Day 4: Guess Who?

Scared

I had lots of dreams last night. Oddly enough, I think they all included my cousin. And one of them had to do with a prostitution ring. Yeah, that kind of weird.

Things are very crazy right now. Dad has been having what he calls "episodes". From what I gather, he gets dizzy and feels like he might fall down. He had a stroke in 2003 (or a series of them, actually), and went to the neurologist yesterday to see if they could tell him what was the matter with him. They were concerned, and took him in for an MRI. They noticed a blockage in his brain and scheduled an angioplasty, probably adding some stents. And then they'll go and shoot him full of dye to see if the blood is flowing freely.

And last week, I was all worried about Mom.

Threesome

You all thought I was kidding in that Twitter, didn't you? Nosiree, I would not joke about such serious matters.

I think these days are probably behind us. I'm torn between feeling sympathetic relief for the slipper and Linus (and real relief for my ears! Linus was not a fan of the butt sex) and loss for the comedic side of things. Because really - homosexual threesomes with inanimate love objects? Wow. That's gold, baby. Solid.

Memories

The streetsweeper was cleaning my street when I woke up this morning, and it reminded me of being a little girl. I have the clearest memories of running to the door when I was three(?) and standing behind the screen and waving. It was thrilling when they'd wave back at me. I used to get so excited on Fridays, garbage days.

One of the best things about living at home is having old memories right at hand.

In kinda freaky news, Mom had a dream yesterday that I had a baby. A baby with long dark hair, and I was taking her to work. Silly dream-me. Mom says this is the third or fourth time she's dreamt of me having babies. And then last night, I dreamt I was walking through a grocery store with a stranger and he had two babies with him and I told him I wanted one of his babies. He told me I should get a baby from his brother.

Yeah, weird. Anyway, I think Mom's got a long wait ahead of her.

Picture Disks

I just spent the last three hours burning all of the pictures I have on this computer to disk.  (Well, all but the last three months or so.  Those six pictures are still at risk.)  I was having panic attacks about losing all of that visual history, and I'm glad its been taken care of now.  I'm relieved.

Or I will be, when I get it through my thick skull that it's all safe.  Now I'm debating taking them off of my computer.  Would that just be stupid?  It'd free up so much space!  But what if I lose these disks?  Or they get scratched?

I don't know.  Part of me always wants to simplify, and I think, "I've already got them somewhere.  Why do I need them everywhere, taking up space?" and then I think, "BUT OMG WHAT IF THEY DISAPPEAR???"  I think I'll probably keep them on here.  Paranoid-brain is a real life-sucker, you know?

This Post Will Suck

Just to warn you. I've got lots going on but not much to talk about. In a strange way.

The fair is this week, and I'm super-excited to go. I can't wait to find someone to go with! Will someone go with me? Please? Pretty please? Nobody has the time, money, or inclination. Or rather, no one has the magical combination of all three. Damnit.

My brakes are bad, and they're being fixed. It seems there might be more to the problem than the lines themselves, which is a pooper. It might actually be that little box do-ma-jig sort of to the side? But kind of underneath? Them. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it's not the box. From what I understand, the box is more work.

There's also the matter of the car-before, the matter being that it's still doomed to live out it's last days in the garage. That is, unless someone can fix it. Which they might be able to do. And hey, free car repairs? Are awesome. It helps to have buddies with spare time.

I've got the cutest picture of Stinky with Bruce. You'll just die when you see it.



There. Did you die? I thought you would.

Updates!

I haven't talked about Huckleberry in a while, so here are a few fun facts:

He loves to ride in the car. And he can smile.



If I mention "Daddy", he will sit and watch out the window for him.



He came back from my mom and dad's house after a two-day vacation with his customary "I've been at Grandma and Grandpa's" limp (they have stairs, he's too enthusiastic, and yes, I'm a teensy bit peeved they haven't blocked them off yet) with an eating disorder. He's always been the type to drool over his dish until I tell him "OK" and then he inhales it and looks for more, so when he wouldn't touch it last night, I called Mom to see if they'd, I dunno, given him "lunch" or something. If there was some reason he wasn't hungry at "TIME". ("TIME" as in, "Huckleberry, is it TIME? *cue hysterical dancing and celebration from the dog.) He didn't eat all last night, and this morning, out of sheer desperation, I brought the food dish into the kitchen. When I walked in the door, he got all excited (cue hysterical, if limpy, dancing, etc) and barely bothered to chew as usual. Apparently, Mom and Dad have taught him he can eat inside. Damn them!

