Look! A mitten!

I made a mitten! After I made Grandmommie a sweater, she decided that she wanted mittens too. I stopped by Angel Hair yesterday before class and picked up some pink alpaca. This yarn is *so* soft, and should be really warm for when she's outside. I could feel my hand warming up during the short time that I was taking the picture. Hopefully it'll fit. I made it based on my hand, so it should be close. This is just a very basic mitten pattern, and the bulky yarn made it go really fast. The good thing is that I still have 55g left in the skein (out of 100g). So assuming I follow the pattern exactly the same, I'll have enough yarn for the second one.

In other news, I have a ton of school work. I started stressing about it, but I've realized something lately. I've realized that it's amazing how much time I have to do stuff when I'm not tired/exhausted/unmotivated. I really think I'm starting to feel the benefits of my c-pap machine. I came home today and wrote the first of my 3 essay questions for a midterm, which was a little over 3 pages. I also got started on reading stuff for one of my other papers. Let's hope things get even better as I use my mask longer!

I have a pretty packed weekend coming up. Friday I have Shabbat (aka Jewish church), Saturday I have Mass (aka Catholic church), Sunday morning I'm going to a peace service (aka Buddhist church), and Sunday night I'm going to an African dance troupe performance. I'm doing this for my diversity class, and I'm actually pretty excited about experiencing all the different things.

So that's it for now. I'm going to snuggle with Riley a bit before I head to bed.

So much for the resolutions...

Well. I was all proud of myself for sticking with my journaling resolution when life decided to happen. I've been a lot busier than I expected to be this semester (probably because of that weekend class). I do have some pictures over the past week and a half. I've decided not to be a stickler about the picture a day thing, and instead just to take my camera everywhere and get the ones I can. So, on to the pictures! (Cause it's late, and I'm tired)

Up first are the Celebration socks. These were made for the month of January, for the knitalong at socktopia.net. There's a link over in the sidebar there.

This is where Riley decided he wanted to sleep when he was at my parents' house. I guess newspapers are comfy?

And these are Riley sitting with the "Riley" colorway from Sunshine Yarns. I rolled this yarn into two balls last night (which took about 5 hours...long story). It's really pretty, and it'll be my February socks for Socktopia, as well as meet the Blue requirement for Project Spectrum in Feb and March.

That's all I've got for now. I started using my breathing machine on Monday night, and things seem to be going well with it. I'll take a picture of it later. Riley's conked out beside me, so I think that's my cue that it's bedtime. It's sad when 10:45pm is past your bedtime. I'm getting old.

Another year down...

First of all, I'd like to say thank you for all the birthday wishes, both on facebook and livejournal. =) I had a very good birthday. I was in the classroom during internship today, and my supervisor told our second class that it was my birthday. They all sang to me, which kinda embarrassed me. After we left, we had to go back in the first class because "someone didn't finish their test." Actually, I think that was a set up, because as soon as I walked in the whole class yelled "Happy Birthday, Ms. Julie!" then proceeded to sing. It was really cute. During lunch Tara brought out a cake (which was really good), and I even got some presents! The lunch group got me some yarn, and Dominique (the other counselor) gave me one of those mini sharpies and some of the new 100 Calorie Hershey bar things. I really wasn't expecting anything, so it made me feel really special that they went out of the way to do all that for me.

I came home and laid around a bit, before I headed out to pick up my pizza. This is the first Papa John's pizza I've had since I started Weight Watchers last July. It was SO GOOD. I have to admit that over the course of the night I ate the whole thing (it was a small, so that's not too bad). I'm really full now, so that might not've been the best idea, but oh well. It was good. =)

I was planning to rant a bit yesterday about my future, but I forgot. I'll do it now. So it seems that there is a list out there that shows which schools are eligible for Interim positions (that's where you get hired without a license, with the understanding that you'll get it within a certain period of time). I was hoping to get one of these positions next year, since I'll have a Masters degree and all the course work except for internship. That way I could be working and be paid, as well as finish up my school internship. It seems that nother department at Vanderbilt had some big major discussion (without consulting anyone in my program), and decided that their students weren't qualified for Interim positions. The result was that Vanderbilt was taken off the list. So the way things stand now, I can't even apply or interview for these positions, because Vanderbilt is not on the list of qualified schools or whatever. I get the reason for students not being ready to work in the field while they're still in school, but there are those of us that will be qualified (due to having a degree) who won't even get a chance at these positions now. I'm going to stay on top of this situation, and hopefully things will change before it really impacts me. But still, it's just really irritating and stressful to know that something has to change for me to even have a chance at a job next year. If it really comes down to it, I'm going to do my 20 hours a week of internship and hope an agency will hire me part time to do groups or see a few individual clients. I'll make it work somehow, but it would be nice if I had more options.

