back to school drive

For those of you living in the Bay Area, I wanted to point you toward a great way to help out the children in our area. It's similar to the trees you see around xmas time where you can buy a gift for someone, but this is for their education. You can either make a donation or fill a backpack with back-to-school necessities like pencils, markers, books, etc. You can make a monetary donation here or find a host company (so that you can get a card and fill a backpack yourself) here. We got ours from Hobee's, but you can find them at a lot of places.

pregnancy stuff

I don't really want to post pregnancy stuff on a public website that anyone can read, so I have been posting in my livejournal in a friends filter instead. If anyone reading this (that I know) would like to read those entries, let me know. If you don't have an lj account, you won't be able to read them, but you can easily set up a free account so that you can.

I just wanted to let everyone know why I've been so quiet :) I may get Tim to set up a password-protected blog for baby stuff in the future, but that most likely won't be for at least another couple months.

I haven't knit a single stitch since I found out I was pregnant. I really need to get back to that sometime soon. Until then, sorry knitting friends! Maybe if you point me in the direction of some super-cute, free baby patterns, I will get inspired ;)

my little wookie

So I have been knitting, but I don't have any progress pictures because nothing has changed dramatically. I've almost finished the second sleeve on my Hourglass Sweater. Then all I have left is the yoke! Hopefully I can start wearing it next week, if I can figure out how to do the hem. I haven't touched my sewing machine in maybe 4 years.

Our cat, Chewbacca, has been having a hard couple of weeks. A week and a half ago, we noticed that he was trying to pee on the bathroom floor, but all that was coming out were a few bloody drops. We took him to the emergency vet. He's had a UTI before, so we knew that's what it probably was, but he hadn't bled the last time. They confirmed that it was probably a UTI and nothing more serious. They did an ultrasound and said that his bladder was way too small and empty to take a urine sample. They sent us home with some antibiotics and pain killers.

I actually stayed home from work on Monday because of Chewy. He seemed like he was in a lot of pain still, and he kept trying to pee on the couch, in the bathtub, and also in his litter box about every 2 minutes. He roamed around the house just meowing. It was so hard to watch. I'm glad I stayed home to keep an eye on him though (and keep an eye on our couch), but it was pretty stressful for me.

After that, he seemed to improve but by this past Saturday he was still occasionally roaming around the house meowing, and he was still trying to pee in appropriate places sometimes. We also couldn't recall seeing him drink any water at all in the past week. We took him back to the vet and she did another ultrasound. Still a tiny bladder, but she tried to get a urine sample anyway. It confirmed that there weren't any crystals in his bladder, so that's good! He's just really dehydrated. So we got to bring home an IV bag to help hydrate him. Every other day, I get to stick a needle into his neck (Tim refuses....wuss ;) ) and give him his fluids. It seems this is helping though. He hasn't been meowing incessantly or peeing on the rug anymore.

Poor kitty.

In other news, I bought a fondue pot today so we are going to have some yummy cheese & beer fondue tonight! Yummmmm.

xmas 2005

We had a nice, relaxing xmas this year. Both Tim and I had last week off from work too. Tim went back to work today, and I go back tomorrow. I was going to do some cleaning and such today, but I think I will lazily enjoy my last day off instead. I can start cleaning tomorrow afternoon.

such a cute snowman on top

wolfgang enjoyed rolling around in the wrapping paper

All my xmas knitting got finished, though Tim's sweater was a couple days late. I was frantically trying to finish when he told me he would rather spend more time with me than have a finished sweater xmas morning. So I wrapped it up as it was (still needing seaming and a collar) and began to enjoy the holiday. I finished it up a couple days after xmas and it turned out great! It's super soft. I don't have a picture of him wearing it yet, so this will have to suffice.

Pattern: Loosely based on Jesse's Flames from Stitch n Bitch Nation (w/o the flames)
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft DK
Colors: Thunder & Lime

I also made a hat for the secret santa exchange at work, which I model here. I have enough yarn leftover that I will probably make another one for myself.

Pattern: My own
Yarns: Manos del Uruguay, GGH Almeria
Colors: Brick, Berries & Cream

And lastly, since Lara asked for it, here's a picture of Tim in his anniversary presents. With the weather lately, it's hard to get a nice sunny shot.

There. I think I'm all caught up.

end of year wrap-up

1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?
graduated college

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make New Year's resolutions

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
One of my coworkers and one of Tim's close friends, but no one super close to me.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My doggy, Oscar. My brother also had a very close call.

5. What countries did you visit?
No countries, but we went to Arizona and to Napa

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
A more usable craft room. I need more shelves in order to use the space better.