As far as the Linus goes, there are a few fun updates:

He loves watching my birdfeeders outside the window.



He suddenly discovered the bathroom sink, but will only lay in there if someone's in the bathroom with him.



He spent all last week and part of this one laying under the coffee table with his belly sticking out, panting.



Oh! And have I mentioned he likes to try to mount the dog?

My Part (And Hopefully Yours, Too)

Last week my cousin Michelle took me to a special store here in our small town, one that specializes in natural products and also in GOD. I'm not so big on the GOD aspect, so I'd been waiting to go in until I had company. Turns out that was all in vain. They're not in business to tell you about GOD, but to sell you natural, less-harmful products. And in the case of their spices, sell you things in bulk which cost tons less than at Pick'N Save.

Here's one thing I'm proud to have bought:

Here's what the back of the bottle of dishwashing detergent says:

You are making a difference. If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25oz. petroleum based dishwashing liquid wiht our 25oz. vegetable based product, we could save 81,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 4,600 U.S. homes for a year!

Our natural dish liquid gets your dishes sparkling clean yet is gentle on your hands and the earth. We use only ingredients that do not pose any chronic health risks and are safe for the enfironment.

The frog sponge-holder was bought at a completely different time, for completely different reasons. (IE: Total cuteness.)

Bread

Amish White Bread
I, like many people suggested, reduced the 2/3 cup sugar to 1/4, with great results. Mom, Dad, Bruce and I all approved.


English Muffin Bread
Simply wonderful. Crunchy crust, crumbly slightly sweet insides, perfect with honey butter. Simple to make, with only one rise. I'm going to make this all the time. It's that good.

If you'd wondered what I've been doing lately, wonder no more. I'm making bread. At least twice.  And cleaning the house. And making soup. And learning how to embroider. And reorganizing the pantry. And unpacking the spare bedroom so that Bruce will have somewhere to set up a studio/practice room for his instruments. And jumping on a mini-trampoline whenever I pass it, for a few seconds at a time.

I'm a little busy. And (I hope this doesn't jinx it) I also think that I might be losing weight. A little bit. I bought a pair of work pants from Old Navy that were on super-clearance, because a pair of pants for $7.50 is a good investment, even if they're slightly too small, at least it is if you're really going to try to lose some weight. Anyway, they're size 14, and the last pair of work pants I bought was slightly too small at size 16. However, those were from a different store, and I don't believe they were "stretch". If you've ever bought pants with "stretch", then you know how much that can falsely boost your confidence level. They fit like a dream, though, and even if it doesn't mean I've lost any weight, I'm going to let it boost my self-confidence and my desire to slim down (some).

I'm also really impressed at myself for making the chicken soup I made this week. It wasn't anything fancy (in fact, I didn't add actual "chicken"), but it was much more than I would have thought myself capable of. Part of my New Year's resolution was to open myself up to trying new things, things that are scary. Cooking is turning out to be so enjoyable that I'm having a hard time understanding why I didn't start this a long time ago. I hope the rest of my experiments turn out as well as the cooking. I have a feeling they're going to. I can't wait.

Also, I started knitting a pair of felted clogs (from the FiberTrends pattern I bought almost a year ago). So far, so good. Oh, and I started over on my hourglass sweater, this time with a different yarn. So far, so good. The drape is much nicer with the new yarn and new gauge. I might have to do some creative increasing for the chest portion, but I'm going to cross that bridge when I get there. Still haven't ripped out the old sweater, because it's much more fun to birth a new project than to bury the old.

Dishcloth count is up to 6.75. That doesn't sound right, but those are the ones I was able to grab from the bin at one go.

How To: Dye Yarn with Koolaid

1. Wash the yarn gently in lukewarm water with a very mild soap. I used dish detergent.



2. Fill a pot with enough lukewarm water to cover the yarn.



3. Mix in your koolaid packets. A good rule of thumb is one packet per ounce of yarn. (If your yarn came labeled in grams, you can use an online converter like I did.) If you want lighter yarn, use less koolaid, if you want darker, use more. I also added a glug of white vinegar to my water, just to foolproof the mixture. Koolaid is acidic enough that you don't really need the vinegar, but I didn't want to take any chances.



