Sunday, August 10, 2008

It's Two AM.......

.....and I cannot sleep. I have all these thoughts circling inside my crowded mind. I am due to go back to work on Tuesday and I am mentally forming a list of all things I want to finish before I return.
*I want to finish my curtains. I am tired of looking at the tattered ones that functional, but ugly.
*I want to complete the socks for all the groups I am participating in.
I have two pairs from my Cat Bordhi tour and a pair from the Ravelry Pentathlon group.
I have one Philosopher House sock almost complete, and I am turning the heel for Rattlesnake Creek Socks. Very exciting progress.
*I need to complete my resume for my entrance into a management course before I return to work. (Can you tell which is my number one project due for completion?)
*I want to clean out my closets. It is time to go through my wardrobe and be rid of the things that have outlived their usefulness.
*I want to complete a draft of my comic book which I have not told anyone about. (oops, secret is out on that one eh?)
There is so much more I want to complete. I need longer working days. Obviously, my body runs on a longer clock system. It is like I operate on a 36 hour cycle. I wonder how many others are like this?
Yesterday, (No. Wait. Today is Sunday.), Friday, I went touring a bit of Ontario with a friend. We had an awesome time. I came home with a lot of super cool yarn. Are you ready for the onslaught of yarn photos? Some I have already designated for projects.
This group is on hold for the creation of a baby sweater to welcome the little darling into our family:


This group will be for Smelly Socks,


as seen in books:


The remaining are for me:


Those were all found at Len's Mill Store in Guelph. It was very overwhelming, but I soon found my bearings as perused the many aisles of yarn.

This skein, along with the ones scheduled to be used for the baby sweater, were purchased at the Shall We Knit? store in New Hamburg:






What a neat town. It is very picturesque. Every time I turned around, I found something that I would love to paint or photograph. I will visit this again as soon as I can. The lady from the store was so helpful. As soon as you walk in, she is there to make you feel comfortable and offer information on the nice places to see and stores to visit while you are there. It was a very cool experience.
We also toured St. Jacob's. The market, unfortunately, was not open. This just gives me another opportunity to see this town again. I did take some nice pictures:



Today, we attended a 50th wedding anniversary. It was wonderful to see the happy couple surrounded by all their friends and family. This was the center piece:


Here is Hubby and I all dressed up:



These were the shoes I wore!:

Yes. I can walk well in these shoes. No training wheels were required.

These are just some photos I snapped of our little town en route to the party. It is yet another rainy day here in paradise:




I can hear Hubby breathing soundly in the next room and I think I am finally beginning to get sleepy. I"m off to bed. I hope you are all well. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

We Survived The Rainy Season for a Great Game!

We had a fabulous time at the ball game last night. I'm happy we toughed out the journey into Toronto. The rain fall was something else. I had just finished emailing my MIL something to the effect of: Perhaps it will slow down by the time we leave...... Pressed send......Then BOOM!!!! Huge crack of thunder and lightning lit up the apartment. It freaked out the cats. The poor little ones huddled together for safety.


This is just outside my husband s workplace. The water came up past my converse high tops.

The Jays brought it home.

At one point, we weren't sure. It came right down the bottom of the ninth. I was very pleased to see all the knitters out and about:


I think we made up most of the crowd. It was quite an empty stadium.

We all waited very patiently for our goodies bag:


Not bad eh?


I cannot recall if I showed you all the fabric for my new draperies in the living room. So I will show you again:

I love a captive audience.

And these are the wonderful ones that I will be replacing:

I call them: Napoleon Engineered. An original.

And here is my supervisor:



As soon as my assistant and supervisor allows, I will complete the drapes and gladly show you all how they look.


We watched Dan in Real Life tonight. It is one of my favourite movies. Steve Carell plays this character perfectly. All the awkwardness makes it so real. This scene is one of the reasons why I want to learn how to play the guitar.

I have to share something with you all. I am quite proud of myself. I will tell you why too. I am very shy when it comes to leaving my little home. That is putting it mildly. I have this horrible anxiety that halts my adventures. I hate it. It is the worse thing that anyone could ever suffer from. I am getting better. I do not feel as helpless as I once did. Before, when I first married, we would be invited to visit with friends and partake in this and that. I would positively freak out. There is no other explanation for my behaviour. There was no rhyme or reason to explain it either. I would actually start to cry I was so scared. I had no idea what made me act this way. My husband thought I was absolutely nuts and quite upset with my carrying on. He would ask why and say these people want us to be there and would disappointed if we did not show etc. etc. etc. I had no explanation to offer him. I had no idea why I did what I did.
Finally he noticed the pattern. I would freak out on anything new or any place we had not visited in a while. We decided to just take little steps. Go on mini adventures. Just local places. Nothing too daring. Finally, I am now at this point where I look forward to going places. I am just so proud and want to share with this feeling with everyone. I am currently trying to write a resumé so I may advance to other positions in the company I work for. I am looking into possible holiday spots to visit around Christmas times, and not just in the next town. I want to go to someplace warm where there are beaches and colourful drinks with umbrellas. I never thought I would be at this point. So, Thank you to everyone who helps me along the way and so understanding for my craziness. xoxo.
Good night everyone. I will let you know how the rest of my holidays go very soon.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Only A Week Left :(

