snow madness

Okay, the niece went to a friends house last night to attend her birthday part.  She arrived late and planned to spend the night.  Well, with the forecast for 2 feet of snow, did she think about that?  She's 18, do I need to say more?  This afternoon she called her mom to come get her.  Her mother actually considered this, and went so far as to start the car, clean it off and pull down the driveway.  Made it out to the street before she got stuck.  She wants her "baby" home.  Unfortunately we weren't going to make the mile journey in the (at that time) 12+ inches of snow.  My crazy sister.

Then there is her son who was wandering around in borrowed shoes, a borrowed coat, and his pajamas!  Oh to be 15 and totally lacking in common sense again.....NOT!!!!!  His mother insisted he put on proper snow gear.

Me, I've been sleeping, knitting and watching tv.  That's what snowy days are for :-)

Wow, 60 days already!

Okay, for the last 60 days I have been on a new eating plan.  I call it a diet, but I like to think this will be a permanent thing so it isn't so "temporary" as a diet.  

It started at work, when my stl told us about this book he was reading, Eat To Live by Dr Joel Furhman.  He handed out copies, and I started reading.  Now it all sounds very sensible and not too unreasonable.  I made a half-hearted stab at it.  Then the immersion programs were announced and I was selected for the Furman Immersion Program.  Went to Princeton for a week, ate really well, didn't exercise much (6 am yoga, you gotta be shittin' me - i tried the first day but after that....HA!).  Had more greens than i usually see in a year during that week.  It was awesome! Loved it.  It's been two months (well, 7 weeks since I returned from the program) and I have lost 21lbs (as of last week, didn't do my weekly weigh in today).  I'm pretty happy with it.  The last two weeks though have been hard.  Not eating as well as I was in the beginning.  Really need to plan my menus better.  Haven't been planning them at all.  It's also hard to be in a house full of mega meat consumers, when I am practically on a vegan diet.  I get 8 oz of meat per week, usually fish.  Because I am not eating as well, I think that's why I am not feeling as energetic and clear headed as I was.  I also think I need to start exercising.  That will really kick up the weight loss (not that I mind the recent 1lb/wk).  My goal is to lose 60 more.  My stretch goal is to lose 80 more, but I will feel healthier than I do now with the 60.  

I'm supposed to be a the no more cravings point, but I am not quite there yet.  And it's really hard to go without sugar, white flour, white rice, fats/oils, caffiene and meat, when you work in a grocery store as a BAKERY TEAM LEADER WITH A COFFEE BAR!!!!!!!!!  I must have lost my mind.  

Knitting is going well.  Currently working on a pair of socks from Cookie A's sock book.  will take pics later.  Need to finish them this week (I am a slow knitter).  One sock down, one more to go :-)

why i don't need to have children, little transmitters of illness, that's what they are *sigh*

today is my day off. i planned to spend it as i spent yesterday, lounging, with a break to go to the yarn shop to drool, best buy to get a memory upgrade kit for my computer, and the repair shop to sign over my too-expensive-to-fix car. instead i spent it lounging, with periodic breaks to take my nephew's temp. i dropped him off at school, only to return an hour later to pick him up (temp of 99, and stomach ache). well, i guess he wasn't faking 'cause now it's up to 101 and he's vomiting. i am of course sympathetic, i bought him his mother's laptop, i bought him a cold drink, i took his temp. but lines must be drawn. i am not cleaning vomit!!!!! meanwhile, i have called and texted his mom, who is supposed to be on her way home. i don't know how to take care of a sick kid!!! when i'm sick, i call my mom and whine. what am i supposed to do with a sick 15 year old????!!!!!

this has of course given me ample time to work on my 2nd pair of no purl monkeys. i don't know what the yarn is, but it's a pretty shade of blue.

it's also giving me plenty of time to wonder, "am i next????" I just got over bronchitis. I can't get the flu!!!!!! i don't wanna be sick!!!!!

Welcome to my madness! « RocketGirls48's Blog

Welcome to my madness! « RocketGirls48's Blog

sick sick sick....

well, not so much now. interesting bout of bronchitis, with resulting lingering cough. ugh.

anyway, life on the home front is boring. about a week ago sunday, i spent the day cleaning. stirring up dust, cat hair and mold - thus the bronchitis. my place looks a little better now, but it's still pretty bad. thankfully my sister l came over to help that day, or it wouldn't be done. because she helped, i have been able to do a little more each week, and now i feel like i might be able to take some stuff to storage. with her here, i was able to toss out a lot. i have also reached an amicable agreement with the irs, so i am much relieved!!! still a little depressed, so not much knitting has been done. several pairs of socks started and frogged. one promising pair looked okay, but turned out to be too big for everyone in the family, so out it came. not sure what to do next......

need to get back to writing.....