In happier news, CONGRATULATIONS!! to Cassidy Riley, who made his ECW wrestling debut tonight. Scott called me freaked out telling me to change the channel, and there was Cassidy! This is who Riley's named after, and it was great to see him getting a hance to be on national TV. Good job Cassidy! Hope to see you on TV more often!

What a bad time to be stuck in traffic...

I was watching the Golden Globes, Prince wasn't there to accept his award. It seems he was stuck in traffic. What horrible luck.

My ear hurts from my sleep study. Between the scrubbing and tape and such, that sensitive skin behind my ear doesn't feel too good. Anyway...the study went well. I managed to sleep with the machine, even though it started out too tight. I should have my own in a week and a half or so, once the test is scored and the machine people call me. After that I start working on the 30 days that it takes before you should feel better. I'm hoping it doesn't take that long though.

Before I went to the study Scott and I went over to Julie's house to watch the TNA PPV. I only saw about 30 minutes of it, but it was pretty good. While we were there Scott, Riley, and I got presents! Yay! I really like mine, and Riley did too! I just wanted to post some pictures for Julie and Jana to see how much Riley enjoys the cookies.

I was hoping to have my socks done by tonight, but it didn't happen. I messed up the heel the other day, so I had to take it all out. That got me really behind. I've got the heel turned now though, so I'm hoping I'll be able to finish them tomorrow. Scott's going to order Papa John's pizza for my birthday dinner, which I'm really excited about. Mmm, pizza!

I had my first Intro to School Counseling class tonight. There's a decent amount of work, but it seems like the class is going to be really informative. Today's picture is the Wyatt Center, which is at the end of the big lawn on Peabody campus. I think it's a pretty building, and this is the first class I've had there. So, I figured I'd take a picture.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but I joined the first Sunshine Yarns sock club. I noticed on the Lime and Violet message board that people had canceled, so I e-mailed to check the status. There was *one* spot available, and I got it. My dad is paying for 3 months (as my birthday present) and I'm paying for 3 months. This is my first sock club, and I'm really excited that I'll be getting packages for the next six months! There will definitely be tons of pictures. =)

While Scott was here he set up the grooming table for me in my extra bedroom. I'm going to go and attempt to trim some of Riley's scraggly eye hair. Hopefully I won't mess anything up!

In a hurry...

I'm packing up to head to drop Riley off with my parents and head to the rec center before I go to watch a bit of TNA pay-per-view and then go to my sleep study. So, this is going to be a quick post.

This is yesterday's pic of the day. I accidentally knocked over the box that had Riley's little bones, and a lot spilled on the floor. I was doing other stuff, so I left them there for a minute to see what he'd do. I noticed that he had moved one away from the pile and was going back from more. When he stopped to put it down, 3 bones fell out of his mouth instead of one. So here's Riley, guarding the 3 bones that he can put in his mouth at one time.

I was a little busy last night because my mom brought my birthday present over. I pointed out some fabric that I liked when we were last at JoAnn's, and she got it on sale to make some curtains. We got them done pretty late last night, so that's going to be today's pic of the day. You can't see it very well in the picture, but it's kinda a see through fabric with stitching on it. They're really nice, and it was on sale, too! We had enough to put them in my bedroom, too, we just ran out of time last night. I really like them!

Oh, and yesterday's class went really well. It's definitely an enjoyable class, which is a very good thing. But at the same time, I'm glad that there's only two more weekends. =) I have to write journals for class, so I'm going to save my thoughts and write them there instead of boring everyone with class details. =)

It seems that this letter took the scenic route...

