Who monitors this sort of thing?

To preface: some of you know that I am an avid World War I historian. I have 100's of WWI books, I've seen the movies, I love the poetry, I have the knitting patterns, I have trench art & uniforms, and my dog's name is Pershing. Nuff said.

So, I was reading the paper this morning and on Monday's our paper published the couples that have applied for a marriage license, those that have been granted a divorce, and the names of the new babies born in the past week or so. I tend to read the baby names just to marvel as some of the crazy names that people give thier kids. Honestly, it boggles the mind. American's have enough trouble with spelling as it is, to give you kid a name and then replace all the logical letters with z's and y's and etc just makes no f***ing sense. But I digress. I notice that a boy has been born and they named him Kaiser James. I think ok, odd, but he can be "King James" as Kaiser is the German version of king. Then I notice his parent's last name....... (are you ready for this).... Wilhelm. Yes, you read that right, this child is named Kaiser Wilhelm!!! I really hope he decides to use his middle name for the rest of his life. I can imagine him trying to get a passport and traveling to Europe and the scene at customs in Paris or Belgium ("Humm, this says your name is Kaiser Wilhelm. I'm sorry, but we really don't want you invading our country again. Please go home.") I am just shaking my head right now. Sigh.

And now for something completly different: I organized my yarn collection over the weekend. I acquired a new book case and thus had to do some rearranging. Everything is now organized by either type of yarn (sock, cotton, alpaca/llama) or by brand (Cascade, Brown Sheep, Encore, etc.). I did manage to fill 3 trash bags with yarn to donate - it is mostly red heart and lion brand yarn and some novelty yarn that I just will never use. Ick! The collection looks lovely now and I did discover some yarns that I had purchased for a specific project and re-disovered them. Exciting! I also discoverd some yarns that made me wonder why I have so much of it. There must have been a sale or I was inspired by something at the time. Who knows.

Finally Some Photos

I have been doing a lot of knitting lately and I finally remembered to bring the camera and the computer together to download the photos. You might notice I have a new profile pic - there are the two live dogs - Lucie and Pershing. In the middle is the dog I knit for my nephew's birthday. His older brother received a knit teddy bear for his 3rd Birthday so the doggie is the latest birthday gift. I have a feeling this will become a tradition.

Here are some other things off the needles recently:

A pair of slippers I knitted for myself. The pattern is from an issue of either Interweave Knits or Vogue Knitting (a mind is a terrible thing to waste). I used a bulky yarn for the foot and then Lamb's Pride for the cuff. Ron received a pair for Christmas as well - tho not in pink.

These are the Twilight Socks from the 2 At A Time sock book. I knit these for Marilyn in exchange for artwork (see previous post). The Casper Scrapalopes logo turned out awesome! I made t-shirts for everyone and they were a big hit at the World's Largest Crop last weekend. The shirts were lime green so we really stood out! Oh, and she loved the socks! She is a Calagary Flames fan so the bright red socks are perfect!

Here is a close up of the dog for the nephew. Isn't he cute?! I used a Bernat fun fur yarn and he turned out really soft. However, the pattern said it would be approx. 11" tall and he is slightly taller than that. That is ok tho, more of him to love and cuddle with.

As I was trying to get a photo of the three dogs together Lucie and Pershing decided that it was time to rough house. I managed to get several photos of the two silly dogs as they were tearing around the living room. (Yes, that is a dog bed/pad on the floor). They finally calmed down enough to get the photo you see as my profile pic. Good Dogs!!

That is about it for now. I have two pairs of socks currently on the needles, and am getting ready to start a sweater. I also signed up for a Mystery Knit A Long thru the Tempe Yarn and Fiber Shop and that will start in May. I am looking forward to that adventure.

I Ain't Dead Yet

Wow, it has been a couple of crazy months since I last posted. Phew! I caught a nasty cold that held on for a month or so - I still have a slight cough and voice is not at 100% yet. Between work, Girl Scouts, and the knitting class starting back up again I feel that I have not been home in ages. I did attend a scrapbooking retreat over the weekend and that was wonderful, but it was followed up by 2 days of jury duty. Not as much fun. Between everything going on I really need to do laundry, finally went to the store last night as we were out of milk and fruit and other such essentials, and feel like I need to reintroduce myself to the dogs and Ron.