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
It probably won't remain etched in my memory, but May 28 I graduated from college.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Graduation, finding a job I love (for the first time ever, really)

9. What was your biggest failure?
Accepting a job and then deciding I was going to be miserable there. At least it led to finding a job I really do love though.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing serious, but the kids have been keeping me pretty sick so far.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My car!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Celebration? I can't really think of anyone.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
No one really, though I have been somewhat disappointed with some people's behavior.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Mortgage, kitchen remodel, car, furniture, vacation.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I get excited about a lot of things. Graduation, vacations, a new job I love. Right now I am excited about putting up xmas decorations for the first time in our house. We didn't decorate last year because we visited family out of state.

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
Commencement Processional

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?: happier
ii. thinner or fatter?: thinner
iii. richer or poorer?: richer, since I have a job now and we aren't paying for college

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
cooking, knitting with friends, hanging out with the girls

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
getting sick, being a bum

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
At home with my husband, being cozy, sipping eggnog, and listening to xmas songs :)

21. Did you fall in love in 2005?
I stayed in love

22. What was your favorite TV program?
lost, my name is earl, survivor

23. Do you dislike anyone now that you liked this time last year?
I have grown apart from one or two people.

24. What was the best book you read?
The Sprit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The only songs that I know I have only heard for the first time this year are children's songs :p

26. What did you want and get?
A fabulous anniversary weekend with Tim, a gorgeous new kitchen

27. What did you want and not get?
PG&E to be fast, reasonable, and competent in our electrical upgrade

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
I can't even remember what all we've watched. Maybe Serenity or The Goblet of Fire. We just watched A Very Long Engagement on dvd, and that was pretty good.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 30. I went out to dinner with Tim, Ryan, Rachel & Matt at Benihanas. Then we went out for drinks at the Fairmont Hotel. Snazzy.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I don't know. My year was pretty damn good.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Jeans and other clothes that don't matter if kids get them dirty.

32. What kept you sane?
my husband, knitting

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I can certainly tell you that it is not Tom Cruise.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
It's not really an issue, but I can't believe it has only been one year since Bush was reelected. Ugh.

35. Who did you miss?
Matt moved away :(

36. Who was the best new person you met?
My coworkers are pretty nice.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005.
I actually learned it long ago, but it has been reinforced: You can't help people unless they want help.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
Swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

Five things that 2005 taught me:
1. To keep in touch better with relatives...now I just need to work on actually doing it.
2. A goal can be postponed, but you must always go back to it if you want to be truly happy.
3. I have a different outlook on certain future events than I thought I did, but I need to think more about what I want to do about it.
4. Some things will always stay with you, no matter how much time has passed. It's your choice as to how much you want it to effect your life.
5. It's sometimes better to be vague. ;)

Five personally significant events of 2005:
1. Visiting my grandfather and observing one of my worst fears firsthand.
2. My brother's close call.
3. Graduation.
4. The contemplation of someone else's significant events and how they relate to my own life.
5. Re-entering the workforce, finally in a field and position where I can be happy.

Five things I want to do in 2006:
1. Continue becoming happier while understanding myself and life better.
2. Have a goal come to fruition.
3. Spend more time with girlfriends.
4. Watch and support a friend in taking steps toward becoming happier and healthier.
5. Share a very special day with two great friends. (I'm a bridesmaid!)

Five things I don't want to do in 2006:
1. Lose a friend or family member, in any way
2. Be unproductive
3. Make someone else unhappy
4. Have unrealistic expectations (of others and of myself)
5. Have regrets

Five people who I'd like to know better in 2006:
1. I always want to know Tim better, every year.
2. Myself
3. My preschool children
4. Friends I have recently rediscovered
5. Everyone else that I already know

exciting day!

Two super exciting things today:

1. We bought me a new-to-me car last night! A 2004 teal Jetta wagon. It is beautiful and I love it.

2. I'm surprising Tim today with a weekend trip to Napa for our 2nd wedding anniversary. He knows we are going somewhere, but he doesn't know where. We will spend the weekend relaxing in a bed and breakfast (with a fireplace and whirlpool tub for two!), wine tasting, and enjoying each other's company. It will be a nice break from our house remodeling.

Have a great weekend everyone! I know we will.

survey

I rarely do these, but I'm bored and I don't feel like doing a real update.

In the last 24 hrs have you...
1. Had sex: No
2. Bought something: The last thing I bought was a Starbucks peppermint mocha.
3. Sang (what song): Yes, "Over the River and Through the Woods" with my preschoolers
4. Been kissed: Yes
5. Ate something: The last thing I ate was two tamales.
6. Felt stupid around anyone: I don't think so.
7. Talked to an ex: I chatted online with Matt for awhile yesterday.
8. Missed someone: No

Last person who...
1. Slept in your bed: me and Tim
2. Saw you cry: Tim
3. Made you cry: me :p
4. Went to the movies with you: I saw Serenity with Tim. I could have sworn that I've gone to another movie with Tim, Ryan, & Rachel since then, but I can't figure out what it could have been.

Have you ever...
1. Said "I love you" and meant it: Yes
2. Got in a fight with your pet: No, but my cats got in a fight with each other today. They saw another cat outside and weren't too happy about it. I scared the other cat away and Chewy turned around to attack Wolfgang instead.
3. Been to California: I live there!
4. Been to Mexico: Yes, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta. But not since I was 13.
5. Been to the US: I live there!
6. Been to Europe: Yes, but I won't name the countries.

Random...
1. Do you have a crush on someone: If my husband counts, yes.
2. Do you have a crush on a myspacer: I don't do myspace.
3. What book are you reading now: Trying to finish Stephen King's The Dark Tower so I will finally be finished with that series. It is not holding my interest too well, but I want to finish it before I start another book. It is taking awhile.
5. Future kids names: No idea. We will decide that when the time comes.
6. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal: Nope
7. What's under your bed: A trunk full of ski clothes.
8. Favorite sports to watch: I don't really watch sports. The things I do watch are gymnastics and ice skating when it's in the Olympics and the UT/A&M football game.
9. Location: Sunnyvale, CA
10. Piercing/Tattoos: Piercings: ears and belly button. Tattoos: seahorse on my left shoulder blade, sun/heart on my lower back.
11. Favorite Drink: Currently my peppermint mocha. Mmm.
12. What are you most scared of right now? I really can't think of anything I am scared of right now.
13. Where do you want to get married: I already got married. It was at Erna's Elderberry House just south of Yosemite, and it was perfect.
14. Who do you REALLY HATE: I don't really hate anyone. I used to. Now I am just indifferent.
15. Do you work: yes
16. Do you like being around people: At times, but not as much as my husband does.
17. Have you ever liked someone you had no chance with: Of course. That was most of junior high and high school.
18. Have you ever cried: Are there really people who have never cried in their entire lives?
19. Are you lonely right now: No
20. Song that's stuck in your head: Preschool songs. Currently: Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, swish your bushy tail. Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, swish your bushy tail. Wrinkle up your funny nose. Hold a nut between your toes. Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, swish your bushy tail.
21. Played strip poker: Yes
22. Been beaten up: No. I don't think I've ever been in any physical fights in my life, besides with my brother.
23. Done an all-nighter: In college. I found out that no-doz are not my friend.
24. Been on radio/TV: I was in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in 1992 because of drill team. I was on TV, but only in the zoomed out shot where there is no way anyone could pick me out. The other drill team officers from my school got close ups :p
25. Do you have any gay friends: It's weird that I had more gay friends in Texas than I do when I live near San Francisco.
26. Was this worth your time: Of course not, but my time isn't that precious.

this and that

1. I like being a teacher because my kids bring me treats on holidays and because we don't have school on Halloween day. Okay, I like being a teacher for other reasons too, but this chocolate is just really good right now and what can beat three-day weekends?

2. I finished knitting a few things and need to take picture to post. I finished a baby hat/booties set and a One Skein Wonder.

3. Tonight is Matthew's going-away party. He's moving to D.C. We will miss him, and he better come back with his girl in a couple years!

4. Fridays are hard days for me to wake up, because I have to be at work an hour earlier than every other day of the week. It also sucks because I'm usually in the shower when the sprinklers come on outside. Ouch.

5. We have finished remodeling many other rooms in our house! We need to take more pictures to share, but until then you can look at our nice new bookshelves in the library. I like saying that we have a library.

6. We're also in the middle of remodeling our guest bathroom. We're hoping to finish it this weekend (and then take pictures).

7. We have a lot to do before Tim's sister and her husband come to visit us for Thanksgiving. Wish us luck in finishing it all!

So this is pretty much a post telling you that I will make more posts with actual content soon. Hopefully. You know how I am.

3.0.

Today I am officially old.

But that's okay. I get to play with legos and trains and playdough all day at work. I am vicariously young.

Really though, 30 isn't that big of a deal to me. Once I get to 50, that will be a big deal. And scary.

Now I am going to go buy some yarn as a treat to myself. Though it's going to be used for xmas presents for other people, so I guess it is mostly a treat to them! I did a very knit-geeky thing yesterday though. I made an excel spreadsheet of all my projects. Current projects, finished projects, projects that are on hold indefinitely, and the one that is the craziest - projects that I have bought yarn for but that I haven't started. That last list is way too long. Yet I am going to go buy more yarn now anyway. It's my birthday; I can if I want!

packing up

We leave tomorrow early morning on our Arizona trip. I have a very long list of things to do before we leave. So far today I have changed kitty litter; trimmed kitty claws so that they wont tear up furniture when we are gone; cleaned up another huge line of ants (ARGH!); and vacuumed and mopped the living room, dining room, kitchen, guest bath and hallway.

I still need to mow the grass in the backyard, water all my plants, do laundry, do some dishes, take out the trash, get gas for the car, drop something off at work so someone can sub for me next week, and put post-its all over the house to make it easier for Matt to remember what all needs to be done when he comes by the house. Tonight, Tim is going to help me clean the fishtank, go grocery shopping for roadtrip snacks, and build a moat around the cat food so that the ants don't have a crazy fiesta while we are away.

Getting ready for a trip is hard, but I think I make it harder because I like the house to be clean when I get home. I don't like coming home and looking around to see a lot of stuff that needs to be done. Plus I want to get the house as clean as possible so that there is nothing even tempting to the ants to invade our house while we are gone. I'm sure Matt will appreciate that as well.

I'm also sure that this entry was an incredibly interesting read.

Have a good long weekend, everyone!

I am such a bad blogger

I never update. I think about doing it a lot, but I never feel like doing it. "Maybe tomorrow, after I get a chance to take some pictures," I say. I never take pictures though. I am just lazy, I suppose. Plus, I think my life is too boring to read about most of the time. :)

But I will catch you up on a few things happening right now.

First, I have a new job. The one that I started in June just did not work out, for various reasons that I will not go into here. It was just not a good fit and I did not want to be miserable. So I started looking again, and had an even better sense of what I wanted and what to look for. I found something that I think will be perfect. It's a lot closer, it is a better program for the kids, and it fits more with my ideals and teaching philosophies. I've started planning curriculum, but I don't start teaching until the second week of September.

Tim and I are also going to take a little vacation soon. We'll be going to visit some of my family in Phoenix, and we thought we would make it a longer road trip since Tim has never been to the Grand Canyon. I have been many times, when I was younger, but it has been quite awhile. I must remember to take lots of pictures.

We're still working on the house. We bought new living room furniture so that we could move our sofabed to a bedroom. Having a guest room will be nice, instead of making company have to sleep in the living room. So before moving the couch, we finally got around to painting that room too. It's looking pretty nice in there! Now we just need to buy some bookshelves so that we can unpack all our books.

The kitchen is coming along nicely too but has stalled a bit. We're having a hard time finding a place to buy a butcher block countertop that will fit our island. We're also having a hard time with the place we bought our cabinets; they keep sending us doors that are banged up, scratched, or warped! I think they need a bit better quality control for the price we paid. Other than those things, the kitchen is pretty much done. We will just have a couple little things after that, like installing the toe kicks and the trim around the sliding door. The before and after pictures should be coming soon (we hope)!

There's a neighborhood kitty who likes to come visit our backyard. She is very cute and vocal. I like when she visits, except when it is 2am and she is in heat.

There's not much else that is new. Tim has been working a lot because there is a big deadline in a couple weeks. I've been doing lots of knitting when he's gone, but I will post about that in another entry.

disgusting

I can't believe people can be such sick bastards.

Here's the story
Here's the surveillance video. (Be warned. It's graphic and seriously made me cry.)

They need to run this guy over with a car three times.

bug off.

I. am. so. incredibly. sick. of. ants.

I seriously think they've built a giant, buzzing metropolis in our yard. Unfortunately, this often means home invasion. We've had to move our cats' food dishes several times because we have woken up in the morning to find a highway of ants heading to and fro. We've also had the displeasure of finding ants swarming hairballs. Last week we had Terminix come to spray the house inside and the perimeter outside. The cats and I had to leave the house for 3 hours while this happened, which I wouldn't have minded except that the cats didn't seem too pleased.

Unfortunately, the guy didn't tell me until he was almost done spraying that he was going to be unable to spray the living room due to our fishtank. It would have been nice if they had mentioned this previously (like when we called or when he first got here so that I would have time to cover it with saran wrap before posionous gases were dispersing in our house). Unfortunately, the living room is where most of the problems have occurred. But he said that if we had more problems, they would just come right back out and spray again.

We didn't worry about it for a few days. A few, fabulous, ant-free days. The past couple days, we have seen small traces of ants. They've seemed to have formed a fairly straight line, but there were too few of them to really figure out where it went. Well, I just got back from the grocery store and walked in to find a slightly larger line of ants. Headed to the pantry. And the cereal boxes.

We will call Terminix to come again and make sure that they can spray the living room this time, but let me tell you how much I am not looking forward to spending three hours away from the house with the cats again. Something more has to be done outside, or they are just going to keep coming back.

I am so disgusted. And irritated. And fed up.

sicky

Back from the doctor.
Good news: it's not strep throat!
Bad news: I have bronchitis.

I shall now go take this sleepy cough medicine which will knock me out for a few hours.

oh, hi

Long time no post. I have quite a few posts I want to make, but it will have to wait until tomorrow or Sunday. Kitchen updates, preschool stuff, knitting things too!

But I am alive, I survived my first week as a bonafide preschool teacher (the kids survived too), I'm very happy to finally have a job I actually like, and I am so very ready for the weekend.

Talk to you more tomorrow ;)

search me

Tim and I were looking at the stats page for talking-dog.com yesterday (which includes both his blog and mine). Some of the keyphrases that led people to our sites were quite amusing. These are things that people typed into search engines that led to blog entries we have made. I thought I would share some of them with you now. It started off fairly normal. A lot of car searches for him. A lot of knitting searches for me. A few Italy searches thrown in there too. Then we got to these:

shot my wad
woman pee urinal
troy aikman wants you back
dog waste container
how to get fired from starbucks
middle class statement to take out the trash
pictures of goofballs
guys peeing against wall
holy shit a talking dog
mormons are insane
kittens in weddings
guys holding their crotch
strip club crabs
it hurts for girls to get hit in the crotch

Huh. Interesting.
I haven't had a chance to type those in to google to see exactly why those phrases led to talking-dog. I really don't think I want to know.

quickie

There are some things I wanted to update on, but I don't feel like going into much detail. So here goes...

Stucco guy still hasn't fixed anything. He will hopefully show up tomorrow, though, and finish by Thursday evening. Drywall should start going in Saturday, which would mean painting maybe Wednesday next week and cabinets that following weekend.

Scantron tests should not take two weeks to grade.

Our wedding photographer is threatening to sue us because we posted a timeline for how long it took to actually get our pictures and all the screw ups he made. We are supposed to remove the website by Thursday. It is all factual, so we see no need to do this. Consumer reviews are not illegal.

My parents are actually going to fly here for my graduation. I didn't expect that.

39 days until graduation!

47 days til graduation

Life has gotten a little less crazy hectic, but I'm not sure if that's good or bad yet. School is slower now than before spring break and that is definitely a good thing. I do have a few papers due this week and a test on Thursday. I was stressing out at first until I realized that so far I have at least 100% in all of my classes. So, um, ya. I'm going to unstress and just take it slow. ;) I don't feel like doing homework tonight, so maybe I won't.

Our kitchen is also coming along slowly. Tim finished all the plumbing and electrical work last week. We had the inspector come look at things before we could put up the drywall. Everything Tim did passed. However, our stupid window guys suck. They had to re-stucco parts of the wall after their work. Well, they used ROOF paper and DRYWALL nails. If you think that those don't sound like the right tools for stucco, you'd be right. Plus the inspector was supposed to look at their work before they put up the stucco. We aren't pleased. These people do this for a living. Are they really this idiotic or were they trying to get away with something? In any case, they'll be coming back to do the work for free if we can ever get them to call us back and tell us when. At this point, their mistakes are seriously holding up the rest of the work that needs to be done. We were hoping to get the drywall up and start putting up the cabinets this past weekend. :/

Since Tim couldn't do any more kitchen work this weekend and I didn't have too much homework, we actually had some time together for fun. Yesterday we went to the winery that we are members of to pick up our quarterly selection. We also stayed for a bit of wining tasting and then had a picnic in our backyard. Very nice indeed. It will be really great when things calm down around the house again so that we can have more weekends like this one.

We also finished our taxes yesterday. Though it started out scary a few weeks ago and I was afraid we were going to owe a lot, we actually got it so that we get about a $5K refund! Hooray for itemized deductions!

I got a letter in the mail today from SFSU. It says they have approved my application for graduation, as long as I pass my current classes. HOORAY! This degree will finally be over in just a month and a half!

Yes, this has been a good day. Maybe I will go outside and enjoy the sunshine for awhile.

i thought we lived in a good neighborhood!

Last night when we got home from the grocery store, there was a news van a couple houses down. We were curious but didn't do anything about it. Today when I got home from classes, there were three news vans. So I decided to check sfgate. Ya, those people got hit on the sidewalk 2 houses away from us.

Um. Crap.
I'm glad I wasn't out for a walk.

new haircut

I've never really loved any haircut I've gotten in my life. Instead of finding another cute haircut in a magazine only to find out it did not look so cute on me, I decided to be brave yesterday. I went in and told her to do whatever she thought would look good on me. She tried to force more info out of me, but I stood firm. I don't care about length. I don't care about bangs. Just look at it and feel it and cut it. Afterwards, I'm sure I did not give as enthusiastic of an approval as she would have hoped. But you have to get used to a new cut. You also have to go home and wash it and restyle it in a way that doesn't scream "hair salon." So I did. Today, I think I really like it. I will like it even more once my bangs get a little longer.

I also kind of think I look like my mom in this picture. But not because of the hair.

mmm food

I'm such a foodtv dork. I watch the shows a lot - more than necessary for the amount of time I actually spend cooking. It's not that I don't like cooking. Most of the time I am just either tired or really busy. Favorite shows: Iron Chef America and Good Eats. Alton Brown is actually going to be in the neighborhood Wednesday evening for a book signing, and I just have to go. I'm going to try my best to get pictures.

Tonight is one of the nights we are actually cooking. Salmon filets covered in sesame seeds and asparagus risotto. Yum.

a little foot, a little knitting

Still working on this healing thing. I can't believe how hard it is to walk still. I've also decided that if you have foot surgery, the doctor should really give you one of those temporary handicap parking things. I ran some errands yesterday and it was Not Fun. Which I think is why I am mostly sitting all day today because it hurts worse than it has been.

I really need to do that post with pictures of recently finished knitting projects. Maybe I will make it a goal to do that tonight. I've been working on my hoodie again. I'm a little discouraged because the tightness of my knitting seems to have changed since I was working on it last. I'm knitting looser somehow. I decided it wasn't off by enough to rip back and redo though. I just did a couple less rows in this last sleeve than i did in the other and it should work out fine. This is a good reason to finish projects faster than I have been though. All I have left is seaming it all up and adding the hood! I've also been working on a pretty metallic bronze/orangey scarf. I have yarn for a couple other projects too but don't have the right size needles yet so I need to go get those tonight. Whee.

farewell foot chunk

You know, I knew I was going to have surgery today and all. I just never stopped to think that it might mean I couldn't do anything for awhile. I'm supposed to not walk around much and keep my foot elevated for at least the next couple days. Even after that, I shouldn't walk if I can help it for two weeks, until I get the stitches out. Man, now I'm going to be even more bored than before!

But they took that chunk out of my foot. It was a dermatofibroma, which is benign but slightly painful when wearing shoes. Mine looked like the bottom one. I will spare you all the details, but I will say that the surgery wasn't painful but it felt WEIRD. And that weirdness made me feel very faint.

I think I will be watching many movies on my laptop today.
I also think the numbness is wearing off.

foot removal

P.S. I get a big chunk of skin from my foot taken out next Friday. Whee. I will share the gory details later. It's not really as bad as it sounds :)

back home

Hey there, I'm back from our trip. I have a couple posts I want to make - one about the presents I knitted and how xmas went and one about my dog - but I just don't feel like doing it right now. So everyone have a happy new year! I'm going to hang out with friends and eat yummy fondue tonight. What are you doing?

holiday time

Christmas time always stresses me out, especially when I have to travel. This year we are visiting both Tim's family and my own - which means going to both Virginia and Texas. The time spent at each location should be fine; it's the airports I dread. I have vivid memories of going home for xmas a few years back and barely making it onto the plane in time, even though I got to the airport 3 hours early. I'm also a little nervous about checking a box full of presents, but I guess there's nothing that can be done about that. The shuttle is going to pick us up at 5:30am. Man.

I had gotten most of my xmas shopping done last week, but I had a little bit more to do today - mostly stocking stuffers and just a couple small presents. Luckily, I was able to avoid the mall so that helped. I really don't like crowds. Really. A lot. Probably part of the reason I don't like airports at xmas time. So I came home from shopping to check the mailbox one more time to see if a gift certificate I ordered for my mom had come yet. Nope, wasn't there. I ordered this a week and a half ago and the lady assured me it would be sent right away. I called today and apparently it was never sent. In fact, she couldn't even find a record of my ordering it. At least she believed me when I told her that my credit card had already been charged (the day I ordered it) so she said she would overnight it to me. Cross your fingers that it gets here tomorrow, otherwise it will be too late.

I'm a bit disappointed that I found out we have to bring sleeping bags to sleep on the floor at Tim's brother's house. I understand they have this big house and that they don't have enough guest beds for everyone, but I guess I'm just not used to that kind of thing. Visiting people and sleeping on the floor. I never even liked camping :p But to make up for it, it *might* snow while we are there. They said it was snowing a couple days ago when Tim talked to him. Keep it up! I want SNOW.

We forgot about finding someone to come visit our cats and feed our fish until the last minute. Oops. Matt was nice enough to accept though. It doesn't take much work at least...come by twice just to see if the cats stil have food and water, sprinkle a little food in the fishtank. I guess that's why we forgot.

Oh, I've also been knitting a few xmas presents. I'll make sure to post pictures when I get back.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Effexor is evil

Just to put effexor's side effects into perspective in yet another way....
From January 2003 to May 2004 (while on effexor) I gained 20 lbs.
Since quitting effexor in July (without changing my diet or exercise at all) I have lost 15 of those pounds.
Hooray for my metabolism getting back to normal!!

this is me having a breakdown

Why are people such fucking assholes all the time? I'm seriously fed up with just about everyone right now. Everyone is trying to rip us off. No one seems to think it is possible that something might work in a different way than they were expecting. No one wants to have any give and come to a mutually satisfying conclusion.

According to the Japanese calendar, this is the year of the Monkey. While somewhat fitting, I prefer to call it the year of the Ass.

I pretty much hate everyone.

Dear Iraq:

We didn't do this to you.
Don't bomb the blue states.

Thank you.

well, crap

I've always hated Ohio.

happy halloween!

We carved pumpkins last night and roasted the pumpkin seeds today. Yum.

Here's our pumpkins:

Mine:

Tim's:

The glow of mine on the front door:

Spooky.

recent comments

I've been frustrated with how this whole commenting thing has been working. I get some comments on the rss feed on livejournal and some comments here. Neither was ideal. When I get comments on livejournal, it doesn't email telling me that I got a new comment so I would have to keep checking to see if anyone has said anything. When I get comments on yarnaholic, it emails me but it doesn't let people I respond to know that I have responded.

So I just added a "recent comments" section on my left sidebar. Now, everyone should just comment on yarnaholic instead of livejournal. I will get emails letting me know I have comments, and you can look in the sidebar to see if new comments have been made on a post you are interested in. That's the best compromise I can come up with.

I think it will work. So comment on yarnaholic from now on! :D

Oh, and let me know if you run into problems with the "recent comments" thing, like if having only six shown is too few.

smooches!

we gotta hold on...

...to what we've got, it doesn't make a difference if we make it or not!

So I just had a mid to late 80's music flashback - when I used to watch MTV and there were actual music videos on it. I started thinking about the Hair Band songs I used to like and added a whole bunch to my iTunes - you know, Bon Jovi, Poison, Skid Row, Whitesnake, etc. But I need help thinking of more. What were your favorite Hair Band songs? Come on, I know you listened to them too.

i love this time of year

Genevieve listed out how busy this time of year is for her, which made me think about my own schedule. I'm barely going to have time to breathe.

• Oct 31 - Halloween
  
• Oct 22-Nov 10 - Packing, setting up new utilities, change of address stuff
  
• Nov 11 - Move, plus a week or so of unpacking/painting/etc.
  
• Nov 16 - 1st Wedding Anniversary and my brother's bday
  
• Nov 27 - Thanksgiving
  
• Dec 13 - Dad's bday
  
• Dec 21 - Mom's bday
  
• Dec 25 - Xmas (which includes going to both maryland and dallas this year)
  
• Plus tons of research papers and exams spread throughout the next 2 months

Oh, plus I was going to do handmade xmas cards this year, which I need to figure out with Tim so I can order supplies. I really need to start thinking about what to get people for all these gifts. Especially wedding anniversary, which is coming up really quick. Paper. Hrm.

I love this time of year though, especially when daylight saving's time ends. I love coming home at 5:30pm and having it already be dark outside. I love the cool, crisp air. I love getting home and lighting a fire in the fireplace. Plus we will have a nice high ceiling in our living room so that we can get a really tall tree to decorate. And we're having Thanksgiving at our house this year - the two of us, plus probably our friends Ryan & Rachel, and Ryan's parents.

Just thinking about this time of year makes me smile.

Other than that, things have been busy, of course. Lots of school papers and exams, plus my internship. I am loving working with my preschool class. They are all just wonderful children. We seriously have very little conflict in the classroom. It's going to be a rude awakening when I get a new preschool class who isn't quite so well behaved and accepting. ;) Today we are taking the class to the pumpkin patch in Halfmoon Bay. Besides having lots of pumpkins, it also has pony rides and other family activities. Should be a fun time.

So last night we went to an audience pre-screening of a movie that is still in production called The Big White. It stars Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Giovanni Ribissi, Alison Lohman, and Woody Harrelson. Since it is still in the works, not all the special effects have been added yet, but they just wanted an audience opinion on how it flowed, the ending, etc. Man, that was a funny movie. There were a few things that could use some work, but you should definitely keep your eye out for it's release. Hooray for free movies!

Hm. I can't think of anything else to say right now. :)

presidential bullshit

These presidential debates are pure crap. Both sides are twisting information and telling half truths about statistics. Doesn't the American public deserve to hear the REAL story before making up their minds? Don't misguide us on how things really are or how you see the future. I feel like I'm listening to two used car salesman battling it out, trying to get us to buy their crappy POS car that will sputter and die after one month. Whether you take the calm and cool presentation style or the goofy "I'm just a country boy" strategy, it's still bullshit. I'm also sick of both democrats and republicans putting on blinders - only noticing the good of their side while only seeing bad in the other. OPEN YOUR EYES and quit being dumbass followers. Make your own decisions on what is right instead of just listening to propaganda. If you look me straight in the eye and tell me that you agree with every single statement that either side makes, I call you ignorant.

It makes me sick to my stomach.

the joys of being 29

I've come to the conclusion that I am now too old to shop at Urban Outfitters. I decided this after going to their website and clicking on "dresses" and having a page come up with girls wearing jeans. Ya, there's no way I'm going to wear a dress with jeans. Actually, I don't think I ever would have worn a dress with jeans.

I also want to know when the ruffly Madonna 80's skirts came back in style. They were bad the first time around.

I knew it. I knew that if I clicked on "socks and tights" I would find legwarmers. Ya, I can't shop there anymore.

well, hello there

It feels like it should be Thursday already. What a long week this has been already. I feel so tired all of the time. So much reading making my eyes tired and making me want to sleep. What can I do to make myself more awake and energetic? No more coffee for me though because it seems that it may be part of the reason my bladder is so unhappy with me all the time. So I'm cutting it (mostly) out of my life.