Please notice the date in today's picture...20 Nov 2006. This is what was posted on the invitation to Marisa's wedding. Obviously, I didn't RSVP by December 1, 2006. =) It seems that the zip code was one number off, so the letter ended up taking almost two months to get here. I can't remember ever getting a letter like this, where I got it so long after the original sent date.

So here's a quick recap of my day. I went to WW, and gained .6 pounds. That's ok though, because I know I drank more coke zero (and therefore less water) than I should've, and also that it was my first week back to school. I'll take care of it next week. I went to daycare for 3 hours, then headed to class. I'm taking Counseling Diverse Populations, and it'll meet for 3 weekends. I was dreading the class, but if tonight is any indication of the rest of the class then I think I'll really enjoy it. So far it was more of an experiential class as opposed to a "let's read from the book and highlight" class. We're going to have lots of speakers, which is always good. I have to do 10 hours of experiential learning, which means I have to go to/do things different from my culture. I'm hoping to go with my friend Crystal to a deaf church, and I think I may go eat at a Japanese restaurant. I need to figure out a few more hours, but that should be a pretty fun part of the class.

So that's about it. I have class until 5pm tomorrow (thankfully the hours we were sent are longer than we'll actually be in class). Let's hope things go as well as they did today!

omgGrey'sAnatomy

First off, I must squee over Grey's Anatomy. Supposedly something that caught me totally off guard was in the commercials, but I managed to miss that. I'm glad did though! It's much better to not have any idea what's coming.

Two pictures today, taken pretty much one after another. I put my finished sock on Riley's back when he was sitting on the couch. He jumped to the ground and the sock fell off, and he decided to pose on top of it. He looks a bit irritated that I was taking his picture, and I guess he was bored. So, he decided to take a nap. Riley definitely keeps my life entertained.

I had my first class today. We basically did schedules, got freaked out about comps, and went home. I hung out with Scott and watched the wrestling show before he went home. The big surprise was that Scott shaved his goatee! It was an accident (he sneezed and didn't move the razor far enough away from his face), but it's the first time I've seen him without it. He looks fine, but he doesn't like it (hence no picture for the pic of the day). I do like the goatee better though, and he's planning on growing it back.

That's pretty much it for now. I have class tomorrow from 4pm-9pm, and then on Saturday from 8am to 6pm. I'm really really hoping that she'll let use out early. I'm going to have a really hard time staying awake sitting in class for that long! I just hope the class is interesting so I can stay involved and have the time go fast.

In other news, Grandmommie likes her sweater so much that she wants matching mittens. I guess I know what I'll be making once I have some money to buy yarn. =)

So sleepy...

I've really been dragging today. As much as I didn't lie having classes after internship last semester, it actually helped keep me awake. I fell asleep for almost 2 hours earlier this evening, because I just couldn't keep my eyes open. That's really not fun. I would've much rather been doing something productive.

The day started off kinda scary. I walked to my car (which is pretty much outside my front door), and saw a cop talking to the lady that lives diagonal from me. Her parking spot is next to mine. As I walked around my car spraying my windows with the de-icer thing, I noticed that her passenger side window was broken in. That's the window on the side where my car is. Luckily, the only thing that was stolen was her radar detector. I'm really really glad they didn't chose my car instead, because all my purse valuables were in there. I've changed that habit (obviously), due to recent events. At the same time, it's kinda scary that someone was stealing things right outside my door. I don't know what I'd do if he'd decided to try to come in my house. It made me feel a lot safer to have Riley, because he'd bark his head off if someone tried to get in. I think I'm going to start making sure my cell phone is in my room at night, too.

Internship went well. I'm still feeling the "getting back into the swing of things" dragginess, but I hope I'll get over that. I think I'll be better next week when I'm in the classrooms. The drive home today took me right at an hour, which is ridiculous, but there's not much I can do about it. Luckily a new episode of Lime and Violet came out last night/this morning, so I could listen to that on the way home.

I called the sleep doctor today to see if my sleep study had been scored. It turns out that I'm actually in the severe range when I'm in REM sleep (and REM sleep is really important). They level of severity is based on how many apneas you have. I was told that their cutoff number for naming it "severe" is 30. My number is 43. It's not as bad as 70 or 100, but that still enough to explain why I always feel so tired. She also said that my oxygen level went down to 80%, and it's supposed to be at 100%. The next plan of action is to do my c-pap study this Sunday (basically the same study as before, except I do it with a breathing machine). After all that is submitted to the insurance, I'll get set up with a machine a day or two later. I am *so* ready to try sleeping with this machine, just to see if I really feel different after using it. Hopefully I will.

