My car..the saga continues

Honestly--my car did not start again last evening. This is getting really irritating and old. At least when the tow truck driver (the same one as Tuesday, by the way) came this morning, he had to tow it away. No one at the car place can say that it's just "loose battery cables" now! I made him check as my witness that they were not loose in any way. I am also very tired of using my vacation on dumb stuff like this.

Alas, no knitting was accomplished last night. I did do two loads of laundry and went to the grocery store. Tonight after work it's lawn thrashing time again.

One more day until the weekend

I think I can make it to the weekend. Which only means more work for me. We have our Labor Day picnic for our Labor Council which means I get to work more on a day which is supposed to give laborers a rest. Whatever.

Knit Night was okay. Paulette and I were the only ones there--Margaret wasn't there. I hope nothing bad happened at home or something (her dog is really ill with cancer). We only stayed until 8:10PM because we were forced to sit in the regular hard chairs instead of the soft comfy chairs by a couple who was obviously on a first date. They weren't moving any time soon. The chairs were making our backs hurt. Talk about your dumb guys on a date. Paulette observed that every time she's seen someone who's obviously on a first date at Starbucks, the guy is always doing most of the talking. Why is that? Anyhow, our tolerance for dumb talk was sorely tested and we couldn't stand it any more so we went home. I am now past the ribbing on my sock.

I'm waiting for the custodians to come back so that I can finish moving the rest of the stuff back into the Slide Library. I hope it doesn't take them too long to get here. I just want to get it over with because I want to clean up in the Music Library before school starts next week.

It's Wednesday and I get to knit!

Yippee, it's Knit Night tonight at Starbucks!! Paulette returns to Knit Night also. Hopefully I can knit mistake-free this evening. Still working on the first pink sock.

I am also glad because I get to sit down for more than one minute. I have been working hard putting the Slide Library back together all afternoon and I am very tired. The slide drawers are very heavy. But I'm not too tired for Knit Night.

It's done and running

My car is now running. Supposedly the cables to the battery were loose so it wasn't recharging like it's supposed to. Hmm, I had them put a new one in about a month ago. Didn't they tighten the cables enough? I also needed new front brakes ( I knew I would soon) and I had them lube the steering because it was making a noise. So, I am now $325 poorer. Oh well, at least my car is running now.

Something bad is in the air today

Okay, I got up and got ready for work. I went out to my car, put the key in the ignition, turned it and nothing happened. Dammit! It's now at the car place getting looked at. It was making a noise when I turned the steering wheel anyhow that needed to be attended to but, geez, did it have to happen today? Paulette's first day back at work is today and I did not be needing to add stress to that. Apparently my horoscope was right about the lunar eclipse being bad for me and all signs today. BTW, Paulette looked at her watch and her battery was dead. I hope that's the worst thing that happens to her today. I very briefly entertained the thought of laying low in bed all day because of the eclipse, but I am a big girl--I can take it!

On the bright side, when I was waiting for the tow truck to come and give my car a jump, I got another row done on my sock. The ribbing has grown to about a half inch now.

Rain, rain go away...

Hey, it's raining again! What do you know. At least it was dry out this weekend so that I could all get the outdoor chores finished. The grass has been thrashed into a smaller vertical dimension, the fence fine tuning is finished, 3 loads of laundry have been done, the house has been cleaned, and the flower garden in the front has been deadheaded. Yippee. Now if it just dries up again, I can caulk some parts of the fence and stain it white. No, I didn't get out there to take a picture of the finished product. Perhaps this week some time after work, in between getting my hair done this evening and then driving to Appleton to return a pair of shoes, our Labor Council meeting tomorrow evening, and good old Knit Night on Wednesday. Thursday looks good for picture taking.

No knitting was accomplished this weekend--see above. Last evening I laid down on my bed at 9:30PM and promptly fell asleep, only waking long enough to get ready for bed and rotate laundry loads.

The newly restarted pink sock is being knitted out of Fortissima Socka wool. I have 3 rows done. Ooooweeee, such progress on the reknitting.

Paulette is going to try to go back to work tomorrow part time. Our friend Kyle thinks she should take another week off of work. I wish she would listen to Kyle, but whatever. I hope she doesn't tire herself out too much and take it slow. She started her own blog to tell others about her experience with Uterine Fibroid Embolization. Here's the link: http://bumpybluterus.blogspot.com/

The reason why she wanted to put a blog out there on her experience is that there isn't a lot of information out there from the recipient's point of view on this procedure. Almost all the information you find out there is that you will recover in 7-10 days and then you'll be good to go. Excuse me, but I think that's a little one size fits all. Hey, maybe she can send the link to her now former OB/GYN, whom I disaffectionately call "Mack the Knife" for pretty obvious reasons (take THAT "Mack", oh and buh-bye), who almost had her convinced that hysterectomy was the only answer. I felt like I was deprogramming someone from a cult at times when I was "convincing" her that there were other options out there. I hope I did the right thing.

The sun will come out tomorrow (we hope)

The weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny and 75. I better start sharpening the machete to cut the grass now. If the weather behaves, the fine tuning on the fence construction should be finished by the end of the day on Sunday. Yippee. Then the construction of the gate and lattice screen can begin.

I had to rip the sock I started in the hospital back to nothing because of an unfortunate error--my problem of not being able to talk and knit at the same time rears it's ugly head once again. Bummer. This is the sock I am making:



Of course, I don't have my knitting with me right now, and I can't remember which wool yarn I am using, but the sock will be pink, as in the example.

