Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Stuff I Forgot

Geez-Louise - I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached!

I wanted to share a couple more things:

First, someone gave me a big skein of wool yarn in really pretty shades of blues and greens. There's no label, just a note about it being "bulky felting yarn". I don't felt, at least not yet, so I'm wondering what I can do with it. I've sent an SOS out to a fellow knitter to see what my options are. I don't want to look a gift horse, blah, blah, but I hope I can make something with it. If nothing else, I guess I can learn to felt. (Silver Lining #2 - the possibility of learning something different)

Silver Lining #3 - I got home so late and rushed around so much I'm not even hungry so I don't have to feel guilty about eating after 7. I had a good lunch, so it's not going to kill me to miss a meal.

And finally, thinking about Silver Linings is making me look for positive things hidden in normal life. So that's like Silver Lining #4. Right? :o)

Out of Sorts

I just got home after a meeting and feel like I'm being rushed through my evening routine. I seem to be such a creature of habit lately that anything different in my schedule throws me off balance. I never used to be like this, so what the heck is going on??? Does this mean I'm getting old and set in my ways?? Can't be - I don't plan on ever being "old" no matter what my driver's license says! Maybe I'm just tired and a little run-down.

Nobody else is home - workaholic hubby is still working and busy son is obviously busy somewhere else. I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm living alone. But....silver lining - no one is bugging me about what's for dinner. And the answer to that would be "Whatever you want to root around and find". Betty Crocker probably wants to jump off her box and beat me with kitchen tools.

So, American Idol in about 20 minutes. Apparently tonight's theme is the most popular ITunes downloads. Well, that's going to pretty much guarantee more current songs. The trainwreck potential goes up because most of us will have heard the original renditions relatively recently. It's going to be interesting, to say the least.

I got some good news today. My gas bill came in the mail and it's almost two-thirds less than last month. Yay!!!! I know part of it is due to some warmer weather but I have been very good about turning the thermostat down, too. Extra $$$$ are hard to come by these days, so I'm glad to have a few this month at least.

Tomorrow is Wednesday - hump day. Come on, weekend! We're leaving after I get off work Friday to visit the four kids that don't live at home. They're all in the Fort Collins/Greeley area. We'll go up Friday night, meet them all (Chance, Shea, Austin, Ian) for dinner and then spend the night with daughter Shea (she's the only one with an extra bedroom). Saturday we'll visit Ian's apartment, maybe Austin's too, have lunch with as many kids as can make it, do a little visiting and shopping and then come home Saturday evening. It's been awhile since we've seen all of them together, so I'm looking forward to it.

Gotta go - I have a couple of chores to do before AI hits the airwaves.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Silver Linings

Today started out so blah: it was a Monday after a vacation, the weather was cold, I didn't sleep well and didn't want to get up and go to work - you get the picture. So I was at my desk feeling miserable, and resentful that I'm not independently wealthy which would allow me to not work, and a co-worker brought some papers I needed and mentioned that we only have 39 work days left until summer vacation. 39 days! That's so much more manageable than 8 weeks. Of course I know it's the same amount of time, but 39 days sounds so....close. That's Silver Lining number one.

After I got home from work I realized now that all my knitting stuff is out of my bedroom and into my workroom I have enough space to do a workout at home. Instead of at the gym, which I seem to find every possible excuse not to use. So I did a dance routine workout for 30 minutes. Silver Lining number two.

My hubby cooked spaghetti for dinner last night. He cooked enough for a small army, as usual, and since Jordan ate dinner at a friend's house so there's more than enough left for tonight. So I don't have to cook. Silver Lining number three.

Take a look at the top right corner of the blog - there's a new button there for The Loopy Ewe. It's an online store in Missouri. I found it after I began reading the owner's (her name is Sheri) blog. I gave in to temptation and placed an order which arrived last week and everything is just great. The hand-dyed yarn I got is absolutely beautiful with very nice shadings. Anyway, I put the button there because I like this place. I've sent three emails about various things and have received fast replies from Sheri herself, they have weekly specials called Sneak Ups, and (as I said) I'm impressed with their products. Plus Sheri spent her Spring Break in Keystone. If you click on the button, it will take you to the home page and from there you can go to the store or Sheri's blog or wherever. If you happen to visit through my button and make an order, I will get some store credit with them. (This is not my main reason for getting the button so please don't feel pressured.) But it is Silver Lining number four. :o)

My day is ending so much better than it started - instead of being depressed and cranky, I feel upbeat and happy. Must be those workout endorphins coursing through my body! Plus finding four silver linings in one day makes me realize that I can probably find at least one every day if I just take the time to look.