I have had time to knit though during all of this. I am working on a pair of socks in exchange for some artwork for our scrapbooking group. I managed to get quite a lot of the socks done during the jury duty stint. I was not allowed to knit in court, but I spend the time in recess and during the selection process wisely. Everyone around me was fascinated with the socks - the size of the needles, the color of the yarn (a dark poppy red from Happy Feet), and the fact that I was knitting socks in general. I would take a photo of them but the camera is at home (I needed to make the purse lighter). I am turning the heel on the second sock so I am on the home stretch!

I did finished knitting my Central Park Hoodie!! The color in the photo is not quite true - it looks pepto pink in the photo but the actual sweater is a dark maroon. I am still learning my camera settings. But you get the jist here. The back has cables on it as well. The sleeves are a tad long, but all sleeves are a tad long on everything I knit. You think I would learn but there you go. I do love the sweater tho. I used the Cascade Heathers yarn - lovely. I love all of the Cascade yarns and have yet to encounter a bad yarn from them.

Hey Woodchuck Chuckers...

It's Groundhog Day! (yes, I do like that movie)

The groundhog saw it's shadow this morning so I guess that means 6 more weeks of winter. Oh joy. Winter around here has been pretty nasty of late - lots of snow, then lots of wind which means lots of drifting. It makes driving just that more much fun.

I finally got a new digital camera and have finally found the time to take some photos of my knitting. Here is a really cool project. I decided that I needed a felted bag to hold my spinning wheel accessories in - instead of the nasty cardboard box that has been gracing my living room the past 6 months. This will hold the extra bobbins, the spare flywheel, and bits and pieces along those lines.

Here is the before photo - with Lucie used for a size comparasion. Now, Lucie is a lab/beagle/wingnut mix and about 45 lbs or so.

This bag is HUGE!! I used Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride worsted yarn on 10.5 needles. I could fit Lucie into this bag. Every time I held it up it just made me laugh.

Oh, please ignore the background of the photo - I've been sick and haven't been keeping up with the cleaning and suchlike the past few weeks. Those of you that know me - the above sentance will make you laugh as I really don't clean that much when I am healthly. Life is too short - I'd much rather knit.

Anywho, I finally felted the bag on Sunday. I used the wonderful method of throwing the thing in my washing machine and felted it that way -much quicker and easier than doing it by hand. here is the final size:

Two different views - one with Lucie laying on the bag and one beside. She is chewing on her bone so she really could have cared less about what I was doing. Can you believe how much it shrunk down? Amazing!! Ron was really impressed by the felting process when he saw the "after" bag. It is really pretty too.

My current project is the Central Park Hoodie - a beautiful sweater with cables. I have finished the back and sides and started on the sleeves yesterday during the Super Bowl. I had to set it down during the last 5 minutes of the game tho. Boy, those Steelers really know how to make their fans sweat. But at least they finally won - whew!

It's All Mine

Well, I made my final car payment today! Woo Hoo!!! I bought my Buick Rendevouz 5 years ago and today I paid it off. Now, that extra money each month can go to pay off the yarn balance on the credit card. Ha Ha.

This photo was taken a few days after I bought the car in January 2004. I love my car! It fits the dogs (even though they both want to ride in the front seat at all times), my scrapbooking gear, my knitting gear, and the Girl Scouts. And it feels so great to have it paid off!!

Ready or Not

Well, I have the presents ready to mail (wrapped, in the car and I'm headed to the Post Office today). I have a few more rows to knit on the last knitted present and when I bind off and weave in the ends it means I am DONE with my Christmas presents. I just have a few stocking stuffers to buy and I have to wrap the presents for my family, but for all intents and purposes I am done!! Wow, and I thought I would be knitting right up until Christmas - but I have two whole weeks to spare. Of course, the presents I'm sending to the UK will probably arrive late (sorry Mel) but that is ok.

An artic cold front is arriving in Casper this weekend - temperatures in the single digits for the highs! Buuuurrrrr. I think my hand knit scarves, mittens and hats will be getting a workout next week. Woo Hoo!!

We have drifts of snow and ice on our back deck from the snowstorm we had on Monday. Pershing and Lucie love to much on snow and ice - in fact, they each beg for ice cubes when I am at the freezer. Odd. So anywho, everytime the dogs go out they munch on the ice. But when they come back in, they each pick up a chunk of ice from the deck and bring it in the house to chew on. So, slowly but surely my deck will be cleaned off - one piece at a time. Of course one day Lucie got a little over ambitious and tried to bring in a 2 foot icicle and I made her leave that outside. I do have my limits.