4. Wring out the yarn and add to the pot of koolaid water.




5. Put the pot on the stove, and heat to nearly boiling. Stir the yarn very gently occasionally, to make sure the dye is well-distributed.

6. Turn off heat and cover the pot. Wait 30 minutes or so, stirring gently occasionally, until the water is clear. (I found that using a white plastic spoon to stir helped me see when the water was clear.) This means all of the color has been absorbed into the yarn.



7. Fill a sink with water the same temperature as the water in the pot. Don't use cold water, or your yarn could felt. Take the yarn from the pot, gently wringing excess water from it as you go, and place it in the rinse water.. Be careful of the temperature. If it's too hot, wait until it's cooled off a bit. There's no rush. (The water in the sink will cool at the same rate as the water in the pot, if it's the same temperature when you start.) Rinse the yarn very gently in the fresh water. Wash it again with a mild detergent, and rinse with water of the same temperature.



8. Wring the yarn gently as you take it from the water. Hang the yarn to dry, or if you don't have a place to hang it, lay it out in a cool dry place until it's completely dry.

When I was dying the orange/yellow, I started by using two packages of lemonade, and one package of orange. After cooking the yarn, I saw that it wasn't as dark as I would like, and I removed the yarn from the pot and added another package of orange to the water, mixing it in. Then I returned the yarn to the pot, and restarted the dying process. It turned out just like I'd hoped - a light orange/yellow color that I'll be happily knitting some lace from in a few weeks. Thanks for all of your input on which color to choose. (But as usual, I'm a complete jerk and disregarded everything but my own whims.)

The Cable Guy

Our new house has internet as of yesterday. Last night, you may have noticed, I participated in one of my favorite activities of all time - drunken posting. Oh, how I've missed it. Oh, how my posts make little or no sense the morning after. In the larger of the two posts from last night, I quoted from a forward I recieved. When I've been drinking, I sometimes think that forwards are either amusing or contain useful information. When I'm sober, I usually delete them immediatly after reading them. When I'm drunk, I sometimes forward them on. I guess I've progressed to posting them on my blog now. I especially like the way that I avoided posting the whole forward, instead choosing to make a blockquote out of part of the email and then comment on it. Priceless.

Our cable man came out to our house yesterday and hooked us up. Tomorrow, we are getting a DVR. With the DVR comes the Family Fun package and HBO. We're not sure why it's called the Family Fun package, but it does have some of our favorite channels. I can't wait to watch Discovery Health all day long, and Bruce would marry MTV2 if it had boobs. We're pretty excited.

I can't believe how much happier I am to be living in this house. And I'm not the only one - as I type this, Huck is throwing his rawhide bone around the room and prancing around after it. It's very cute.

In other news, I got my knitpicks package in the mail two days ago, and I'm very excited to dye me some yarn. I haven't taken a picture of the yarn, but it's 880 yards of laceweight.

[I told Lisa about this on the phone the other day, and our conversation went like this:

Me: I got 2 skeins of plain-colored yarn today, and I'm going to dye them with koolaid!

Lisa: (pause) Is plain-colored yarn the same as "white"?

Me: (pause) Yes. It is.]

Here's a picture of the different packages of koolaid that I bought. I think that I'll be knitting an Icarus with one of them, and I'd like your opinion on what color you think it would look the best in. Here is a link to the Icarus Knitalong (which I will not be joining, I don't think) and here is a picture of the shawl that the knitalong posted when they started in May. And here is a picture of the packs of koolaid I have:

I also bought some needles. I can now say that I own a 16in size 1, a 24in size 1, and a set of five double pointed needles size 2. I'm very excited for those, because that's the size required for embossed leaves. I can't start them yet, but I now have the supplies.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm off to watch me some Fraggle Rock.

Lots of Stuff

First off, embarassingly enough, I don't have the slightest idea what Susan's word "teh" means. It's definition is probably in her archives somewhere, else it's a bit of pop culture I have secluded myself away from, but all the same - I don't know what it means. I get the general meaning, teh = tre, or or very, or muchly, but I don't know the specifics. Susan, care to lend me a hand?

Secondly, I have done the impossible in the past week - I've finished off two pairs of socks that were languishing on the needles. Care to see? I thought you might.

