well'. No. Literally. Crying. Tears. Sniffles. The whole waterworks show.

I told her it was entirely up to her if she wants company or not, as I have absolutely no agenda besides goofing around with my camera. I wasn't planning some big excursion - just futzing around her house and seeing the family as they got home during the afternoon.

I'm going over in a few, against my better judgement.

I JUST KNEW IT. One week. That's all she could last before dragging out her well-worn blanket of Mystery Illness that she wraps around herself for comfort and sympathy. Too bad Fate gave her a sister born without the pity gene, LOL.

Today, I ran across this on the interwebs while looking at some local SLO stuff.

"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

It's from Food Not Bombs, and SLO has a local chapter.

LOVE THAT!

Gone Fish'n:

2008-09-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

I left The Mike in a parking lot in Morro Bay at 5:30 this morning and now he's on his way to Clearlake for a really big fishing tournament. He qualified in the Golden Valley region.

I think I'm going to miss my camera the most, LOL.

Lucky me though, my friend Suzanne gifted me two really nice cameras and there's no excuse left to not start trying them out.

After I get some more sleep. It is WAAAAY to early to be up!

I don't know how much blogging I'll get to this week though - no husband for the next 5 days is too good to waste sitting around the computer, don't you think?

No Tears Equals A Good Visit:

2008-09-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

The visit is done, and it went better than I expected. It's not that I want the worst, but I know my sister . . . usually.

It actually went pretty well, and we had a good visit. I think we both are ready to start on easy ground and stay there, for at least a while. No drama trigger points.

She even made a date to come visit again next Wednesday! Her. Visiting Me. LOL.

Postponed:

2008-09-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

After several phone calls starting at 10am today, my sister decided at 1pm that she needed to stay home and take care of her daughter.

Since my niece had a headache and her boyfriend just broke up with her as well.

:eyeroll:

It's been postponed until tomorrow.

I really would have liked to be sitting here tonight with it already behind me.

Tomorrow Is Another Day:

2008-09-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow. I'm kind of dreading it, but I'm making the effort to not go in with a negative vibe.

Way back at the end of the year, when I wrote it up, one of the items on my "to do" for 2008 was to try and establish a relationship with my sister again.

We haven't talked face-to-face for quite a while (at least a year?) and rarely in emails even anymore. When I moved back home (she lives in the SLO area as well) I made sure to give her my new address.

That was back in July . . .

She's *supposedly* going to be visiting me tomorrow.

I did this entirely on my terms for a change. Everything is always about her - visit at HER house, talk about HER problems, put up with HER interruptions.

When I still lived here 4+ years ago, we lived (no lie) about 6 big-city blocks away. She off The Pike and me off Highway 1, both in the same city. She visited me one time there. Ever.

For the 4+ years at our house in Porterville, she came to visit . . . lemme think now . . . *ticks off fingers* . . . uh, yeah. One time. Ever.

Apparently that's really pissed me off since I still hold it against her.

Back when her kids were younger, it would have made sense to be tied down to the house. Back when her kids were younger, she actually visited me MORE and I lived further away! In another state! I lived near one of the kid's grandparents though, so that's probably the real reason she came to visit me back then.

Now I'm back in town (albeit not 6 big-city blocks away but definately just 15 minutes away at most) and she'd finally deigned to come to my house tomorrow.

Again, this is all on my terms. I have not stopped by her house one time since coming home. She's asked several times, in her annoying way, hinting around about when I'm 'going to come see her'. Haven't. The road goes both ways and my house is the *new* place. The place to be seen and checked out and shown off. I've seen her house a bazillion times. She's thrown out the "your niece would love to see you" even. Really? The niece that just got her learner's permit? The niece that hasn't emailed or written or called since . . . oh about 10 years? That's nice, but save it.

I've just left this *thing* to sit out and simmer between us. She had the address and could do what she wanted with it. I got the "oh I'm sooooo busy with all the kids" (and that's another story for another day - she's only got two of her own and she's taken in one of her friend's kids for whatever Madonna-complex reason she works under) and the "oh I'm soooo busy with this class I'm taking" (one freak'n day a week) and just general "oh I'm soooo busy" poor me crap blanket she wraps around herself all the time.

I'm not buying into it any more. Ain't drinking her particular brand of Crazy Kool-aid and ain't catering to her.

She finally said she had a break in her Oh So Busy schedule (of not having a real job like the rest of the world) and will come over tomorrow. The only thing I wanted on our agenda was puttering around in my craft room. She's really into rubber stamping and general craft-like endeavors so I'm thinking this would be a good icebreaker for us. No heavy lifting, no Take Care of Little Sister mentality necessary, just hanging and crafting and if she has suggestions for organization I'm all ears. I had zero crafty interest before I moved away, so I'm hoping this mutual interest will work to bond us closer.

We'll see.

Here's where I'm expecting trouble: After ten minutes she's going to start crying and saying things like "I don't know why we're not close" and "You don't understand" - which means I don't understand about her crazy mixed up (made up? I seriously wonder) medical issues that never seem to have a root or a method of treatment. She's right. I DON'T get it. Don't get her.

She's full of all the shit I just don't understand in real life anyway. I wouldn't understand that in my friends, or my husband's family. I don't get sick and I have zero tolerance for people who use phantom illnesses to excuse all their poor life choices. Real people get real illnesses all the time. That I do get. It sucks and it's not fair and sometimes they throw up their hands and scream "WHY? WHY ME. Just "WHY?" Yet all those people get up every fucking day and live their lives and keep on keeping on with the good fight.

Nose to the grindstone. I totally get that.

My sister ain't that person.

This is a 20 minute blog post to encapsulate 32 years of family history between us. There's definately more history than I've written down to far.

She's not my *real* sister in terms of blood. Her parents adopted me (and my younger brother) when I was seven. They unadopted (we'll get to that one day) me when I was 15. I'm 39 now. We're sisters in our hearts though, and maybe that's the point of all I wrote just now. Remembering that we think of each other as sisters after all this time and history.

I'm going to try tomorrow. I won't unleash or vent or dump back all the crap she spews. I'm going to stick to the plan of 'crafting' and guide the conversation as best I can through the murky and turbulent waters of our different personalities.

See. FREE THERAPY!

Sybil:

2008-09-14T22:07:00.001-07:00

I've split up the blog into three separate topics.

This one, Blue Content, will focus on the more "diary" like entries.

Knitting Blue WIPs will be tied to ravelry.com and knitting-centric in content.

Knitting Blue Pictures will be focused on my love of photography primarily, but I think there will be cross-over between Blue Content and Blue Photography.

I still need to clean up/streamline all three, so I'll work on that this week.

My nature is more towards compartmentalizing so this change feels *right*.

And yeah, I know that there could be some mental issues associated with compartmentalizing. That's where Knitting Blue Content comes in! Free therapy, LOL.

Bits of This and That:

2008-09-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

I'm at a crossroad, folks.

One one hand, there is so much *great* going on around this place that it should be illegal.

Friday, The Mike and I had dinner out at Olde Port Inn (which is a misnomer because there ain't no "inn" to it), after visiting the last Avila Beach Farmer's Market of the season.

When I went to the Grover Farmer's Market the other day, I'd picked up some corn from Hayashi's and Oh Good Gawd it was the best corn on the cob I think I've ever eaten! And this is coming from the girl that grew up on a farm and had to tend the family's garden . . . pluck'n and shuck'n and weed'n and hoe'n until my arms like to have fell off!

I've been on the hunt for their corn ever since and lemme just tell you. It's not at the Avila Farmer's Market. Honestly? There really isn't much at that Market. I don't think I'm interested in going when it starts back up next season. Mike scored himself several sugar-free desserts though.

Today I buzzed over to Nipomo, (via Oceano to hit up Hayashi's roadside stand on the way. Three ears of corn, a loaf of artichoke and pesto bread, a bottle of *GET THIS* Porterville olives and a bundle of strawberries later) I visited my buddy Sheila. She's laid up with an extremely bruised back. We sat outside, we sat (I sat, she laid on the floor) inside, enjoyed the sun, enjoyed a movie, knit, didn't knit, ate, drank some wine and overall just hung out together. The weather was awesome from one end of the central coast to the other today.

Tonight was leftovers and in a while I'm going to be firmly planted on the couch, watching the season premier of SNL. Michael Phelps, y'all. And if that isn't incentive enough, then tell me that Tina Fey and Sara Palin are not identical twins from different mothers?

Tomorrow is chock-full of fun as well. It's the last day of this year's I Madonnari street painting festival and later, the monthly Central Coast Beer and Knitting meetup.

And here's where the crossroad comes into play.

My life has an aspect of Wine & Roses fun. Something I think is appropriate for a general knitting blog tied to ravelry that general people will happen upon.

The other aspect of my life isn't all peachy keen and my take on things isn't about the Sweetness and Light.

Today I heard a horrid phone conversation between two people starting down the path of divorce. Two people I know very well.

Some things that go on with me have roots in my childhood and there are some seriously dark parts to that.

I started this blog not actually knowing REAL people reading it . . . maybe CJ and I had met once by then, but we hadn't bonded or hung out like we have since. I didn't know any of you guys reading this when I started and I had started with the intent to talk about my life . . . my real day-to-day, 'no punches held' life story and goings on and what I really really think about shit.

Every day I start a blog post in my head about having been adopted, or unadopted, or how being married is, or how I REALLY feel about things and want to express for myself, to get my thoughts down, and I don't. People I know in real life read this and even though I have that 'Eff You' exterior, I would hate to know I've offended someone.

Having thought about it off and on for several weeks now, I've decided to make my "knitting/rose-colored glasses" blog the one tied to ravelry. I just haven't decided if I want to keep "Knitting Blue Content" that one or if I want to create one with a more 'bland' name to tie to ravelry. Whatever I decide, name-wise and content-wise, I will let my current "friends" know about so they can choose.

With that said, one will not be rainbow kisses and lollipop dreams, so read if you want but don't say I didn't warn you.

I Could Be Convinced:

2008-09-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

You know that saying "I need XXX like I need another hole in the head" ?

Well, for me, I need more knitting needles like I need another hole in my head. I have straights, circs, dpns, and TWO sets of interchangeables.

Today I just stumbled across this, people!

Addi Turbos now come in an interchangeable kit!

Now I just need to figure out where this new hole in my head is going, LOL.

They come with a princely price tag attached, but seriously, you get pretty much all the Addi you'll ever need (although no sizes below 4) and that's for some quality knitting tools.

Crap. I should probably start looking for a job now, to finance this heavenly acquisition.

Avila Slideshow:

2008-09-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to figure out how to get all "Ellen Bloom" on you, with the cool-ass slideshow stuff.

Today I ended up hitting Avila Beach, instead of Pismo Beach, for my 9/11 introspective/pensive day and took a ton of pictures.

Mmmkay. Apparently I suck at the embedding. Grrr!

You can check out the slideshow here instead.

So anywhooo. I elected to go to Avila because I had some errands to run in SLO and it made more sense gas-wise.

I don't have many great childhood memories, but the few I do have? Avila is one of the best ones. The 'lagoon' area is absolutely perfect for younger kids or older folks. It's just so peaceful and serene. The water is pretty shallow and the area is usually uninhabited . . . especially on a work day afternoon.

So there are my pictures. Of Avila, of birds, of people, of dogs, and just of. Of my foot that isn't broken anymore and of nature and of scenery.

It was time well spent.

Tomorrow:

2008-09-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to head on down to Pismo, to sit, knit and think about what happened 7 years ago.

That's what I did on 9/11/02 and it just feels like where I need to be for reflection again.

Seven years have passed, yet it feels like yesterday in so many ways.

I'm stopping now before I completely rant and vent my frustrations with our country and our current President (and his political party).

Seven years. I can hardly believe it.

Knitting, Fog, Friends and Fried Green 'Maters:

2008-09-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

Holy Cats y'all! It's been a bit since I've last written and sorry for that.

While the days pass, I'm busy in some ways and lazy-dazy in others.

Knitting (cuz HELLO! This is first and foremost a knitting blog!)

I have a pair of socks off the needles. You can see what I'm talking about here.

Fresh on the needles are something I thought I'd never knit in a million years. Just. So. Not. Thank Ye and not interested in the least.

'Scept I not only cast on, I'm almost done with the first one.

There are several reasons why knucks (and all their offspring) didn't interest me. Half-assed gloves? Pfft. Pourquois? If it's that damn cold Outside, than either 1) this delicate flower is Inside or 2) I'm wearing glove-gloves. That made sense to me.

That is, until this delicate flower decided to knit outdoors this last Friday. "Outdoors in San Luis" you wonder? Yeah. Here in The Big City of SLO the sun always shines, the birds always sing and always with The Pretty People walking the sidewalks. Outdoors anywhere else along the coastline? It sucks weather ass. Truth be told though, it doesn't suck on the "hanging out and enjoying it" front. I love me some real Weather. It just sucks on the photog front and the "knitting outside" front.

Thus, the love of knucks was born. No way am I going to be outside in The Fog again, with cold hands and an itch to knit!

Outside of knitting?

Wait, what? There's stuff outside of knitting?

Oh, that's right. Local guy Chuck Liddell got his bell rung. and a local business owner passed on. I love Mo's alot. It's the best place to get fried green tomatoes outside of Louisiana or my kitchen. Mo's is some seriously good eats.

Tomorrow is the weekly Monday KnitUp at Woodstone in Avila (which if you're a true local . . . ? It ain't really Avila. It's "Avila Adjacent" and how snobby does THAT sound, LOL!) I'm looking forward to meeting up with these ladies again. They are so flipp'n nice and interesting and welcoming.

I AM wondering how my sweet friend SisterDi is doing though. She had a quick and unexpected move away and until I get to see her again, I worry.

For Carolyn!

2008-09-03T15:48:00.001-07:00

For Carolyn!, originally uploaded by ajdury.

Thought of you when I saw these!

Busy Busy:

2008-09-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

Man. I've been doing a lot of stuff outdoors lately.

Last Thursday I went to the SLO Farmer's Market with Mike and Sheila.

It was PACKED and my chief complaint is all the frigg'n stollers being pushed around in the crowds. Empty strollers, people. Little SUVs sans the urchins they are intended for. What the hell? Dogs on leashes aren't allowed but empty stroller after empty stroller rolls through taking up the limited space.

SLO's Thursday Farmer's Market is the biggest one in the area (that I know of) and thus the selection is awesome! We bought two large artichokes, three bunches of asparagus, 4 nectarines (from Fresno but those are Mike's and he doesn't even KNOW what a 'carbon footprint' is, let alone care about it), some more little tomatoes and a pound of some kind of green chili peppers. Mike bought a sugar-free pie but ate it the same night so I don't know the name of the vendor. Oh, and I almost forgot. My FAVORITE FAVORITE, a container of blood orange orange juice from Varian Farms. Holy moly it's delicious. Sweeeeeet, yeah, but with a touch of tart. YUM.