Still no photos as I still have not found my camera. I have a real mystery on my hands here. I really hope it turns up soon.

'Tis the Season

I'm only going slightly crazy this holiday season.

I had a huge list of things to do this weekend - which included a bunch of Christmas knitting to catch up on, baking, shopping, wrapping, etc. I managed to do everything expect the Christmas cards and wrapping.

I have an excuse for the wrapping tho - I normally wrap on the bed in the War Room but I had a knitted present blocking on the bed over the weekend. As it is now dry and blocked I can start wrapping tonight. I also needed to finish knitting some gifts before I could actually wrap them and send them off (novel idea I know.)

I have also misplaced my digital camera. I could have sworn it was in my car but lo and behold it is not there. Hummm. I took knitting photos yesterday using the "old fashioned" film camera. But I really need to find the digital camera as it has some other photos on it I need to work on scrapbooks. If anyone sees a silver digital camera (I don't know the brand - it's silver) with a broken lens cover (I dropped it at the the dog park on day - mittens and cameras don't mesh very well) please let me know. Maybe the dogs took it as they were tired of having their photo taken all the time. This also means that I don't have any photos to post at this time. The cable to connect the camera to my computer is sitting here ready to be used, but no camera.

My LYS (local yarn shop) is having a party tomorrow night and we have to bring in yarn from our stash for a gift exchange. I had a hard time trying to find some yarn to gift. We had a limit of $20 worth of yarn. I don't want to be mean and give out all of the little leftover balls of yarn from years of knitting projects, nor do I want to give the really crappy yarn. I managed to find some chenille yarn and some nubbly stuff purchased at a garage sale. I figure that they add up to about $20 of yarn. Who knows. I need to wrap the box still so I have the rest of the day to change my mind if I want.

My final scrapbooking retreat of the year is coming up this Saturday. Crop 'n Carols! I am still working on my European Invasion album (from my year abroad about 13 years ago). I also have a calendar to work on, I just need to find the photos. There is probably something else but it is not occuring to me right now.

I still have 1.5 presents to knit, and I need to buy some stocking stuffers for the family. Oh, and I need to make a gift to take to my Girl Scout meeting - under $8 and has to be hand made. Humm. Something knitted I'm guessing.

Hat Season

The snow a couple of weeks ago clued us all in that it is getting to be hat weather here in Wyoming. Here are two of my latest projects:

This is the Four-Square hat designed by Jared Flood, aka Brooklyn Tweed. You use two different yarns and change color every 2 - 6 rows. The greyish color is an organic wool from New Zealand. The brown is from Knit Picks - their Peruivan wool. A very southern hemisphere hat. I knit this for the accountant for work - he has spent a lot of time with me recently helping me understand our accounting system and this was to thank him for his time and trouble.

This hat is from the recent Vogue Knitting magazine and it knit up soooo cute. This is for Autumn, the 3-year old daughter of a friend. How is this for a perfect birthday present? The inside yarn is wool/alpaca mix (and since we recently visited an Alpaca farm it is very appropriate) and the outside is a 100% wool. It looks very cute on Autumn.

Literate Knitter

I bought two books last night and finished one and am half-way through the other. Yeah, I know absoutly nothing about delayed gratification. I blame my mother and grandmother for not knowing when to close a book and go to bed. It's a curse, but it is better than some other curses I can think of.

The book I finished:

"Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair" by Crazy Aunt Purl. What a great book! Now, I consider myself to be a drunk knitter covered in dog hair (Aunt Purl goes for wine, I love my beer and vodka tonics) but I can identify with her. This funny woman can go thru a very trying time in her life and eventually take the time to laugh and find the humor in her situation. There are also some knitting patterns in the book - if you want to knit a cat tunnel that is. Actually, there are some great patterns in the book and I would love to knit the bracelet purse for someone.

The book I am halfway thru:
"Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot. This woman is a very funny writer and I have read all of her books. Take the time to read her essays - there are some great knitting ideas and concepts in them. My favorite thus far - sock yarn is the knitters equivalent to methadone - when you need a yarn "hit" then sock yarn fits the bill.

I love both of the blogs that these two woman write. Take the time to check them out.

Coming the mail soon.....
"It Itches" by Franklin Habit. It has been released and I have it pre-ordered so it should be on my door any day now. I love Franklin's cartoons about knitting and I love his sense of humor. Also out now is a "beef cake" calendar he did called "Men with Yarn". Oh la la.