I have to tell you about this movie I watched last night - "Mr. Brooks" with Kevin Costner and Demi Moore. Kevin was a serial killer who didn't like killing but was addicted. To keep his addiction under control he went to AA meetings (he didn't tell them he was addicted to killing, he just said he was an addict. Good thing - all the alcoholics would probably have run right to the nearest bar once they realized they were sitting with a serial killer.) Anyway, the voice in his head got to be too much and he started killing again. The voice in his head was William Hurt, visible to only Kevin and the audience. That was actually a pretty cool way to do the voice in the head thing. Plus I like William Hurt. Demi Moore was the cop assigned to the cases. She was in the midst of divorcing her Boy Toy husband who was after a hefty settlement because she actually had over 60 million dollars left to her by her father. But she was working as a cop - so believable. Anyway, I won't give anything away, go watch if you want to know what happened. I'm not sure why I mentioned it at all, other than it was in my head so I decided to share.

Now go and look for some silver linings of your own!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Saturday Slump

I just feel blah and worn out today. Maybe it's from all that work I did this week or maybe it's just because my week off is almost over. Or maybe I'm just tired. Whatever - I have like zero energy and don't feel like doing much of anything. Except a nap. This mood does not lend itself to me cooking something for dinner. My poor family - sometimes I just don't feel like cooking. In my defense, though, at least half the time when I do cook neither hubby nor last-son-at-home shows up (hubby's pretty much a 12-hour a day workaholic and son is busy with practices for two sports plus friends) and I find myself eating alone. Then I decide not to cook because nobody's ever home anyway so of course on those days they both get home at a reasonable time asking what's for dinner. I just can't win. But they don't starve - I do have a stash of frozen stuff I can fix quickly for them. It may not be homemade, but.. just deal with it. Gosh, I think I may be a little cranky, too.

I did go over to Colorado Springs today and visit a few shops. Bought a few things I don't really need, but retail therapy is good once in awhile. I'm not a big shopper and can't stand going to a mall unless I absolutely have to. Needless to say, I didn't visit the mall just some specialty stores. I enjoyed the drive. The sun was shining and the snow was melting so I think Spring is on its way back. The view of the Sangre de Christo mountains as I drove back home was awesome as always. They're completely snow covered and look beautiful. That's how I like my snow - from a distance.

When I got home, Jordan was busy cleaning the house. He's much better than his brothers that way - he knows what his jobs are around here and I usually don't have to nag too much. He owes me money (typical teenager - he thinks Mom means Made of Money, not Mother) so until further notice he cleans the kitchen, big bathroom, and living room every week. It's a great situation for me because I hate housework. He leaves for college in 2 1/2 years - what the heck am I gonna do then??

No big plans for the rest of the weekend. Loads of laundry to do tomorrow and then back to the work routine on Monday.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Stick a Fork in Me...

cuz I'm done.

This week seemed to zoom by at warp speed and now I'm looking at two weekend days and then back to work. If I hadn't accomplished anything this week, I could use that warp speed zooming as the excuse but I don't have to because (insert your own drum roll, please) - I got my project finished!!!!! Right this minute, I'm dusty and dirty and ready for a shower - but the guest room and my workroom are done!!!!! Both look ready to be used for their respective purposes and I'm basking in an aura of satisfaction. This is so awesome because I've been known to lose interest in various projects at different stages of completion. Some would call this laziness but I prefer to think of it as my previously mentioned affliction of hobby/project ADD - it sounds a whole lot better and if I looked really hard I could probably find a support group somewhere. But no support group needed today because I actually got it done.

OK - I'll quite blowing my own horn and move on.

To the weather - SNOW. Ugh. It started yesterday afternoon and quit sometime last night. Lots of wind, too, and the temperature dropped way down. I went out when it first started because I had my nail appointment and by the time I was done my car was covered and I couldn't see a block in front of me. I was supposed to get a pedicure, too, but I skipped that because I couldn't face the thought of going out in a screaming snowstorm wearing flip-flops. Because you have to wear flip-flops after a pedicure otherwise everything gets all messed up which kind of defeats the purpose. The good news is that this time of year, snow never stays long so it should be gone by tomorrow afternoon.

