Sort of Started...

...another KAL - this one for striped socks. So I have my favorite Opal yarn, another in the Little Prince colorway. And I have my favorite needles. Color is 7767 and dye lot is 822. Let's just say it's festive and bright, and it'll be very pretty. 


And I figured I'd start out with something different, because while I love a plain sock, that's what my last several have been. So I checked out the Vanilla Latte pattern on Ravelry. So you can't get to Ravelry from here, unless you're a member. 

Vanilla Latte Sock

Therefore, here's a picture of what a Vanilla Latte sock looks like. Actually, the sock pattern is more of a "recipe" - you have your choice of cast on, ribbing, size (circumference) and heel. All with suggestions, but then basic construction elements.

I thought, "I'd like to shake this latte up a bit." So I cast on 72 stitches. I know - seems huge. But since Fluro was that size and it fits well, I figured I'd give this a go. Got my usual 6 rows of knitting knocked out and read in the directions, the following:

"If you want a bit more caffeine, knit through the back loops of the knit stitches for a twisted rib."

How hard can that be, right? Well, THIS is now what my Vanilla Latte looks like. First off, I started the rib on Needle 4. And yeah, at that point, I could have just moved the stitch marker, right? Well, that might have caused the earth to tip on its axis. So I thought, "Well how hard can that be? I'll just have one extra row of ribbing." 

Frogged....

Ha. 

Ha again. Somehow, I don't know how -- I ended up ENDING one needle with the K stitches and the next one would have STARTED with the K stitches. That, my knitterly (and non-knitterly) readers, is NOT how ribbing goes. And on top of that, the K through back loop looked weird. So..... THIS --> is what my sock now looks like. 

Yeppers... Frogged. I'm going to let the yarn rest a bit and start again. I'm not all peeved at the screw-up. Screw-ups happen, especially in knitting. I'm not even annoyed that the KAL is from 9/1 - 10/1 -- I have baby knitting due in November. Coincidentally the month the BABY is due. So if I make the KAL, I make it. If I don't? Well, either way, I have socks. And I love socks as a take-along project. It's probably a good idea, given the size of my sock-yarn stash, that I always have a pair on the needles. That or hats...

But let me explain my "oh well" attitude...

Bleeding socks

It's like the Fluro socks. See the bucket here? This is AFTER a 10-minute vinegar+ water soak, a microwaving and steaming to supposedly set the hot pink. After that, you can wash them, but suggestions are made that you should use baby shampoo. 

So, not having babies, I went to the now smoke-less CVS (see below) and purchased a couple of bottles of Burt's Bees baby shampoo. I had forgotten how much I loved the smell!! Anyway, the bucket holds lukewarm water plus the shampoo and socks. 

And look at all the pink. I'm told by a couple of folks who dye yarn, that "eventually" the hot pink won't bleed. But you know what? I'm not really upset about that, either. 

They're socks, people. The most disposable of all knitting projects. I don't have a photo of the "bleeding socks" but I may take one. It's not a huge deal to me. I will know now that I have to vinegar wash all the Fluro colors, and maybe if I did a pattern on the leg and foot, it would have "hidden" the bleeding. 

I would have been more upset had it been a sweater or even a scarf. I can always wear shoes.

Baby Deadline...

So, speaking of the baby deadline, look at the CUTEST sock you'll ever lay eyes on. It's done. Well, the "bootie" part of the layette is 50% completed. 

I will tell you that the cotton, on size 6 needles, is a stinker. The first picture here is while working on the heel flap. You have to tug and tug to get it nice and flat. But then you wonder if you've "overstretched" it. And then you remember (because your hands are now cramping up) that it's COTTON. No worries about stretching, because it doesn't stretch. 

So the KAL mentioned above is an excuse to change up from the unforgiving cotton. And yeah, Fr. Matt will have to bless this thing... 

I'm so sorry, Susan. I'm trying to impart good vibes as I knit this for your baby!! 

Anyway, the bootie took me TWO days. Period. Wowza. Of course, Hubby was kind enough to give me a nice hand massage - that left one (see the death grip on the needle??) really was hurting. 

Turning the heel was a cinch. Just 4 rounds. And the gusset was a piece of cake as well. You can see my notebook - that's the one that I'm committed to only using for baby stuff. That way, I won't be plundering other notebooks for info. 

So since this was a relative breeze, I figure I can just whip the second one out in a few days, then move on to the hat. Then the cardigan. 

And I'm still whirling away on the blanket, too. Fingers (and needles) crossed - this should all be done by the time the little one arrives. 

At first, I thought the cuff was "awfully long" - but upon completion, it looks squishy-adorable when it's cuffed down. And I'm just imagining a chubby baby's little toes in there. 