I cannot believe how quickly this little holidays of mine has flown by. It seems like I have not even begun to scratch off my list of things to do or see.
Last night we were entertained by Demon cat. I wish I knew how to remedy this little problem of the shiny scary eyes.

He is always looking for something to get into:

An action shot of Napoleon stalking Rebel.

When I take pictures of Rebel, his eyes rarely glow. I am beginning to suspect that perhaps Napoleon is of another realm.

Poor Rebel. He is just looking for a little reprieve.

So far, I have had a fantastic time! Tomorrow I am going to the Stitch and Pitch with my Mom in law. We had a wonderful time last year and have been looking forward to this year s event since we got home from the last one. I am going to the local yarn store when I wake up to pick up the tickets.

I have been working on a few little projects. I have brought this one out from the dust:


I have just been working on it in stages. I walk away and when I return, I think of how I can improve it. No wonder it takes me a year to complete these little drawings.
I have also been plugging away at the Rattlesnake Creek Socks for the Pentathlon group on Ravelry.

The cables are making this project run very smoothly. It is how I gauge how long to make the leg.

I am off to clear of the dining table. I need some room to start my drapes for the living area.
I hope you are all well. See you soon.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Awesome

I have been loving my holidays. I wake up whenever and do whatever. I love it!
Yesterday, I went to my Mom's. I gave my step father his vest. He loved it by the way. He wondered if I could put in snaps. Nope. No snaps. Have to settle for a plain old zipper. I didn't get the chance to sew it in. Mom said she would like to. She likes that part of the task, just not making the actually task. Works for me.

We sat out in their backyard. I wondered what on earth that was:

It is to ward off evil large birds from attacking Buddy. Apparently, he has had many close calls with large hawks.

And here is Buddy stalking some poor creatures:


Who remained on the fence, watching Buddy stalk them.


And here is Sneakers, watching the Buddy, watching the birds, watching Buddy.


And the cycle continues....


Today I visited with my friend and went into Toronto. We had a fabulous time. We ate at this restaurant right on Harbour front. For the life of me I can't recall the name. Food was excellent. The best was sitting on the patio watching all the people and boats go by.

I had no idea there was this air strip there. When the planes land, it sounds like thunder claps. Very cool to see them swoop so close to the water and touch down.

There were also these young guys skateboarding. One did not have that great a day. His board ended up in Lake Ontario.

What a cool day. I love taking pictures of anything. I like to just shoot and not worry about what I get in the picture. So here I leave you with some things I saw in the city today:









According the boys, it is bedtime.


I am off to explore the wonders of the Internet. Talk with you later. Night. :D

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Victory Is Mine

Or at least, almost mine. I have almost completed my sweater vest for my dad. It is a fancy little number in standard issue blue for men. God forbid you should introduce them to more colours. All that remains is sewing the zipper. I have to wait until I arrive at my Mom's for this. I just simply cannot look at this project anymore. I am really pleased with the results. I am just tired. There were a lot of hours that went into this garment because I found it was just not right.

Hubby proudly modeled it for me so I could take some pictures of it.

It is a snug fit on hubby, but it will be a perfect for my dad.

Brian (a.k.a. Brian) went to the market yesterday morning and look what he stumbled upon:


I had never seen red or white carrots until they made an appearance in my kitchen. I think they are really awesome and worthy of a painted dedication.

Napoleon was sneaky, and tried to stowaway in the environment friendly market bag. (also known as my work in progress bag).

Rebel just cannot fathom why Napoleon would ever want to leave the safety of our home.


I also have this little tune trapped in my head from the movie Southland Tales:

Ha ha ha<<<< evil laughter. Now you too will have this tune stuck in your mind. :)

I'm off to gather up my things for my road trip to mom's. I trust all is well with you?
Have a great day!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Holidays!!