I ate some kind of indian-spiced vegetarian pie thing for dinner and then we sat at Firestone's Grill so Sheila and Mike could eat. I passed the time by casting on and knitting away on my second HazelKnits sock.

The next evening we hooked up with Mike's brother B and the girlfriend M and hit Cal Poly to fish at one of the ponds. It was so picturesque but I did cast my rod a few times before it got too dark. No bites outside of mosquitoes eating me alive! The picture of the clouds is courtesy of Mike. I was around the pond from everyone and I asked him to take a picture of the beautiful clouds. He took a picture and goofed it up.

Mike, having been raised in the tradition of the "this is how we do it because this is how we've always done it" mantra, wanted to go back to the same spot the next morning . . . so we did. Me, Mike and his buddy Scott.

We trudged up the effing hill and as the free roaming horses came into view I realized I had left my camera waaaaaaaay back down there in the truck.

FUCK!

You know I must be serious about this picture take'n stuff because I walked all the way back down and ALLLLL the way back up because of that damn camera. It was totally worth it though! I caught my first fish (but refused to touch it and Mike got mad at me, LOL) and the horses just walked right past us and into the pond for a drink and some splashing. It was awesome! Scott caught 2 fish and Mike? he caught ZERO. We all had a good laugh over that.

Mike wanted to go fishing again Sunday morning (earlier than we went on Saturday morning) so I woke my ass up at 5:30am to offer to go fishing - except I wasn't going back to the same pond. I wanted to go to Laguna Lake this time.

He said no.

That'll be the last time I offer to go fishing with him!

Since I was up that damn early, I decided to grab the camera and catch the sun rise. It was beautiful . . . until the fog rolled in.

Monday we did nothing that I remember.

Tuesday Mike said a repair guy (again!) was coming 'any time' that day so I stuck around the house. Dude never showed (again!)

Today I had no intention of sitting around waiting for flaky repair dudes, so I left the house at 8:20 this morning to hit the Grover Beach Farmer's Market. It's smaller than the SLO one, but bigger than the Avila Beach one. There was hardly anyone there, in comparison, and not one stroller! Score. I bought bell peppers for our stuffed bell peppers dinner tonight, 5 more green tomatoes (the last batch ripened faster than I could get to them so I only fried up two small ones and all that did was leave me with a bigger yen for them!), three ears of fresh corn from Hayashi's, 6 Granny Smith apples to make some more of these tasty babies, a fresh lemon and a mini loaf of banana nut breat from House of Bread.

After all that shopping I made my way home via Pismo Beach. Y'all know I can't get within spitting distance of the ocean without going to it, right?! This time I just lingered around the Pismo Creek and took a few pictures. it was VERY foggy, as you can see. My camera doesn't work well without natural sunlight so it was a bit tricky getting decent snaps, but I did manage a few.

Leaving Pismo, I took Price Canyon Road home and what the hay! I had to stop and snap a few more before turning into my driveway.

Oooohhh! The other thing I did (no pics though) was meet up with some knitters on Monday morning, near Avila. A very nice group of women and I will be going to their Monday gathering every Monday that I don't have a job. Yeah, that isn't helping with the job-mojo-motivation either, lemmetellya!

Upcoming: Hmmm. I don't think I really have anything planned this week outside of house chores. Still haven't finished my craft room . . . and I'm 70 % done with my two socks left on the needles. I've been itching to start my kitchen curtain project but I've resisted casting on as of yet. I have 95% of my second bath mat done, and there's a bit of work left on my log-cabin-inspired kitchen rug (but man I hate working with that thick cotton! It's a killer on my hands).

Until I figure out what's next, I'll be busy taking pictures like this:

It just never gets old!

A Moment of Silence:

2008-09-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

It has just been reported that Jerry Reed has died.

Man.

He's my all-time favorite country singer and I just loved him in Smokey & the Bandit.

For those that don't know him, he sang the theme song to that movie, and several other popular songs . . . "she got the goldmine and I got the shaft". Classic lyrics in that one.

You can listen to some of his most popular songs here.

I suggest "When you're hot, you're hot", "Amos Moses", "Lord Mr. Ford" and for a good laugh "The Bird". (yes, that's Jerry singing as Willie Nelson and George Jones!)

It's a sad day. The world just lost it's swing'n little guitar man.

Scout Said I Could:

2008-08-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

'Member? You 'member, that Kick Ass knitting book I was telling y'all about the other day?

From that blogger I don't really *get*?

You 'member!

Scout (of the most beautiful pictures evah) said anyone could steal her picture collage of the book, so long as we noted that we got it from her.

Pssst. I just got this collage from Scout!

Whilst I don't eat bowls of anything as I'm perched cross-legged and underwear-clad on my kitchen counters . . . I may consider it, given the beauty of Wendy's knits. Maybe that's how she gets her inspiration, and Lord Knows I could use some knitting inspiration, lol!

Out and About, Coast Style:

2008-08-27T20:59:00.001-07:00

Today I went to the Ebb Tide Park in Shell Beach and took WAY too many pictures!

Then, I wandered on down to the Pelican Point restaurant (at the Shore Cliff Lodge) and took WAY too many pictures of pelicans.

Finally, I ended up in Pismo, and took just a few pictures there (my camera battery was sucking fumes at that point).

Before I did all that though, I stopped over at the San Luis Obispo Octagon Barn and snapped a few.

All in all, a good relaxing day. I was home relatively early, but spent the afternoon downloading, cleaning up/culling and then uploading all these suckers and the next thing I knew The Mike was calling at 5pm to say he was heading home.

CRAP. I whipped up another batch of guacamole dip (from avocados and not any mix - which I just have to clarify because my guac ROCKS even though my gravy SUX) and then made a dinner of beef tacos. YUM.

Tomorrow a.m. I'm going to finally hit the craft room and get it into shape. There has to be some mental reason I've been procrastinating on this final project. Tomorrow p.m. we're going to the SLO Farmer's Market and Sheila is meeting up with us after a while. I did some emergency knitting surgery on her just-made camera sock and it's ready for her to get so that's the meet up.

Lastly, I've been giving a lot of thought about this here blog and how things have changed over time . . . and that I don't want the change . . . and how I'ma go back to my 'pre-change' way.

I'll tell y'all about it soon. Probably not tomorrow though. Kinda busy.

8 Hours, All Mine:

2008-08-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Today, I will be *away from home* finally.

My plan was to be *away from home* Monday, but that didn't work out. See, I'd found out there is another knitting group that meets Monday mornings near Avila Beach. I'd even scoped the place out on our way to Farmer's Market last Friday (and told Mike about it, which is an important fact later).

Sunday night, Mike tells his brother to "stop by the house any time on Monday, April will be home" and Mike tells me some repair dude would also be stopping by on Monday "any time" to put a cover on our stove vent thingamajigger. His brother stopped by but the repair dude was a no-show.

:eyeroll:

I didn't make it to the Monday meetup. Grrrr.

Yesterday (Tuesday) my day consisted of going to BedBath&Beyond (hello 20% coupon in the mail!), Borders (hello Borders Rewards!), Trader Joe's (hello Trader Joe's. You ROCK!) and the regular 'ol grocery story (although it blows the P'ville *nice* grocery store out of the water with it's cleanliness and selection!)

We invited Mike's good friend Scott over for dinner as a Thank You for all his help during the move. Pot Roast and vegetables with gravy, YUM. The homemade gravy thing - I'm not so good at, but at least it was edible, lol. Fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies afterwards. Honestly, we really owe Scott like a week's worth of homecooked meals for all his help.

That brings us to today. I'm up extra early (well, I've been up for an hour and 7:20 certainly is on the early side for me), have perused all my daily internet haunts, and am off to shower. Today I'm hitting the road with my knitting, my camera and my clapotis and I won't be home until I feel like coming home . . .

. . . which is no later than 5pm so I can be here when The Mike gets home, LOL.

Pictures forthcoming.

Y'all have a good day!

This One's For My Friends:

2008-08-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

For Danni:

It's just right down the road from my house and a very good reason for you to come visit "the Coast"!

For CJ:

Thanks for the tutorial on these babies! I love them.

For Suzanne:

You are a huge knitting inspiration and I think that if I didn't know you, these might never have gotten made (by me at least, lol)

For Ellen, SisterDi and ZubieJen:

Y'all have an open invitation to visit.

Sheila doesn't read my blog, so I'm not wasting time talking to her :grin:

I'm off to get my day started - some cleaning, some knitting, and definately some frying up of my green tomatoes!

Hello Photo:

2008-08-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

Here's the promised update, via pictures:

Movie Night at Dolphin Cove

Friday's Avila Beach Farmer's Market

Kick'n around in Avila yesterday

Hang'n out in Pismo Beach last night

Cats in the backyard this afternoon

Yesterday, around the house

Ravelympic knitting progress

The "OH MY GAWD THOSE ARE THE BEST COOKIES I'VE EVER EATEN" recipe

I added more pictures to my "Daily View" set - my view out the dining room window/front door

And just because she's so damn cute . . . a set of pictures dedicated to Blue, our cartoon kitty

In no particular order, these are some of my recent favorites:

Mmmmkay. Sorry:

2008-08-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot we were going over to my brother-in-law's to BBQ tonight.

And by BBQ I mean "start the fire around 9pm" because *cue my aria* This Is What We Do Because This Is What We Always Do.

It's a McLaughlin thing and I totally Do Not Get It.

Dinner should be way over by 9pm and not just starting, but whatever.

The dude lives in Pismo and cooks a mean tri-tip. Who cares that we get to grubb'n around 11:00 at night?

Tomorrow I'ma have to hunt down Misti's "Knock Your Handknit Socks Off" peanut butter cookie recipe.

Y'all never did taste peanut butter in a cookie form like this before, I'm guessing.

Tomorrow is the *catch up* portion of this blog, and sorry for that.

State of the Union Address:

2008-08-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Mike and I have been bumming around today, and generally doing nothing.

I know. It's a tough life but somebody's got to live it :grin:

All the gas stations I've seen in SLO today (a Shell, a Flyers and another one I don't remember the name of) have been UNDER four dollars a gallon. You bet'cha I filled up. Tomorrow it could be $5.62 for all I know - the prices rise and fall that fast it seems like.

In a few we're heading out to Avila Beach to hit the town's weekly Farmer's Market.

I'll try and post some pictures later of my ravelympic WIPs to-date. I can hardly believe it myself, but I took out the temporary stitching holding my place for the sleeves on the pinwheel sweater and actually started knitting one of those puppies up. Yes, I did!

Also, I'll show some shots from Wednesday's "night at the movies" at Dolphin Cove. It was pretty cool to be watching a movie and to hear the ocean waves crashing and to glance up every so often to view the stars shining above us.

Toodles for now and catch you gators later.

Hate to Love:

2008-08-21T22:48:00.001-07:00

Is it weird that I love this person's designs but hate this person's blog?

Her designs are (to me, and trust you me I'm certainly no expert. Hell, I don't even play one on t.v.) fashion forward. Both slick and clean. LOVE her knitting stuff.

Her blog though? I find it hard to slog through. She (again, just to me and I'm less than a sub-par expert in such things) writes as if she holds a grudge against something/someone. She doesn't read like she's satisfied in any way with anything around her. Everyone but her and hers sucks on ice and it's all she can do to grit her teeth through every interaction with other humans.

Her designs must come from something. Wherever she's getting her inspiration? It's working for her. 99.9% of her stuff is home run material (again, with the *to me* caveat).

I have to figure out how to reconcile myself with the fact that I am more in love with her fresh, chic, clean patterns than I am in hate with her below-the-surface, making-fun-of-the-little-people drivel that eminates from her blog.

That woman can rock a knitting pattern.

The Cherry On Top Part:

2008-08-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Last we talked, I was telling you about my excellent weekend and my equally perfect Monday . . .

Here's the cherry part!

Sheila called me and said she had an hour to kill in SLO and did I want to meet up with her? Well hells ya. Since I was already out and about and done with Laguna Lake park, she suggested we get together at the SLO Goodwill. Funny, I had driven by it earlier and thought to myself "self, we totally need to stop there on the way home and check out what might be available in the knitting-related catagory."

We met up and wandered in. After about 20 minutes, the only thing I'd picked up for purchase was a good-sized binder to store printed patterns in. There's an 'upper deck' kind of area that I thought had only clothes so I didn't plan on wandering up there . . . but Sheila went and I trailed behind. At the back is the book section and I NEVER pass up on books. Grabbed me one and kept moseying around. Sheila found an area that had sewing-related stuff and I spied a lone bag of yarn but after looking through it decided to pass.

There were all sorts of nooks and crannies and drawers that I would have never looked in or around but Sheila is totally the opposite. THANK GAWD! She opened a drawer of something and we found a bunch of paired knitting needles. Out of that bunch she scored a pretty wood set of size 6s or so. Everything else in the drawer was nothing special. The next drawer down? We hit the freak'n motherlode of fiber tools!!!

I KNOW!!

How much does a bag like that go for at the San Luis Goodwill? You ain't even gonna believe it.

I KNOW!!

Seven entire dollars and one quarter. That's it. People, I about passed out from glee.

We bought our booty and made a mad dash to our cars (crossing Lower Higuera is risky!) Immediately, we broke open the bag and started organizing.

(Yeah, I need to clean my car - tell me something I don't know)

My half above, and Sheila's half below:

Because I already own a very healthy supply of straight needles, Sheila got first dibs on anything she wanted in that arena. She gave me all the crochet hooks because she's got tons from her late grandmother's stash. She only wanted one of the circs, which left me owning the other 4 pair. She kept the sizing template (I already own two different ones) and she gave me all the *things* that we don't even know WHAT they are, lol.

*Things* like this thing:

What the hell IS that?

Outside of the elation of getting everything for such a cheap price, we really loved seeing all the different and neat things we scored. Stuff like this:

There are tons more pictures of everything here of course.

Truthfully - I'm still so jazzed over yesterday's find!

Despite that high there have been other activities going on around Casa De Crazy.

Baking:

My first batch of cookies at the new place.

Knitting:

Still just the first one of my Ravelympic Socks for the Sock Put event. A few more rows and it's Kitchener time. Since I'll be in Kitchener mode, I'm going to finish my first sock from that delicious HazelKnits yarn I've been working on forever (seriously - forever people! It was half-way done at the WWKIP event and how long ago was that?)

Needless to say, no Kitchenering will be done if I spend even more time hanging out on the intronets so I gotta get to getting!