American Idol got rid of one more last night - down to 9. My AI mojo is not working well this year - I was so certain that Megan was history I even told her (via this blog, not to her face) to pack her bags and move out of the mansion. I guess she can unpack, because Michael is the one leaving. It was a good thing they had Adam stand up first and told him he was safe because nobody would ever believe that he was anywhere near the bottom of the vote count. The big surprise for me was that Matt was in the bottom two - I don't know how that could happen. Part of me thinks that he really wasn't, but that the show producers did it that way to make people like me throw stuff at their TVs and yell "WTF?". Well, I didn't actually throw anything - it's a new TV - but I felt like it. Ruben, the season 2 winner, sang - he was from before I became AI addicted (hey, I bet there's a support group for that, too!) so I didn't really care. Then Smokey Robinson and Joss Stone sang a duet. I'm not a Joss fan, but I do like Smokey. I have to be honest though and say that I found it kind of creepy - he's old enough to be her grandfather but he was looking at her like he had just escaped from fat camp and she was a hot fudge sundae. Last week was kind of the same with Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis. Is this some kind of trend? Stevie Wonder was awesome but he's always awesome. I'm just grateful they didn't have him giving a pep talk to Scott, one blind piano player/singer to another. And speaking of Scott, he took part in the group sing-and-dance, but they kept him surrounded so he couldn't get near the edge of the stage. Where's the fun in that? No word on what next week's theme is so I can't speculate on anything.

Tonight the plan is to order pizza (too tired from all that work to cook!), find a movie to watch, and knit. Tomorrow, if the roads are clear and they should be, I'm going over to Colorado Springs for the day.

OK - I'm heading to the shower to get all this dust and dirt off me. I can't stand it anymore.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Getting it Done

In case you're wondering - my title today refers to two things: my Spring Break project and Adam on American Idol.

I'm back from my day of gambling. Didn't win big, but didn't lose big either (which is always a plus). I was hoping the universe or karma or whatever would reward my good work this week with a jackpot or two, but no such luck. It was nice to get out of town for a few hours, spend some time with friends, and have some mindless fun sitting in front of various slot machines.

After I got back home, I even did a little more work organizing my hobby room. My plan for today is to get the stuff that's still in my bedroom, but shouldn't be, out of said bedroom and into the other room. I'll (hopefully) get it all put away where it needs to be in there and then I'll be finished (pretty much) with this project. Yay for me!

So, after getting back home yesterday I fed the dogs, looked at the mail, threw out the mail , read the obituaries in the newspaper to see if anyone I know died (a weird habit, I know, but...it's what I do), checked the weather (both in the paper and on the Weather Channel), checked my email (no comments submitted to this blog - bummer), took my shower, got into my jammies, and settled in for American Idol Motown Edition.

Before I get to AI, I have to talk about the weather. I also watched the late news for a weather update. Supposedly we're in for a big spring storm beginning late today and continuing into tomorrow. It's an Albuquerque Low Storm, which those of us in this area all know means "Sucks to be us". Because of our location, most storms either don't get here or pass over us, which is nice, but when it comes in from the southeast it usually gets here and stays here for awhile and dumps a bunch of snow. We're so dry I know we need the moisture, but why does it have to be snow? I hate snow. I wish it would just rain for a few days instead. There is some hope, though - one of the weather guys on TV said that if the wind switches from the southeast to the north early enough, the storm might not get here. We'll see.

Now for AI: I have to say again - I love Motown Week. I know they do it every year, but so what? It's still good music and there's such a variety there's no reason each singer can't find a song that's really good for their style. But, as usual, a few managed to screw it up. It's one of the reasons I watch the show. Mean, but true. I do have to tell you that I'm disapointed nobody sang "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" which is like the best Motown song ever.