Today's picture is kind of a cop out. I didn't really have anything big happen that I wanted to remember with a photograph, so I decided to go with the cute puppy pic. He's so scraggly, and I really need to work on grooming his head. Doesn't he look so happy to be in this picture? =)

Not much to say today...

Here's today's picture. My pictures aren't really fancy or artistic or anything, but I'm glad that they show some happy/important/funny things that happened that day. This is a thank you note that I received today. First of all, it's really cute. Second of all, it let me know that the husband's favorite baby gift from the shower was the knitted hat and bootie (only one, cause I ran out of time) that I made. It really made me feel good to hear that, and it's so nice to knit for people that appreciate it. I need to get that second bootie done before the baby's born!

Other than that, today was pretty uneventful. There wasn't much for me to do at internship, and the afternoon consisted of playing on the computer and watching the two hour House extravaganza. I really liked the twist at the end. =) And for other House geeks, look who's engaged! I totally squealed like a little fangirl.

That's about it. Time to knit and watch Miami Ink.

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

I started off the day by actually getting up at a decent hour (meaning 9am). I walked Riley, then headed to my WW meeting. I got my 20 pound star, which was nice. Maybe in a week or two I'll get my 25 pound magnet. Hurray!

After WW I ran by Vandy to turn in my exam form/check, and to pick up my books. There was actually a parking space close to the bookstore (there's only 8 or 10 spaces, and they're usually all full), so I was able to get in and out a lot faster than I expected.

I headed downtown a little before noon to participate in the monthly knitting group that meets at the public library. Two of the knitters celebrated Elvis's birthday by either knitting Elvis hair or making sideburns that attached to their glasses. Ann wore the knitted Elvis hair while reading poetry that was written about Elvis. I forget exactly what was said, but there were some done in haiku form, as well as one titled "Elvis, Take My Hand." The tribute lasted about 2 minutes, because that's about all the bad poetry we could handle. =) I also won a book! There were door prizes, and my number was chosen. The book I chose was Threadbared: Decades of Don'ts from the Sewing and Crafting World. I didn't think I'd use either of the other books, and this one looked amusing. I also finished my sock while I was there! One down, one to go!

I checked my mail when I got home, and I had two packages! One was the jewelry scale I got off ebay (to weigh my yarn...a postage scale isn't sensitive enough), and the other was the custom order yarn from RubySapphire. I ordered the colorway named Julie (pink, red, orange, and yellow), and they created one for me called Riley (yes, dork. I know.). I love what they did with Riley's. It's muted colors, and has some light browns/tans in with some muted blues and greens. There's a bit of white in there, too. I love it because Riley's harness is blue, and the leash I use the most is a light green color, and then (obviously) he's brown with white on him. I think the yarn is really pretty in and of itself, and even better because it was made with Riley in mind. I even showed them Riley's picture as inspiration. I'm totally going to move on from this topic, because I'm sounding dorkier by the minute. =)

That's the big stuff that happened today. I also went to the store and got seriously ticked off because I wasn't able to turn where I needed to (due to a wreck earlier and police people working on the light). A little later I went to the rec center and rode on the bike again. I started reading Wicked while I was there. It's pretty interesting so far, and maybe it'll be good enough that it'll make me want to work out so I can read more. That would be nice. =)

Tomorrow is my first day back at internship. Right now I'm kinda dreading it, but I know I'll have a lot of fun once I get there. I think last semester burned me out so much that I haven't totally recovered...or maybe it's that I feel like I'm going right back into the same situation, even though I know it's not going to be. I'm sure I'll be fine once I get going and realize that it's not nearly as busy or crazy as last semester.

Two weeks until Heroes comes back! Are you on the list?

My last weekend day before the craziness begins again...