The first pair is a triumph of mine. It's a beautiful yarn that knits up to the most delicious tweed. It's my second pair of completed socks, and the first pair I'm completely happy with, largely because I altered the amount of ribbing after almost completing the second sock. I'd known for a while that the ribbing on the first was a little excessive, but I had decided to "go with the flow" with the first. I chose to start the ribbing much before I needed to, and it resulted in an almost ridiculous three inches of trim at the top.

I had knit two socks before this one, but they had been top-down socks - this was my first try at a toe-up sock. I chose toe-up mainly because I wanted to use as much of the yarn as I could, because I think it's beautiful. As I was new to the knitting game when I knit it, I wasn't sure how much yarn I needed for any length of knitting, and I started ribbing too soon. When I got to the end of the second sock, I stopped the ribbing after an inch or two, deciding to edit the first sock to match. It turned out beautifully, although I may go back at some point and change the binding-off method. I used a simple bind-off, not one of the looser one's I've learned since beginning to knit.

The second sock is my real triumph, however. These socks are exactly what I want in a sock - not too long (long socks annoy my warm-blooded self) and with the right amount of jazz. They're Jaywalkers, and the pattern is really fantastic with self-striping yarn. I have a pair of Jaywalkers already (the first completed pair of socks I knitted), but these are really much more my style. I love the stripes, the colors, the ankle-high-ness. They're perfect. I even love the pictures I took of them - one self-portrait, and one self-portrait with the dog's whiskers in the corner.

Thirdly, we finished Angel this week. Yes, the full five seasons have been borrowed through Netflix, and I'm pretty sure Bruce is never going to recover. Even though it took 128 pictures to accurately describe his sadness at finishing the series. He loves him some Angel. I'm not as enamored of it as I am with Buffy, but it's hard to beat a Joss Whedon series no matter what it is.

Here are a few shots of Bruce cracking up when I asked him to show me his "Sad Face":





And then an actual picture of the Sad Face, the Sad Face that can be when you don't yell out "SAD FACE!" in the middle of trying to take a picture of it. Bruce is such a wonderful happy man that Sad Face doesn't come very easily to him, and you have to be sensitive to that and give him time to think about something depressing, like puppies dying or There is No Santa Claus, or perhaps the end of the television series, "Angel", for him to make the sad face.



And you know what? That's the best thing about him, the fact that it's so very easy to make him laugh, and that his saddest moments are his favorite series going off the air. He can be cheered up by a simple visit to a cheap chinese buffet, and his parents raised him to be completely independant and not afraid of anything (except for a television series ending). He loves life, and the very simplest things make him exceedingly happy. That's why he's perfect for me.

Lastly, our great friend Cam is coming to visit us in the beginning of November. I'm very excited for this, and I hope everything goes smoothly for his visit.

Socktoberfest! A Few Days Late!

On Friday night, in the midst of a jam session of my new favorite band, Third Leg, and also in the midst of a good old nostalgic beer-fest on my part, I found an old friend of mine. Actually I found his blog. We spent oodles of time way back when convincing each other that german class was to be avoided in favor of coffee. I owe all of my german knowlege to the fact that some of the boys in that class were too cute to miss.

He just signed on for Socktoberfest, and after looking at my sock collection:

Can't imagine what's wrong with this pair, can you? Um, I need to fix the long one.

This was my first sock, completed in January. I think it's time for a mate, don't you?

This one is probably going to be frogged until later - the needles have crappy joins, and I spend more time pushing the stitches around the needles than I spend actually "knitting".

Anyway, I have a few sock issues to work out, as you can see. Why not try and finish up a few things during Socktoberfest? Also, I have to get some of these off my plate so that I can feel good about starting the socks I've been salivating over for almost a year:

Embossed Leaves (and Fleece Artist sock yarn! Joy!) in the perfect shades of green.

There are a few other things on my mind. This plant has pretty much been left to die in my mom's room, and I want to revive it. Do any of you have green thumbs? Can you tell me how to save it? I've run out of ideas after giving it a)sunlight and b)water. (It was left in a dark room without attention for a few months.)

What do you think, is there still hope?

Hmm, I wonder why my pictures are cutting off at the bottoms?

