Crappy Monday

I am an animal person. I have not been without animals in my house for longer than I can remember. My sweet, near-toothless old cat Homer was found to have less than no kidney function today. (Expletive deleted). Our very kind vet gave him some fluids and sent him home for the night so that we could say goodbye to him and let Marion be with him for a bit, but tomorrow I have to take him back. I have only had to do this once before, and it SUCKS. I haven't been cat-less in 16 years, and I am NOT looking forward to it. He's a black and white tuxedo cat with big green eyes that look like grapes. He snores. He's one of the mellowest cats I've ever had. He's always been great with Marion, even when she was tiny and didn't know that tails and whiskers weren't really for pulling. He's gotten along with every other pet we've had and generally been a big, wonderful guy and I'm going to miss him terribly.

Multi-tasking, or something like it

My dear redhead is still plagued by back problems, so I've been trying very hard to be "SuperMe" and take care of as much stuff at home as possible. Save for a very crabby spate on Sunday, I think I'm managing to keep most of the balls aloft. I really do hate laundry, I must say. It's not the sorting and starting, but I can't abide the time lost folding and putting it away. Seth once said he wished we could all just wear clothes made out of paper and recycle them at the day's end. Hmmm...business venture?

I have two (count 'em, two) knitting projects going. Still hard at work on my SP's large, warmth-inducing gift (as she is in a colder place than I), and I've begun on a baby blanket for the daughter of a friend. All the booties patterns look a bit much for me right now, so I figured, "Hey, who doesn't need lots of blankies?". And the Sirdar yarn was on sale, a lovely lavender, and snuggly albeit mostly acrylic (I figure it's got to be washing-machine friendly as it will be for a first bebe).

Tahki yarn is really delectable! I snagged some for the scarf promised to a certain New Mexican chickie I know, and it will soon be whirling about on my favorite needles to date, my size 13 Brittany beechwood babies. Photo of fab yarn soon to come.

Computer will be going away soon (gasp, sob) to get some brain surgery. One of Marion's games did something unspeakable to the box, and my other half wishes to repair pronto. I've convinced him to wait until next week, at least, as I really am trying to meet the month-end deadline for the manual re-writing project I've been involved with. I've done about half of the work I need to, so will likely be buckling down to it over the next few nights. Will try to get at least one more post in before bussing the Compaq and sending it out into the big, scary world of repair shops. (separation anxiety begins NOW!)

Late at night

Everyone else in the house is asleep. My sweetie's back is out, the dog is snoring underfoot, the cat has likely shoved his way in through the dog door and is curled up in a cardboard box, and Marion's zzz-ing away after cooking dinner tonight!

Seth got her "The Peanuts Cookbook", which he had at her age. (The book does show it's age a bit as one of the instructions is to "ask your mother to show you how to light the stove") She made Beethoven's Bacon Beans (yummy, and I don't even like green beans a little bit!) and Sally's Broiled Cheese Hot-Dog Sandwich. She really did do most of the work by herself. My folks are in town and she invited them to dinner, which was a great move for her as a new chef because there isn't anything my dad would rather eat than a hot dog! He'll even eat them raw! (Eeeew.)

Didn't get much knitting done today, but I'll probably go and do a bit before bed. Hooray, my secret pal got the package I sent! Thanks to the USPS. I adore Priority Mail--it's cheap and fast. I'm so glad she liked everything. Night-night!

Photo-op

Finally got around to getting pictures of the girlie. The hat will soon be winging it's way to DC, but I think I want one, too. Marion wore the winter poncho quite a bit while the weather was cold enough, and I knew I was on the right track when a school chum of hers came to class one day sporting a pink poncho she'd begged her mom to make for her, "because Marion's mom made one for her!" Yay!

The spring poncho was kept small as it is warming up rapidly here, and our time for wearing heavy, snuggly clothing is swiftly declining. It took me a while to be able to do the stitch quickly, but by the time I started on the second rectangle, I had picked up a fair amount of speed.

Current projects are: an unknown item for my secret pal who lives in colder weather and a scarf for one of my true blue buddies in New Mexico.

Lots of these beauties in the yard this year. 

Budding ballerina in the front yard... 

Here's the spring poncho-done in "Marionberry" stitch. Much smaller, and she declined any fringe or edging.  

This poncho was of the "two-rectangles-joined" variety. Worked very well for our mild-ish winters here in the desert. 

Marion's winter poncho-I couldn't manage the Snowflake yarn by itself, as it's so fine--so I added some Red Heart Bubblegum to it and voila! (Thank you to the kind knitter I met in Craftmart who suggested adding a second yarn-you were so right!) 

I love Floral Splash yarn. 

Marion modeling the trial hat--my first attempt with circular needles! 

Friday! Hooray!

And a Friday payday, too! Hooray squared! And I've heard from my secret pal! Hooray trebled! I'm working on mysterious knitted thingie for my secret pal, and I'm having a good time doing it, too. Will have to put down the needles at some point to get back to the work-related writing project that I did NOT do this week, but this is not the evening for that. Big used book sale in my neck o' the woods tomorrow, so we'll try to get up early and brave the rain for it. It's become a tradition, the Visiting Nurses' Book Sale. Lots of cool stuff; we got a good set of encyclopedias for the girlie last year. Of course, I'll have to look for knitting books this year!

Knitting up a storm

Finished Marion's shorter, lightweight poncho tonight! Will put it together and trim it and have her model for a photo in the next day or two. Have also completed the in-the-round hat, which came out pretty well for a first attempt. I unintentionally used the inside of the DPNs when finishing, so it came out with sort of a rosette at the top since the stitches were backwards, but it actually looks kind of neat that way. Talk about learning from your mistakes!

Have vowed to spend the next two evenings writing for the work-related manual I agreed to assist with, so my needles will be cooling a bit over the next 48 hours. (I will try to make sure I get my full lunch-hours though, as there's a lovely park near the office where I can escape and start in on goodies for my secret pal and a scarf I promised to one of my dear buddies.)

Floral Splash is my friend

Ok, I admit that circular needles are NOT tools of Satan. I do still have a bit of trouble geting the stitches to flow easily up the left needle, and am hoping that's because of the inexpensive circs which were a gift from dear peopole this Christmas. I think I'll have to visit my LYS to invest in a pair of wooden ones that have a smoother transition area from needle-to-cord.

Gosh, I actually have two articles going at once! I'm still going on the poncho--have now figured that the first piece is done, so need to bind off and make its companion piece before the temperature soars here. I have used the Floral Splash in my circ trial, and I think I'll decrease it down and make it into a hat for one of my two bestest friends, both of whom live in colder climes than I. The desert is a great place to live for much of the year, but the fact that I can't wear, sleep in , or otherwise swaddle myself in yards of wool year-round is a bitter pill. (wah.)

Will post more photos soon; objects in progress and FOs if I can get shots of those from folks who now posess them!

Groundhog day

I'll take 6 more weeks of winter. I'd just like to arrange for Pres. Skippy to see his shadow and go hide in a hole, far, far away! I did make contact with my secret pal, but have not heard from the person who has me! Oh well, it's early yet. Time to go wash the childie and work on the circular needles a bit more. They're behaving better the last day or so. Might be able to use them to make a knitted object for my pal. As mother says, "we'll see..."