Now watch. She'll birth a linebacker!

CVS Now Smokeless...

Read it here. Or watch it... CVS is the #2 drugstore in the US. And it just went smokeless. As in: we are not selling tobacco, tobacco products, smokeless tobacco - nothing. 

And in a shameless plug, it's also changing its name to CVS Health. And I'm ok with that. 

I don't smoke, but my dad did. So does my sister. And my mom - who never smoked a day in her life - has emphysema. 

So. I'm actually tickled to see how this will play out. 

Don't Forget...

...when you make a green smoothie and forget it in your office fridge?? Well. Not nice. 

Smelly, explosive, and if it wasn't a good Mason jar, I'd have tossed it. Anyway, I managed to not spew smelly green stuff all over the office kitchen. But not by much! 

So. Write notes! Green smoothies are really, REALLY nasty when they're fermented. 

Just a word to the wise. 

Random Picture...

Wonder who's hoarding all the bones.

Hoarding

Well, you shouldn't. It's Raisa, the bone-hog. She sneaks up and takes them and hoards them. Well, she tried when Tippi was chewing one and in true bone-head husky fashion, she was ignoring the basso profundo growling. I probably should have let Tippi teach her a lesson, but I stopped it in their tracks and shooed Raisa away. 

Till Tippi got tired of it and left it. 

For the Bone Hoarder... 

I'm NOT Kathryn Budig...

...and that's not a complaint (specifically, I guess) - just a fact. 

In just about every issue of Yoga Journal, you can see Ms. Budig, an international figure in the yoga scene, and also a philanthropist. You see her mostly unclothed, except for a pair of Toe Sox. At first, clothed - some of the older ads had her in remarkable poses, and fully clothed. 

Lately, not so much. Actually, once she got to "showing butt crack" my own teacher cancelled her subscription to YJ. 

It sells socks. 

But it also pretty much destroys a normal person's concept of themselves. And yeah, you always try to be strong. But let's face it.

As women, we are bombarded, almost hourly, it seems. We're not good enough; not thin enough; not pretty enough. The fashion mags would have you believe that if you are anywhere near a double-digit size, you're fat. And God help you if you're over a size 10...because now size 12 is considered a "plus" size. 

And Yoga Journal is not immune to that either. For all their preaching of "acceptance" and "living in the moment," their recent cover model was Hilaria Baldwin, and they're calling her an "up and coming yogi." Uh-huh. She's most famous for marrying Alec Baldwin and having a baby. And not in that order. Oh, and crap-loads of "yoga selfies" in the oddest places. 

So YJ does a cover story. And it seems like it's more a fashion shoot. Just as an example, check out her Virabhadrasana III at the left. Yeah. The one in 4" heels on a cobblestone road. Full disclosure: I found this on Google; it's not one of the shots in the magazine. 

To the right, you can see my slightly chubbier, barefoot version - in my back yard. In no way am I saying mine is right and hers is wrong. Many of her poses (when she's not wearing haute couture) are lovely. 

I'm just saying that this isn't promoting a healthy look at yoga. 

First off, there are many of us who are qualified teachers who do NOT look like either of these women. Of course, there are many qualified teachers who DO - and I teach with several of them. 

Second, yoga is meant to be done a certain way, and I'm not being a hide-bound traditionalist stick-in-the-mud. High heels? Really?

As my very wise yoga teacher once said to me, "Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD."

Anyway, there's a backlash to Hilaria et al. Heck, you can barely see a YJ cover featuring a male, much less a realistic look at what a lot of us yogis and yoginis look like. And so I submitted a shot of myself to the FB page "My Real Yoga Body." Check them out. You'll see some awesome yogis and yoginis in every shape and size. And in just about every pose you can imagine. 

Just as it should be. 

I mean, realistically, I'm 56 years old, recovering from some significant health challenges, and I gained back some of the weight I lost. I do find, yes, even in my "wisdom," that things like 'picture perfect' yoginis make me miserable. In fact, the photo of myself up above there makes me miserable. It wasn't what I thought I saw in my head. 

And maybe I need to take that to heart. Didn't some scientist once prove that technically, bumblebees can't fly? They should be, because of their larger bodies and smaller wings, totally unable to fly.

Somehow, the bumblebees never got that message. Maybe that's the message we all need to "not get."

Knitting...

The Fluro socks are done. D-O-N-E. And there's a bit of an issue. They run. I did a 10 minute soak in a vinegar + water bath, then nuked them in a plastic bag for 2 minutes (to help steam and set the color). Then, I swished them with some Burt's Bees baby shampoo to get the vinegar out. 