Matt was first with "Let's Get it On" and when I heard that my first reaction was "UH OH" because there's potential for disaster with that one. But he did a great job and there's no doubt he'll be around for awhile. Then there was Kris and "How Sweet It Is" which I liked at the time but now I can't hardly remember it. It was good, just not something that sticks in my head.
Scott did "You Can't Hurry Love" and it just reinforced my opinion that he needs to get a job as a lounge singer somewhere. Truthfully, I was hoping he'd surprise us all and do something like "Psychedelic Shack". Plus he had on pink pants. Yes, pink. I know he's blind, so is this somebody's idea of a joke? Whoever gave him those should be ashamed of themselves - dressing a blind guy in pink pants. That's just wrong. Then there was Megan. It was one of those good news/bad news situations: Good news - she looked fabulous and I loved her hair. Her eyeliner matched her dress which matched her tattoo. Bad news - she sucked. She did "For Once in My Life" and for once in my life I didn't want to be watching. It was just embarrassing. I wish she had chosen...well, pretty much anything else. It was like she was yelling at me the whole time. She should probably start getting her stuff out of that cool mansion they're all living in. Anoop did OK with "Ooh, Baby, Baby" but I still have to listen with my eyes closed because he just doesn't look like an Idol. Michael had fun with "Ain't Too Proud to Beg". He better not be too proud to beg for another chance, because it wasn't very good. I will say that he is obviously enjoying himself and having a lot of fun, and he probably realizes (as Simon told him) that he has no chance of winning this thing. So why not have some fun? Then there was Lil, who I just knew would do something really awesome. Just like I knew that one slot machine yesterday was going to pay off big time. Both of them disappointed me. She sang (loudly) "Heat Wave". I'm sure she's safe, but still. Her earrings were cool, though. And then there was Adam. Oh, my. I saw him with his slicked back hair and suit, and thought "What?", but then he sat there and sang "Tracks of my Tears" and just blew me (and the competition) away totally. Who knew he had that in him? Not me - I had him pegged for rocker all the way. Wow. It gave me goosebumps. Danny was next ( and you know he was thinking "Crap - I have to follow that?") but I liked the way he did "Get Ready". The judges gave him a hard time, but he was enthusiastic and had a good time with a fun song. Not bad at all. Allison ended the night with "Papa was a Rolling Stone" and she was awesome. I've said it before, I know, but she may be sixteen but her voice is way older than that. She still dresses like a sixteen year old, though.

I finally got smart and quit trying to write down the vote number and just programmed it into my cell phone. Then I only have to change the last number each week, depending on when Adam sings. Yes, I voted for Adam. And I'll vote for Adam until the end of the season. Or until my phone breaks.

I think the dynamic has changed. A few weeks ago it seemed as if Lil, Danny, and Adam were on track to finish in that order. Now it's going to be Adam and Allison at the end (in my opinion). Danny will probably finish third. Lil has disappointed me lately and she needs to get herself back to the R&B style that serves her so well. Matt is moving up. Megan, Michael, and Scott are history. Anoop and Kris are nice and will end in the middle of the pack. So there you have it - the rest of the season is laid out. Oh, and I have to mention the Carrie Underwood "horse whisperer" commercial - it's just too cute. And did anyone else notice that Kara's word of the week was "artistry"? She must have used it at least 23 times.

Gotta go. My washer finished its load and I need to get busy moving more stuff.

It's Thursday - I can't believe my week off is almost over!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Almost There!

My Spring Break project is almost done!!!!

This morning I went shopping for mattress cover, sheets and a blanket for the guest room. I haven't actually made up the bed yet, but they're sitting on the bed which is almost as good. The quilt and shams are covering up the bare mattress so that chore can wait another day. Also rummaged through the artwork from my mother's house that's currently leaning against the wall in the hobby room and found a couple of pieces to put up in there. I'm also going to put up a gold-framed mirror that my mother had as long as I can remember. It's nothing special - oval with a gold-painted -well, curlicue is the only word I can think of to describe it - frame. Looks old-fashioned, which goes with the antiques and bed coverings. It's so not anything special, but I remember thinking as a little girl that it was just the fanciest mirror ever so I couldn't bear to part with it when we went through her stuff. It's funny the things our memories hold onto, isn't it?

The hobby room is coming along, too. I took all my knitting stuff in there and put all the yarn away in a chest of drawers. The chest didn't have quite enough room, so I had to put the overspill into a storage tub. Looking at all that yarn makes me realize I better start knitting faster! I still have to take a bunch of this & that from my bedroom into that room - boxes of pictures I need to sort through and organize, along with about 5000 picture frames that I bought so I could put the best ones in frames and put them out so I can see them all the time; my stash of "gifts", which are things I've bought either on sale or because it looks perfect for someone and haven't actually given away because they're all stuffed into the cupboard in my bedroom and I can't really tell what's in there; some gift bags and bows, also bought on sale to use on the gifts which haven't been given. You get the idea. I'm so excited to finally have all that stuff organized and where I can get to it easily.