I've been spending a lot of time on facebook recently. not necessarily a good thing, since I spend most of my time there playing Mafia Wars. There are a few folks from work, and my family that hang out there, so it kinda limits what I write about. Also, I am not inclined to write especially long posts.
I have had the last week off and it's been glorious, except for the 29 mosquito bites and their maddening itchiness. The bite sites come in a range of sizes, from tiny to Holy Crap!!! The HC bites are on my index finger on my left hand (thing goodness I am right handed) and on the back of my right ankle. The entire side of the tip of my finger is swollen, as is the back of my ankle. They look kind gross and they itch like mad!!!!! We (the sisters and the neices and nephew and I) went camping at Point Lookout State Park. It's a beautiful, and peaceful place, and the mosquito capital of maryland. After last year, I thought that was Jane's Island, but now I know better. At PLSP we had a lovely cabin in the woods. The 6 cabins in our area were paired, and faced the trees, so you wouldn't have a view directly into your neighbors abode. The 4th area was for a camper hook-up, and was used by the camp host. They had a truely sweet setup. In the center of the 4 areas was the bathroom/shower building. It wasn't the cleanest place (Jane's Island was cleaner) and it was home to a large number of mosquitoes (as proven by the 6 bites on my ass, but only on the right cheek - 'cause I know anyone reading this really wants to know that little detail :-)
We used 2 cabins, one for my sisters, and the other for the 3 kids (18, 15, and 13) and myself.
Point Lookout was a civil war conferderate prison camp (the largest in the civil war) and hospital. It's located where the Potomac River and the Chesapeak Bay meet. There is a lighthouse, although I (snob that I am) don't consider it a "real" lighthouse because it's a house with a light on top, I prefer the more romantic towery light.
We went fishing (I bought the first pole I have had since I was about 12) and fed a lot of fish. That is the purpose of fishing, right? Were we actually supposed to "catch" something?????? We had fun anyway. We had s'mores. One is my limit, after two, I feel a little sick. We had terrible cheap wine. We swam in the Potomac (not allowed to swim in the bay there). We cooked over the fire, and used the propane stove only once. We saw foxes, and I laughed at my sisters who ran away from them, as the foxes ran in the opposite direction. I would go again, with stronger insect repellent and more bite stuff. It was a great time.
I am half-way through my latest knitting project (a tank top) and have started on a pair of socks from the latest knitty.
I have decided I am going to write a romance novel.

been a loooooong while

Okay, I am still into the bento thing, even though I haven't made myself one in about a month. I have been so lazy when it comes to lunch. I just get stuff at work. They have this crazy gorgeous new hot bar and salad bar thing and it's just awesome! If only the food was as good as the set-up is beautiful. Oh well, they are hiring new folks like crazy, and hopefully some of them can cook. Anyway, knitting has been slow going lately. I've lost my knitting mojo, I think. I am working on the Brioche tank from Interweave '06. It's really cute, and my friend K liked it so much, she is working on it too! Except I started mine first and have completed only 5 inches and she is half done. See, I told you I lost my mojo :-)
Anyway, I spent today helping one of the decorators decorate cakes. It was soooo much fun! I haven't done it in a while. Tomorrow I will help her again, and this time I will take my tools in. I hate looking for tips and spatulas. Fun.
I think the rain is making me crazy.

mdsw, and other stuff

Well, it's hard to believe it has been almost two months since my last post.  Wow, where has the time gone.  

The biker boy cardi is done and currently adorning my nephew as he heads off to see Star Trek.  

I did the sheep and wool thing with K and we had a blast!  She bought lots of yarn.  She found yarn for me to buy :-)  We ate lots of great food.  We saw lots of cool stuff!

I have survived the great flood and am still throwing out stuff as i find it.  Just tossed probably $200 worth of books yesterday.  I didn't open the boxes except to see that the books I thought had kept dry, were soaked and were now blue.  I didn't check to see what they were.  At this point it didn't matter.  They were a total loss.  My next think is to take all the stuff that belongs to my sister that is sitting here, probably contributing to my clogged sinuses, and dump it in the garage.  If she wants to go through it, she can do it there.

She gave me some news that didn's suprise me, so I don't know why it suprised her.  Her daughter is 17, 5'4" tall, and weighs about 280lbs.  Her pediatrician told my sister that her cholesteral is extremely high.  This should be a suprise?  My sister is in denial.  