Ohhhh - and don't forget - tonight is the showing of Hitch at the Dolphin Bay in Shell Beach. Wahhhoooo :grin:

Perfection With a Cherry On Top:

2008-08-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

We survived the build-up to the party, the party itself and then the post-party decompensing.

What a blast!

The place was clean and looked fabu:

'Scilly was SO well-behaved and we were very proud of her:

Callie . . . not so much. It wasn't that she "misbehaved" but Lawdy that cat can be a nuisance!

When she wasn't glued on people's laps or draped around their necks, she would perch on Becca's knitting bag (more about Becca in a sec). That cat loves her some perching!

People actually showed up . . .

. . . and had themselves a good time.

(Sheila and two of her friends came over also, but I didn't get my camera out until after they had left)

The lady knitting is 'Becca on Ravelry. She took me up on my invite the other day and brought her man Bruce. They are such nice people and totally fun and funny. They fit right in and I'm so glad they made it down.

I doubt I'll ever get tired of hanging out with other knitters. They just 'get it', ya know?

Our Ravelympic sock entries

Her handknit shawl

Oh, and 'Becca? I took that page out of your book and had some of your cake for breakfast on Sunday, lol. It was gooooood! Thanks for making it and bringing it.

Sunday was filled with a whole lotta noth'n. Mike slept in VERY late and we both napped that afternoon. It was perfect.

Yesterday (Monday) I lollygagged around and then went to the post office in the afternoon. My big trip out of the house in several days, actually. I picked the post office on Madonna Road because it's right next to Laguna Lake and I wanted to take some pictures.

Hmm. I just found that link and look at their picture on there . . .

Looks an awful lot like the picture I snapped yesterday . . .

It was so peaceful there and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!

Lookie these people. They have a lake for a back yard. How cool is THAT?

Even the Fed Ex drivers 'round these parts have a great life:

Just as I was wrapping up my exhausting day of sitting and picture taking and enjoying the great outdoors . . .

. . . Sheila called and that's when the cherry plopped right on top of my already perfect time.

I'll tell y'all about it later. It's freak'n awesome.

Psssst:

2008-08-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Hey - don't forget there's a party going on at my house tomorrow!

The Mike has been very busy getting the back yard and the side area all spiffy and presentable for guests.

We bought some grub to chow down on and I've made my well-loved Rock'n Guacamole Dip as well as a batch of Standard Issue Onion Dip.

Tomorrow a.m. is one more pass through with the cleaning supplies (HELLO Mr. Swiffer Thing - nice to meet'cha!) and I'll steal a little more time for working on my craft room.

Holy crap, did y'all hear that thunder this morning? So much for sleeping in! The two outside cats took a sudden interest in the contents of the inside of the house, lemmetellya. I took some pictures and a few short videos of it. Outside of being awoken waaaay earlier than I'd anticipated, it was pretty neat. I'm so so glad I got the last of the boxes cleared out and in the house just in time.

So - hope I see ya tomorrow. I'll let you know how it all turns out. If you're coming, you can bet I'll be sticking my Ravelympic Sock in your hands for critique, lol.

I Don't Know What I Think:

2008-08-14T15:28:00.001-07:00

This morning, I was reading the online version of my local newspaper and clicked on this article.

The name and the face weren't familiar but the information "Arroyo Grande High graduate" and "the age of 40" got me thinking. I'm about to be 40 and also an A.G.H.S. graduate.

I pulled out one of my yearbooks and flipped to the alphabetical listing in the back.

von Ruden, Nicole.

Ayup. She's there.

She was a year ahead of me and was apparently very active in school. She's in 5 pictures for each of the two yearbooks I have ('83 and '84). She was tester #23 for a Pepsi Challenge somethingorother at school, as well as being a member of the ski club, cross-country team, the press club and the dive team.

I don't remember her, and I'm pretty confident I didn't know her personally, but there's a 101% chance that I know many people that knew her well. My very first boyfriend (for three years, Mr. Allen Lee Shewmaker for those of you locals reading this, lol) was in her grade, and several people she's pictured with I knew one way or another.

Accidental deaths? I kinda get that. It's an accident and accidents happen.

This is a little more than I'm wanting to contemplate at the moment. Just up and dying from a malfunction of your body.

Ravelry Rocks - Reason # 793:

2008-08-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

As I've been unpacking box after box after box (after box, lather, rinse, repeat) all the yarny crafty stuff has been put into the Yarny Crafty room for later organization and culling.

Last Sunday Sheila came over and helped me unload a few 'craft only' box contents and we puttered around a bit. After she left, I puttered around for several more hours, putting things here and there on my immense bookcase, working for 'the look' that I liked.

Towards the end of the evening, it dawned on me that my pattern book area was a bit sparce from what I remembered should be there. Once I got to thinking about it, I started feeling there was a good bit not accounted for, although I didn't know *what* exactly.

This week started with my usual chore activity for getting the house finished . . . six loads of laundry a day, cleaning up stuff, putting away five loads of laundry every day, finding yet another box of kitchen stuff and figuring out where it goes . . . you know.

One of the items on my to-do list was dealt with yesterday: unearthing the box that has my entire antique (and some just *old*) postcard collection and figuring out what to do with them all. These are predominately postcards of the Central Coast with a few of Porterville and some others thrown in the mix. I have around 30 in frames and about another 15 not in frames. My oldest postmark is from 1906 and the oldest postmarked on of my hometown area is of Avila from 1913. I have a postcard that shows an aerial view of Hwy 101 through San Luis Obispo, and there is no Madonna Inn - in fact, it shows construction of the freeway where it was decided to stop it from travelling through downtown SLO. I find them all fascinating!

So anywho. Once that was done, box emptying stopped for the evening and dinner got made. But. This means I only have two other boxes left to empty. Yeah. That's IT. FINALLY!

This morning I hopped on ravelry (as I do every morning and every hour on the hour and sixty times more as the evening progresses) and went poking around
my library there. I've been a very good girl about cataloguing (sp?) my library stash and Thank GAWD for that. Now I can see all the books I own that haven't shown up yet in the unpacking process!

I gotta go finish those last two boxes STAT. I know for sure one box is all craft content so fingers crossed my beloved items are in there.

There has been knitting activity overall 'round these parts, but my entire day and evening was shot and not one stitch was created on my socks. I did, at least, take an in-progress picture today which I will post real soon.

Until then, I leave you with these snaps:

Funny Man:

2008-08-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

This evening, The Mike and I have been watching the Olympic coverage. We *finally* have television, albeit only one channel - NBC. I'll tell y'all the story of why another day.

So anywho, we watched Michael Phelps nail his first '08 gold medal, as well as women's volleyball, men's gymnastics and even some female swimming events tonight.

At one point, there was an interview with the three American women that swept the top three spots in Fencing.

As we're listening and watching, Mike turns to me and asks "What is fencing? Is that like sword fighting?", to which I replied "Uhhh, yeah. If you're a PIRATE!"

Who the heck has never heard of and/or seen the sport of fencing? EVER? In their thirty-eight years of life on this planet (not counting just discovered Amazon tribes of course).

He cracks me up even when he's not trying to be funny.

In Ravelympic news, the progress on my socks has been sloooooooooow. Sadly so.

Friday I jumped in the frog pond twice, and that was just on the first half of the first repeat of the pattern.

After that though, I think I've hit my stride. In no way do I consider what I'm doing 'athletic' or 'noteworthy' but even so I must say I really got a boost of confidence and adreneline (sp?) from watching interviews and the competition with Michael Phelps tonight.

What a winner that guy is - in personality, in dedication, in belief, in hard work and in youth. A class act guy.

As I keep knitting on my sock, I think about alot of things. How far I've come as a knitter, how afraid I let myself be of so many techniques, how inspired I am by people I've met and people I follow, how I want to show my finished socks to Suzanne and Carolyn because I've challenged myself to make something proudworthy (is that a word or a made up-ism?) and they both will be honest in their praise and their critiques.

At the beginning of the ravelympics, I wasn't thinking of The. Olympics. - just knitting some stuff in the time frame alloted. Now I'm starting to think about the dedication and commitment that make up the athletes involved in the events and what I can take from their goals and accomplishments.

Me finishing these socks will be my personal gold medal in knitting. A real challenge for me and when completed, I know I'm going to dance around kissing them and shouting "look what I can do!"

Have You Ever:

2008-08-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Have you ever met someone that you immediately take a disliking to? Maybe you can't put your finger on exactly why, or maybe you know EXACTLY what rubs you the wrong way, but there's an immediate dislike.

I'm pretty sure I'm on the receiving end of that feeling at the moment.

There's this chick I've met two times now, and almost from the outset it's been a chilly vibe wafting my way.

One word responses to generic questions, derisive 'bye' as I leave - you can hear the sneer in the tone, talking to everyone but me, not responding when I join the conversation.

Lord knows I've felt that 'immediate dislike for no apparent reason' myself. Sometimes I never see that person again, usually I end up being right about my original gut feeling, and every so often I change my opinion after getting to know the person better.

It's no great shakes this chick isn't planning on being my new best friend. I got lots of friends, and even some best ones - more than my fair share maybe, and if me and this chick never do hit it off I will figure out a way to drag myself out of bed every morning and live my life with a purpose.

I've never felt it like this before. It's palpable. It's like another presence hovering between us.

Conversely, have you ever NOT met someone in real life but just KNOW you guys would be great friends?

I'm starting to feel that way about Dani of the Brown Eyed Mom podcast. She's so funny and I love her conversational style. Her voice is kinda sexy in weird way too.
(andohmygawdifsheeverreadsthisIhopeshedoesn'tgetarestrainingorderagainstme!)
Just like with Holly B I'm pretty certain I'd enjoy their friendships, despite them having kids, lol.

I'm off to bed in a minute - the Ravelympics start time (for my time zone) is five FREAK'N a.m. tomorrow.

Hope all you slacker sleeper-inners have a good one tomorrow!

Locked and Loaded:

2008-08-06T21:27:00.000-07:00

The socks have been torn back to nothing and the yarn has been color separated into their respective balls.

Pictures have been taken of the sweater WIP, to mark where I am at the dawn of the Olympics.

I'm ready for the ravelympics, my friends!

Somehow, I'm going to focus on my knitting goal despite this temptation in my back yard.

Ya want some? Me too! I think I'll be scarfing some berries whilest I knit along.

What are you guys working on?

Off The Hook:

2008-08-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

No, not "off the hook" in the social slang sense.

Off the dinner hook!

Mike won't be home in time for me to cook dinner and get to my knit night this evening, so he's just gonna make do. Yay. Works out well though, since the box** that I packed with all my seasonings and spices and cooking staples has mysteriously disappeared in our move.

In anticipation of my participation in the Ravelympics, tonight I will be frogging these socks.

I'm a member of Team Central Coast and I'll be representing in two challenges: Sock Put and WIPs Wrestling. My WIP's submission is that baby sweater I started back in April for my Knittingversary. All it needs are the sleeves picked up and knitted. THAT'S IT. So sad, my laziness.

The Ravelympics are only two weeks in duration so once it starts I have to spend all possible free time on those socks. I'm going to be doing the short-row heel, thanks to Suzanne's help and instructions. I'm also going to be separating the colors so that I can control the blending - I don't want to deal with the common "Noro Surprise" that comes with their self-striping yarns (read knots and sudden color changes). I'll be doing this at knit night tonight.

After that, since it's in the same shopping center, I'm going to hit up the grocery store and buy all those damn kitchen supplies that I cannot find. Grrrrrr.

**Oh, and I think that box also had our ceiling fan blades in it too, but that's a tiff he and I are going to have another day. I packed and he loaded but somehow these missing fans are going to be *my* fault.

Kitchen. Done:

2008-08-04T19:25:00.001-07:00

Sheesh oh MAN it's taken a while!

When we moved in, the dishwasher and the stove/oven weren't installed. The main crux of the problem was lack of electricity running to most of the kitchen outlets (and some outside of the kitchen).

(here would be pictures to help tell the story, but noooo . . . Boo on Blogger!)

'Member the other night we had an electrician and a flooring guy here? The guys that stayed until 11:FREAK'N30 pm? Well, between the two of them, they thought if they cut out a hole on the dining room side of the wall, behind the stove cubbyhole on the kitchen side, they could fix the problem from that way.

Not so much.

They did do something right though, since electricity magically appeared some how some way about an hour after The Cutting Of The Hole.

Electricity? Check.

The next thing we needed was time to move and install the items still missing. For some reason, Mike would rather spend his weekend hanging with his boys and me and I would rather spend mine hanging with Sheila and him.

Ergo, nothing in the way of progress this last weekend.

Today was a whole 'nother story though.

Mike took off one electrical plug and installed another on the dishwasher and we were up and running on that applicance.

Then I helped him muscle in the stove/oven from the garage and he got that all hooked up. It was actually fun to help him do what he does for a living. I helped hold different sides of the oven up so he could adjust the legs accordingly, and at one point he said "I smell gas". Not only did I not smell it myself, I had NO CLUE what to do at that point (besides flick my bic, lol). He wanted a squirt bottle with some soap and water in in but the only squirt bottle we possess is one with 100% water and used as a non-harmful pet deterrent. No way was I going to put soap in that thing! He figured out that Windex would do the trick too. You squirt the gas line at the joins (joints?) and if you see bubbles (not the bubbles the Windex or soapy water makes, but different ones - you'll know when you see them) then there is a leak. A few squirts later and *I* saw the bubbles. Yay me, HA.

That left the last major appliance to be dealt with. The 'fridge.

This is our 'fridge that has travelled to a few homes on the central coast, to Porterville and back again this last time. It's always worked Aces and we love it. When we cleaned it out and moved it to its spot last Saturday we got a rude surprise. It was only chilling the bottom quarter of each side (fridge/freezer, double doors, whatever that's called). That meant that anything we put in there could only go on the bottom shelves/spaces.

We put up with this for a week, because we were afraid to hear a diagnosis from a professional.

Putting up with it meant eating out most meals. Now I am a firm believer that "a person" can eat on the cheap away from home, and eat pretty good. Both Quizno's and Subway have good deals and I love both of them. Back when I was single I ate out almost every meal and hardly spent any money.

Mike though. Mike eats like an elephant with an extra stomach. And a hollow leg. No lie. A trip to Taco Bell can cost over $20 for him. Alone. Extra this and extra that and double meat blahblahblah. Anything more pricey than Taco Bell, you get the picture.

This last week has been a financial doozy in the eating department. Finally, we had to decide to spend the money on a fridge repair/replacement or just eating out all the galldarn time.

This morning I Goozoogled "Appliance Repair San Luis Obispo" and called the first listing.

I cannot sing the praises of The Best Appliance Guy enough.