And they still ran. See the pink? Well, not only did it run in the basin, but some of the hot pink ran into the green. 

Does it annoy me? Yeah. Will it continue? Yeah. But it won't continue to annoy me. 


They're socks. Frankly, had this been a scarf, a shawl, or a sweater?

I'd be spitting stitch markers. 

But they're socks. Wear 'em out and move on.

That's the point of socks. 

Speaking of which, here's a picture of the itty-bitty bootie!! I got the Atlantic colorway in, and started on the booties. I'm at just about 3" for the cuff and then I can turn the heel. 

Yes, knitting a "newborn" size layette will likely bite me in the rear end. But at least the baby can use the blanket till it falls apart. 

The booties are on size 6 DPNs and in the same yarn: Rowan Handknit 100% cotton. 

So far, no frogging or cursing. Check with me when I get to the toe...

Yes, I still have to do a few rows on the Teal Monster, but I wanted to get a jump on the baby layette. The baby has a deadline. The Teal Sock has not. 

This is what I've spent my afternoon on. This morning we took a bike ride, and did a little over 6 miles. 

The headwind was a stinker, but the overcast really helped, since it was a prairie path with no trees. 

Labor Day...

Hubby has been laboring in the "Room of Doom" - which is what he's taken to calling Kid #2's room. Since he's procrastinating, we decided to start boxing his stuff up. We'll give the walls a scrubbing (he likes candles) and then probably repaint it. 

Also have to figure out if we want a ceiling fan in there or just a light fixture. I changed out the nasty ceiling fan in Kid #1's room (was there when we moved in) and just have a light fixture. It's enough, especially with central air. There's a stand fan if I need it. And I usually don't. 

And yes, we still have more pickles. Probably just one more batch. That'll be later on this week. Hopefully they'll hold out till my next day off, but you never can tell. 

Random Picture...

And this is how Raisa & Quinn are spending "Lazy Day." Didn't you know that EVERY day is "lazy day" for dogs? In our house it is! 

Raisa will be going to the vet on Tuesday; we think she's got a tummy upset, but you'd have to really pay attention to notice. She's her usual bouncy self, except for a few accidents in the house. She's about 3 days from being 1 year old, so that's not normal. 

We shall see what the vet says. We did a blood panel, and they're checking for Cushing's though it's doubtful in a young dog. But Huskies are prone to that, so we need to know. 

All Kinds of Interesting...

...weather, that is. Yesterday. 

The only good thing was that it was an awesome picture-taking experience. I'm terrified of thunderstorms. Oh, it's better than it used to be. But I'm still scared. 

TV antenna alongside house

When I was about 9 or so, lightning hit either our house or our TV antenna. For the uninitiated (or the young), TVs usually were restricted to a handful of channels: 2, 5, 7, 9, and 13. That was it, kiddies... 

Rabbit ears

And we had an antenna alongside the house, usually bracketed to the house and extending way up above the trees. I'm not talking rabbit ears on a TV, but an outside one. The picture here is NOT my house - it's a stock pic I pulled off Google, but this is as close as I could get. Ours was very similar to this. 

Rabbit ears, on the other hand? I had those when I lived in VA and my first "grown-up" TV was a 13" black and white. Yeah, go ahead. Fan yourself... But it worked, and I was too broke to be able to afford cable at the time. 

Anyway, it was summer, and we had had a round of pretty nasty storms. Way before the days of weather radios, you usually got an alert from the TV set, provided you still had power. And anyway, most of the time, the TV was off by 10 p.m. in our house. 

We all are in bed, and the next thing I know, my dad is hauling me out of the house onto the lawn. The living room - a corner of it - is on fire... He tried to flag the firemen down, but even though the fire barn was across the street from our house, they somehow managed to go down the street in the other direction...

Flooded parking lot

Anyway - that's why I'm really not fond of thunderstorms. Of course, I was at work yesterday afternoon when all heck broke loose. It started suddenly - we were supposed to get some storms, but not as quickly as these blew up. I mean, I was on the road to work, looked north and thought, "Whaaaaaat???" - it was getting that dark, that fast... And then: KA-BOOM!! It all hit at once. 

I was half expecting to see locusts, floods, cats and dogs. At one point, I could barely see the bank across the lot from us. And it all included pretty nasty lightning and thunder. 

The campus has high ceilings, plus about 3.5' between the drop ceiling and the actual roof deck. It was thunderous in the place. You couldn't hear yourself think. And we're also surrounded by windows, which totally freaks me out. 

The nice thing, if you can get past the scary parts, is that I work on top of a hill. I have some phenomenal views of incoming storms. Here are a few pictures, with the various cloud formations during the day and evening. 