The pattern is here, on the Crystal Palace website: http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns2/socks/panda-wool-scallops-sock.html

Paulette is feeling much better and actually went with me to Starbucks today on my break for coffee. The rash she developed from her pain meds is beginning to go away so she seems to be feeling more lively. I'll see if she has recovered from her outing soon when I am home from lunch (yes, I am bad and doing this at work--hey, it's summer and it's Friday).

Almost lunch time.....gotta go.

Fences, knitting, etc.

The fence of pain is finished. The construction part is done, but there needs to be some fine tuning of the picket part. It has been raining since 15 minutes after Kyle and Joe finished putting the privacy sections up on Saturday. Perhaps I'll get to take pictures after I finish building the Ark. Ha ha. It should take a month of Sundays before it dries out enough to be able to stain it white. Now I just have to frame out a piece of lattice to fill in the gap in the backyard between the privacy section and the neighbor's garage and build my picket gate for the front and put it up. When we're done with that, there's always another project waiting!

I do have the pockets done for the Yarn Pig. I just have to take pictures of it in it's final form. I've been a teensy bit busy with my nursing care of Paulette and dealing with phone calls and visitors, who though well-meaning, just can't seem to leave Paulette alone long enough so that she can rest. Apparently I need to hone my skills in diplomacy to make everyone leave the sick person alone so that she can rest and get better. She's feeling a little better every day. I hope that it helps her feel better in the end.

I can't wait until the sun comes back out and it's a little warmer outside. 65 degrees F for a high temperature in August is not normal. Plus it's annoying. And I haven't been able to go outside and enjoy the new fence yet. Yes, I'm whining now. Sorry about that.

No knitting today

I have not had much time to knit since I brought Paulette home from the hospital. I couldn't concentrate on the Kushu Kushu scarf in the hospital, so I started a pair of socks. Ribbing is very therapeutic when you're waiting for someone to get out of surgery.

Kyle and I got the fence posts for the privacy sections of the fence set today. Hopefully we can get the panels up tomorrow. Or, should I say, Kyle and my neighbor Joe can get the panels up tomorrow. I love my neighbors! (Well, most of them--except the ones who live on the side of the house where we're putting up the fence.)

Better go--the dishes are waiting to be done.

Progress on the fence of pain

The fence of pain is coming along nicely. Digging post holes sucks and is painful.




I just have to even off the tops of the posts, put caps on them and stain it white. Our friend Kyle is helping with the 6 foot high privacy sections for the backyard. I can't handle them by myself and Paulette is too weak right now to help. Her surgery is tomorrow morning.

I started the Kushu Kushu scarf. All I can say is that the Japanese must like knitting with very tiny yarn. I am tolerating it but I am not enjoying the knitting all that much. It's only stockinette stitch, but because the yarn is tiny and you have to hold two strands together, you really have to pay attention to what you're doing. The stainless steel and the merino like to tangle together if you pull too much off the cones at once.

It's raining

I'm currently in a rain delay in putting up the fence in the yard. So, I'm doing this.

I got the first pocket square done for the Yarn Pig. Just one more and then it's felting time.

Bad news--I need to get one more ball of Lacey Lamb to start my Print o'the Wave stole, but the yarn store didn't have any more of my color. It's ordered but won't be here until mid-September. Bummer. Well, I do have other things I can work on.

I guess I'll start the Habu kit that Paulette bought me for my birthday. It's the Kushu Kushu scarf. The yarn is fine merino and silk-wrapped stainless steel. Here it is:



I did finish the Tidal Wave socks, modelled by the lovely Jefferson:



Here's a picture of the fence-in-progress:




I think the rain is stopping. It just has to dry up a little--I need to saw the posts down to size and I'm not a big fan of being electrocuted. Gotta go now....

It's Friday!

Yippee, it's Friday. DPNgirl will be off on vacation all next week to put up a fence in her yard. We are putting a white picket fence around the front side yard and a privacy fence in the back side yard. DPNgirl and Paulette can only handle the picket part--a friend is helping with the 6 foot privacy sections.

When it's done, I'll put up pictures.

We hopefully will be done with the picket part before the middle of the week, so that we can go to Door County for a day and also lobby legislators in Madison about some state budget issues.

DPNgirl's friend, housemate and knitting buddy Paulette is having surgery the next week after that, so DPNgirl will be helping take care of her. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers. DPNgirl would be very sad if something happened to her best friend whom she has known for at least 34 years.



DPNgirl (Sara) and Paulette at Christmas last year

Our little group

Here is a picture of our little knitting group:



Left to right: Me, Paulette, and Margaret.

Margaret was only pretending to knit for the picture. She had actually been working on her chain mail jewelry all evening. She's truly a Jill-of-all trades, our Margaret.

My sock is still in progress. I have trouble knitting and talking at the same time. I need to work on that skill. It's coming along, though. Paulette is knitting a sweater. It's from the Nashua Handknits 4 booklet--the surplice lace top. She's using Nashua Handknits Cilantro yarn in this beautiful soft yellow and white. She has one lace panel for the front done. Margaret is actually knitting a lace scarf (just not last evening), oddly enough, in the very same lace pattern as the sweater Paulette is making.

Aside from our usual gabfest, we found out something interesting about Starbucks from one of the employees. Did you know that no one is supposed to take any pictures at a Starbucks? Who knew? We did it anyhow, as you can see.

How horrible

The news from Minnesota last evening was too horrible to even imagine. It's so hard to fathom that you could just be driving home from work or to a baseball game and have a bridge just drop out from beneath your vehicle. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been affected by this tragedy.