Today started late, since I stayed up so late last night. After I dragged myself out of bed I headed to the rec center. I met my mom there, and we rode the sit down bike thing. I rode for 45 min for a total of 5.5 miles. Yay me. I hope to start going on a semi-regular basis. I've been listening to my ipod, and I realized that I can knit basic stuff, too. I may start a pair of plain socks so I can knit while I ride. That would make it so much more enjoyable (me=addicted).

After the rec center I hung out at my house for awhile. Scott came and picked me up, and we headed to the mall. I exchanged some sweaters that were too big (nice problem to have), then headed to dinner. We forgot that it was Sunday, and all the stores closed about 15 min after we got there. Oh well. We ate at Macaroni Grille then went to wander around Barnes and Noble for awhile. That's where I found today's picture. It's kinda hard to see, because this shelf was above my head, but the three sets of books in the middle (the blue, yellow, and orange) are actually knitting mysteries. If they'd been longer I might've bought them, but I have a hard time paying $6.50 for a book that will be read pretty quickly. Maybe I can get them off amazon or something. I did buy a book called Wicked, which is supposed to be the back story of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. The play is on Broadway right now, and it kinda intrigued me. I think it's interesting to have this view of a character (such as how horrible she is) and then go back and read and understand why she might chose to act the way she does. Hopefully it'll be a good read. After that we headed to Dave and Buster's to play the horse game for awhile before our movie. We saw Pursuit of Happyness, with Will Smith. It was a good movie, but I thought it dragged some. I'm one of those people that needs to have a lot of stuff going on to stay interested in a movie. Will Smith's son is adorable, and they both did a great job in the movie.

I guess that's it for now. Tomorrow will be a busy day (especially considering I realized that I haven't gotten my textbooks yet...denial's really working for me). I also have to turn in my form to take the NCE, which is a huge thing that comes up in April. But then, I'll update about all that craziness tomorrow.

Go Toppers!

Today's picture is of me and my friend Lisa. Lisa and I met at the daycare where we both worked. She and her band were playing at French Quarter tonight, and I went to watch the show. They all did a great job, and I hope I'll get to see them perform again soon.

Now for the big news. Scott's going back to school! He called me yesterday and told me that he'd been accepted at Western Kentucky, which is where he did most of his undergrad work. He's going to be taking one class, which is all he could get into this semester. He only needs 5 or 6 upper level classes, so they may be offered certain semesters and not others. Anyway, I'm really excited and proud of him for deciding to finish up his degree. I want him to walk at graduation, but I don't know if he'll decide to do that or not. Yay for Scott!

I didn't do much today except sit around and knit. Scott came over for a few hours before he headed out to his wrestling show. In our typical exciting way, we sat around and watched a House episode he hadn't seen. I'm so ready for all my shows to come back with new episodes!

The first Harry Potter movie is on right now. I absolutely love those movies. I found a yarn dyer that sells a set of 4 skeins based on the dragons that are involved during the Goblet of Fire quest. They're really pretty, and I love it when one thing I really enjoy overlaps with another. Maybe that can be my graduation present to myself. =)

Look! I'm vague!

So I have a photo of the day for today (meaning January 5), but I'm choosing not to post it for the following reasons.
1. The subject is a 3 year old, and I don't think I have the right to post his pic without his parents' consent.
2. Said child's father is a well known professional athlete.
3. Fairy wings were involved.
And that's really all that needs to be said on that subject. =)

So something really exciting happened today, but I haven't been given the ok to announce it publicly. And, since it's not my news, exactly, I feel I should wait. Once I get the go ahead, I'm sure I'll have lots to say about it.

Wow, I'm being all ambiguous today. In more concrete speak, I'm almost done with the gusset decreases on my sock. I *might* be able to finish it tomorrow, depending on how much time I have. I definitely want to be well into the foot by tomorrow, at least. I tried it on earlier, and I really like how it fits. It's a lot tighter than the other socks I made, and seems to be perfect. I also love how the yarn is striping. It seems to be all the same colors, but it's not. I keep thinking I've found a repeat, but nope. The yarn feels really good, too.

I'm really tired all of a sudden. I think I might let Riley sleep with me tonight. Either way, it's definitely bed time.

This is always the hardest part for me

Titles are complicated.