I keep thinking of the Judy Collins song, "Clouds," though it's an entirely different subject. As storms continued to blow in, I kept an eye on the radar and figured it was going to be interesting with classes starting last night.

It was. One of our instructors was on the road for over 2 hours to get here. He came in, like a drowned rat, about 1 minute to 6 p.m., when they were supposed to start. 

As the afternoon and evening progressed, I was able to pop out and get pictures. I love the cloud formations. And I know people who love clouds as much as I do (dang - now that song's in my head!!). And I have looked at clouds from both sides now...

Look at this cool "V" formation as the next batch started to come in. The layers in the one picture were also pretty amazing. 

The light was interesting. At times, of course, when the storms were in full fury, it was dark as night. But when the sun broke through, it was really amazing. 

I got an interesting shot of the area beyond the bank building - it looks almost like a funnel, but it wasn't. It was just a weird twist to the clouds once they had passed over and dumped all the rain on us. 

The weather alarm actually went off after Storm #2... But that's ok. I have eyes. 

Huzzah - no roof leaks! Though the hail wasn't nice. No car damage; it was only pea-sized. Today, except for the fact that the ground is totally saturated, you wouldn't know it had even rained. 

And it rained again this morning before I left for work. Tippi was terrified. I battened down the house and brought most of the feeders onto the porch. In the middle of the storm, the silly female hummingbird was buzzing the front window asking what the heck I had done with her feeder! 

I like this shot; later in the afternoon, with the clouds pierced by a shot of sunlight. I was able to get some good shots southwest-ish, and the light was interesting. 

Here's another one almost worth a painting - doesn't it look like brush-strokes across the blue? It was very majestic looking, for certain. And then there's the one below, which looks like the clouds were truly pillows dipping down beneath the grey to show us that they were still friendly little things wanting to put on a show for the humans.  Yeah, after the sound and fury scared the heck out of me! 

Then came the weird light. I was sitting at my desk trying to get some work done and I saw it - it was piercing and very odd. At first, I thought, "Oh no... green!" 

See, in August, every person who's lived in Illinois for a decent part of their life knows that a green sky is not a good thing. It generally means there's a tornado either on the way or already touched down. Funny enough, in spite of the storms lowering the temperature by almost 20 degrees, we had no tornado warnings. I guess we got off lucky. See what I mean by weird light? Look how bright the green in the trees appears, and it's backed up by those blue-grey heavy clouds? 

Oh, and did I mention that I had a hot breaker? Well, you know we've had HVAC problems at the campus. We have the one breaker which apparently tried to trip, but got stuck. And it heated up. To the point where you couldn't touch it. 

I know next to nothing about electricity. But I do know that hot breaker = trouble... So we shut it off. 

Back-tracking though, the electricians came out and came through our back door - I had disabled the alarm because I needed to change the battery. They didn't knock. They're lucky I only yelled at them! They scared me!!

Anyway, so we had only 2 of the 3 units working last night, and I had fans running. Today, it's back to normal (i.e. a blast chiller). I mean, really, I could wear mitts. I'm in a jacket already. 

I feel as if the building is falling down around us. Since they announced that we're closing the campus at the end of Fall (basically, December), I've been trying to get things fixed and as fast as I get one thing done, the next happens. However, the building is 8 years old, and they don't make 'em like they used to. 

Happily, no roof leaks with all this rain. 

And another happy thing: we were rewarded for the crappy weather. Feast your eyes. It's a double rainbow. 

I almost tripped myself. I had come from the back of the campus and caught a glimpse as I headed to my office. I sprang to my desk, caught up my keys and camera phone and headed out the door.  The taller pic is a close-up. The landscape-oriented one just shows how brilliant the main rainbow was. 

Alas, in about 5 minutes, as is common with the elusive rainbow, it was soon gone. 

But while it lasted, it was fantastic. 

And before the night was over, Mother Nature had another surprise in store for us. 

You know that saying, "Red skies at morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailor's delight" -- well, this morning wasn't EXACTLY a "sailor's delight" but the sky last night was.  Try to ignore the obnoxious parking lot light. Focus on the pinks and blues. Isn't it gorgeous? 

Knitting...

Not a stitch yesterday. Not even brought out of the bag, actually. It was that kind of day. That being said, I'm working the noon - 10 p.m. shift (well, should be 2 - 10, but I usually get here way too early and end up with way more comp time than I'll use...), and I already have a knitting project on my desk. 

Not the afghan. Though I did get the yarn in for the hat, cardigan and booties. No pic - tomorrow, probably. 

I'm only on the first-to-second pattern repeat. Cotton is a stinker. I have found that I can knit a couple of rows with this and then I have to go do something else. 