He came, he looked, he poked and prodded and he fixed our problem lickety-split. All that was wrong was the little motorized fan that circulates The Cold was not working. Once he pinpointed the problem, he said he couldn't in all good conscious try and sell us on a replacement one because ours actually works really well. He thinks that the sitting unplugged for three weeks made something stick and the motor is so low horsepower and it can't kick itself into spinning (you know - something like that).

He is charging us the $60 service call fee which is absolutely fair. Thing is though? He wants to come back in a day or so just to make sure it really is working, before we pay him for his diagnosis.

Oh, and you know what else he did, just because? He checked out our other appliances and gave us pointers on them. Seriously. For nothing. Just because he's that kind of guy.

Now THAT is some customer service.

You live on the Central Coast and need some appliance repair? Please call Todd first.

Tonight, or *first* meal at home was . . .

DRUMROLL PLEASE . . .

A "take and bake" pizza from Von's.

Tomorrow is the real deal! On the menu is Chicken & Dumplings.

After all the hulabaloo of today's activities (bear in mind I also put my kitchen in order, did three dishwasher loads and four laundry loads during all this) I'm freak'n DONE. Tonight I'm going to drink some wine, paint my toes and knit some more rug.

I'll be grinning ear-to-ear every time I go into my kitchen though!

A Relaxing Sunday:

2008-08-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

Not to be confused with my relaxing Saturday yesterday, LOL.

You can see the pictures here . . .

A stroll through downtown SLO, around the creek and the mission, and then sushi dinner at Chin's.

Once again, despite the large geographic size of this town and the surrounding towns, Mike ran into somebody he knows (well, actually we both did, but my part was only because I was with him. It's *his* gift, not mine). We ran into Misti just outside of Beverly's Fabrics. Go figure.

MAN I LOVE THIS PLACE!

It's a Date:

2008-08-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Mike hung out with his "boys" all day and I hung out with Sheila knitting and taking pictures.

Apparently, Mike's "boys" talked him into having a party at our house on the 16th of this month.

See why he can't be trusted alone?!

So, it's a party at our house two Saturdays from now.

You're invited too! Mike's buds and their women (but no kids!), Sheila, the Tuesday Night Knit girls . . . everyone's coming over.

If you can't make this one, never fear. I'm planning on a JUST FOR ME party in October. It'll be my 40th on 10/12/08. No one will be shooting off fireworks in my honor, or holding a world-wide knitting event, but it'll still be a blast.

Depending on people's schedules the October one may start mid-week and end on a Sunday. That way people like SisterDi and KnittingSuzanne and ZubieJen and Jollyewe and Ellen Bloom and Yarnologist can work around their schedules.

YES! ALL Y'ALL ARE INVITED!!

Kind of like a 'knitting retreat' or 'mini knitting vacation'. Crafting and noshing and the enjoyment of refreshing libations while at the Coast . . . heaven, if ya ask me.

So. Either I'll see you two weekends from now, or I'll see you in October. Hell, maybe I'll see you both times! That would be awesome.

Until then, please be lured by these pictures of life around my house and town:

For CJ:

2008-08-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

In honor of Shark Week, here are some pics of my BIL's shark:

(this one is right after he ate - he was moving around so fast!)

Dude. When you come over this way, you can see him live and in person.

Last night we went over to Brian's for some BBQ. It was soooo good. We didn't get home until after midnight! That's mighty late for us, and especially for The Mike.

It was alot of fun though. Brian and Misti are leaving Monday for Hawaii. This is MAJOR. My BIL doesn't fly, due to his (unfounded) fear of it. We always wondered, if him and his band made it big, how he'd travel to gigs because of it. This girlfriend of his has been a great addition to his life and the family. His wife was nothing but baggage and annoyance and we all collectively let out our breath when he finally (after almost 20 years, mind you!) stopped putting up with her particular brand of The Crazy.

The girlfriend is a nice person anyway, and a wonderful compliment to the BIL's easy-going nature. It sure seems like "love" if he's willing to board a plane for her, lol.

Oh, and towards the end she and I had a nice little chat about the choice of child freedom and how she thinks she leans that direction. She's given it considerable thought and continues to do so.

AWESOME!

I think I fell a little more in love with her my own damn self, LOL.

Date Afternoon:

2008-07-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

This afternoon The Mike got off work a bit early, and we wandered over to Pismo. The weather was absolutely PERFECT. No fog, warm (for Pismo) and a minimum of tourists.

I took a metric butt-load of pictures. I'll get them up tomorrow. Today was all about the hang'n out and enjoying ourselves.

Here's one of the many photos to tide y'all over until later:

What an awesome day.

Catch you cats later.

Your Post Title Here:

2008-07-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

Quick update -

I'm around, but it's a tad bit busy 'round these parts.

At the moment (9:30pm) I have an electrician and a flooring guy in my kitchen. We're having electrical problems, which means I still don't have a stove/oven (yet!)

Lots of stuff has been put away, and it's really looking like "our" house.

The cats are pretty comfy now, and wait until you see the pictures I've taken of them. LAZY! Lounging around and doing a whole lot of nothing. This is why friends have told me that if there is such a thing as reincarnation, they want to come back as one of my pets. It's a cush life, lemme tell ya.

I'm off to sit in the corner and knit while these guys do their thing.

Tomorrow I'll get some pictures thrown up here.

Room With a View:

2008-07-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

This could get addicting! Here are the scenes from my dining room window for the last few days - taken at different times. The light fog burns off around 11am and it stays clear and warm until sunset.

July 25, 2008

12:45 pm

July 27, 2008
5:15 pm

July 28, 2008
10:15 am

July 29, 2008
8:30 am

July 29, 2008
8:30 am
Zoomed

Josie Pau Pau (aka Poops) relaxing in the craft room

Blue (aka Boo Baby) rudely interrupted from her nap!

I'm off to make another large dent in the moving boxes. I also need to go buy some coffee and flavored creamer, now that I've finally unearthed the coffee pot!

Tonight is the weekly SLO knitting group meetup (Starbucks in the Marigold Center at Tank Farm Road and Broad Street) and while I'm excited, I'm a bit nervous to be meeting strangers. I'll let'cha know how it goes.

A Beautiful Day:

2008-07-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Today (Sunday) was absolutely perfect in every way.

The weather was just this side of hot, due to the cool breeze blowing through every open window here.

I unpacked three good-sized boxes and then lounged alongside the cats hanging out on the furniture.

Knitting was done (and the realization that my rug is not near enough completed), and loafing was done and enjoying the great outdoors was done.

All in all, a most perfect day weather-wise and life-wise.

Tomorrow is another hustle/bustle flurry of activity day for me whilest The Mike slays the dragon for us.

Pictures - In No Particular Order:

2008-07-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

Apologies at the forefront for crappy pics - I didn't bother editing or cleaning up outside of making the super dark ones a tad lighter.

Driveway
Driveway facing house
Front Door
Still Cleaning
Back Patio heading towards front of house
Back Slider (Madden)
Lots left to do

Back yard segregated
Lawn side of back yard

Smack Dab in the center is Shadow
That black box on Scilly's collar is the best $80 I've EVER spent!

No More Non-Stop Barking!!

Did I tell y'all we have a huge berry bush in the back yard?
We do . . . and it's HUGE.
Whatever that fruit is, we have two good-sized threes that grow them
Actually, one of the trees is filthy with them

1/8th the crap originally piled up there

Shadow already ruling the roost

The kitchen, coming in from the garage
Going from kitchen to garage
Leaving kitchen and entering garage
Door from garage to back patio
Back patio view of slider into living room
From the front entry looking through dining room into living room
From the slider into our living room
From the living room into the dining room

That "picture" on the wall straight ahead? That's my frigg'n view!

AWESOME

From dining room into kitchen

The "craft" room (and there's my new sewing machine on the right!)

The closet in my craft room - it came like this - SCORE!

Plenty of storage space and spreading out room

Dining room from the hallway

Front Door

Our bedroom

Down the hallway, from the back part of the house towards the living room

This is your room. It'll be clean soon, I promise!

Here's your bathroom - ditto on the "clean soon" part

CRAFT ROOM EXTRAORDINAIRE!

Dining room window view

Look closer . . . isn't it a lovely view?

Still our bedroom

This was taken the very first night. All we wanted to do was get the bed made and climb in!

Your room the first night we stayed there

Avila on Friday afternoon, looking towards Pismo Beach

You can always find Pismo Beach by the standard wall of fog either coming in or going out

The street in front of our house

Our house from the street

SQUIRRELLLLLLLL

Dude had a berry stashed in the rocks at the water

He was chowing down and loving it

Seriously. A squirrel with a berry. At the shoreline. Go figure.

More of Avila on Friday afternoon

View from by BIL's bedroom deck in Pismo Beach, looking towards Oceano

Boosinger Park

Looking down Wadsworth towards Junkins (I went to rival Paulding, so we always refer to Judkins Jr. High as JunKins)

BIL's front door view of Pismo. THIS is the place to watch fireworks off the pier!

There y'all go - pictures galore!

(P.S. I did have my dental appt last Thursday, and then I had my bothersome (wisdom) tooth pulled Friday at seven in the freak'n morning! My mouth is still pretty sore from the three lidocaine (sp?) shots and from the gaping hole remaining, but once that pain is gone I'm free and clear and ready to dance around my house.)

Fiddy. As in Half:

2008-07-26T21:52:00.001-07:00

I think we're about half-way done with the unpacking.

In-progress pictures have been taken, but I still have to find my camera charger. The battery indicator is now flashing and I hate when that happens.

Couple of items:

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! I can see my beloved sky full of stars again. I always look up at them and think about the Dunites.

HAH on my MIL. Today I got a new(to me and newer than the other one) sewing machine via Craigslist for a mere $50 and I am over the moon! Probably Monday I will start sewing up some curtains for my yellow kitchen.

I'm 99.9% done with my log-cabin-inspired kitchen rug. After my current color there's only one more to add, then weaving in the ends and VOILA. A rug that ties in all my kitchen colors. Yippie.

We got all the cat kids out of the clink (boarding at the vet) and with us. They're still getting used to all the newness, to varying degrees. Shadow is still hell-bent on being outside No. Matter. What. So she's out. Her growling is too much.

Not one "boom boom" stereo has driven down our street or even our neighborhood. Something I don't miss, but notice the absence of.

That's all for now - more tomorrow!

Coming At You Live:

2008-07-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

From the comfort of my bed . . . in our new place!

AWESOME.

We've spent the last two nights at my BIL's house while this one has been getting it's final touches.

Tonight we're finally "in" and so excited. No more couches or air mattresses for a good long while.

I'll be back tomorrow or so. It's a full weekend of getting the house in order.

Hahahahaaaaahaha!

2008-07-24T16:03:00.001-07:00

HazelKnits Yarn visiting Pismo, originally uploaded by ajdury.

I ran the air conditioning the entire way over from the Valley, and by the time we left our new house to go have dinner in Pismo, I had the heater on!

LOVE IT.

I haven't worn a sweatshirt in so long. Mine are all packed up so this is one of Mike's.

Click here for my lastest batch 'o photos.

I'm Here - For a Hot Minute:

2008-07-22T23:10:00.001-07:00

My intronets connection is more spotty than usual, seeing as I don't have my usual couch spot to grab the perfect free connection that I'm used to.

My couch (and 99 point 5/8ths of the rest of my belongings) is on a trailer in my garage at the moment.

We have our old mattress top on the floor in the living room for our bed tonight, and my computer is perched on a tiny little "accent" table to simulate the spot where it used to be.

This set-up is eerily reminiscent of when we first moved to this house. We didn't have a lick of furniture, outside of the fridge, until we had owned the house a few weeks. Everything got delivered here and there as we moved in slowly.

Heck, even after we moved in, having a fireplace during the winter was such a novel concept, we'd sleep on the floor right in front of it as it died down in the late evening. That's where we're sleeping tonight. Being as it's the heart of summer in the Central Valley of CA, there's no fire in the hearth. Oh, and there are four cats more than we arrived here with originally.

This is it. Our last night in Porterville. I'm really glad Mike is here to share it with me. We get to walk away from this town together, and neither one of us wishes different.

We're both disappointed in different ways.

His parents have really let him down, and all their talk of "family is the most important thing" has only shown him it's only that . . . talk. There is no substance behind their words.

I'm disappointed in this town. "Gateway to the Sequoias" . . . "All-American City" . . . "Porterville. The Good Life". Hardly. Going back home, I won't be bombarded with the boom-box stereos rattling my kitchen windows, or the amplified mariachi music from my neighbor's yard at 12:30am, or the dogs running the streets, or the illegal fireworks, or the . . . hell. You name it. All the "broken window" issues this town doesn't address.

Well, I didn't plan on writing this post tonight, that's for sure.

I thought I'd give my review of "wall-E" since I did go see it yesterday, and talk about how I knit for the first time ever in a movie theater, and that I kept the streak going by being the only one seated for the showing. Hell, I even planned on writing about how my MIL took back the sewing machine she gave me a few years ago.

Maybe for another day.

Tonight is for Goodbye, but also for Hello.

Hello to SLO, and a huge HELLO to all my friends that come see me over there, and an excited Hello to what the future holds there. Like I've said - I'd rather be poor in a town I love than in a town I hate.

"Adios" Porterville. Don't go away mad. Just go away.

Super Duper Quick:

2008-07-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

I'm in the midst of packing the last of it, and The Mike will be here this evening.

My computer will be the very last thing to get bundled away, so I hope to have one more post up this evening.

If not though, I did research all the wi-fi spots in SLO (and get used to me typing that - it's a pain to keep writing out San Luis Obispo, and really . . . that's how us natives refer to it anyway. Like PDX or DFW for those locals) so I should be back up and running by Thursday sometime.

MAN I CANNOT WAIT TO STOP PACKING AND START *UN*PACKING!

Apester

If You Find Yourself In Atascadero Tonight:

2008-07-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

Or if you find yourself in the general vicinity and looking for something to do, then please to be checking out the upstairs of Hoover's 101 Cafe. My brother-in-law's band Dragwater takes the stage in about 40 minutes.

My favorite song of theirs is "Burn", which you can hear on their MySpace page.

Yes. I accept the weird dichotomy of loving some of my BIL's songs and yet hating pretty much all hard-rock music.

My BIL Brian - Dragwater's drummer

Brian in action

(His drums are clear. See-through. Pretty sweet kit he's got going)

Billy Doty - Swing'n Little Guitar Man
(and 50 points if you name that reference!)

Billy is one of the nicest guys you'll ever know, and he comes from good stock. His dad was a well-loved veterinarian at the coast. Billy and his wife Terri both - great people. Don't let his bad-ass look fool you.

