When it rains

My car is cursed. Seriously. It has a mind of it's own, and works on it's own schedule. Usually, when it's feeling snarky is exactly when I need it to be on it's best behavior-- much like my son.

For months now, intermittently, it's left me stranded somewhere. You get in, turn the key, and nothing. It's not the battery because I can still roll the windows up and down and the dome light works, as well as the radio. Twice, I've pulled it into the auto parts store to have the alternator checked, and it's passed with flying colors, too.

Yesterday, while out running errands in the too-hot-to-breathe afternoon heat, it decided to play it's tricks on me. Every time I give in and call someone to come 'rescue' me, it starts right up when they get there. And true to form, once Wil arrived, driving 20 miles out of his way, in his company van, it did the exact same thing.

Fortunately, I have a pretty cool mechanic, who graciously allowed me to bring it straight over. He thinks it's the starter. That's a simple fix, I suppose. The bad news is he'll need to keep the car for a couple of days while the starter gets rebuilt. Apparently, that's the cheaper way to go, and I'm all for that. The problem with him keeping the car is that I NEED my car. It's the only car that's really safe enough to put J in. I suppose the chances of having an accident in Wil's car in the two days or so that I'd have to depend on it are fairly slim, but still... who wants to strap their kid into a car with back doors that stick, has no a/c, and sounds like armageddon when it runs?

Yeah, it's only a temporary thing, but still... I'm going to have to suck it up. Right now I'm on pins and needles every time I start it up, not sure when it's going to decide it's done for good.

As a bonus, this means that I won't be going to Stitch N Pitch this weekend, which I really wanted to do. J would have loved the game, and how often do I get a chance to hang out with a bunch of knitters?

*sigh*

In good news, I got my new-to-me computer this weekend, thanks to Michele. Soon I'll have pictures to share and I can get back on track with all things net related.

And speaking of Michele, it seems we manage to find some excuse to get together almost every weekend for a little knitting time, and yet my FO count doesn't seem to go anywhere. Funny how that happens. I did finish up my puke monkeys this weekend. Pictures soon, I promise. Let me say this: I adore the monkey pattern! It was a great and quick knit, and the result would be fabulous in a different yarn. I can totally understand why Knit Picks discontinued the Dancing line. I love the elasticity of it, but the color? Total Fug. Still waffling on whether to overdye these, or just leave them as is. I don't know if I know anyone who's got a loud enough personality to pull off wearing them as is.

I cast on a new pair almost immediately. That says a lot for the pattern. I've never once had a desire to knit the same thing twice. There are just too many good patterns out there that I want to do. But Monkeys are great lunch hour, car ride, tv watching socks. Unfortunately, I didn't like the way this yarn looked in the pattern, either, and they were turning out huge, even after starting them three different times, on three different needles. So they got frogged. I contemplated Jaywalkers, but with instructions to cast on 72 stitches for the smallest size, I feared disastrous results, and so frogged those too. I think this yarn just wants to be plain old stockinette socks. Oddly, I've never done plain socks before. I'll keep these in my purse for mindless knitting, and maybe go stash diving for something more mentally stimulating.

Anyway, long post, no pictures. I'm sure you're yawning.