And I admit to a little peevishness with the Kollage circulars. This is the soft cable. And I'm almost thinking it's too soft. It kinks up there (see the top needle?) and it sometimes takes me some fidgeting to get the yarn up and over. 

Of course, it may be because this is 100% cotton yarn. And it's entirely unforgiving. I can't imagine doing anything adult-sized with this stuff. I'd have to scream. Or drink. Or cuss. Or some combination thereof. 

I do think the ladders are less noticeable. And it's helpful that I'm tugging like crazy when I switch from K to P. 

So the Rory socks are coming along. That's Roman Rib pattern, in case you didn't get the Dr. Who reference.  I finally remembered to stash some stitch markers in the bag, so on the next round of ribbing I can ditch the rubber band.

Hey, whatever works in a pinch... So it's the time of the "interminable" ribbing. Why does 1x1 ribbing take forever? It's only 1.5" or so. If I make it that far. 

I think Elizabeth Zimmerman got it right: "do the ribbing till you're sick of it." And for me, that's about 1.5" or so...

Crafty Stuff...

This would be amazing for Kid #2. Or either kid. Or me. We are all bookworms. 

I'd have to raid the bookshelves for classics. And of course, right now, since these are bricks, all the "books" are the same size. 

But it's cool. I can see them stacked by the front stoop. Or in Kid #1's case, on his deck, maybe. And for Kid #2, on the porch. 

Such a nifty idea. 

I'm not much on crafts like this, though I did make a wind chime using those small terra cotta pots. I should finish the one I have in the basement; it's got all the pots and the string. I just need to get it painted and assembled. 

I don't know who I'd give it to. But it would be nice to finish a project. 

Ahem. I do so finish projects. I have just about finished canning pickles. 

Random Picture...

This morning, fire, flood, locusts and squirrels. A storm broke out pretty quickly and pretty fiercely. Quinn was in her cave. Tippi was shaking on the couch next to me. And before she climbed up to join me on the other side, this was Raisa's reaction. 

She's not scared. Truly, she's oblivious, thankfully. Don't know if we could take THREE deranged dogs.  She was just all, "I'm sooooooooo over this weather!"

She climbed up on my other side and we sat out the worst of it while listening to an old movie plus the weather alarm giving us updates. 

So far, aside from the fact that the grass seems to have sprouted another 6" overnight, I think we're done. It'll get cloudy, and Weather Channel says "widely scattered showers or thunderstorm this evening" but it's only 30% thankfully. 

I Had Forgotten...

...How mind-numbingly, crushingly, amazingly BORING plain old knitting is. 

As I recuperate and the bruises from the IVs slowly fade (though I still have a most colorful groin area, if you want to know...), I thought I'd alternate knitting projects. 

So you know I finished the baby sweater. I had enough yarn to do "something" -- but not another baby sweater. I don't like "newborn" sizing because babies tend to run "linebacker large" in our family, and I'd hate to waste the knitting on something the kid wears for one picture and then never uses again.

I thought, "I need a go-to Super-Simple, Awesome Baby Layette to put together so that I have the items in stash, rather than knitting a sweater here, a couple of hats there, and  -- oh -- I've never done BOOTIES!" 

So that's what I've been working on, as well as knitting a few rows here and there on the Fluro sock. 

Ultimately, my Super-Simple, Awesome Baby Layette will be a combination of patterns. The sweater is a pattern I got from renewing a knitting magazine, so I'll try to find a link. The hat is my own pattern, so I'm working on it (there's the mind-numbing thing about knitting 14" or so and tossing in an every-so-often yarn-over to keep me awake) and will debut it if it works. And I haven't decided which bootie pattern to use. Once I figure all that out, it'll show up here. 

Not my creation -- I must state that. Except for the hat, I am not designing it. I'm just aggregating patterns that are go-to items for a gift. Often, I think, we resort to our old favorites, and there's totally no reason NOT to do that. 

I just want mine in a folder so I can find them the next time I have to baby-knit. 

The NFL...

Has blown the call. I mean seriously. Check out this editorial from The Schenectady Daily Gazette.  Apparently, in the grand scheme of "What an NFL player can do wrong" -- domestic violence is far, FAR down the list. 

See, here's the thing: The NFL has suspended player Ray Rice (Baltimore Ravens, if you're counting) for 2 games. Seems Mr. Big Man knocked his fiancee out and there's footage of a beating. So Commissioner Goodall says, "We simply cannot tolerate conduct that endangers others..." blah. Blah. Blah... It's only 2 games, dude.

The NFL has suspended players for LONGER for LESSER infractions, such as suspension for EIGHT games for failing a second drug test. I'm all in favor of clean players, but let's just wake up and smell the coffee... You're effectively telling me that DOMESTIC VIOLENCE rates a lesser suspension than failing a pee test. 