I'm So Vain, I Probably Think This Blog is About Me

Well, after the little mix up in the comments last week, I decided it 
might be time to dye my hair again.  It was a little joke in my head when I called it "Redneck week", because... Do you really want to see how bad my roots were? I thought you might.



You see, after I posted this picture of last Monday:



The lovely Jess commented ever so kindly that she noticed that I'd gone dark with my hair and she liked it. It was really very sweet (and let's face it, sort of funny) and it got me thinking. So I decided to dye my hair dark. And now my roots look like this:



I think I like it better. What about you?

This Week: Redneck Week

Monday, Lisa and I went to the demolition derby at the Shawano County Fair. That's how much of a redneck I am this week. I also loved it. I had a lot to learn, this being my first demo. For example, when the cars are ready to go, they start out by backing up into the other cars. Kind of scary, if you ask me.

 

And then, of course, they all smoosh each other to pieces, and there's schrapnel everywhere, and somehow it's all very loud and cool and people turn into heros. My favorite moment was in one of the eight heats when one guy was getting bullied out of the ring by two other cars, and he totally fought back and pushed them both back into the ring. He overpowered two cars. It was pretty spectacular. I was going to climb down the stands and offer to be his woman and have his babies. Then I remembered that a) I'm married and Bruce is pretty cool too, and b) I'm probably not redneck enough for him, considering this is my first demolition derby.

To prove that Lisa and I were there, I have a picture of us in the stands.

Quite Possibly Worth the $4.00 Admission

We went to the county fair on Thursday, and on the first trip (before the drinking), we wandered around the buildings and looked at a crapload of rabbits and beef. I mean cows. We also took a gander at the various 4-H projects that weren't breathing. Some of the art was pretty amazing.

I'm posting one of the drawings that struck my fancy, and I'd like you to please remember that this is original artwork and remains the copywrite of the artist.

When you laugh, remember that you're not laughing at the artist, but at your own sick and perverted mind. The artist is not at fault here, you are.

Ok, enjoy!



I might have to go back this weekend and gaze upon it again.

The Linus, He Likes Nobody

At one point, the Linus and the Uncle had a run-in:


At some point, this run-in got ugly:


Really ugly:

(Click on the picture for some great footage. Action Linus! Action Uncle!)

At some point, the Linus' belly got dirty:


Really dirty:


I only know that it was probably the Uncle's fault.

Our Boys

They are either growing up super fast or going utterly batshit because there's just too much space in this new house! To put it another way, they're either getting all their grown-up teeth before we even notice or they're just not getting the concept of having that much more area to pee in*, and are therefore just plain a little nuts at the amount of space they have to be in constant control over.

*I'm trying to quietly allude to the fact that while Huck has been rejoicing at the amount of space (three floors!) to pee on, Linus is content to pace back and forth between stories and jump at the slightest noise.

In other words, Huck is becoming a man while Linus becomes a middle-aged cat with an anxiety disorder.

Here's a picture of Huck's teeth that I took early last week:


You see that little bitty baby tooth there? Surrounded by all the grown-up-giant adult teeth there? Do you see his big eye staring you in the face? Say hello to Huck! He's very nice about being manipulated into grimacing for your enjoyment.

Here's a picture of Huck's teeth that I took this evening:



You see? You see how he's growing up ever-so-fast? He's even swallowing all his teeth, much to the chagrin of Bruce who wants to keep them and show them to him on his 5th (35th in dog years) birthday to show him how little he was once upon a time. It's been suggested that if he really wanted to, he could find them again, but Bruce is even more anti-poop than I am. And that's saying something.

Linus is totally freaking out. I thought that having more spaces to hide would make him a more relaxed cat, but instead, he spends his daylight hours avoiding us. When he's not avoiding us, he's actively trying to bite me using whatever means necessary. He will go out of his comfortable laying position to seek me out to bite me more. The only time he tolerates me is in the morning when I'm too sleepy not to hate him for wanting me to interact with him. More space is not good for this cat.

So that's an update on The Beasts. How are yours doing?

PS: Guess what my next project is? It's making sure that this guy, Huck's favorite toy from his absolute favorite Uncle Cam:



Making sure he gets his hoo-hah fixed. Because, although I am in no way ashamed of the female anatomy, I don't believe stuffed blue elephants deserve to have their hoo-hahs hanging out all over the place. Witness: