Conversations with a 3-year-old

Driving home last night:

"J, when we get home we're going to make spaghetti for dinner."

"Mmmm! I love spaghetti!"

"Me too. Is your tummy empty?" (because that's how he says he's hungry)

"Nope. My belly is big... just like Daddy Dave's."

I'm giggling.
"Daddy Dave has a big belly?"

With total and absolute preschool sincerity "Yes Mama, it's so big he doesn't even have a lap!"

It was all I could do to keep my car in it's lane I was laughing so hard. God, I love my kid!

Happy Blogiversary

Wow! It's hard to believe that I've been doing this for three years!

When I started this thing I didn't really have a plan on where I wanted it to go, or even why I was doing it. Seems like not much changes in three years, huh? But seriously, it's been a lot of fun, and I've enjoyed the friendships forged.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thought I'd share some silly Thanksgiving vet humor with you. Don't worry- no animals were harmed in the process. :)




(sorry for the weird picture, Tiffany!)

Hope you all have a great day today, and find much in your lives to be thankful for. We are all so truly blessed.

Busy Weekend=Long Post

but not to worry... there are pictures, too.

So, Saturday, amid much fiasco about travel arrangements, mostly due to my own stupidity and inability to see logic at times, I met up with Michele to go to the Orlando Needleworks Show. We were both really excited to get to go and play with all the nice fancy yarn that you can't buy anywhere in our county.

So we get to the convention center, and pay our $6 for parking, and the garage is packed. We get inside, pay our $10 each for entry, and find that the needleworks show is mostly scrapbooking and rubber stamps. Of course it is. Why wouldn't a NEEDLEWORKS show have those things? I was disappointed that there were only a handful of booths that were offering any sort of yarn at all, and sort of felt duped by the title. To be fair, there were quite a few booths with quilting supplies, so I guess, technically, it was a needleworks show. But the ads and flyers made it sound like there would be quite a few more vendors than there were. And the vendors weren't all that friendly and outgoing, either. You'd think that if you'd spent that much money to take part in the thing, you'd at least be trying to chat up your prospective buyers. Then again, when you have the corner on the market, I guess you don't have to go out of your way to please anyone.

That said, the yarn that was there was scrumptious. Michele and I browsed all of the booths, and it was really quite comical because every booth we went to, we both oogled the exact same thing. It's a good thing we like each other, or else there might have been some catty fighting over certain yarns. :)

I was a smart girl, though. Before leaving town I removed my debit card from my wallet and took only cash. That way, I HAD to restrain myself and only buy the things I was on a mission for. Wait til you see just how close I came to blowing it. :)

You see, I had one particular project and one particular yarn that I wanted. It's intended to be a gift for someone for Christmas, and it had to be just right. I had a few select colors that I was looking for, and while I didn't find exactly the yarn I wanted, I found something very close.

I snatched it up, along with a couple ounces of roving to play around with. I'm still not a pro at the drop spindle, but I enjoy playing with it, so the little 1 oz bags are perfect for now, and give me just enough handspun to add a little flair to a project.

So, disappointed with the show, but not ready to admit defeat, Michele and I got the brilliant idea that, hey, Orlando has real honest to goodness yarn shops! Lets go find some! So we got the phone book, and we got the address, and we headed for the car.

It was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cold, so we put the top down and acted like a couple of movie stars.

Here we are (aren't we cute!) calling Wil to give us mapquest directions to the holy mecca of fiber.


Yes, the locals do call it Sip n' Knit.

Here is where we had the most fun all day. Unfortunately, I'd already spent most of my budget on admission and one skein of yarn at the needleworks show. It almost kills me to thing that I would have had another 30-something bucks to blow here, had I skipped the show and just gone here. Oh well, it's the price of experience, right?

I did manage to eek a couple of balls of yarn out of the change in my pocket. How could I resist?

And then it dawned on us... we were hungry. Not just a little hungry, more like that "I haven't had anything but a cup of coffee all day" type of hungry.

Fortunately, there's a Publix almost directly in front of the yarn shop, and so we pooled what resources we had left and we bought a sub and a half gallon of tea to share and we had a picnic right there in the parking lot while petting the new yarn.

Here are just some silly pictures of us oogling our new purchases... and petting them, too. :)





Now on to Sunday. Whew!