I forgot to take my camera with me for part of the day, so I missed some photo ops. Today's picture is kinda boring, but that's ok. This is a pic of my knitting area. Riley likes to help, as you can see. He snuggles right beside my leg, and twitches if the yarn or needles touch him. The sock in the picture is my current project, and is being made in Trekking XXL color 109 in the garter rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. It's actually neat to look at this pic, because I've gotten a whole lot more done since I took it earlier tonight.

I got some of my Japan pics printed today, but they don't fit in the frames. Wonderful. I need to get mats for two of them, and cut off the white edge on one. Maybe that'll get done tomorrow. I also cashed in two of my savings bonds (which, btw, are the best things in the world. I'm totally going to do them for my kids) to pay for the National Certified Counselor (NCC) exam in April. It's $230 (!), and I really hope I pass it. If I pass, then I"ll have fancy letters after my name. Besides that, I basically sat and knitted on my sock.

Tomorrow I need to renew my Weight Watchers membership for another session or whatever. I'm hoping this is my last, as I'm around 6-8 pounds away from goal (depending on where I decide to stop). After I hit goal I have to maintain for 6 weeks. Then I'm a lifetime member, and don't have to pay unless I gain more than 2 pounds above my goal weight. Yay for free! I plan on going to meetings at least periodically so I can keep up with everything.

I guess that's it for today. Back to sock knitting!

Houston, we have a problem...

Last night was sleep camp. I ended up very frustrated, due to the fact that the directions were absolutely horrible (it said I had to turn onto roads, when in fact the roads just changed names and I should've just kept going straight). Anyway, I finally got everything figured out, and got in around 9pm. I filled out some forms, and started getting all hooked up around 9:30pm. My mom decided to stay the night, due to the fact that it would've just been me and Mike (the sleep tech) in this big building by ourselves. I wasn't worried about it, but it made her feel better to stay. The three of us chatted while all the wires were getting hooked up. Anf if you ever wondered what a person would look like during a sleep test, well...there you go. I had two more electrode things on the back of my head. At this point I am "unhooked" from the machine so I could go to the bathroom. All the hooking up finished around 10:15pm, and lights out were at 10:30. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get to sleep, because I got up late. Anyway, the night went pretty well, except for the fact that I woke up a few times when all the wires would pull on my head when I'd try to turn over or move around too much. Mike woke me up at 6am today and told me that I was going home and not staying for the daytime study. He told me the night before that if the results indicated sleep apnea (where you stop breathing) or hypopnea (where your breathing slows down). Based on what he saw, he figured I was on the border between mild and moderate. I don't have my formal results yet, but he saw enough to confirm that it's probably sleep apnea and that that's the reason I've been tired. So, the next step is to wait and see what the doctor wants to do after my study is fully graded or whatever. I figure I'll have to get a c-pap machine to make sure that I get enough oxygen at night and stop waking myself up. I really didn't think I had sleep apnea because I don't snore, I'm not a lot overweight, and I'm not older. It does seem to run in families though, so I guess I got the genes for it. Anyway, I have another sleep study (this time with the c-pap machine) tentatively scheduled for January 14. I should hear before then what the doctor thinks the best plan of action is. Part of me is like, "Great, something else wrong with me, and I don't want to wear a stupid mask thing," and part of me is like, "Woohoo! They finally found the problem! Now they can fix it!" I'm ready and willing to try it though, especially if it makes me feel better.

The other day I was reading on a knitting blog and came across this thing called "Project 365." Basically, you take a picture a day for every day during the year. The picture should sum up the day or represent something about that day. I would like to do this (and will try) but I'm not going to formally commit or anything. I don't want to be all stressed out about it. That also goes along with the resolution I forgot, which was to update the blog more often. But anyway, yesterday's picture is the one above.

Today's picture shows what's under my sink. See that big black thing on the left? That's one of the things my dad got me for Christmas (aka a garbage disposal!!). He installed it today, and I'm really excited to use it. I hate having to scrape the leftover bits into the trash, and now I can just disposal them away! I've been asking for one pretty much since I moved in (March 2005), so it's nice to finally have everything hooked up. It also only required two trips to the store to get all the parts.