Sean - Lead Singer
(and major dickhead, but that's just my opinion)

Go check 'em out if you get the chance. After this week, I'll be back at their shows. You'll know me since I'll be the chick sitting in the corner, ear plugs in, drinking wine and knitting, LOL!

FREE:

2008-07-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! I'm completely free from work. Since my replacement worked Thursday and Friday full days with me, I couldn't sit at my computer to finish up one last financial report I needed to get done, so I went in this afternoon for an hour and whipped it out.

I also emailed myself all the knitting patterns I had downloaded to my work computer :wink:

The last time I did not have a job to go to was back in about 1988. Hoo boy that was a long time ago.

It's all still sinking in. Unemployment, moving, getting back "home" finally.

Looks like the move won't be until this coming Tuesday. The house at the Coast is still being worked on, and the floors won't be finished until probably Monday. Mike's been there every day at some point, doing something around the place. Today he told me he was in the attic, making the electrical box for our living room light fixture/fan, and when he crawled back to the attic entrance, he put his knee through one of the bathroom ceilings. Now that needs to be fixed. I swear. Mike is like the proverbial bull in a China shop. He's broken so many things around our house due to his ham-hands and brute strength.

So. I'm completely free for the next few days (outside of packing up the little bit left) and I'm left wondering what the hell I'm going to do with myself. Porterville doesn't have much in the way of entertainment, and it's so damn hot outside that sitting in a park is not enjoyable, let alone sitting and knitting there with wool or heavy cotton on my lap.

I do think that Monday I'm going to go to the movies. I believe I shall just go to whichever one opens first, and then go from movie to movie (paying, of course!) until the afternoon. My hope is that it'll be empty for the most part - being a Monday and after the weekend rush of juvenile delinquents. The last time I was in a movie theater was October 12, 2004. We say Friday Night Lights and hand-to-heart the entire movie room was empty save for the two of us. We've never gone back since, thinking that was our one lucky time and we don't want to press it, lol.

All my sewing stuff is at the Coast, but I do have plenty of knitting action if I want it. Don't tell Mike, but I stocked up on almost all the cotton at Town & Country Drug the other day. Who knows if I could've found it again at that price!! Y'all know what I'm talking about.

Today, now that the rest of it is mine and mine alone, I have big plans for a glass or two of wine, some more home decorating knitting, listening to podcasts and breathing in and out. Yep. That's about it.

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Now, With Less Goofballs:

2008-07-16T21:41:00.001-07:00

Actually, with zero Goofballs. Today and this evening has been pain free in the dental department and YAY for that! One of the two SLO dentists got back to me this afternoon and now I have an appointment at 9am this coming Monday. SCORE. Again, I love me the intronets something fierce.

Given that it's been awhile since I've bogged down a post with a bunch of gratuitous pictures, I decided it's time once again for a pictorial montage.

First up is a sunset enhanced by the fires to the West of me, taken several days ago.

Another sunset, days later. You can see the difference.

This is 'Scilly on July 3rd, checking out the entirely cat-centric living room. Call me kee-razy, but I think she was a bit miffed by all the cat stuff.

Eventually, I had to give her a doggy bone to keep her from trying to break out of her confined area. She wasn't complaining.

I've definately been taking pictures. My subjects are quite bored with being the focus.

This one's so bored, she couldn't contain her yawn in my direction.

I've spent an ungodly amount of time taking pictures of the fur-kids. Come on though. With faces like this, could you resist? I sure can't!

That there is pure sweetness.

Just in case y'all thought I'd completely given up the knitting ghost, here's proof I've been working away on that "Log Cabin-Inspired" rug for my new kitchen. That's one of my dinner plates I'm drawing from. Told ya the blue was too light.

Here's a bit of progress from a few days ago. There's more progress since, but not alot. Garter stitch is frigg'n TEDIOUS people.

Looks like I'll be in P'ville until Sunday afternoon. The place we're moving into is still being worked on feverishly and The Mike says there is still alot left to do . . . floors, master bathroom plumbing, clearing out the garage of all the old appliances, etc.

That's actually a good thing. Mike isn't coming over until Saturday mid-afternoon, which gives me another evening and morning to finish up my end. Lemme tell ya. I've been lazy on my part. It's so dang hot that when I get home in the evenings the last thing I want to do is hustle around and pack and organize. No sirree. I want to plop down with an enormous iced tea and lounge. Lazyass lay around and do nothing. It's too damn hot.

Also, last night I went to my last City Council meeting and said goodbye to the mayor and the city councilmen and Police Chief McMillan and to the city manager (John Lollis - not that do-nothing John Longley!) and tomorrow night I'm going to Visalia to hang with my fellow knittas Suzanne, CJ and Diana, among others for the last time (in a good long while).

So I leave you for now, to go listen to Lime & Violet's latest podcast and to hit the hay for a full day tomorrow.

Hopped Up On Goofballs:

2008-07-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

That's my phrase whenever someone has taken legal narcotics.

Which I did about two hours ago.

Outside of making me feel somewhat nauseous (sp?), the pain really hasn't abated much.

I got me a Godzilla-sized toothache going on and 2 Ibuprofin, a 500 mil Vicoden and numerous swabs of both Ambesol (sp?) and that horrid Red Cross tooth pain medicine and seriously? Not much of a difference.

It's my last few days of work and I just cannot miss any time. I went online and looked up the dentists in SLO that take my dental insurance and have sent out appointment requests to two of them. This modern world of internetting is freak'n awesome. Hopefully one of them will get back to me tomorrow and I can get seen first thing next Monday.

And about that Red Cross stuff. A while back I had a toothache and a friend had that in her purse. Holy Moly that stuff tastes like death on a rotten cracker but it worked lightening quick so I felt it was worth the horrid taste. I think part of it is made with pure clove oil. It smells like cloves something awful and tastes like pure clove concentrate (which is NOT a good taste, lemmetellya!) Tonight though, I got to enjoy the putrid taste but with no lightening quick benefit. Damn that sucks.

So now I have the crap taste of clove in my mouth, I feel queasy from the Vicoden and really, my pain went from a 10 to a 9.5. I'm not seeing much of a benefit to the wonders of modern medicine.

Maybe I should've bought Jim Beam instead.

CJ - You Ain't Gonna Believe This!:

2008-07-14T19:53:00.001-07:00

Guess what I just found out!!

Go on . . . guess!

Ahh, you'll never guess this one, I'm pretty sure.

The Central Coast has it's own roller derby.

Girl, you better come on over in October and go with me to the free game at Santa Rosa Park!!

I couldn't believe it, but it's true.

There's even an "April" Fool

and a "CJ" Hook-her

Gotta love some of these names!

Berta the Hurta

Lacy Thunderware

I'm pretty sure this is the one that The Mike would root for:

And this one?

I think that's A MAN, baby!

Whaddya say? Up for this?

So You Don't Have To:

2008-07-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today (so far at least) has been spent in front of my computer, scrolling through the hundreds of things to do in San Luis Obispo County.

Hell, it may be thousands at this point!

I've saved several that interest me - lots of outdoor art and concert events in and around SLO town.

Here's something I found though, and thought somebody else may find it as equally interesting:

Rob Appell. He's a surfer and a quilt maker. Ayup. You read that right. I am IN LOVE with his quilts, lemmetellya.

How awesome are those babies?

His mom owns The Cotton Ball in Morro Bay so it's a natural fit - surfing and quilting.

He even wrote a book. Wanna see it? Here it is:

He works at the shop so you can pick up your book there, and even get it signed by him.

Another great find I just happened upon:

Cinema Under the Stars - Pismo Beach (well, actually, it's Shell Beach)

Now showing: Hitch. Bring your blankets and sweatshirts out to the bluffs at Dolphin Bay at sunset. Concessions available for a small fee. Dinner and a movie packages also available. Call for more details

Date: August 20, 2008
Time: Sunset
Location: Dolphin Bay Resort & Spa
Event Address: 2727 Shell Beach Road
Event City: Shell Beach
Parking: Complimentary
Phone: 805.773.8900
Admission: Complimentary
Visit Website

(and from their website:)

Cinema Under the Stars
1st and 3rd Wednesdays throughout Summer
Enjoy a night under the stars watching some of the best movies from across the decades. Admission is free and concessions are available for a small price.

Seems the (huge-mongous monstrosity that is) Dolphin Cove Resort shows movies for free during the summer. Pretty damn cool. While I don't think the movie "Hitch" is any great cinematic masterpiece, I do love me Will Smith, and I like Kevin James too, so that's where I'll be August 20th . . . under the stars and at the beach, with a sweatshirt on and probably a newly knitted lap blanket to keep me toasty.

I dunno where The Mike will be (KIDDING! He'll probably be down the road at his brother's, bar-b-queing). I'd be surprised if he went to something like this.

And my last "find of the day" for ya:

Pallet to Palate.

Please join us at The Cliffs Resort in Shell Beach for our three main events.
Each events supports local food, local farmers, local chefs and helps the
Food Bank coalition of San Luis Obispo County.

Sunday, August 17, 2008
Pallet to Palate “Conference”, 12:30pm-3pm
Cooking Demonstration/Lunch Using local produce - by Gregg Wangard and 3 local farmers
Conference – 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Located in the ballroom at The Cliffs Resort
National Speaker Chef Ann Cooper
Renegade lunch lady who is working to transform our children’s school cafeterias to provide delicious, healthy food.
For more information on Chef Ann Cooper, please visit http://www.lunchlessons.org/
$15.00

Sunday, August 17, 2008
Pallet to Palate Fundraiser/Gala Dinner – Reception 5:00 pm, Dinner 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
5 course / 5 chefs / 5 farmers / 5 wineries
Each course will be prepared by a different farmer and chef, them paired with a local wine
At Marisol Restaurant
Live guitar music
$60 Inclusive

Monday, August 18, 2008
Pallet to Palate featured Event – Farmer, Chef Reception & Tasting - 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Farmer’s market type setting on the lawn overlooking the ocean
25 Local chefs and farmers collaborate delicious samples
Wine tasting
Silent auction/fundraiser
Live Music and a full, no-host bar
$25

I think I'm going to go to the Saturday conference and the Monday Farmer's Market.

MAN I LOVE MY UPCOMING TEMPORARY UNEMPLOYMENT! Love love LOVE it!

There ya go. I shall continue surfing the interwebs for all that is interesting and/or unusual, so you don't have to.

More Empty:

2008-07-13T20:50:00.000-07:00

Mike's back over at the Coast now, after spending Saturday night here in Porterhell.

I'm a lucky duck in some ways.

As he was getting into town, I hit the road, picked up Jen and then headed on down to Bakersfield for my last (for a good long while at least) meetup with my fellow Yarn Mavens.

It was a nice visit with my South Valley fiber friends. I got to say goodbye to MaryAnn, Cindy, Joyce, Lisa, Beth (I don't know who she is on ravelry) and I also got to meet, for the first time, Meg and Sara. I wish I'd had a few more months of hanging out with those two!

Unfortunately, I missed being able to say goodbye to Kim and her adorable daughter Alex, as well as Ruth, Ari (who is in my thoughts as she deals with the loss of her mother), Christy (who is as funny and interesting to know as Kim is!), Caroline (and Boo on her for picking the Olympic Swimming Trials instead - just kidding! It's hard to be mad at a gal that chose to gaze upon this, this, and this. Just say'n).

I didn't say goodbye to Jen yet, because she's kinda-sorta offered to invite me over for dinner this Wednesday (and I don't care if her house isn't 100% presentable so she better invite me over officially - since I'll be ringing her doorbell at 6pm that day anyway, lol!). I also didn't say goodbye to Suzanne yet either, because we'll be driving one last time together to the weekly Thursday meetup in Visalia at Borders.

Although they never made it to a Yarn Maven's meetup, I certainly wish I had gotten to meet many of the other people on ravelry who make up the "Kings-Tulare-Kern Counties" group. They sure seem to be a bunch of note-worthy and interesting knitters.

In the end though, I'm not saying "goodbye" as in forever. I'm a mere ravelry PM, blogspot comment, email [to ajdury(at)yahoo(dot)com] or visit away for every one of my Valley peeps.

I have some awesome and amazing friends because of ravelry and I damn well won't let a spot of geography keep us apart.

Oh, and I haven't even told you yet how Suzanne got me to well up with tears yesterday too! Me. The thick-skinned Tell It Like It Is chick. Yep. Cried. Just a little, but it happened.

Thursday will be my last (for a good long time at least) visit with the Visalia Borders group. That deserves its own post, so stay tuned.

Tonight, my P'ville house is a little more empty and my SLO house is a little more full. The stash is gone. GONE. I look forward to meeting up with it in a week, to organize and pet and enjoy it again in its new home.

Truth be told, I look forward to organizing and petting and enjoying ALL my stuff soon. My dishes and and my fruit/vegetable crate label collection and my postcard collection and heck! Even my husband. He needs some serious organizing, petting and enjoying round 'bout now :grin:

Interesting:

2008-07-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

A while back I ran across this website - Sweaterscapes.com. They certainly have some interesting designs.

Personally, I wouldn't wear a sweater that *busy*. My apparel is pretty bland - sometimes some wording on a shirt or sweatshirt, but nothing like this stuff. From a knitter's perspective though, I admit they intrigue me.

At the time I originally saw that website months and months (and possibly a few years ago? Can't remember for sure), either they didn't have sock patterns then, or (more likely) I didn't know how to knit socks so I didn't notice them if they did.

Now? Now I really really like the idea of this design element but as socks! My sock wearing is predominantly the 'kick around the house' kind. If I had socks such as these on my feet, I think I'd just sit around gazing at my lower extremities instead of accomplishing things around the house!

The sock designs

CUTE!

Anywho - it's FRIDAY and normally that would consist of dinner out with our fishing friends, but not lately. Tonight and tomorrow morning, I have to finish packing up the last of the last of it all. Mike's coming tomorrow afternoon (while I'm in Bakersfield with my Yarn Mavens for the last time in a good long while) and he's taking another load over to the Coast on Sunday.

So far, the bulk of my stash has been with me, and it's been comforting having it here. Sunday we part ways for an entire week and that means I'll only have one or two projects. It's a great way to keep me loyal and steady on the path of finishing them though!

I still have my beautiful HazelKnits sock on the needles and a second one to go as well. Also, the Log Cabin-inspired rug is coming along nicely, but it's just going to get bigger and bigger so it'll be knitted on most of next week too.

Just remember - this time next week? I'll be done with my old job and one night away from living back at my home town. YIPPIEEE!!

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Nesting:

2008-07-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

Hiya all!

I'm finally all rested up from Saturday's big move. I crashed hard on Sunday, with a 3+ hour nap and still slept hard Sunday night as well.