Just read the editorial. And then let the NFL know how you feel. I know I will.


The Great Pickle Relish Experience...

So Hubby has been a total champ. Since the surgery and the explosion in the garden coincided, and since we'd already thought that this would be The Summer of Pickle Relish, he's been doing all the chopping.

Yes, that's a LOT of relish!

First, I wasn't able to just stand up long enough to do all the work. Then - I'm on a pretty effective blood thinner. I think he's afraid I'll chop more than pickles! So he even tried the food processor, which didn't work. I mean, luckily, he did about a quarter of a batch and we realized "pickled mush" wasn't the look we were after. So we - HE - reverted back to chopping. And chopping. And chopping. 

The end result (and we're still not done yet) is FIFTY-ONE jars of relish. Half-pint jars. Today, though, we're giving up on relish. We will finish off the cucumbers, though he's threatened to rip out the remaining plants!! 

Today, we'll be doing - or starting - sweet pickle chips. He doesn't like dill pickles, and frankly, I have a lot of those left from the last Pickle Expedition. And I also have a couple cases of Bread & Butter. So we found a recipe for "sweet spears" and I don't see any reason why we can't make them "chips" instead of spears. So when he gets done with the dog-walking, he'll get to use the food processor (seriously, he really IS the only one who uses it!) and slice them into 1/4" medallions. Then we soak them overnight. Tomorrow, we process, by making a brine, packing the pickles into the jars and pouring the boiling brine over them. A 10-minute soak in the canning pot, and we should have a bunch of pint jars of pickle chips. 

Personally, I love them on a good pulled pork or on a ham sandwich. We also adjusted the recipe for the brine; we ended up throwing a lot of it away, and so we knocked it down a bit. We still have some "light" jars, but I think we can make "refrigerator pickles" out of that brine, by chopping up cauliflower florets, artichoke hearts, etc. and just stashing them in the brine for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Pearl onions would work, if you can eat 'em. 

Back to Knitting...

RAK package

So on a FB page I am involved in, we have what are called RAKs. Random Acts of Kindness. We choose a member and we mail something to him or her - just because. It can be knitting-related; tea or coffee have shown up. So has an abundance of chocolate. This is what I got as a RAK package, just before I went into surgery. 

This is a lovely sock bag in U of I colors (it was a fellow IL resident who sent it to me), a fantastic ball of sock yarn and a knitting mag - which has several patterns I'd like to start on. 

The RAK list got so overwhelming that the FB page administrators decided to move the RAK portion to Ravelry. Which reminds me - I have to go check to see if my package arrived to its sender. 

Random Picture...

What species??

Before I go back to the mind-numbing baby hat...I want to show you what turned up on the cone flowers yesterday. And I want to tell you that this is a photo from my phone's camera. I am not sure which species this is, but I've been fiddling with the cone flowers all summer, trying to catch the huge bumblebees and the various butterflies that have come along. I did see a swallowtail, but the little stinker moved so fast that I couldn't catch him. 

If anyone knows what this is, please let me know! 

All I can say is that he waited patiently for me to take the picture. I've also seen a slight uptick in hummingbirds, though I think we need to take down all the feeders and give them a good wash. 

And the birds are loving the bubbling water under the tree. We're fiddling with the other bird bath; I think it may need to go in the shade, but we're still working on that. 

It's been a really amazing season for the garden, and it's not done yet. We've gotten about 6 tomatoes, and before you scoff, realize: we planted tomatoes for about 4 years running and got nothing. Nada. Zip. This year, the cooler weather, the rain and the general timing of the season have conspired to make even a lazy gardener look "very productive."

So Far...

...aside from the predictable side-effects, I haven't had too difficult of a time adjusting to the 24-hour cardizem (generic, of course!). I do have a headache, and it's like a low-humming piece of machinery. You know it's there, but you're not concentrating on it too much. 

If it persists through Wednesday, I'll call Sis and ask about it. That will have been a week, and I think that's perfectly long enough for any low-dose headache. I'm kind of tired, but perhaps it's anxiety -- I am restless because I'm afraid, never having had a "normal" headache, that this headache will turn into a migraine. 

Cardizem relaxes the blood vessels so that your heart doesn't have to work as hard. Maxalt, the migraine med, also relaxes blood vessels so the migraine loses its grip on your skull. One can't be too relaxed, obviously. As it is, the Maxalt would knock me out anyway. I'll have to ask the doc about that, and hopefully, this last go-round with Mother Nature will be the absolute Last Gasp. My mom says that after that, the migraines tend to go away. Huzzah!!