Just a Little Snow

It started snowing overnight Thursday into Friday and by Sunday morning this is what it all looked like.

Here is Ron brushing off the car so we can go take the dogs to the park and go out to breakfast.






Here is a view of our backyard. I figure we have at least a foot of snow, it not more, on the railing of the deck.








This is Lucie at the dog park having a most wonderful time. I don't have a speed racer setting on my camera so getting photos of her is rather hard, but I think I was able to capture her joyfulness. She and Pershing had a great time at the park.

This was a wet, slushy snow, so by the time we finished at the park I had wet socks as the snow was deeper than my boots were high.

Saturday I held a Fiber to Fabric Festival for the Girl Scouts of Casper - the event went off quite well and everyone had a most excellent time. The 42 girls and adults that participated were able to learn spinning, weaving, wet and needle felting, knitting and crochet, Kool Aid dyeing, and they worked on Quilts for Newborns in need. My volunteers were wonderful and they had as much fun as the girl scouts did. I was one tired puppy Saturday night. Planning these events are a lot of work but they are very rewarding. However, Mother Nature sees fit to have it snow every time I plan one of these. Last year in October I held a Scouts Tee Off golf event and it snowed that morning. But, Wyoming scouts are tough and we golfed anyway. It is pretty much a crap shoot tho with any event held in October. But with my luck, even if I hold an event in July it will still snow.

I am starting to knit Christmas presents. I have ideas of what I want to knit for people, I just have to find the time to work on them. I knit myself a pair of fingerless gloves out of a llama/silk yarn I bought the last time I was in Boulder. Very warm yarn - in fact, I am wearing them as I type this out. My office gets kind of cold and my heater unit is behind me so the back of my chair gets warm but the front of me stays cold.

Ok, I thought that all of this snow and cold and such like was supposed to kill off the flies!! No such luck. I have a really pesky one in my office right now and I'm ready to go postal on the guy.

Tools of the Trade

I've come to realize that my two hobbies have A LOT of stuff associated with them. Needles & Pens, Yarn & Paper, Patterns & Pictures, both use sissors. Needless to say I have to haul all of this around when I go to events and classes.

Last night was the first night of the knitting class I teach at Casper College. We have a huge class this semester - woo hoo! Darlene is teaching 5 new crocheters and I have 10 (yes, count them, 10) new knitters. And 4 of them are teenagers! This will be the largest group of new knitters I have had to teach - but I think I shall be able to manage.

On the first night of class I always haul everything to show the students what this new hobby involves. They get to see and feel and squish all the different types of yarn - lace, fingering, sport, worsted, bulky, wool, cotton, alpaca, llama, silk, bison, seacell, hemp, etc. They get to see all of the types of tools - needles (straight, circular, double pointed), gauges, rulers, cable needles, yarn needles, stitch holders, stitch markers. And they get to see the finished projects - I tear apart my house pulling out scarves, hats, gloves, sweaters, dish clothes, socks, shawls, blankets, and the like. The fall semester always has more of the finished projects to display as I am knitting Christmas presents. The spring semester does not have a much - just photos. I try not to overwhelm everyone with all of this - I just try to get them excited about the semester and all of the cool projects they get to create.

Tonight I am off to a scrapbooking retreat for the weekend. Instead of yarn and needles, my car is now loaded with paper, albums, and photos. We will be up on Casper Mountain for the next 48 hours! The golf pro claims that this is just an excuse for us girls to escape and drink beer for the weekend. He is right - I do have beer in the car. But we will be doing a lot of scrapbooking! I plan on getting my knitting album caught up, and I will also be working on the album from when I did my year abroad in 1994. Talk about a trip down memory lane.

Maybe I'll have photos to post of my adventures. For a scrapbooker I sure hate to take photos.

To keep you amused until then, here is photo of my mom wearing the shawl I knit her. It is out of Malabrigo yarn - the wool/silk blend. Yummy. And this is the Clapotis Scarf/Shawl:

Pass the Butter...

Spud of the West, aka Dr. Potatohead, recently had a birthday and I tend to knit her less than functional items. That is what friends are for.

A couple of years ago she received this:

Every mad scientist need a knit double helix of their very own. Here is Spud's under the microscope. They always look larger under the microscope.

This year she received....