Lately, I've been on a "homestead" kick in the knitting department. I finished the checkerboard cat dish towel but still need to weave in the ends. One of the downsides of packing and having most of your stuff 2.5 hours away is not having what you need at your fingertips. I made a pit stop at Town & Country today and picked up another package of those big-eyed weaving-in-ends needles. The few needles I still have hanging around are too small to get the cotton yarn through the eye.

Now I'm in the midst of a Log Cabin-inspired kitchen rug, using the colors from my dinner plates. I say "Log Cabin-inspired" because although I do own the Mason Dixon knitting book and read through almost all of it as soon as I bought it . . . I apparently packed it with most of my knitting magazines and the box is now in San Luis Obispo. I've read a few notes on the pattern via people on ravelry so I'm feeling good that I have the idea down. I'm really pleased with it so far, although now that I've looked at my plates again tonight, I realize the blue yarn I picked is lighter than the blue on my dishes. Oh well. My dishes have four primary colors - blue, green, yellow and orange. I started with a yellow center and then followed with green, orange and then blue on the sides of the yellow center . . . 'scept then I still had a yellow center side left over and was loathe to knit more yellow onto it. My kitchen has yellow walls, white cabinets and there is black in the granite countertops. After much consideration, I elected to make white the fifth color but I'm using white the least. White in a rug isn't the smartest idea in my house, but because it's cotton I know it'll stand up in the wash. Plus, I'ma yell at Mike every time he stands on it with shoes on, lol!

From what Mike's told me, the only carpeting in the house is in the three bedrooms. I have plans to eat up alot of my cotton stash for the kitchen and bathroom floors and alot of my superwash wool for the living room floors - maybe even some of my Cascade 220 since I can make it big and felt it down . . . but we'll see.

Another plan I have is to make lace curtains for a few of the windows - for sure the kitchen window right now. Since I haven't seen the house for myself, the window situation is still unknown at this point. I do know that the house is on a slight hill, surrounded by large trees all the way around, so there is privacy just from that alone, which is why I'm okay with lace curtains for a few of the windows.

At the house we're leaving, there really wasn't much need for handknit items outside of some dishrags and washcloths. At our old house at the Coast, I'da knit alot of this stuff, but I didn't know from knitting back then! Now, it's all coming together for the new house - lots of knitting experience and ideas and an almost bottomless stash. It's like the perfect storm almost :grin:

On the work front, the new chick starts tomorrow afternoon but can only come in from 4pm to 6pm these next two weeks. Maybe she can do a full day on the 17th or 18th but isn't sure, and that's after my final day of the 16th. My boss knows he needs to decide if he wants me to work after that Wednesday or not. I'm offering to stick around until the 18th, but THAT'S IT. After today's temperature of about 110 degrees, I want the hell out of here and to get to my hometown's moderate temperatures STAT.

Illegal fireworks are still going off around here (July freak'n seventh, people!) and it's only causing me to want to leave ASAP.

Sorry no pictures posted, although I have been taking a few here and there. My house is a disaster zone and y'all do NOT want to see what the floor under my fridge looked like when we moved it. YUCK. I will be pulling that baby out to clean under on a monthly basis from here on out. If nothing else, we've discovered that the tiny space under the fridge is where Madden sends all her toys to die - like the 9 golf ball tees she's stolen and some jingle-bell balls and a fuzzy mouse. It was like a cat toy graveyard under there! Oh, and Freckles did finally come out of the couch that night, but she's been very clingy since Saturday night. Tonight she's doing alot better and hasn't had to lay up against me . . . the heat may have something to do with that too, lol.

For the next few days, I get a two hour lunch (to make up for the extra hour I'll be working with the new girl in the evenings) so one of my plans is to take my computer to the local Main Street coffee shop and do some uploading of pictures for flickr and for ravelry once or twice this week.

It's off to bed for now. Happy knitting y'all, and I'll see and talk with you guys soon!

So Much With The Talky-Talky:

2008-07-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

(since only my brain and my fingers are functioning at the moment, this one is one of my more "diary" entries. If you're looking for something else, you probably should want to tune in later in the week, lol.)

Oh lordy lordy I am exhausted. If my feet weren't physically attached to my body, I think there's a good chance they would beat me senseless and run far far away right now. My back is complaining very loudly and my hips have apparently gone into rigor mortis in protest.

I was up at 7:30 this morning and packing the last of the boxes I had on hand. Mike and John (his best friend) were on their way over from the Coast at 8:30am, with trailer and dollies and moving blankets and more boxes for me to fill.

When they got to town, they stopped off at the furniture store to pick up the new double-pillowtop mattress Mike bought last week, and then went to my FIL's to pick up an extra queen bed he has that we need for the guest room*.

I finally got to see The Hub around 12:30 this afternoon, but it was a whirlwind of GOGOGOGOGOPACKPACKPACKMOVEMOVEMOVEMOVEGOGO until about 5:30 this evening. We were very lucky that Mike's younger brother carved out his entire afternoon to help us. Mike's "fishing buddies" are apparently only that - just friends for the fish'n. Two offered to help and one showed up (to pick up fishing stuff Mike brought over from the coast for him) and then promptly left to "go get Mike's Big Fish trophy". We never saw him again. The other dude no-call/no-showed entirely.

The FIL made an appearance, mostly BS'd with John and made his usual snide comments. At one point, as everyone's hustling and moving stuff, he found me by myself and said/asked "Well, is this move going to be the solution to your problems?"

WHAT A DICK. We moved to this gawdawful place because HE offered MIKE to take over his plumbing business. An offer that was only given if 1) Mike had gastric-bypass surgery (which he did in September of 04) and 2) Mike quit drinking to excess (which he did entirely - not just a little - completely, before his surgery) and 3) got established in town and with a job to start (which he did - we bought a house and Mike got on with a plumber as soon as he was cleared from his surgery recovery).

Four years and three months later, FIL has yet to start back up his plumbing business with Mike and doesn't think anything of it. The entire last year of Mike not working, he made zero effort to get the business going.

I blame him for us moving here. Everything that happened/happens/will happen is all our own making - me and The Mike. But trustyoume I would have NEVER moved away from my hometown if I had known that my father-in-law is such a jerk. I certainly know it now, after all these years and all the times he's been a dick to all his kids.

When he said that to me today, I responded with "I can be poor in a town I hate, or I can be poor in a town I love". I also told him that life always has problems. Money or fame or infamy or abject poverty - everyone's got problems. One of our *problems* is living our lives in a town that lets such ruin and blight exist with no plan or foresight to correct it. The illegal fireworks are but one small example. The rampant graffiti, the dogs running the streets, the urban sprawl of WalMarts and Super WalMarts and the inherent issues they bring. I'm hard-pressed to name anything good about the town itself, outside of the few people I've gotten to know that are worth knowing.

Porterville is a town on the fast track to Nowhere and living in it day after day has worn me down. I only leave the house for three reasons - to go to work so I can earn a living, to knitting-related stuff and to buy food for us and the animals. Outside of those three reasons I'm loathe to leave the only haven I have in this town.

On a positive note, there are a few things that I think have changed our lives that probably moving here attributed to. First and foremost is The Knitting. I had to move 2.5 hours away from my best friend to find out she knits and for her to teach me. Go figure! Second and probably equally important is Mike's love for Bass fishing. He's as enamored with all things fishing as I am with all things knitting. He's met people here that have taught him so much and he's shared a thousand laughs with all those guys and gals. Another benefit has been leaving the accounting office after 6.5 years and earning so much more because of it. My old boss kept telling me that I was lucky to get paid what I was getting paid "for Porterville" and yet I left her ass and got over $5.00 more an hour right out of the gate. "For Porterville" LOL! Lastly, all the great Central Valley people I've met because of ravelry. Suzanne, Carolyn, Sister Di and (Zubie)Jen are the people I feel the closest to, but pretty much the entire Bakersfield bunch I enjoy and will miss, as well as several in the Visalia group. Let's say I never moved away and still took up knitting . . . I wouldn't have known these people in the flesh which would have been my loss.

It's 9pm (as I type) and Mike is just now hitting San Luis Obispo. He's dead-set on unloading everything this evening, and I can only imagine how dog-ass tired he and John are, if my poor aching body is any indication. Thankfully, Mike's older brother and another friend are there waiting to help. Fingers crossed it goes much faster on that end.

So. The bulk of the move is over. Our couch and my rocking chair are still here, as well as a few boxes-worth of household items. I don't have a refrigerator, a freak'n ceiling fan/light fixture in my living room or my lamps in here either(grr). All the t.v.s have left, but I do still have the computer (which means my podcasts and all the intronets I want). I have an 80 gallon ice chest where my dining table used to be and all the ani-mules are still with me. Right now Freckles is so traumatized, between the fireworks last night and the moving upheaval today, she's climbed inside the couch and refuses to come out - for food or kitty treats. That ain't good.

Oh, and a final thing! When I gave notice to my boss the other day, I told him that my "unofficial" last day would be the 16th (the last day of the payroll period) but that I was absolutely available to help find/train someone for my spot if it took after the 16th - no need to leave him in the lurch since 1) I don't have anything lined up at the moment and 2) I need his recommendation since Pam (my old boss) harbors grudges like we stash fiber. The day I gave notice I posted on CalJobs for my position. I then went and checked out some resumes and two were worthy of printing and giving to my boss. The next two days a few resumes came in over the fax (hardly qualified to be the receptionist let alone the Controller of a multi-million dollar company with various other financial interests - just a fact) and my boss asked me to line up an interview with one of the two I had found myself.

SCORE!!!

I talked with her Thursday, to line up the interview (and again with proof of how small this town is? She'd interviewed with me at the accounting office two years ago but my then-boss didn't select her). I had a good feeling on this one, and initially gave her some pertinent info to take into the interview. Later that evening she emailed me to ask a few more pointed questions and I gave her the straight scoop on several things - the good, the bad and the ugly. It was only fair.

She called me this morning after her interview and BADAMMM! She's taken the job. She starts Tuesday afternoon. I may get out of P'Hell by the 16th, or very close to it!

When I finally hit the road West, I'm not looking in my rear-view mirror. My In-Laws can kiss my ass. Since I don't want to fight with The Mike, I haven't told him that there is ZERO chance I'll be returning to Porterville in the year 2008, and a good possibility for zero appearance in 2009. Thanksgiving and Christmas are at MY house, in MY town this year. Any coming back I do will be to Bakersfield and/or Visalia to meet up with my knittas for a visit.

Otherwise, y'all best be planning your trips to the Coast!

* we are serious about setting up a guest bedroom in one of the spare rooms. So many of my friends, and Mike's friends and our friends together have said they definately want to visit us over there and we are SO EXCITED to have our friends visit! We promise to dedicate a room that has zippy cat hair and unpacked moving boxes and fishing/knitting/sewing paraphernalia in it. It's all about our house being a place for people to come hang out and to come enjoy our town. I forget to say "YES! Come visit!" when people express their desire - because I assume they know we're friends and more than welcome. I think it, but I need to say it too, so consider it said. What I wouldn't give to have Ellen Bloom and CJ and Suzanne hanging out in my living room, or visiting my area's highlights with me. We'd have a hell of a good time.

Seven Years Ago Today:

2008-07-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

It was seven years ago today that I met The Mike.

His brother was a client of mine at the accounting office, and had invited me to his annual 4th of July party at his house in Pismo Beach. Since I'd only moved back to my hometown a few months earlier, I didn't have any other plans and decided to go.

Man oh man what a night that turned out to be.

When Mike was introduced to me, the very first thing he ever said was "You do our payroll? Give me a raise." Taken completely off guard, I stammered something along the lines of "well, I can't do that."

I don't remember much of Mike between being first introduced and hours (and many beers) later when he came to my rescue and stopped some dude from kicking my ass.

There was a guy at the party that was sofa king annoying. I didn't know him and he didn't know me but after hours and hours of listening to his wanna-be Eminem attitude and talk I'd had enough. I laid into him about how he lived at the goddamn beach and not Compton and to knock off his whole ghetto-rap shtick. He's white and to accept that he's a white dude living at the beach and not some hard-knock 'from the streets' rapper.

Wellllll, he (and his wife who was twice my size easily) didn't take too kindly to my input. We were all across the street, at Boosinger Park, and the guy started getting in my face and threatening to fight me. Mike got between us and told the guy to knock it off and step back. While the guy was arguing with Mike, I was standing behind Mike, wispering in his ear rude stuff about the guy. Back then, Mike was a very big guy and easily blocked me and this other dude.

I didn't know at the time, but Mike knew the guy very well - he worked at the plumbing supply house in San Luis and since Mike's a plumber, he's been in that store many many times.

The party eventually broke up and everyone went on their merry ways. After that, every time I'd see Mike's brother, he'd tell me 'we need to get together for a bbq'. I heard that for months and months and months and eventually for over a year. Mike and I never exchanged numbers or information and I wasn't thinking of him as 'date material' - I really didn't think of him in any way except for the guy that saved me from getting my ass kicked one time. One time I was walking around Pismo with some friends, and Brian saw me. He said "oh, my brother's here - let me go get him" and they never did return.

It took a year and three months for me to meet up with Mike again. We've been together ever since that second meeting, but that's a story for another day.

Lo these many years later, I still don't even know that other guy's name and we only refer to him as Eminem, lol.

Seven years ago, if you'd told me I'd be married (for almost five years) and that I'd be living in Porterville, I certainly wouldn't have believed you! Hell, I didn't even know what Porterville WAS back then. Now here I am in Porterville, married, and spending 4th of July alone, packing up my house and trying to get through the worst holiday of the year unscathed while my husband is in Pismo . . . at his brother's annual 4th of July party.

Go figure.

He owes me BIG TIME for this one, lol.

Penultimate:

2008-07-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

All three yards are watered down, with sprinklers going in the back and front yards, at the ready.

The living room has been barricaded to keep the dog away from the cats. *Note to self: Look into that whole "baby gate" concept!*

I know where the two outside cats are, for when it gets dark, and the dog is already at the back slider waiting for the starting gate.

Tonight is the kick-off to the absolute worst holiday celebration I've ever experienced. Tomorrow night is going to be akin to a mid-east war zone, based on the last three years of experience living in P'Hell.

If I wasn't so nervous about my house catching fire, or my animals going stark raving mad with fear, I really would enjoy the neighborhood fireworks shows - well, the illegal ones*, which are rampant in the "nicer" neighborhoods. I guess because those are the people that can afford to spend the hundreds and thousands of dollars it takes to rival the Pasadena Rose Bowl show, andIain'tevenkidd'nya. The Corcoran prison corrections officers, and the local law enforcement officers not on duty.

For the last three years, the majority come from the same five locations. I've invited my Mayor and a few city council members, as well as the Chief of Police and the City Fire Chief to all come hang out on my front yard to see for themselves, and I even offered to provide the iced tea! Not a one of them has ever taken me up on it.

So, tonight I'm hunkered down with knitting, the newest Vanity Fair, The Secret Garden (SCORE at the grocery store tonight!!) and the intronets for company.

Tomorrow is wall-to-wall packing and organizing and getting ready for The Big Move on Saturday. I'm not moving yet - just my stuff. Mike's coming with some friends from the coast, and a few friends from here will be chipping in and then Saturday night it'll just be me, several (okay, six. WHATEVER! Don't judge.) cats and a dog, plus their stuff and a mattress on the floor for me. I'll keep a few of the necessities on hand - some yarn, a plate, a glass, a few knitting needles and some more yarn, my computer, some clothes, and of course some additional yarn. Like y'all wouldn't do the same in similar circumstances. I'm here until I have a replacement at work and I've had a chance to train her some. FINGERS CROSSED that won't go past the 16th of this month, but we'll see.

Hopefully, everything will be a-okay here this evening, and then we'll just deal with tomorrow night when it comes.

On the needles: Completely mindless cotton checkerboard square in yellow/cream/orange to become a mat for under the cat's food bowls in my [Don Pardo] NEW YELLOW KITCHEN! [/Don Pardo]. I've wanted a yellow kitchen for over five years now, and guess what's waiting for me when I move back home? Ayup!

Reporting from The Silver Lining, this is Knitting Blue Content for WKRP :grin:

*that shitty firework stuff people buy at the booths around town? Hate them with a fiery red-hot passion. They smoke like crazy, make gawdawful high-pitched whiny screams and generally have zero redeeming value whatsoever. I personally will NEVER darken the doorway or give to the cause for any organization that sells fireworks out of those booths. Ever.

It's Official:

2008-07-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

When Mike left Sunday to go back to the coast to work for the week? He took his boat with him.

That there is the true indication that we are moving back to San Luis, OFFICIALLY.

Up until Sunday, I hadn't really discussed it in real life except with Suzanne and Carolyn a little bit.

Sunday night I called my best friend Sheila and finally told her. Yesterday afternoon, I gave notice to my boss.

Heck, I haven't even told my sister or brother yet! Looks like I didn't need to though. Mike went to the San Luis Obispo DMV to re-tag his truck yesterday afternoon and of all the 250,000 + people populating that county for my husband to run into??

My freak'n brother-in-law! My sister's husband. Man. I swear. Mike has a knack for running into people.

So that's it. We're moving back. I almost don't believe it yet.

I KNEW it! My Inner Hippy Is Showing:

2008-06-29T00:42:00.000-07:00

Tonight on Saturday Night Live, they turned on the Way Back machine in honor of George Carlin's death and aired their very first ever episode - the one featuring George branching out into his more *edgy* stand-up.

As the first musical performance finished their song, I *knew*, just *knew* where I knew him from.

He's THAT GUY. Sgt. Freak'n Pepper himself.

I love me Mr. Carlin, but I also love Mr. Preston and Janis Ian.

An awesome tribute tonight, Just awesome.

You Just Gotta See/Hear This!:

2008-06-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

You MUST click here for audio immediately.

It's called "crossstitch" and I found it on ravelry.com just now.

BRILLIANT. That there's a keeper.

Last post of the day, I SWEAR.

First Name Power, Last Name Trip

2008-06-26T17:58:00.001-07:00

First Name Power, Last Name Trip, originally uploaded by ajdury.

He demanded that I "take that camera somewhere else", and I told him I didn't have to. He told me not to take his picture, so I took it anyway.

Who does he think he is? Telling me I can't stand on a public street and take pictures.

He was very rude and condescending to this young woman and I can see why he wouldn't want his actions captured.

Too bad for him he never realized the camera takes video too, lol.

Know your rights:

http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf

( video is over on my flickr page, and yes, I really talked back to an officer of the law, lol. I'm nothing if not bull-headed. Surprised you didn't know that :snort:)

(also, between the light pole crashing down on a car on Henderson a few months ago, and a truck on fire at a residence last month, and now today's car accident down the street from my house, you should probably be worried for your safety when I'm around with my camera! these were all strangers though.)

Yuck Is In the Air:

2008-06-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

This is what our air looked like this morning. Seriously gross.

Back in 2005 scientists predicted that if we didn't get a handle on some solutions, the San Joaquin's air quality was only going to worsen.

The Air Pollution Control District implemented a "Spare the Air" campaign (similar to the Bay Area one).

What's San Joaquin's "Spare the Air" been up to lately? From the Air Pollution Control District's website:

Spare the Air
Thank you for your participation and interest in the Spare the Air program. This program has evolved into the new Healthy Air Living initiative, which will continue to make available daily air-quality forecasts, in addition to providing you with additional resources to use in making healthy air-quality choices every day at home and work, in school and on the go!

Please follow the links from this website’s home page for more Healthy Air Living information, and check back for our Healthy Air Living website, www.healthyairliving.com, now under construction.

So let's go link jumping and see what their current plans are to deal with this serious issue, shall we? . . .

Apparently, one of their great ideas is to evoke the great power of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and all his compatriots to battle this evil.

The dairies are a major contributor to our poor air quality as well as our poor water quality.

The recent fires around central and northern California are certainly not helping either.

Smoke from the fire at Fort Hunter Liggett the other day

Our air quality forecast for today.

Gross gross gross. I can't wait to move out of the Central Valley for this and many other reasons.

Lunch Break:

2008-06-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at my desk, eating some leftover BBQ Chicken pizza, so I thought I'd chat some more about what I'm up to.

Yesterday I got the missing sewing machine bobbins purchased (did y'all know they sell them pre-threaded now? I had no clue!) and was ready to get right into the Making Of the Bags when I got off work. I checked over the printed instructions a few times and measured and cut the tulle, got the machine all threaded up (thankfully I have the owner's manual because sewing is not something I do often, or even rarely, almost never is more like it) and started stitching. I stopped stitching as soon as I could see what was going on. I'm no sewer but something was very wrong with my "two seconds of sewing" results. So I tried it again . . . with the same results. I fiddled with buttons and knobs and levers and tried it again . . . with the same results.

In the instruction book, there's a part that discusses "tension" and being a knitter, tension is certainly not foreign. I had set the top stitch tension, but it seems the bottom bobbin tension was so tight as to create thread *throwup* on the bottom of the stitching. I thought my pre-wound bobbin was defective but I figured I should go read about this magical bottom bobbin tension stuff anyway. Good thing I did because once I adjusted the bottom tension I was off and sewing in no time!

After successfully sewing up two sides of my first bag, I took a break and chatted with The Mike on the phone. While I was doing that, I got a call from a 661 area code. No one or place in Bakersfield would be calling me outside of KnittingSuzanne and we rarely talk on the phone, so I was perplexed. When I finished with Mike I went to the computer to pull up ravelry - Suzanne and I co-moderate a group, and we've had a couple of moderating issues not too long ago so my first thought was that something was wrong there. As ravelry was pulling up, I checked for emails and saw Suzanne had contacted me there too. Now I was REALLY curious to know what was going on!

She was calling and emailing to ask ME what was going on . . . with ME! Yesterday, my coworker told me she got the invite to join ravelry, so I ran right to it and deleted my blog link and my personal info and also, completely inadvertently, the ability to receive PMs from anyone! Woops.

Suzanne was calling to see if I was having mental issues since it appeared I'd drawn all the blinds, shut out the lights and locked the front door of my interwebs presence.

Ravely. Without it, I'da never known KnittingSuzanne and she wouldn't be calling to check into my mental health! With it, I gotta go hide all my bloggity blog stuff from my coworker!

This is where I tell y'all how the cow ate the cabbage. Sometimes that includes my work and my town and real live people (that although I don't mention real names, this town is the size of a postage stamp and she'll know who I'm talking about!) so for now my ravelry presence is but a mere shell.

You can always access my blog by bloglines or some other rss feeder or hey, do it the old-fashioned way and "bookmark" me. I'll be here, telling it like it is.

After all that, I did finish one entire produce bag and I am tickled pink with my results!!! Pictures later. More Making Of the Bags when I get home.

Oh, oohh, ohh, I almost forgot. Yesterday I emailed three places at the Coast
(the west one, Ellen) that are advertising with job openings and within an hour one of them asked for my resume! The only bump in our very probable move back home soon is my getting a great job. I can get A job but hopefully I can get a GOOD job. Fingers crossed.

Talky Talky**** Update:

2008-06-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

Since I have another husband-free week ahead, I probably won't be blogging much - I'm too busy laying around the house naked and knitting! KIDDING! I'll stop knitting on occasion. STILL KIDDING!

Like I'd stop knitting. Please. But seriously:

#1 - Sick Dog: Prescilla (although we call her 'Scilly) has something Not Good going on right now and we're not sure EXACTLY what it is but we do know it has to do with her brain. She really went downhill for a few days, two weeks ago, and then she spent most of last week at Dr. Herriott's getting checked out and looked over and a bit medicated. She's been back home since Thursday afternoon and under my intense scrutiny. It started with her heavily salivating and not being interested in her ball. Scilly . . . and her ball? They're closer than Freckles and Madden. She has an unholy love of her ball and I ain't even kidd'n ya. Thankfully, she's back in love with her ball and barking her fool head off at every opportunity. Still not 100% but extremely better than two weeks ago.

#2 - The Mike Does a 180: Mike and I do not share the same views about animals and their domesticated roles vis-a-vis human being caregivers. I believe that if you (meaning me) have a pet, then that pet is allowed to roam the home and homestead in all places that humans roam. Mike is a dead-set believer that dog = outside only. At almost 5 years of wedded union, we still clash at this crossroads. I think that losing Hunter recently and 'Scilly's current brain sickness has softened the guy's heart . . . a little, but a little is a lot for him on this issue. We were talking about 4th of July (and the inevitable deluge of legal and illegal fireworks for the ten days before and after the holiday and as I type this the illegal ones are ex-frigg'n-sploding every few minutes) and how 'Scilly gets worked up - barking and running around the yard *protecting* us constantly. The Mike said, and I like to have fell out of my seat (but we were driving and thankfully I was seatbelted and locked in) "if you give her a bath that day then she can come in". THUNK.

THUNKED right the eff over.

#3 - The Elephant In the Room: I let 'Scilly (and I used to do the same with Hunter too, back when he was alive) in the house most nights that Mike is out of town. I've been doing this from as far back as when we dated in 2002. He knows that I HAVE done it, but I think he really doesn't want to truly know-know as it happens. I'm going to always do that - every chance I get. 'Course I scour and clean the bedroom before he gets home, lol!

#4 - Divvying Up the Chores: Mike and I had the plan on Saturday to clean and get some financial housekeeping done. This guy is such a hoot! He was SO intimidated by the financial paperwork that he opted to clean most of the house while I filled out the forms. Flashbacks of our tax return preparation anyone? I do forms every day and all day long at work. Forms and paperwork are my wheelhouse. There isn't a form or questionnaire that makes my knees knock in fear. I say BRING IT! Mike? He says "please go away and I'll do anything to avoid you and gee, look over there, a shiny object and dessert!" He informed me first thing on Saturday morning that I'd be in charge of this Filling Out Of the Forms and he'd scrub toilets, vacuum (with the attachments!) every square inch and also bust out cleaning supplies he had never heard of, let alone used before . . . all this for the sole purpose of not Filling Out Of the Forms.

Eventually I stopped snickering and got down to paperwork business.

2 hours passed and I needed to stretch. I went wandering down the hallway for Mr. Clean himself. I almost buckled and 'fessed up about the ease of my part of the bargain when I saw him emerge from a bathroom with sweat streaming down his face and a scrub brush in his mitts. Then I remembered how much I HATE housework and cleaning and if I could find anyone else willing to do it? I'd hand over every shiny object and dessert in my possession with wild abandon. Yin, meet Yang. Something tells me we were meant to be.

#5 - Hello My Fabric, Hello My Sewing, Hello My Envi-ron-men-tal Conscious-nesssss!: Everyone (and by Everyone I mean Karin of Lime & Violet, Laurie and CJ - scroll about 1/2 way down) has been touting the Environmentally Friendly ways to shop.

(this topic title brought to you by I Can Has Cheezeburger)

Holy crap I laughed my ass of when I saw this the other day! Talk about a perfect caption!

After I did alot of The Forms and Mike did most of The Cleaning, he wanted to get out of the house and to hit The Big City. :eyeroll: I was only willing to hit The Big City if we could stop at a fabric/knitting/anything even remotely interesting/ store.

So we did. My shopping list was for the sole purpose of enhancing my sewing stash as it relates to green grocery shopping. SCOORRRRRRE. I had a kick-ass time wandering the fabric aisles of Joanne's and picking out my produce bag fabric and my grocery purchase fabric. Mike was tailing my every move and yet I still had a kick-ass time. We perused the sale fabric, and then locked on the cotton print fabric and throughout it all His Royal Assness kept repeating the same two sentences: "I'll NEVER take this into the grocery store EVER" and "You know the ONLY way I'll ever be seen with this is if you bring it with you and I'm there too, so you better not EVER make me take these without you. EVER." Then he got sidetracked with shiny objects and wondered if any of the fabrics had bass fish on them. Unfortunately, we never did locate fishing-themed fabric. Fortunately, he picked two cotton prints and I picked two cotton prints for me to turn into purchased groceries bags. Also I got the tulle and some appropriate cords to create produce bags as well.

I'm SO EXCITED to haul out my sewing machine and get to stitching on this stuff! When we got home from The Big City, Mike popped off and said "if I come home this weekend and you haven't done anything with this stuff? I'm throwing it all away." No lie. He uttered those very words. Has he 1) not met me and 2) taken a good look at all the bass fishing lures he's bought and not used in a year? Let's revisit number 1. I'll tell him how the cow ate the cabbage in a New York minute.

#6 - We swung by Tokyo Gardens while visiting The Big City and Yum Dee A Licious like we remembered. They originally sat us near the front door and did the customary "is this alright?" query. I glanced around and saw tables full of . . . is there a better way of saying this? Little Kids. Free-range sproglets. Them Things enjoying all the running around carpeted areas that their parents assumed were 'safe zones' in restaurants. No Thank You and Can We Please Be Reseated? Our hostess was kind and sweet and realized we (I) weren't about the Free Range Sproglets. She took us past the main dining room and through the bar area into our own little niche. Cute as all get out! There were only two booths back there (and no one else ever got seated). We enjoyed views of one of the Teppanyaki (sp?) rooms and the bar area ***. The other awesome thing where we were sitting was a floor pool right next to us. The owner (? not 100% sure, but a good guess) even fed them while we were eating. It was awesome! Until I looked back at my plate of raw fish and then back at the Koi and then back at my raw fish. Kinda creeped me out, I have to admit. Still ate the food though! It was a perfect meal.