Still haven't gotten my EKG device yet, but Hubby says it's been shipped. So we shall see. 

Technology...

I will tell you that the Samsung Galaxy 4S has a much, MUCH better camera than my Nokia 900. But the bad thing is, I can tap the Nokia's screen to take the picture. With Red (now the nickname for the Samsung), I have to tap the screen to focus, then hit the camera icon at the bottom. You also zoom in by pinch/swipe movements. Anyway, it takes really nice pictures, and once I figure out how to get them to the computer, I'll share some. 

I also know that I can use it as a music device so that when I'm teaching my Yoga class, I can use an in/out cable and download practice music instead of rooting around for CDs. 

It still looks like we'll be purchasing the new Nokia phones sometime soon. Just not sure when. Hubby is researching some backup/transfer programs so that all our apps and stuff move over when we get to setting up the new phones. Kid #2 isn't sure what kind he wants, but he's going to just do his research. 

Estate Stuff...

The IRS is a joke. The saga is this: My idiot brother was "sticking it to the man" (yeah, please do roll your eyes) and didn't file tax returns for several years. He was sporadic in the years he DID file taxes, and for at least one or two years, he was on total disability because of a work injury. 

So I've been working with the paralegal to get all the info to backtrack - file those years that he missed. The irony is that, nitwit that he was, if he HAD filed, he would have gotten decent returns. When he died, he had a total of somewhere around $50,000+ in IRS liens. The lesson here, children, is this: FILE YOUR TAXES. 

Because if you don't do it, the IRS does it for you. And guess what? They file at the highest percentage they can. And charge you interest practically from the moment they THINK about filing the returns. 

So we have all but about 2 years. I spent a day or so tracking down W-2 forms via some pay stubs he kept. This was in the way-back times of 2003-2009 (not all of those years, thankfully). But he worked at smaller companies - many merged or just went out of business, or the original owners weren't around. For one particular year, we had to petition the IRS to send us the W-2 info. Obviously, anyone that works realizes that your employer files this kind of info with their own returns. 

I got a letter back from the IRS. It basically said, "No tax returns were filed under this SSN for that year."

Ummmmmmmmmm. Yeah. I know that. We're trying to file the taxes. I dutifully sent it off to the paralegal, who promptly said that the IRS is not making this easy. I noticed. 

When I got the letter and read it, it was right after the a-fib attack. I hollered, "FOR GOD'S SAKE YOU MORONS, I KNOW THAT HE DIDN'T FILE THE TAXES!!!" while flinging the letter across the room. Quinn headed for her cave. Tippi looked at me as if I had just flipped a cog. And Raisa -- well, she's a husky, so she barely noticed. 

That low-dose headache ramped up to about a 7 or 8 on the pain scale for about an hour after that. 

Anyway, we're trying to pry a W-2 form out of the IRS. Then file the tax return. Then hopefully have enough proof so that we can knock the liens down a bit. And then close the Estate. 

I just want this over. 

Yoga...

I'm teaching a Karma Yoga class. Karma, of course, is the concept of "what goes around, comes around." As part of my training, we're required to teach a class to those who are underserved in the community. So my friend G set up a class for me with a local rehab place - alcohol and drug rehab, that is. 

I have a very simple sequence for them, since she did it last year and said that "you never know who's walking into the room." We have 15 students coming, and she's staying to help get things set up. 

It will be interesting to teach this kind of population. I mean, often in Yoga, you get folks who are in rehab for stuff, but normally it's physical ailments, not addiction. 

And next weekend, I have my last "intensive." A Yoga "intensive" is a concentrated course - in this case, 4 days - with a teacher. I'm honestly really not looking forward to it. I think that I was in a groove a while ago (like a year ago when I was in the midst of the training) and now I'm not in that groove anymore. 

I don't mind taking the extra courses. I think you never stop learning. But I think that the long days are just not my cup of tea this time around. Anyway, it's the last one of the entire curriculum, so anything beyond this will be one-time seminars. Next is preparing my final thesis (not a whole big honkin' thesis - mostly "what do you want to talk about in regard to Yoga" that we're required to do), and then I'm going to be certified as a 200-hour teacher. 

Knitting...

Today's Free Choice WIP is the Blue Baby Jacket. I'm close - well, not totally close, but let's face it: a lot closer to finishing THIS than Kid's Afghan... I'm just starting the right shoulder and will finish the right front today, I think. Sunday will be the March Snowman, but later. 

Boy Sweater

Sunday is also the twins' FIRST BIRTHDAY!! Think about this: 

 These were the sweaters I made for them!! I'm thinking they don't fit anymore, since Boy Twin is already in 2T, according to my mom... These sweaters only go up to a 12-month size, but I bet you could just do a little math (!) and figure out how to size it up a bit more. I wouldn't go all the way to 4-T, but I think it would still be cute on a 2-T sized kid. 