Today was the longest day ever!!!
My holidays officially started at 1601. Before I left work, I had to show a co-worker how to do my work. That was not fun. How do you explain how to be you? I just do what I do and it works for me. I have no real rhyme or reason. I just accept it.
To celebrate, hubby took me out for a lovely dinner. I also picked up my new glasses.
Head On View:

I'm slightly dazed from this pic. I still see the blurry green spots. I'm calling them green. I'm slightly colour-blind and that is colour I will assign these pesky spots.

Side View:


All Together Now:


Nifty eh? The way I see it,if I'm going to wear glasses for the rest of my life, (or until I have laser eye surgery, which makes me nervous), I might as well have fun with it.
Whoa. Looking at those pics, it's high time I visit the hair colour aisle. I got that nice inch of dark routes happening. It is funny though. When I was an infant until about seven, I had white blond hair. As I got more "mature" the colour darkened. I wonder why that is?
My plans for holidays? Nothing set in stone. I'm going to sleep late and maintain my vampire hours. I will visit with my friends and family, be all domesticated and sew new curtains. The ones currently hanging in the living room are scary. I refuse to show pics until I have a fabulous after picture.
I'm also going to catch up on quality television. I have so many shows that I'm really into: Flashpoint with Hugh Dillon. (lead singer from Headstones/actor, The Cleaner, (I'm willing to give this a chance), Saving Grace, (I love the theme song, it's by Everlast), Weeds, (how much can one woman experience, a hella lot according to this show), Project Runway, (I live vicariously through these designers) and whatever else may catch my fancy!
I'm off to find another rye. I will chat with you all later. Have a great night.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Two More Sleeps

I can almost smell my holidays they are that close. I just have to get through two more working days. I have this suspicion that these will be the longest two days ever. I have to teach a co-worker to do my work. That should be fun. I am currently filling in for three other people. The difficult part in this situation is I don't know how to teach anyone to be me. I just do what I do and it works. I think outside the box for my work. Hell, I'm the hell out of the box and in right field. Why should I be in left field? It is way too crowed there already. I haven't had enough time to show the co-worker what I do, so I wrote down to the best of my ability the main points to get her through the days until the other dispatcher returns from her holidays. I would almost pay to be a fly on the wall to see how she manages, but that would cut into some major shoe money. I'm thinking I may have to brush up on my carpentry skills while on holidays. If we get any more precipitation, I will have to build an ark. They cats are already lining up two by two. We will be breaking the record soon enough with the forecasted weather that is due.
With all this rain, I've been able to catch up on reading. I used to read so much more than I do now. I read everything and nothing. I love any book that can make my imagination wander. Currently, I'm reading this one:

I am really enjoying this novel. It takes place during the medieval days. It follows the investigator as she tries to solve the mystery of who is killing the village children. I guess you could say it is an ancient version of CSI. Either way, it is a most excellent read.
I've been trying to finish up some projects that I have on the go.
I have multiple socks on the sticks. One for the Ravelry group, one for my sock tour at my local yarn store, a set for me, and a pair for the little niece for crazy sock day at her pre-school. Sorry, no pictures available for these projects.
I joined a group on Ravelry called the Traveling Scarf Group. The whole concept of this one, is to knit up a chunk of a scarf (3-4 inches) and then send it on to the next person. Everyone is working on a chunk of a scarf. By the time mine comes back to me, ten people would have contributed to it. How cool is that? A knitting circle. I've never, ever done anything like this before. It is way out of my comfort level. First, I have to share my scarf, then allow others to touch it, and then not know what is going on with its progress. I am very proud of myself. We were all asked what we would not like and if there were other things that we would like to see etc. etc. I actually said, surprise me! Good on me!! *patting self on back*
This is my part:


Nothing fancy. Just some knits and purls. I dig it.

I've also been working on my step-father's vest:

I had to frog it a few times. I kept losing stitches. I suspect my elixir.

This has been my weakness since I was twelve. It is one of the few beers I like to drink. I usually like rye. In the summer however, I'm a beer drinker.
I also turned 30 this week. I am finding this a very scary number. It is like an official welcome to adulthood. I don't like it, not one iota. It is like I have to grow up now, no more stupid actions. Yea right, hehehehe. To make me feel better, I went for a walk with hubby for ice cream. It was a long walk. I developed a blister on my foot. Very painful and mutant-like. I'm hobbling around now like a pirate with a peg leg.

This is my foot with the nasty hole in it. Sorry for the graphic nature of this photo, I just had to share. By the way, the ice cream was worth it.
I think that is pretty much all I have to say. I am really looking forward to my holidays. I am now entitled to three weeks. I am taking two now and am saving the last for Christmas time. With all this time off, my vampire hours will be in peak condition. My poor cats. It takes them forever to adjust to my times when I'm off work. I sleep less that nocturnal animals. :|
Have a good night everyone.