Tomorrow is my "fun" day of the break. Going gambling with some friends. I haven't been up there in quite awhile, so I'm excited to get out of town for a few hours.

No American Idol tonight. President Obama instead. That's nowhere near a good trade, I'll have you know. I know it's politically irresponsible, but I'd rather have my AI!

The dryer is buzzing at me, so I need to run. Later.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Switching Rooms Around - now I know why I kept putting it off

Well, my room-switching plan hit a big, brick wall yesterday - and the wall's name was Glen. Turns out he has no desire to move out of this room and into a different one. Didn't see that coming. Normally whatever I do inside the house is fine with him, if he even notices. But he dug in his heels about switching bedrooms, so I compromised and we bought a new HD TV for the bedroom we're not moving out of. It has a built-in DVD player, too. I didn't realize how bad the color was on the old one until I turned on the new one. Wow! And the screen is 7" bigger, but it seems more than that, if you know what I mean. So, compromise is good. Added benefit - only two rooms to work on this week instead of three.

I had Jordan help me and the first thing we had to do was move almost everything out of the room that's going to be my hobby/craft room. Including the bed that was in there. Don't need it anymore plus the mattress was the most uncomfortable one you could possibly imagine and the box springs were broken. So they went to dumpster heaven and the bed frame went out to the storage shed.

A lot of the furniture and boxes were from my mother's house. She died last summer and we sold her house last month, so everything that didn't get sold or sent to Goodwill had to come here. Also making a trip to the shed today: her large collection of Santas. I don't do Santas, I do Snowmen, so the Santas are waiting until the kids have places of their own and are ready to do their own Christmas decorating. The two storage tubs of Halloween/Fall/Thanksgiving decorations also went back out there.

I have the guest bedroom completely done, and it looks great. Now when one of the kids comes home, he/she can sleep in a bed instead of on the couch. I cleaned out the closet in there which was full of sleeping bags, junk, etc. Austin's AF uniforms got to stay, but were shoved as far to the side as possible. When he needs them for active duty with the Colorado Air National Guard, he can come and get them. And hopefully not bring them back. Boxed up some other things and stacked everything on the closet shelf. There are some boxes of my mother's crystal and other odds-n-ends that are going to have to be put in there for awhile, but there will still be plenty of room for a guest to hang up clothes. My antique oak mirrored dresser also went back in there and all but one of its drawers are empty now, so there's more guest storage space. I hope I have a guest soon to appreciate all this.

The other room, from now on we'll just call it "my room", is still somewhat in disarray, but I did get that closet cleared out and a bunch of junk/trash got tossed. Tomorrow I'll have Jordan move the rest of my craft/hobby stuff in there and then I'll get started on organizing it all. It's probably a good thing I have the whole week off!

Not much else is going on. My back is killing me from all that picking up and moving around of boxes, etc. Good thing I have a stash of pain pills for these types of situations. After dinner, I'll take one, maybe two, and hopefully will be able to move around tomorrow. Speaking of dinner, I'm not cooking it. I'm about to go out and pick it up. I've done enough for one day, don't you think? :o)

I'm going to eat, take my pills, and knit while I watch my new TV. There's a new show on Monday nights that I really like called "Castle". It's about this author, his last name is Castle, who's working with the police doing research for his new book. He follows this woman detective around and not only irritates her but also manages to help solve her cases. Imagine that. He's pretty cute, though, so I'd let him follow me around for book research.

So, that's it for today. Enjoy the evening - I plan to!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Why I Don't/Can't do Socks

It's a great day: I'm well rested from doing a whole lot of not-much yesterday and sleeping in this morning. It's about 70 outside and I have my front and back doors open to the screens to let the spring breeze come through. Part one of the room-switching project is done - the bedroom that I'm moving hubby and myself into is cleared out except for the furniture that will be in there with us. I've done some laundry. So I feel good. I'm ready to find a movie to watch and knit up some sock yarn, but not into socks.

