nothing going on around here...

not even knitting. i cut my thumb fairly badly the other night while chopping onions for dinner and while it did not require a trip to the emergency room, i'm kinda down to one thumb at the moment.

there are a lot of things that are extremely difficult to do with one functioning thumb: knitting, typing (altho i've become fairly proficient at it now), changing a diaper, tying shoes. i could go on and on. luckily, it happened after i made val's felted mittens, so she got to take them home with her. gotta love a project i can finish in a few days. if i didn't have this thumb thing going on, i would be making a pair of felted mittens for the "mitten tree" at rory's daycare (donations of mitten for needy kids). i might still be able to do it this weekend...

i spent sunday in a total and complete funk because val went back to california that day. i LOVE having my sisters visit, but it is so hard to say goodbye to them. i cried when we dropped her at the bus stop, cried a little more on the way home and was a crabby appleton the rest of the day. and did i mention that the girls are in a mommy phase right now? if they had the option, they would probably agree to be surgically attached to me right now. and on sunday, habving a 4 year old and 1 1/2 year old follow me around like lemmings did nothing to improve my mood. i needed time to myself, damnit!

still no snow, altho they are teasing us with the possiblility of a storm over the weekend. i've heard that song and dance before.

and that concludes this utterly boring and uninteresting post.

just a warning

taking the afternoon off from work and going to the local pub for a burger and beer for lunch with your sister and then browsing the local bookstore is INCREDIBLY nap inducing.

so. the knitting.

i didn't finish the socks in time. and while val is here visiting, i started working on her late christmas present-felted mittens. it's a nice break from the socks. you use these humongus sticks of timber (in comparison to the sock needles) and they take no time at all to knit up. i'm almost done with the second one (i started them on monday afternoon) and hope to throw them in the washer so val can take them back to CA with her on sunday.

then it's back to the socks: jaywalkers, barry's second sock and another pair i started for myself after christmas. i will finish them, damnit.

okay, no more knitting posts for a while, except for maybe a before and after of val's mittens.

patrick leahy's got a sense of humor

Leahy had a well-publicized run-in with Cheney on the floor of the Senate in June of 2004 when Cheney apparently cursed at Leahy during a heated exchange."Roll Call" newspaper reported that after hearing of the Chaney hunting incident, Leahy said: "In retrospect, it looks like I got off easy."

life sucks sometimes

i am getting a sore throat, just before the busiest weekend we've had in a long time.

i tried to fix my sock (see below) last night, the first fix didn't work, unknitting didn't work, ripping a few rows back and trying to catch the stitches again proved frustrating so i ripped the whole thing out and started over. i didn't like the way the colors were pooling anyway, but still. i think i'm out of the running to finish by monday night. but i'm going to give it a try.

i've got so many little projects to do at work that i'm a little stunned. not sure what to do when. and i HATE that. plus i've got post its telling me what i need to do all over the fricking place on my desk.

my sister val arrives on monday and the guest room is a total and complete pit and i don't know when i will get a chance to tidy it up (see begining of this entry).

i think i will have a martini tonight when i get home. purely medicinal, i assure you.

sock progress: hit a snag

so i was totally cranking on the second sock and the finishing by monday was in site...then i dropped a stitch last night on my last round before turning out the light. and it wasn't just a single stitch, it was a stitch that was part of what makes the chevron pattern, which meant more stitches then dropped themselves and i would have to use some serious brain energy to fix it.

i was so tired and my eyes were burning, so i put the stitches onto a crochet hook to deal with sometime today. last night, i had no idea how to fix it, but this morning i figured it out. hope to get to it sometime today and proceed as planned-next stop: the heel flap. brian's playing hockey tonight, which means i can veg out with a dvd and the sock.

sorry still no new picture. hope to remedy soon.

and one more thing...

recipes i have made this week: tortilla casserole (VERY kid friendly) and chicken with bacon, rosemary and lemon juice (i already have a couple improvements to try).

i was going to try and make creamed spinach from scratch a la julia to go with the chicken. but i got home, read the recipe, saw how much work it was and decided to just go with the usual saute with garlic, kosher salt and pepper with a little balsamic thrown in at the end. yummers.

i'm trying a white bean and sausage soup with olive cornbread on the side for superbowl sunday.

total new recipe count for the week (as of sunday): 4.

also

the first sock is about done (picture to come), leaving me 9 short days to knit its mate to qualify for the yarn prize.

the first sock took me approx 21 days to complete.

i am so totally screwed.

three things that have made me laugh out loud today

from the daily mumps: awesome


from going jesus:
One change I'd like to see for future diocesan conventions is a rule saying that no one can use a metaphor to argue a point without clearing it in advance with the Metaphor and Simile Committee, who will examine it for relevance and coherence.

One metaphor per person per day will be allowed, and metaphors must not be mixed. Disallowed categories include houses and their foundations (unless you are Jesus), boats, viruses and bacteria, and armies.

If this resolution does not pass, then we could go to a system where people are assigned a metaphor at random when they approach the microphone, and they can have an extra minute of debate IF they can find a way to apply that metaphor. The topic is stewardship training, and your metaphor is cockfighting. Go. The topic is funding for missions, and your metaphor is 8-track tapes. Go. The topic is secret balloting, and your metaphor is Chuck Norris. Go.


from mightygirl:
Say you wake up, and it's still dark, and you're groggy, and you're thirsty. Say you stumble into the kitchen, and you see the silhouette of a container of cranberry juice on the counter. Say you're sleepy, so you don't stop to think about why it's not in the fridge, or why the cap feels funny.

In that situation, my advice for you is not to drink it. It's probably olive oil.