On a completely unrelated-to-sushi note:

#7 - SOCKS SUCK: Truthfully, I suck. Not just at socks but at complicated knitting in general. Right now I'm sucking at knitting socks. My beautiful Noro socks . . . I'm past the heel turn and back into noodling through the patterned part. I'm just not happy with it though. I'm pretty sure I'll be ripping that bad boy back to (at least) the completed heel turn. If I do that, then really, I'm very tempted to rip the ENTIRE thing out and start over. I don't like the color change at the ribbed cuff and it's going to continue to irk me if I don't fix it. It's not like I've completed three-fourths of a sweater and hate it. It's just a sock, thank goodness.

And I really really want to make my idea that I've started so I *will* pick it right back up and start again. Stop laughing! I will! *

#8 - Socks don't suck, but my knitting does: My 3/4ths done BEAUTIFUL
HazelKnits yarn sock got frogged back almost to the heel turn. 'Member? You 'member** when I wrote that one of my personal sock preferences is another rib section at the ball of the foot? Loves me that slightly snuggy feel. Unfortunately, I started that ribby section too far down past the heel and even then, it just didn't look right. Suzanne advised that I go down two needle sizes to get the ribbing I want, so a'frogging I went.

Seriously people. Wendee's yarn (HazelKnits) is SO freak'n gorgeous that even the pile of frog was a delight to gaze upon. And soft, oh my good gravy I think part of it's content is melted butter.

Butter or not, I'm dating two socks that I have issues with. It's not them, it's me, but these issues have caused me break up with The Making of Socks. Splitsville. I know I'll let The Making of Socks back in pretty soon, but right now I'm wallowing in the freedom away from The Making of Socks. The Making of Socks has been hanging around alot lately, carving space for themselves in my abode and getting all comfy. They even cleared out a drawer (entire shelf) and started bringing their *stuff* over. Yarns, needles, fresh boxers, patterns, toothbrush . . . I had to put a stop to it and tell The Making of Socks that we need a break.

* Suzanne has heard my cry for sock help and she's going to come visit me Saturday to either teach me the "short row heel" or to hold my hair back while I throw up in sadness . . . cuz, you know . . . that's what friends do for each other.

** The Mike says this all. the. time. now. All the time people. He's a huge fan of the George Lopez show and George utters this phrase frequently. Wonder what Mike loves so much about this show? I got two reasons and both belong to this woman !

*** I swear on my unbought yarn's life that I saw our current Deputy City Manager, Mr. John Lollis hanging out at the bar with a group of cougars and not a one of them looked like the wife I saw him with a few months ago . . . just say'n . . .

As an aside: Pretty soon I'll explain why I ditched all my personal info over on ravelry.com today (06/24). Suzanne found me In Real Life this evening and I swore to her (because it's true) that I'm peachy-keen and not in the midst of shuffling off my mortal coil. I love my friends so much!! Thank you guys for the care and concern.

**** Didn't I warn you this one was all about the Talky Talky?

On My Mind:

2008-06-24T00:48:00.001-07:00

I read alot of blogs about The Knitting and about The Fiber and about The The The. Stuff in general and very interesting in their own right.

Y'all knowI'm reading alot.

Last night I, I read something so heart-breaking that I have to speak out.

Faith blogs very frequently about Violence against Women and Violence against Mankind in General.

Why? Why does one human do this against another Human?

Us proud and centered and fully able-bodied women need to figure out a way to stop the pure and unadulterated violent abuse that is going on against us in other countries.

I can't adequately express how I feel - I just feel sick when I read Faith's blogposts.

She makes the Human World . . . you fill in the blank.

The Post After THE Post But Before:

2008-06-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

I have a big 'ole Talky Talky already written up, but I'm still in edit mode - probably tomorrow I'll post it.

This one here is just a little update from my break from socks.

I thought (and there's my first mistake) that I'd take a break from The Making of Socks to whip up a little something easy in my stashed Alpaca & Silk from Blue Sky Alpaca. This yarn is absolutely divine to knit with. Soft? Ohhh yeah. So very soft.

Since the yarn is so dreamy to touch and the ply has a great stitch definition, I had a particular idea in mind. Something mostly knitted on the right side with a bit of a border around.

I went through my ravelry queue with a fine-tooth comb (and lemme just give you a good tip - from me to you . . . TAG YOUR SHIT. The queue area is hard to navigate by "what" if you don't put your own tags on your stuff. I stuck with basics: *sweater* *scarf* *lace* *house* *baby* *socks* and spent about two hours getting every single item I have queued tagged. Seriously. When that box pops up after you "queue" something, put a tag in!)

So anywho, I found exactly what I was looking for, pattern-wise. It couldn't be easier. The wrong side is nothing more than a border and purls in between and the most difficult stitch is an ssk. Goodness I've knitted some WAY more involved patterns successfully and was way greener when I did.

Now, at 10:30pm of day 2? I've casted on two times unsuccessfully now. WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME?

There were two things that conspired to make me an incompetent knitter.

#1 - x7+4 I took this to mean that the pattern repeat is seven stitches and the border is 2(on each side) to equal 4.

And then I knitted it up. SO didn't work. I had too few stitches left at the end of the row to complete the repeat and the border.

#2 - Row 2: B2,k3,*ssk,k5,yo,* end k1,B2. I never did see that first asterisk. Not the first cast-on and not the second one either. I added up these stitches six ways to Sunday and never ever took note of that first asterisk. The second star was clear as day. My pea-brain just assumed the pattern started out after the two stitch border - at the knit three mark.

FAIL.

EPIC FAIL.

Face. Desk. Repeat.

I'm beginning to think that knitting is passively trying to break up with me before I break up with it first, lol! At the very least, I'm wondering if knitting wants me to find a different hobby to pursue.

'Scept I already did! I've invested in the products it takes to sew some green produce and grocery bags up, went to get to started tonight after work and . . . realized I have ZERO bobbins for my sewing machine. Not a one.

Maybe this is all a sign that The Reading Of Books misses me terribly.

Crash and Burn, Knit Style:

2008-06-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

First off, y'all can step away from the ledge I was teetering over. I just went ahead and jumped headlong and guess what . . . ? Cracked my damn skull open upon landing.

This Kauni Cardi "inspired" sock has sucked the love right on out of me. For the last 8-10 rows, as I stitch, I see where I done did wrong and my mind mulls over how to do this thing right. Like right-right. Not "oops, I forgot to stitch Pink when I shoulda stitched Mint". That there just needs some tinking and everything gets back to right as rain. Ohhhh no. My eff-ups aren't that basic.

It all started when I finished the heel turn. Easy Peasy and Moving Right Along thankyouverymuch. I know from heel turns and starting gussets on both sides and doing, you know, Vanilla Socks. Vanilla is my middle knitting name (not technically, but it should damn well be!).

Here's where I thought The Mathz was going to trip me up, 'scept . . . I remembered my original number of cast-on stitches, and I remembered how many "squares" in this pattern I started with. I had a hazy recollection of how many picked-up stitches I had with the S1K1 heel. With all that Mathz running through my brain I got kinda worried. How could I divide all this patterned Mathz onto the right stitches and still account for the gusset part?

Oddly enough, I did The Mathz correctly and I'm knitting along with the right number of stitches. My problem lies in two other arenas that are NOT my forte . . .

1) Colorwork

2) New Mathz

New Mathz wouldn't even be on my about-to-hit-40 radar except it's clearly tantamount to Successful Knitting.

So, you might ask yourself, what do you do when stymied with New Mathz and a sock you *want* to love, but just . . . don't . . . ?

Whooo boy do I have two answers to that question!

1) You look at every finished object Suzanne has ever made, and then you peruse every favorited item Suzanne has earmarked and then you just convince yourself she wants to be your knitting friend(mm'kay, that's me talking).

2) You look at every finished object Carolyn has ever made , and then you peruse every favorited item CJ has earmarked and again . . . you pinch yourself that she's your knitting friend. (mm'kay still just me jawing . . . )

My two friends inspire me SO much.

This isn't to say that I don't have other knitting friends (which I do and THANK YOU ravelry.com!) All's I'm trying to pass on is Knitting Inspiration and, to me, Suzanne and Carolyn are truly inspiring.

Thank you Zanny and CJ.

Push It Real Good:

2008-06-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

I'm at a crossroads of sorts.

Thank you ALL for the nicest things I've heard/read about something I've knitted in a super-duper long time!

If I knew what I was doing on these socks, then all this praise would probably swell my head.

But I don't.

Know what I'm doing.

On these socks.

I just looked up a pattern repeat and started knitting with an idea in my head.

Now I'm past the heel turn and kinda/sorta/really scared to proceed.

People. This is why I don't do socks with REAL patterns! I love so many patterned socks but I get to the jumping off point, look over the precipice (sp?) and sit my ass down in fear.

That's where I am on these puppies.

Suzanne (and you know who she is on ravelry by now I'm sure) passed on some stranded colorwork info at our every-other-Thursday Visalia group last night . . . which I *get* on an intellectual level, but I haven't ever personally fleshed out in my own knitting.

I know you guys all want me to succeed and when you read this you'll all get together to . . . push my ass over the Ledge of Fear. Out of love and knowledge and maybe-a-little-part-to-snicker (and you know I'd so do the same for y'all if the roles were reversed!)

This decades-old tough facade is melting in the face of socks!

Socks, People! Plain 'ol wear on your feet socks.

I'm so embarrassed, but apparently not embarrassed enough to talk about it.

I really-really want to rock these socks.

If I can noodle through the gusset and pattern repeats everywhere else, I'll be the first to shout about it. If I can't? I'll be trying to change the subject with info about my sick dog, my handsome (yet loud as fuck) husband, and any one of our 8 cats (6 ours and two abandoned! That's a story and a half unto itself, believeyoume).

See you 'gators later.

Because Suzanne Told Me To:

2008-06-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hey all - I *am* alive still.

This is the reason why all my time has been sucked away from blogging:

Noro Sock Yarn
purchased at Stitches West 2008

(same picture, just with fish-eye)

The pattern is something I *borrowed* based on the wildly (and for good reason!) popular Kauni yarn. The other day I did an interwebs search for the Kauni Cardi repeat pattern and found it EXACTLY, lickety-split. I printed it out and cast on last Sunday evening. That's all I've knitted in hours and hours and hours of after-work free time.

Weirdly, I just tried to re-find that search result and have completely wasted 45 minutes of my life! This isn't exactly what I found originally, but page 2 of this pdf is what I used.

So don't none of ya go stealing my idea until I get at least one of these babies done and posted up on ravelry! :grin: I was afraid to show it until I had at least one done, but Suzanne told me I should at least blog about it, lol.

Dear Ellen Bloom:

2008-06-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of this yet?

The Big-Ass Backyard Sale!

While checking out Crazy Aunt Purl's blog post today, I went link-wandering to Apartment Therapy and happened upon this flyer.

It seems like something you'd be interested in, so there ya go! Now the whole wide world of 4 readers (including you, Ellen) can check it out, lol.

Sock It To Me*:

2008-06-09T22:25:00.000-07:00

Back at the tail-end of April I joined the Pair A Month Challenge. Luckily I 1) had a pair of socks pretty much done to hit the April deadline and 2) didn't even notice the date when I joined or I probably wouldn't have . . . joined, that is.

So, I hit my April mark.

Those delectable Lisa Sousa Decadent Socks(1). All mine!

Then, before I knew it, I hit my May mark.

These were made with Jollyewe's (or if you're not on ravelry, then it's Jollyewe here) sock yarn in the "Oceano" colorway(2). The Mike kind of (before I knew it) offered these socks to his mom as a Mother's Day present . . . while I had barely finished the first one and ON Mother's Day. Luckily, my MIL is the one that would graciously accept an anigarumi (sp?) pile of poo and gush over how 'cute' and 'special' it was. She's just nice like that. She also would be just as excited to get a hand-knit "Mother's Day" gift three weeks after Mother's Day and never say a word to the negative. There's really no other relative that would be as appreciative as her, so it didn't hurt to pass them along.

At this point, it was mid-May when I handed those off, so I immediately cast-on for another pair.

I love knitting socks SO MUCH. My third pair was also given away by The Mike, and this time he gave me less than a week to make the second sock! It was kitchenered in a fevered frenzy Sunday mid-morning and was driven to Pismo Beach and the intended recipient Sunday night. Sorry - pictures taken but they're still in the camera. It was Tess' Yarns - sock yarn - in a beautiful mocha/chocolate/hint-of-burnt-sienna colorway. Purchased at Stitches West. This pair went to (get this!) my brother-in-law's girlfriend of two years even though he's still married to my about-to-be-ex-sister-in-law . . . got all that? Despite all the weirdness going on there, this chick is cut from the same mold as my MIL. Sweet as all get-out and completely cognizant of what a hand-knit means. She's the only one that not only sent us a Thank You for her Christmas gift this year, but expressly made it a point to relay her appreciation of something handmade. The time it takes to do it. Sweet. We hand-makers love moments like that.

Although I've knocked out three pairs of socks (all kitchenered I might add!) in about a month and a week-ish, those people that churn out 52 pairs a year? Holy Cats that's just unbelievable! Honestly, I think I've only been this prolific for two specific reasons: I knit 'vanilla' socks. No real pattern. Mike being away has freed up SO MANY freak'n hours every evening!

All this free-style, no-pattern sock knitting has helped me figure out how to knit what *I* like in a sock.

(1) Decadent yarn is wonderful to knit with, but it's really not practical to wear. They're already pilling.

(2) Short cuffs and heels are not for me.

(3) Negative ease (thank you Suzanne for the lesson!) is not comfortable.

My perfect sock:

Two inch mid-tight cuff (2x2 ribbing)
Loose and scrunchy leg for 4 inches
Loooong heel
Decreased stitches after the gusset pick-up.
Ribbed knitting between bottom of heel and ball of foot
Kitchenered toe

My fourth sock has been started, with Hazel Knits' beautiful yarn. If you recall, this yarn was purchased when Suzanne and I went to Stitches West . . . and STILL hit up an off-site yarn store! I'm so glad we did though. Hazel Knits had some beautiful stuff and Bobbin's Nest was very nice. At this pace, I should have a sock off the needles by the weekend. Just don't notice that I haven't started back in on my Pinwheel Sweater (two sleeves and that baby is done) or my Fair-entry lace project (about six rows in so far) or . . . the basquillion things I've queued on ravelry. Socks Rock and that's all I have to say about that!

*I know - bad blog title. I'm too busy knitting socks to come up with anything more clever.