I guess I should explain why I don't do socks. A few months after I began knitting and I'd completed a few scarves, I started eyeing my friend Judy's sock-making and thought "Hmmm - I can do that" plus she told me it was easy (big fat lie), so I signed up for a sock-making class. The class was in a shop where my friend and former co-worker Winnie works and Winnie herself was the instructor. The class was divided into two Saturdays - 1st day: learn how to use double-pointed needles and make a little sock for practice and 2nd day: start working on a real sock. The first Saturday, I arrived early to buy my supplies (the aforementioned needles, plus yarn for actual socks) and pick out a free little ball of yarn to make the practice sock. There were three of us in the class - myself, an older lady with bad arthritis in her hands who was determined to learn to do socks despite this (Good for her!), and a youngish woman who looked kind of mousy. Anyway - we began and I was so excited! I had visions of the ooohs and aaaahs I would hear when my family and friends received their gift of Socks from Sarah. Reality soon set it. The needles had a habit of twisting around and making me forget where I was and what I needed to do there, I couldn't seem to focus on the work with my glasses on so I took them off and then had to hold the knitting about two inches from my nose, and I just couldn't seem to figure the instructions out even with my instructor/friend sitting right beside me. I began to sweat. Then Winnie pats my arm and says, "Sarah, you're kind of tense - this is supposed to be fun, you know." Really? And then Miss Mousy, who I was pretty much ignoring because she was going on and on about her career as a doctor and her computer whiz husband and blah, blah, blah, holds up a completed little sock and says, "Look at this - I thought it would be easy and I was right!" Bitch. And she continued, "You know, I used to make socks and I'm glad I can still do it." I wanted to ask "Then why did you take this class??? To make me and arthritis-stricken Betty over here feel inferior?? Why don't you just go back to your hospital and save some lives or whatever???" But I used an extreme amount of self-control and kept my mouth shut. The effort brought tears to my eyes, though. Or maybe they were tears of frustration. Whatever, there were tears. I acted like I had an allergy issue, though, and nobody noticed. Or maybe they were so embarrassed for me because it's really sad to see a grown woman cry over socks that they just acted like they believed my allergy story. So, I pulled myself together and told myself "You can do this! It's just a sock!" My mental pep talked worked for about thirty seconds until I looked over and Bettywitharthritis was done with her little sock. I still hadn't gone around the heel of mine. I realized right then and there that sock-knitting was not for me. I can handle some young over-achiever showing up and being better than me, but when someones grandma with painful joints can get it done while I'm still sweating and crying - well, it's just too much. Class mercifully ended and I made up some BS excuse for not being able to go back for the second part the next week. I gave my "Socks are easy" friend Judy my hardly used double-pointed needles and called it good. I did, however, hang on to the sock yarn since I was sure that I'd be able to do something with it someday. Now that someday has arrived, I'm enjoying knitting up that sock yarn - it makes such a nice pattern in pretty colors even though it's just straight knitting and not a sock. I think it will wind up in a blanket somehow but I haven't got that far yet - I'm just enjoying the knitting for its own self right now.

Yesterday, in between watching Law & Order reruns on cable, I watched an Arnold now Governor of California married to a Kennedy movie. I call him that because I can't spell his last name. The "Terminator" guy. Anyway, the movie was called "End of Days" and was about the Devil taking human form at the end of 1999 so he could father a child with a human and bring about the end of the world as we know it. Pretty much turn it into his regular home, Hell.
Arnie was the good guy who finds out about this and tries to save the girl the Devil has picked out to be his Baby Mamma. It really wasn't very good, but I stuck with it, hoping it would improve. Then there was a part where Arnie's partner is watching this girl's house and the Devil wants to get in there (so just bust in already, you're the Devil) but apparently has to get rid of this guy first. So the Devil goes behind this small wall and takes a leak, and the movie shows the flow running into the street and over to the van where Arnie's partner is. Then he lights a cigarette, takes a couple of puffs and then tosses the cigarette into this and it immediately bursts into flame, the flames follow the flow to the van and the van blows up. I sat there, transfixed, and thought "What, the Devil pisses gasoline now??? Please." I couldn't watch after that - it was just too stupid. That's an hour or so of my life I'll never get back. I like Arnie, but it was just too ....bad I was going to say "unrealistic" but I couldn't really say that and then admit I love Arnie in the Terminator movies. Because we all know how realistic they are.