Anyway, I should talk.  I am going to spend more time planning my meals for work.  The stuff there has been making me sick lately.  

Anyway, I am finishing the red sweater.  It's been 4 years now, it's time to put this to bed.  It's actually not that hard, the pattern is fairly easy.  I picked up with the intention of possibly frogging it, then I noticed the stitch markers and decided to give it a shot again.  So, we'll see.

meanderings

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

piffle

I came home, tired and in a good mood.  Until I opened the fridge door, and saw it.  Or rather didn't.  My freakin' guacamole and salsa fresca, gone.  All I wanted was my snack.  Instead, those PEOPLE ate it.  All of it.  They had their own salsa, they could have opened the jar.  There weren't even any chips in the house.  I left the bag in my car.  But they ate my stuff.  I am totally beyond peeved.  *sigh*  Living with family sucks sometimes.  My sister wakes me up because she thinks I should be awake and socializing with the family.  I work weekends.  If I have to be at work at 4pm, I don't want to wake up at 8am, and I don't think I should have to.  I'm not digging this right now.   And to top it off, my 2nd yarn shipment hasn't arrived.  She was sick.  Not to sick to collect her paypal payment, but too sick to send out the yarn.  She said she "didn't want to include germy special suprises".  I guess that was considerat, but a nice short email would also be nice.  Just a brief "hey, due to illness your shipment will be late", quick and to the point.  It let's me know I didn't just send money to a scam artist.  Speaking of which, I have been getting text messages, about 1 every week or so from someone purporting to be from a credit union.  They say my card has been deactivated, and I need to call them.  Out of curiosity I did call yesterday (from work where we have lots of extensions - I'm not a total dweeb)  and the recording asked form my card number.  I immediately hung up the phone.  The guy sitting in the office with me told me about the newest scam.  I am wondering if I should notify someone about this, continue to ignore them, or change my number.  It's annoying.  Between that and the "you have just won the Irish Lottery" emails, I am a little peturbed.

i must be bored

it's 6 am and i should be asleep.  i must be tired because i am playing mafia wars on facebook, and answering customer comments on the whole foods website.  i really need to go to bed:-)

Happiness is......

finally figuring out how to carry the yarn for the vertical stripe in the biker boy cardi.  It's also getting your spring Interweave Knits.  Think I'll just take a look at that riiiiiight now :-)

family moment

Conversation between my sister and her daughter, as my niece lounged on one end of the sofa, and her mother lounged on the other end.

T.  I told you hours ago to do two things.  Clean the office and finish your homework.  You haven't done either one.  (pause to stare at daughter)  Don't give me that look of suffering!

(niece interrupts) I'm not looking at you.  (mother interjects) Yes, you are.  (niece replies) You have channels in HD and don't nag all the time?  No, I'm not looking at you.  (sister stares at the creature she gave birth to, and bursts out laughing).

I'll admit it, I am so totally spoiled.

That said, let's begin with a sulky "what kind of sock club sends you just yarn and no swag!!!!????" *sigh*

I guess you can tell both of my sock club shipments arrived.  

I 'm not really that impressed with the Madeline Tosh.  It's variegated, it's called WaterLily, and it's very pastelly. Kinda ho-hum (of course, that could be me sulking because there wasn't so much as a Hershey's kiss, or stitch marker included, not even a note about inspiration for the color choices, and need I mention that the January shipment arrived on February 2nd!!!!).  I'll be interested to see how it stripes.  I do have to say it is soft and warm, and it will make a comfy pair of socks.

The ZenString yarn is not quite as soft, but the colors are divine (at least this one sent a fridge magnet - advertising her business *sigh*).  The colors are very deep, lots of purple, blue and green.  It's called Madame Butterfly.

Unfortunately, I can't find my camera right now or else I would post pics.  They are both actually quite nice, it's just that when I talk to K about her sock clubs, I turn green.  I totally missed on the Deadly Spins, and they aren't doing it this year!!!

I think i'll just sit here and work on my Biker Boy Cardi (whine, whine, pout).

happiness is.......

finding out that the reason you can't get to the site where your email is located is because you have to reboot the wireless router (whew, I thought it would be something more difficult).

I am scheduled to have 3 glorious days off this week.  Slept through day one, totally vegged for day two (I did have to go to work in between those two days :-), and today I was supposed to hang out with big sis, but it looks like she totally dissed me.  Oh, well.  I am spending the day enjoying one of my favorite movies "Rear Window", and a "Seconds to Disaster" marathon.  I'll probably go out at some point, but I think it is kinda cold outside, and I really am not a cold weather person, but I really, really, really want a soda.