For my day today, I basically did more cleaning. My house loves me for finally paying some attention to it. The big project for tomorrow is to vacuum the daylights out of the place, and make sure I get up all the little leaf bits that Riley brings in. I also want to hang more pictures (and get some framed). We'll see how much of that I can get accomplished tomorrow. I also went to the rec center, where I rode the bicycle thing and listened to the new Lime and Violet podcast.

Now it's time to go work on the Celebration socks. I didn't have the hours to sit and knit today like I wanted, and all I've managed to do is cast on. Oh! I got my package that I ordered from Borders via Amazon. Scott gave me a $25 Borders gift card, and I ordered Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch (and I currently want to knit every sock in this book) and Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I'm excited to have these two additions to my knitting book collection!

Happy New Year!

So, it's 2007. That seems absolutely crazy to me. Last night I went to Cassie's to do a murder mystery (where I was a knitting grandma who liked everyone), play the Wii, and talk. I had a lot of fun, and I totally want a Wii. I played bowling, and it was really cool. Riley and Sabin played a lot, and looked so cute snuggling together. Also, since I was the knitting granny, I got to work on my Ursula socks! I finished the knitting last night, and grafted the toe today. They're really comfortable, I'm excited to have a real pair of socks! I had a slight drama with the needles, which I didn't realize until I was almost done with the second sock. I got through the heel flap on the first, and decided that I wanted to knit them at the same time so I can remember how things work. So, I went and bought another circular needle. Unfortunately, the first needles I bought was a 3mm needle (which doesn't translate to American sizes) and the second needle I bought was a 3.25mm, or a size 3 in American sizes. So, one sock is a little bigger/looser than the other. It works out ok though, because my left foot is slightly bigger than my right anyway. I think I still could've gone down to 2s and been ok. I'm going to use 2s on my next pair and see what happens.

Today I did some cleaning and laundry, and made a Target run. That's basically it. I got up really late due to feeling yucky at 5am. After I finish updating, I plan to start on the Celebrate! socks. I'm using the purple trekking, and hope to have them finished by my birthday (hence the name). These fit with the Socktopia January theme, as well. Yay knitalongs!

Tomorrow night I have sleep camp, as Scott calls it. I have to go out to Spring Hill and spend the night in their sleep lab. The next day I'm going to have to take naps every 2 hours or so. They're going to stick electrodes and such to my head and see if they can figure out why I'm tired all the time. If there's something to find, I really hope they find it. I'm tired of being sleepy all the time.

Now for Resolutions (in no particular order):
1. Continue with Weight Watchers until I make goal, then maintain
2. Knit one sweater, one afghan, and at least 12 pairs of socks
3. Do a better job with cleaning
4. Invite people over (which depends on number 3)
5. Take more pictures

That's about all I can think of for now. Happy New Year everyone! May 2007 be the best year yet!

End of 2006

So before I get to the New Year's stuff, I wanted to update about the end of 2006.

On Thursday (Dec. 28) we went spent a little bit of time running around Omaha. We stopped first at Personal Threads. They were having a sale, which is always good. I ended up buying two skeins of Trekking XXL (colors 109, which is a purple variation and 110, which is mainly orange but has lots of other colors in it too). I love the way the yarn looks...hopefully it'll make some nice socks!
After the yarn store we met Sandra at Luxe Pet Boutique. This place was really fancy. My favorite thing was the sushi squeaky toys. I would've bought them, except for the fact that they were $15.95. Considering how fast Riley can chew through things, I was afraid these wouldn't last nearly long enough to get my money's worth. I ended up buying some between-the-bath spray stuff that's supposed to clean them off without having to give them a whole bath. Hopefully that'll work well. This store also sells ice cream sundaes for dogs. I ordered one for Riley, and he got to stand on the bar to eat it. He wasn't too sure about it, and only ate about a lick or two of it. I tasted it, and it wasn't sweet at all. But anyway, at least I got some pictures. =)



After we finished in Omaha we headed to Little Rock, Arkansas to see my cousins Doug and Dixie and their new baby Ethan. He is so tiny! Ethan and I were 2 ounces apart when we were born, and it's just amazing to me how little he still is at 2 weeks old. Here's Ethan wearing his hat and booties. It looks like they both fit ok!
Look how precious he is!

After that we headed home. It was a long trip, and I was glad to be out of the car. I basically spent the last few days of 2006 laying around, watching football, and knitting.