Speaking of cutting things out of my life...ha. Let's just say, I've decided to let it go. People can skew things in their minds and think what they want; that doesn't make it true.

And for a non-vague statement, we close on the house this Friday. What a great birthday present! Well, a better present would be that we could actually move in, but I have a feeling that the 45 days will fly by.

Tim's parents just left this morning. We had a good weekend together, which involved a lot of restaurants. That's kind of a treat, since we have been cutting back on eating out to save money. On Saturday, we took them to the winery we are members of for some free wine tasting. Then Sunday we took a tour of the Winchester Mystery House, which was fun. I hadn't been there since I was 13, plus we also went on a "Behind the Scenes" tour and saw some things I had never seen before. That sure was one crazy lady.

Now to get some house papers notarized and then back to homework.

Whee!

Vote! (and win money)

The company behind hot or not has a sweepstakes to encourage people to vote. If you aren't already registered there's a link to get you registered.. otherwise, just enter your information and let's win 100k!

Yes, i don't normally send out bulk spammy-type sweepstakes things but i want everyone to vote and i certainly wouldn't mind 100k.

Sign up here.

SWEETNESS!!!

This would be AWESOME!

sicky

I have a cold.
During a 3-day weekend.
I guess it's better than if it happened during the week though, seeing what my schedule is like.
I sure don't feel like doing homework though.
icky.

consolidation

So I think I've decided to make this my complete blog instead of just my knitting one. I've been using livejournal for everything but knitting, but this one seems to be getting neglected a lot. There's really no point in keeping them separate.

So we are going to make a bid on that house this week. We're really nervous because of all the horror stories we've heard about buying houses in this area. But before we make our bid, I think I'm going to ask my dad if he can help out with the down payment. We have the 20% but the more attractive we can make the offer, the better, so a larger down payment would be nice. We may not even need it, but it would be nice to know if it would be a possibility. I'm a little scared about asking my dad about a loan though. I've had money issues with my parents in the past (college) and am just a little nervous about getting a possible lecture. I guess the worst he could do overall is say no though. Plus I know he has helped my aunt and uncle and maybe even my cousin out with houses before, so I shouldn't be too worried, right?

School starts Wednesday. I had a potluck dinner for my internship group last Thursday night. Thought it was just going to be a fun, get-to-know-you thing but the intern supervisor also gave us a 40-page handout so I guess I should read that today or tomorrow too.

I really want to finish knitting my hoodie before school starts. All I have left is one arm and the hood, but somehow I still don't think I will be able to finish soon.

Italy?

Oh, ya. We did go there. And now we finally have some* pictures up for you to peruse. It took awhile because we sorted out the bad not as good ones and added titles and comments to almost all of them.

No knitting update for now, except to say that I am still working on the ruffle tank and under the hoodie.

* Some is about 279. You don't want to know how many we took before filtering some out.

home again!

Actually I've been home for a week and a half, but I've been getting settled into my new summer class schedule (which is pretty fast-paced, as one class needs to fit into only 5 weeks) so I haven't had time to update.

Italy was fun :) And man was it a lot of walking. And a lot of Italian food. And a lot of people talking in a language that we couldn't understand. So while we did enjoy ourselves, it was quite draining and we were glad to come home. Venice was definitely our favorite — we loved the canals and how everything was within walking distance. We also found a favorite restaurant in Florence that we visited a couple times — once for three and a half hours as we thoroughly enjoyed the Italian cuisine, some fabulous wine, and the company of our Scottish waitress.

While we were there, we happened upon a couple yarn stores as well (lucky us!). The first was in Venice, called Lellabella.

Nice small shop, but everything seemed pretty expensive in there so I declined purchasing something. It had a great location though, with one window facing right onto a quaint, narrow canal with a gondola stop right outside.

The other yarn shop we found was in Florence near the Ponte Vecchio bridge, called Beatrice Galli.

I found some extremely soft yarn that I decided to get there - Filatura Di Crosa angora & extra fine merino in a muted mint color. I can't find it on any website so I will try to take a picture later. I'm thinking of using this for the sophie bag knitalong. I also missed the deadline for the spring bucket hat contest - I had the hat finished but never got around to taking the picture! Darnit. Anyway, I'm going to go for the summer contest instead. This time I should be a-okay since I'm almost finished with the hat. I'll try to get pictures of both hats up soon. Other than that, I'm back to working on my hoodie from Stitch n Bitch too. It goes so fast. After these bucket hats, I forgot how wonderful some yarn is to knit with. Calmer is much nicer on my fingers than this linen print that I've been using lately.

arrivederci!

Welp, we're off to Italy today. I hope to get a lot of knitting done on that nice, long 14 hours of flying. That's the only part of the flight that I'm looking forward to - working on knitting projects that I haven't had time to touch in weeks. Then we will be in Venice, then Florence, and then Rome. No knitting then! Though I might have to check out some Italian yarn shops ;)

See ya in a couple weeks!