Ain't he cute? As Mr. Potatohead still resides near Boston and Dr. Potatohead is in Gunnison for another year I thought she needed a little lobster to remind her of home. I bet her students really wonder about their professor. I now have to start looking for next year's pattern.

The Continuing Education catalog came out last week and the knitting class I teach is listed once again. I can hardly wait for the new crop of knitters to come to class and I can warp their little minds, I mean introduce them to the wonders of knitting.

I am very excited about taking a yarn dyeing class this weekend at Dancing Sheep. The instructor is from Thermopolis and sells her own line of hand-dyed yarns and fibers. This should be really fun.

In case I have yet to mention it here, Lucie is a wingnut! Yep, our little bundle of oddness is outdoing herself every day. Now, we knew that Lucie see dogs and animals on the TV - which means we have to block Animal Planet. But the Olympics have added to the list of "Things not to watch when Lucie is in the room". Anything to do with horses: dressage, jumping, pommel horse (yes, you read that right). She barked a little bit at the swimming but that might have been a leftover from the dressage. I was watching "Forest Gump" last night and whenever Forest ran she went a little nuts as well. Also, the scene where Jenny is throwing rocks at her old house - that set Lucie off too. (BTW - my favorite line from Forest Gump: "Sometimes there are just not enough rocks.") Pershing ignores the TV unless a doorbell rings on some show. Oh, and NBC aired some commercial for an upcoming series that had some high pitched noises at the beginning and that really wigged them out. Needless to say, this adds a whole new dimension to our TV viewing. And I don't care if shows are aired in HD - it doesn't matter when your screen is covered in nose prints!

Knitting Odds and Ends

Ok, so the reason I have not been blogging is 1) sheer laziness (I'll be honest), 2) I really do not have that much to say, and 3) I've been busy knitting. So I won't keep you all waiting any longer, here are some pictures of my recent knitting adventures:

Two Cable knit headbands. The green band on the left is out of Hempathy yarn (a cotton, hemp mix) and the red headband is 100% cotton. I love wearing them. You can't see the ties, but they are i-cord. (The headbands are "posed" on a lazy kate.)

Pershing modeling a scarf I knit. In my knitting classes at Casper College we do a scarf out of some sort of novelty yarn (like a fun fun, ribbon yarn, etc) and they have to pick two separate yarns to learn how to change and carry different colors/yarns. This was the sample I knit along with the class this past semester.

Socks, socks, socks. Yes, I do love to knit socks. The first pair are for me (I do so love selfish knitting). They knit up in this fair isle pattern in the browns and greens. I do so love these socks.

This are Primavera Socks. I didn't download the closeup but there is a pattern of sorts. These are knit out of Tofutsies.

Finally, my Mexico socks out of Regia yarn. The yarn band indicates that thier colorways are for the flag colors of various nations. These are Mexico, and not the North Pole as one might initially think. I think these will be a gift.

My life is not all knitting. Here is some wool I spun up. It is a wool, silk mix from Lucy's Sheep Camp in Thermopolis, WY where they dye the wool. Beautiful. I have no idea what I'll do with this yarn...

Finally, the baby blankets. As mentioned in a previous blog there are several babies due this fall. These two blankets are for the twins my cousin is expecting - a boy and a girl. The yarn is Universal. I purchased the yarn when I was in Tempe for the Ironman. They are so beautiful and so soft - perfect for a set of newborns in New Jersey.

I have knit some other stuff as well but don't have the photos yet and/or they are presents and have to be mailed off before I can post the photos. I have several other projects on the needles so I have plently to keep me busy.

In case anyone was concerned, the golf course is back to normal, and perhas a tad better, after the flooding we had in early June. We just finished hosting our largest tournament and the summer season is starting to wind down. Yes, you read correctly. School starts on the 18th of August around here and teachers have to be back the week before so we have only 3 more weeks of summer before we loose all our staff.

I did host a summer scrapbooking party at my house in June and we scrapped all day long in the A/C. I finished the Ironman scrapbook for Dave and am debating when to give it to him. I'll be home over Labor Day weekend for a wedding and would love to give it to him then (I am very impatient). I should wait until Christmas, but I doubt I will make it that long. I am going to a Girls Night Out scrapping this Friday night and will work on some more albums. It is a wonder I have time to work. Speaking of, I should probably get back to it.