While Michele and I were at the needlworks show, we discovered that the International Auto Show was being held in the convention rooms just down the hall. This immediately made me sad because I'd made Wil stay at home because I figured he'd be bored to tears hanging out with us. So, I was morally obligated to take him back in return for taking care of J all day while I was out playing.
J had a great time too. The kid has a fascination with Mustangs, and he got his fill of them.





I'm not a car buff like Wil is, but I had a great time. Besides, it was a good excuse to wear my new shoes.

No effing way

Only two days left until the Orlando Needleworks Show, and I'm feeling sick. Not show-stoppingly, bedridden sick, but just enough to annoy the crap out of me. You know, that dull headache and the tickle in the throat? The one that threatens at any minute to turn into chills and aches and absolutely miserableness, if only you'd give it the time of day.

Well, it's getting no sympathy from me. In less than 40 hours I will be browsing my way through the convention center high on wool fumes, googly-eyed over all the pretty beads, and even admiring the fabrics despite the fact that I'm not a quilter.

Michele and I are also tossing around the idea of making a side trip over to the new Ikea store. No idea why we think that's a good idea, considering our budgets, but still... could you resist? Yarn and Ikea all in one day. That might be a little too much bliss.

So there's no effing way that I'm going to even entertain the idea that I might possibly be feeling even the tiniest bit worse than perfect. Nope.

Done and Done

I finished both the Baby Bolero and Sheldon this week. Both are intended gifts for a baby due very (to be read "the next few days") soon. I'm not thoroughly impressed or in love with either of these projects, but they're cute enough, and they'll fit right in with their pond theme for the nursery.

I used Mama Sheep here to model the little baby bolero because it was the closest thing in this house to an infant size. I do realize that no newborn is quite that squarish or round, even if the baby receiving it IS already 10 pounds by ultrasound estimate! Egads!

Jonas now thinks Mama Sheep needs her own sweater, and is quite upset that she can't keep this one.

And so, finally there's some knitting content for the blog. Now all that's left on the needles is the hat that will become J's, and then I've been asked by a coworker to knit her aunt a couple of chemo hats. She must not have read that post about screwing up every hat I've ever touched.

Well, maybe that explains it

The local newspaper had an online article talking about the recent real estate boom and subsequent crash. It included a little interactive map which you could click on and see the foreclosure rate in certain areas of the county.

I'm sickened by the fact that within about a 10 mile radius of my house, 44 percent of the homes are in foreclosure. Other nearby areas are between 20 and 30 percent, too.

Think about that- it's staggering isn't it? Somwhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of all the people living here are going broke and losing everything.

I don't feel all that sorry for them. They took the risky loans to buy the fancy new houses in the gated communities that kept flying up all over the place rather than living within their means, but can you really blame them? Who doesn't want to have the best for their families? And mortgage companies with their interest only loans made it easy to jump into a home WAY out of your price range. Instant gratification, pressure to keep up with everyone else, and now destitution.

Think it has any correlation to the high crime rate? Broken people with empty wallets and nothing to show for it... it's just a byproduct of desperation.

Cosmic Twins?

Go ahead and roll your eyes at the title. Yes, I realize that it sounds awful new-agey and dumb, but I'm thoroughly convinced that some people are just linked in ways that we don't quite understand.

We have a friend, Mary. Way back when, we all worked together at Best Buy and we became quite close. But there's something odd about our relationship. You see, anytime something strange happens to us, a similar event is almost undoubtedly going to occur in hers. Sometimes they're just odd coincidences- you know, the ordinary quirky things like picking out the exact same birthday card for the same person. But sometimes they're just too weird to explain.

For instance, think back to April when hubby spent a week in the hospital due to a nasty infection in his foot. Yep-- very same week Mary was in the very same hospital having surgery on the very same leg. I wish I'd known, I could have maybe gone for a visit, or arranged little hospital playdates between the patients. (Do they allow such things?)

Ok, if that's not weird enough for you, how about this one:

Two nights ago hubby was robbed outside his job at about 6 pm. This morning, about 6 am, Mary and her coworkers were held up at gunpoint on her way into work. The bastard forced them to open and empty the safe and then, thankfully, took off without injuring anyone. In another stroke of luck. The genius took a wrong turn, was caught by the police, and the money was returned.

I don't mean to make light of the situation, and I'm not here to comment on how shitty it is that this area's crime rate is rivaling some of the big cities. I'm just marveling over the fact that our lives seem to be entwined in a scarily odd sort of way.