Happiness is also finding out that both of your sock club shipments are in the mail.  Not sure I am totally digging the Madeline Tosh method.  The January shipment mails on the 30th??????  Well, I guess it is still January.  Then one of the promised yarns isn't coming, it's coming next month.  Did she switch it out for something else?  Very curious.

Biker Cardi is up to 9 inches, and knitting is going swimmingly, but tediously.  There is a reason I usually go for patterns that do not entail endless rows of stockinette *sigh*  Plus the black yarn is picking up every piece of lint and white cat hair in the universe.   Not looking forward to seeing what this kid does to the finished sweater.

happiness is.....

spending time with big sis, having great conversation over a wonderful dinner (her treat!).  We went to The Helmund last night.  It's this really great Afghan restaurant in B'more.  The food was divine and I ate waaaaay too much of it.  We talked about things not related that much to WFM, which made me very happy.  

Happiness is also getting to the 7 inch point in the biker boy cardi.  10 more inches to go and then it's sleeve time!  This one is knit in three pieces, the body and the two sleeves.  I think I'm liking this.

No socks on the needles, but sock club happiness is apparently in the mail.  Zen String sent an email out stating that the first shipment is being sent out today.  Haven't heard anything from the other club (Madeline Tosh), but they did process their payment for the 2nd installment quite promptly, so hopefully that means it's on the way.

Happiness is......

....a warm hello from a purring kitty. Gotta love Ash

a happy place

As I sit here, I have just waved goodbye to Artemis (my 98 Saturn). She is on her way to the repair shop, where I am pretty sure they will discover I need a new clutch (and that I need to be relieved of about $800). I live about 20 miles from my job, so this of course (in my eyes) presented a major problem. These aren't 20 "hey, catch a bus to the subway to the bus" miles, this is 20 "hey, get on rt 1 to rt 100 to I95 to the beltway to rt 29" miles. Now normally I don't ask for help. I am not sure why, maybe it's because I want to be seen as strong and independent. Let someone need help, they can ask me, and I will go out of my way, bend into pretzels, to help them. When I need help, I figure the answer will be "no", or there will be complaints or comments (why can't you do it yourself), so I don't ask. I have trust issues, I admit it. Well, I did ask for help. I asked my sister if I could borrow her car, and on the week days ride into work with her. She said let's come up with a plan. I still feel like I am imposing on her. But I guess that is what sisters are for.
On another note, I have been thinking that I need to find my happy place. It's buried in the clutter of my life and I think it needs some sunshine, fresh air and fertilizer to revive it.
So, to that end I need to remember what brings me joy, and makes me happy. The thing for today is the joy of being with my family, having a good meal and great conversation. My middle sister took my mom, my oldest sister any me out to dinner last night (Christmas present) at McCormick and Schmick's ( I am sure that is spelled wrong). We had a great dinner, and just a simply marvelous time. Mom was on her best behavior. It was so much fun. Family can be good.

a happy place

As I sit here, I have just waved goodbye to Artemis (my 98 Saturn). She is on her way to the repair shop, where I am pretty sure they will discover I need a new clutch (and that I need to be relieved of about $800). I live about 20 miles from my job, so this of course (in my eyes) presented a major problem. These aren't 20 "hey, catch a bus to the subway to the bus" miles, this is 20 "hey, get on rt 1 to rt 100 to I95 to the beltway to rt 29" miles. Now normally I don't ask for help. I am not sure why, maybe it's because I want to be seen as strong and independent. Let someone need help, they can ask me, and I will go out of my way, bend into pretzels, to help them. When I need help, I figure the answer will be "no", or there will be complaints or comments (why can't you do it yourself), so I don't ask. I have trust issues, I admit it. Well, I did ask for help. I asked my sister if I could borrow her car, and on the week days ride into work with her. She said let's come up with a plan. I still feel like I am imposing on her. But I guess that is what sisters are for.
On another note, I have been thinking that I need to find my happy place. It's buried in the clutter of my life and I think it needs some sunshine, fresh air and fertilizer to revive it.
So, to that end I need to remember what brings me joy, and makes me happy. The thing for today is the joy of being with my family, having a good meal and great conversation. My middle sister took my mom, my oldest sister any me out to dinner last night (Christmas present) at McCormick and Schmick's ( I am sure that is spelled wrong). We had a great dinner, and just a simply marvelous time. Mom was on her best behavior. It was so much fun. Family can be good.