Casper Yacht Club

It has been a very wet spring here in Casper - so wet in fact that yesterday the Elkhorn Creek overflowed its banks and flooded our golf course. It is rather disturbing to see whitewater where the driving range is/was. The fantablous grounds crew is pumping our bunkers, checking out the erosion around the bridges and just working their arses off getting the course back into shape before our big tournament next week. We were supposed to have a tournament today, but as we don't have boats to rent to the golfers, they are across town playing golf. Check out the coverage in the local paper.

We have also been installing new software at work so between the conversion process, the rain, and everything I will be working many more hours than I am used to. Thankfully I have a wonderful yarn escape! Tomorrow I get to work at one of the LYS!! Charlotte needs me to cover the store tomorrow so darn it all, I will have to spend the entire day in a yarn store. Mom says is like having the fox guard the chicken coop, but I think I will be able to restrain myself. I will be teaching a cable knit class at the end of June so I will probably be playing with fiber and figuring out a pattern. I knit a really cute cable headband this week - pictures are still on the camera - out of a poppy red cotton yarn (the yarn label is also at home - sorry for the vague details for those that care). I have also been doing some spinning this week. I purchased some roving from Lucy's Sheep Camp (out of Thermopolis, WY) and have spun up one bobbin so far. I also took a drop spinning class last night - I needed a refresher on the drop spindle - and it was much easier than I remember. Thanks Rebecca for being a most excellent teacher!!

Finished Projects!

I finally have some finished projects - with photos - to show ya'll.

Disco Socks:

This pattern I found in my Knitting Pattern-a-Day calendar. Very cool socks that mom is now wearing.

Baby Blanket:

My boss and his wife are expecting baby girl #3 in October and as his house will now be overflowing with pink I decided that he needed a Chicago Bears Baby Blanket. He is a huge Bears fan and now he will have something to curl up under with his new daughter. Everyone go "awwwww". The pattern is called Tilting at Windmills that I found in the vast reaches of the internet. I modified the stripes to mimic the blue, white and orange stripes on the old Chicago Bears uniforms. I had to show it to boss-man as it was just so cool. He won't officially receive it tho until closer to the due date.

And this is why my blog is called Knits With Dogs. That is Lucie helping me take the photo of the blanket. Yes, I have a whole house for them to roam in and this is where she hangs out. Earlier, there was a squeaky toy on the blanket. I missed getting Pershing in the photo but he was helping out as well. Sigh - dogs.

My cousin and his wife are expecting twins - a girl and a boy - also in early October. (I am blaming the writers strike for this "baby boom". There was nothing good on TV so let's make our own entertainment! People have no consideration for us knitters.) Anywho, I have the two blankets done for the twins - just the basic diagonal dishcloth blanket, but I will be adding edgings to coordinate to the sexes. I knit both blankets in a verigated yarn by Universal Yarns called Easter Parade and then I can match up the blue and pink colors to knit up edgings. Time to go shopping for yarn!!

On a separate note, Casper now has TWO yarn stores. Yes, I have two LYS to choose from when purchasing yarn. I am currently teaching a beginning knitting class at the new store and taking a shawl sampler class at the other store. If you are ever in Casper be sure to check out All That Yarn and Dancing Sheep Yarn & Fiber. Joan and Charlotte run excellent stores and I am so glad to have ever more selection of beautiful yarns. My checkbook is not so happy however.

What Happened to April?

Apparently I missed April.

The World's Largest Crop was great fun. There were so many cool page ideas - I can't believe how creative some people are.

The Ironman was tiring, awesome, hot, stressful, and wonderful. Dave finished!! Woo Hoo! That is the important thing. The athletes had 17 hours to finish and Dave did it in 16:48:48. His swim and bike were excellent but the run nearly did him him. And the crazy boy wants to do another one in a year or so. I can't be related to someone like this. But, there were 2100 other crazy people compeating as well.

I got home, unburied my desk at work, and then somehow acquired a sinus infection. I'm blaming typhoid Ron for this one. The course of antibiotics is almost done (yeah!) but I still have a mild cough. I started this 10 days ago while doing another scrapbooking weekend. I was slightly out of it and did not have as much fun as I had anticipated. I did get a album completed tho so that is a good thing. But, that Sunday I got even sicker and spent the whole day throwing up.

I am finally feeling better, but realized it is now May and somehow a whole month has gotten away from me. Hopefully nothing too important passed me by.

