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

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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.

a little Bacardi.....

Christmas is over for another year.  The crowds at the store were maddening, even my stl was talking to himself.  Pretty funny.  

I cooked the holiday dinner.  We had leg of lamb (first time I have ever cooked one) with roasted root veggies and gravy, wheat rolls (cause you know we all need to eat better), swiss chard with onions and garlic, roasted apple and butternut squash soup, and collard greens (mom made that).  The soup was finished with Bacardi, the lamb was basted with bacardi mixed with herbs (dried bottled italian seasoning and Mrs Dash), the pan for the gravy was deglazed with more bacardi.  Why rum?  Well, I would have used wine or brandy, but I couldn't find any, and I thought "hey, alcohol is alcohol" and I wanted something sweetish and rum is made from sugar cane (yes, culinary school does make you open to trying anything once, even at Christmas dinner for the entire family).   It was fantastic!  I wasn't sure about tossing the sweet potatoes into the veggie mix, but it worked out well.  The caramelization on the bottom of the pan (I laid the lamb on top of a bed of onions which basically disintegrated into syrupy goo - yummmmmm) just bought out the real sweetness of the vegetable, and I like to think the bits of sweet potato that didn't make it out of the pan added something to the flavor of the gravy.  The seasoning mix created a kind of crust, which when eaten was very yummy.  Even my older brother who told my mother prior to dinner that he wasn't going to eat the lamb, had some, and then some more, and then a little more.  Everyone loved the rolls, even with the whole wheat flour added (it's the same recipe we have been using since I was a kid but I subbed half the white flour for whole wheat).  It's really odd to have to tell your mom "hey, that's not done put it back".  I mean, she is the one who taught me to make bread.  She took lots of credit by saying she taught me well.  And actually, she did!  Thanks mom!

We had a great time.  Lots of laughter and jokes and funny stories.  When mom called Imani Christmas Eve, she asked where they had been all day.  Imani told her she took the kids to the cemetery to visit dad's grave.  Mom was immediately guilt ridden, she hadn't gone.  I told her to get a grip, it's not like he would mind.  I don't really think of the spirits of loved ones hanging out at cemeteries.  There are much better places to hang.  She would be better off communing with him in the garden.  He  is more likely to be there.  Now of course this means I haven't been to the cemetery since the funeral.  And I intend to keep it that way.  If I feel the need to commune with dad, I'll grab my 35mm and some film and head out to take some pictures.  We always took pictures together.  

In a way he was there in the presence of my baby bro.  J spent the entire time taking pictures.  He said he is planning a photo collection about the family kitchen, showing the holiday rituals of food and cooking, or something like that.  Every time I turned around he was there taking pictures.  I would be interested to see how they turn out.  

I have to get pictures of the cph.  T has been wearing it all day, a sure sign that she does indeed love it.  I had her try it on a couple of times, telling her I needed to see it on someone with boobs to get the fit, and her mother couldn't do it because she had to give me advice.  Hah!  She fell for it.  When she opened the package (actually it tore when her brother handed it to her) and she saw the color (she didn't even remove all the paper) she jumped up and hugged me and gave me a big kiss.  I think that was the first clue that she liked it.  She told me (before she ran off to her sleepover/movie night) that it's her favorite sweater and I'll have to make her another one when she wears this one out :-)  I used a zipper as the closure and since I couldn't find a zipper of the length I wanted, I used the shorter one (which worked out fine) and put in a little heart shaped hook closure (two hearts that hook) just above the end of the zipper.  Putting in the zipper wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, even though I think I made the front overlap just a smidge too much, but ferocious blocking squished it temporarily.   I told her when it needed washing, give it to me and I would show her how to wash it.  My sister has my great aunt's singer sewing machine in the garage.  I am moving it into the basement.   This thing sews like a dream.  It has to be from the 60's or early 70's, knowing Aunt Kitty it's probably earlier.  It flips out of the cabinet top and it's pea green, with a very responsive thigh pedal (or whatever you call it) that folds down from the base of the cabinet, instead of a foot pedal!  It's awesome!  Using it to put in the zipper was a breeze.  I just finished the swatch for nephew's Biker Boy Sweater (from Son of Stitch n Bitch) and it actually calls for a zipper.

pics to follow!

*sigh*

I love it when blogger swallows my posts, even though I am saving them all the while.
Anyway. On the 3rd I went to the TransAfrica Gala. It was a lot of fun and I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in years (like since I was in college and my sister was dragging me off to demonstrations every weekend). The food was excellent. The music was great. There was a mini-concert by Wynton Marsalis. Love him. He is phenomenal. The picture is fuzzy but here he is.
I also got to meet their board chairman.  He was incredibly nice.  And he is really tall.

And yes, that is me with Danny Glover :-)
Today I went to H-mart and bought a little bento box.  That is my new passion.  Bento.  Saving money by taking lunch, spending time creating something tasty and pretty to eat, focusing more on putting good food in my body.  Did I mention the saving money part?  This is my lunch for tomorrow (part of it).  This is the stuff that is going into my udon noodle soup.  Green onions, shrimp, egg, fried tofu, and mushrooms.  We had the same thing for dinner tonight.  Quite yummy.
  
I also went yarn shopping.  Two weeks in a row!!!  Last week I bought this.  Berroco Peruvia.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  The brown is like a really deep milk chocolate.  and the yarn is so soft and warm.  It's going to make great gloves!  Well, as warm as fingerless gloves can be.
    
Now the Berroco came from All About Yarn in Columbia.  The lovely, sexy red came from Coverhill in Catonsville.  I stopped in there today ('cause I was on my way home from the bank, how fortuitous is that!) and picked up this one for a pair of socks.  It's called Casbah, and I don't know if that's the color or the yarn 'cause there ain't no lot number or anything on the label, just the name and composition (81%merino/9%cashemere/10%nylon - 100%glorious).  This my not end up on big sister's feet.  This one may be all mine!  And it's machine washable to boot!  And 20% of my purchase dollars went to a local AIDS charity, talk about a win/win.  And of course I had to buy stitich markers, just because.

better

Today I found a new doctor. She's very direct and no nonsense.
I got a great text from a friend, actually I recieved messages from 3 friends. One is enjoying her new job. the second is moving back to dc. the third told me about the new knitty. Wow, that's a lot of socks. And it also told me I really do need to make fingerless mittens for my baby brother. Photographer in New York in winter. He needs fingerless gloves. Something thick and in a nice neutral color...... I am thinking gray.

blue

Feeling a little blue today. I think my zest for life is at a low ebb. Could be that I am tired. I cooked for the family today. It was my sister & bro-in-law's 22nd anniversary. I made a wonderful dinner as a suprise. Remind me not to do that again. He bought home fried chicken (didn't remember it was their anniversary) which he quite promptly ate and was too full for dinner. She was 3 hours late getting home. It was a suprise, they didn't know, it's no one's fault, but I was peeved. I think I must need some time away from home, doing something rechargey. I need some cheering, I think I'll go watch some Wallace and Gromit.