Maybe we need to just make a habit of calling each other at the end of every day to warn each other about impending doom.

Going to Hell in a Hurry

I actually had a cute little post planned for tonight. One that included heart-melting pictures of little puppies with huge amounts of determination. Instead, you get to hear me rant about how this town, and this world in general, is going to crap.

Hubby was just robbed. 6:30pm, and along the side of a rather busy road. And of course, no one saw a thing.

A little background... hubby delivers medical equipment. He drives a big white van with the name of a major medical provider on the side of it. His office is located in a horrible area of town, less than a block from the river, less than a block from the homeless shelter, and directly behind a pay by the hour sort of motel of ill repute. He's frequently been approached by less than savory individuals requesting a handout, or some food, or the bolder ones ask for drugs. You see, it makes sense, since he's driving a van full of medical stuff, that he might also be carrying a little more... say hydrocodone. And for the record, he doesn't. About the most potent thing he has on board is oxygen. But anyway...

He's on call this week, which means that he's the last driver back to the shop, and when he gets there, everyone else is gone. Now, he has to stop in to replenish his van for the night in case he's called, and to unload any equipment that he may have picked up. I've never liked the idea of him being there after hours, by himself, in the dark, but what can you do?

So far he's been lucky, as have all the other drivers, but tonight the call of nature took over logic, and he left the van unlocked long enough to run into the shop and take care of business. Dumb move, but hey, what are the odds?

They cleaned him out-- wallet, radio, whatever else was in the van, GPS.

Now, believe me, I'm not sweating the little stuff. The only thing I give a damn about is that my husband is alive and ok. The rest of the stuff-- just a minor inconvenience.

I'm not one of those people who's oblivious to reality, but I do tend to be quite trusting, and I do like to give people, and the world in general, the benefit of the doubt. I think I'm over that now.

t

#@&*%# Hats!

I was lamenting this afternoon to Michele the fact that I've never been able to knit a hat that turns out the way I want. Never. Not a single one. Now, I can make you a fairly elaborate sweater. I can knit you a pair of the fanciest socks. I can make gloves that fit, well, like gloves. But a simple friggin hat will beat me every time.

I said this while casting on for a baby hat, which I ended up ripping at least three times as I sat there in front of her. Then, finally, after admitting defeat, I decided to go with the most simple bat out there- a rolled brim. Now, how can you go wrong with that? I used the weight of yarn requested in the pattern, the needle size specified too. And sure enough, this infant hat is big enough for me to wear snugly, and for J to wear a bit less snugly. Dammit all to hell! I mean, it's fine and all. You can usually find a head to fit just about any hat, but even that bit of comfort doesn't do much for the fact that there's going to be a baby born in just a few weeks and that poor baby is going to have a cold little head because I'm a freakin' loser when it comes to hat knitting.

But I'm not ripping again. Nope. This hat will get finished. And J will have the toastiest head in the sunshine state. :)

Now, time to go check the online baby registry.

Fall Cleaning

Most people experience the urge to clean and do all this sort of stuff in the spring, but around here spring simply means that we have an approaching 9 months worth of insufferably hot weather to look forward to. It's somewhat depressing, and in no way sets me in the mood to clean house.

But today- November 1st, still in the 80's but decidedly more fall-ish than the past several months, I'm on a mission, it seems.

So far I've:
Done three loads of laundry.
Cleaned both bathrooms top to bottom.
Organized J's closet full of toys.
Dusted all the furniture, which means I had to sort and organize all the stuff lying around on top of the furniture. (Honey, this is to be read, collecting from all over the house and stacking your magazines and paperwork in one neat pile for you to sort through tonight)
Cleaned the fan blades.
Swept the tile.
Vacuumed the carpets and the spots on the back of the couches where the cats like to snooze and leave their hair.
Steam cleaned the living room furniture.
Dishes.
And now I've got the curtains down and they're taking their spin in the washer.

Things I haven't done:
Showered
Made it out of my pajamas
Made my child brush his teeth.
Picked up the million stitches to add the ribbing to the baby jacket I'm knitting
Done my self-review for work.


And it's those last two that are keeping me so busy. You see, I'll do just about anything to avoid doing one little thing that I'm not looking forward to, no matter how simple, and no matter how quickly it would go if I'd just sit down and do it.

At least I'll have a clean house out of the deal.