Their sweaters were done in super-wash wool. It looks like it's held up really nicely, since I last saw them in the winter. 

If you remember, they also got blankets that were the color of the sweaters, but not "masculine" or "feminine" patterns. Though I now wish I would have done the Feather-and-Fan pattern. 

Just because I never have yet... 

Girl Sweater

The Blue Baby Jacket is in an acrylic. I'm thinking that it won't hold up as long as these will. But I don't mind because it's a stash-buster, and let's think about this: the size is for a 12-month old baby. 

Whoever gets this will grow out of it in about a nano-second. So it won't be a situation (I think) that it'll have time to pill or anything. The kid will be out of it that fast. 

Again, just plain buttons for this blue one and the next one which will be lilac. Out of the Button Bin, and not fussy. There's no sense getting cute buttons, because the yarn does most of the work here. It's turning out beautifully, and anything I'd buy would just compete with it. Aside from the fact that any baby in any sweater --- well, the BABY is the star, right? The hand-knit item is just an accessory to the adorableness of Baby. 

Blue jacket progress

I have yet to show my friend D how this is going, seeing as she's the one who handed me this yarn and said, "Here - I won't knit with this; it's just been sitting in my closet."

Granted, for a while, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it till the jacket idea hit me...

We missed getting together this week, but I did run up to Wool and Company for their sale. And I got buttons (at home, otherwise I'd have taken a picture) for the February Lady Sweater. The buttons are triangular and have a Celtic Knot as the design. I figured they would be classier and the knot "resembles" the lace that will be the bottom of the sweater. They didn't have a great selection of buttons in a colorway that would go with something that, in one light looks lilac and in another, looks periwinkle. 

I also managed to pick up a canvas bag, on sale for 25% off -- and then some of the stuff I picked up INSIDE the bag was another 25% off. Apparently, you could fill your bag and if what was in there wasn't already on sale, you could take advantage of the pricing. 

Dang. I should have picked up the Travelers Scarf... it would've fit in the bag and at 25% off the $90 it would have cost, it would have been worth it. I hate when a good idea hits too late. I'll just have to hope that by the time the next sale comes around, there's a big -- I mean MONSTROUS - hole in the WIP pile. Because I don't want to tackle a 12-foot-long scarf till I have a handle on the stuff I've already got in the works. Or in the closet. 

I started the "conversion process" for some old magazines I have. I tabbed the magazines, and I'm scanning what I want. Putting it on a jump drive for reference (rather than creating another pile of papers, I can index what's on that drive), and then I will find a home for the magazines. Maybe the Senior Center in town will take them. 

Easter Already...

Easter bunnies & tree

I haven't even put up the knitted bunnies... I don't know what happened to Lent. It hit me last night when Hubby says, "Oh, is Sunday the day we sing Lacrimosa?" Ummmm, no, that would be Palm Sunday, but holy moley.... That means I'm really, REALLY behind in working on the Exultet. Crud. 

We've set our Easter for Holy Saturday, and because one of the teachers didn't want to shift her schedule, I'm working Holy Saturday. More specifically, Holy Saturday afternoon. Which means I have the morning (and the Friday before) to do deviled eggs, a Lamb Cake, and get the majority of the dinner prepared. 

I don't normally believe in cloning, but perhaps this would be a good reason to do so. 

Anyway, Easter is at an odd time. It just seems like it hasn't been Lent, even. My dining room table has become a junk pile again, and I didn't even put a spring-ish table cloth on it. The bunnies and eggs, if you remember, were created for an art contest, and they didn't win because obviously there's a prejudice with fiber-art being considered "real" art. And nobody thought that the Fannie Mae ribbon was cute, either. 

I have to create a coaster or some sort of felt pad for the base of the tree, since it's metal, and I should have put it up. I may still - will have to see how this next week goes. 

Random Picture...

Raisa decided that since Quinn and Tippi both had "belly rub" portraits on Facebook, she wanted one too. 

Rub my belly. Now. 

Well. No. 

She just wanted the belly rub. Needless to say, I can't knit and belly-rub, but that is totally not Raisa's concern. Rub the belly. End of story. 

She's going to miss the first Intermediate Obedience class because of the birthday party, but we're already a step ahead with her "heel." As long as I have toast. 

Still no heat in sight, but plenty of sniffing going on. Not sure we'll even get to the Obedience class, but we're keeping a good eye on her. 

Off to get some more tea and knit on that jacket. It'll be nice to update the progress charts.