We Are All Crazy

I am off to Denver this weekend to attend what is being billed as "The World's Largest Crop". 1500 scrapbookers in one room having a wonderful time with photos, paper, sissors, stickers and tape runners. I will spend 12 hours on Saturday working on my Year-Abroad album. I orginally put together an album of my photos from my year in Lancaster, England shortly after returning home. I am now putting it in a Creative Memories album and including all sorts of other stuff there wasn't room for before.

I started my scrapbooking "hobby" to record all of my knitting projects. I am on my third knitting album and I keep on knitting. I am also recording my girl scout troop, the dogs (of course!), life with Ron, and several heritage albums.

Ron will be spending the weekend with the dogs - I wonder who will miss me more - Ron, or Lucie and Pershing.

Speaking of Crazy...
Next week I am off to Tempe, AZ to support my brother as he participates in the Ironman Triathlon on the 13th! Check it out: http://www.ironmanarizona.com/ This event is for crazy people. Why would anyone in their right mind spend a perfectly good Sunday swimming 2 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26 miles when you could be knitting or reading or something. Actually, these athletes are very dedicated and work very hard preparing for the Ironman. I am very excitied to attend and support Dave in his first Ironman! I'll post reports when I get back.

No photos again this time. I did get some photos of the Disco Socks I recently finished but once again forgot to download the photos.

THNGVBD

Raise your hand if you ever read the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". I had one of those yesterday. I'm glad that day is over and I hope to never have it repeat again. It was a payroll issue at work and there is nothing like explaining the same thing over and over (and over) again to 40 employees.

I splurged and spent part of my income tax refund on a new iPod. I have the cutest little Nano now - red! Very cool. I figured I can now have my music travel with me as I knit and spin and play with fiber. I also purchased a jumbo flier wheel for my spinning wheel. Yep, I'm a fiber dork.

Along those lines, one of my girl scouts sold me some raw fiber - 3 bags of wool! (yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full). This led to the determination that Ron needed to install a utility sink for me in which to wash yarn and wool and perhaps even laundry. Did you know it is a 12 mile round trip from my house to Home Depot and that if you drive it 6 times in a 24-hour period you still don't win a prize? Yes, we spent our Easter attempting to do plumbing, which also meant we spent Easter attempting to get water back to our house. We are NOT DIY'ers. I have cold water going to my sink, but no hot water yet, and no drain attached either. Maybe in a weekend or two.

I really should post a photo but I need to take of photo of the socks I finished knitting a few weeks ago before I give them away. I started knitting a cardigan for myself but was not happy with how it was turning out and I frogged the whole thing and will re-think the pattern. I have started another pair of socks and have several projects that need to be started as well. That should keep me out of trouble.

Random Thoughts of the Day

Ron and I took the dogs to the dog park the other weekend and Lucie was running around like a crazy person, as normal. We encountered some other dog owners that had a Benji-type dog and a Bichon Frise type dog. The dogs greeted each other in the typical manner "Yep, smells like a dog". One of the women asked me if Pershing was a very large schiperkee (sp?) and I said no, he is a lab/chow mix. And then I pointed to Lucie and said she was a lab/wing-nut mix. The woman looked at me and stated "Wingnut? I haven't heard of that breed before?" Yes, she had a straight face. I just wanted Bill Engval around to do his "here's your sign" bit. Um, I cleared her confusion by claiming Lucie was an idiot, and she understood. Actually, the labnut is a new designer breed along the lines of the labradoodle.

I did some much delayed spinning last night. And no, for you excercise types it was not what you think. I used an Ashford Traditional wheel and spun some lovely wool dyed a gorgeous poppy red. Actually, I have not spun for a long time as my right leg muscles were not happy with me after several hours. I tried treadling with my left leg (managable, but not as smooth). Who knew that you should stretch and warm up before spinning. I am now trying to decide if I should ply the red wool with itself, or with a black wool (that would be sharp) or something totally off the wall and glittery.

My Girl Scout troop has been selling cookies at booth sales around town. We sold both Saturday and Sunday last weekend and we will be at it again this Saturday. Please, buy GS cookies! It is for a good cause, it helps to support the troops and the council, and the sooner I am rid of all the cookies the sooner we can get on with our lives. I do finally have my garage back as all the cookies now fit in my car. Now I want my trunk back.

Fibertarians United

To h-e-double hockey sticks with the democrats and the republicans! I am so sick of all this primary nonsense! I have switched parties!!! Vote for Dolores in 2008!!! Fibertarians United!!

For more information regarding her platform (shoes) visit The Panopticon.