Not much else to share today. The dryer just buzzed, which sometimes means "Hey, your stuff is dry" and sometimes means "Hey, your stuff isn't really dry but you need to come and check it out and then push the button again." My dryer obviously has a mind of its own and likes to mess with me.

Have a great weekend! If you're on Spring Break next week like me (did I mention that?), enjoy it. :o)

Sarah

Thursday, March 19, 2009

At Last

Here I am, a woman who can shut off her alarm clock until the 30th! Things have been stressful, at work and also somewhat at home, so I'm glad Spring Break arrived before my head exploded. I think it was close, though.
No big plans, just the bedroom-switching-around I mentioned before. Got a pedicure scheduled for next Thursday afternoon in conjunction with my weekly nail appointment. One day I'm going to spend the entire day in my jammies just because I can. Oh, and a couple of friends and I are heading up to a nearby gambling town on Wednesday to try our luck. So I have some plans, just not real big ones.

My oldest son, Austin, is home from college for the weekend - this week is his break. He just got here and will stay until Sunday. Not only am I glad to see him, but he can also help with moving furniture (see previous paragraph). He and I had our differences a couple of years ago, but we're fine now. It still strikes me as odd every once in awhile that I'm having an adult relationship with someone I gave birth to. Hard to get my head around sometimes. It's like when I realized that my boys were actually turning into people instead of just little extensions of me that would do whatever I told them (mostly without fussing about it), and started when I couldn't get them to eat something-or-other just by telling them them they'd like it. It seemed impossible that they would be capable of forming their own opinions and begin exerting their will. That was an adjustment period, let me tell you! My therapist at the time said I was upset about losing my control over them. Maybe so, but it could also be attributed to me losing my anti-depressant prescription. And the awful realization that as they were getting older - so was I. I kind of pictured me staying at that nice place, nowhere near middle-age, while they grew up. None of my friends have ever admitted to having those same feelings, so I probably am kind of out there like the aforementioned sons would have me believe. But for me, out there seems to be a good thing. :o)

Alexis got kicked to the curb on American Idol!!! OMG. No tour for you, honey. That was a shocker for me - I really thought Michael was history. So, no sense of smugness for me this week. And here's what I don't think is fair: Alexis sang "Jolene", obviously not very well or she wouldn't have been the lowest-vote-getting person, so why for the love of God would you make her sing it again to see if she's worth saving? And she sounded truly awful the second time around. They should be able to sing something else in that situation so they can at least have a chance. I'm just sayin'. So now Scott the Blind Guy gets to go on the Idol tour - how's that going to work? Does he get his own bus or something? And during the group sing this week, he played the piano while everybody else danced around the stage. No drama there! I seem to have two obsessions this season: 1. Adam and 2. Waiting to see if Scott falls off the stage. Both are kind of disturbing but for (obviously) different reasons. This may be more proof of me being out there. Next week is Motown week - always one of my favorites 'cause I love Motown songs and I know all the words . Not as much train-wreck potential as country week, but more opportunity for some truly awesome performances. We have to wait an extra day to hear them, though, because the President is making a speech on Tuesday so Idol gets bumped to Wednesday and Thursday. He's been in office almost two months now - long enough to realize that he's the President and doesn't have to make speeches just on Tuesdays. Pick another night, dude! Who's going to argue with you? Also, I heard a rumor (well, I actually read it on one of the way too many AI blogs I follow) that Michael Jackson might perform sometime this season. That's just too creepy to contemplate.

As for knitting: Giving in to my hobby ADD, I put aside the "guy" blanket for a little while and started a project using "sock" yarn. I don't do socks, but I like the yarn. Not too sure how it's going to turn out yet, but it involves long strips of different types of sock yarn. Come to think of it, I don't know how most of my stuff is going to turn out when I first start. I just get them started and they seem to develop and take me where they need/want to go. It's probably a tribute to my former therapist that this doesn't bring up any control issues for me. I suppose that should make me feel better about the ginormous amount of time and money I spent in his office.

Enjoy your Friday - I'm already enjoying mine since it came on Thursday this week. :o)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I Just Couldn't Resist

I visited my local yarn shop after school this afternoon to get some size 7 circular needles. And only some needles. But the needles are on a rack all the way in the back of the store, so I had to walk by all the yarn. And I noticed some new stuff and my mind showed me pictures of what I could do with some of it. So now I have more yarn. I have absolutely no self-control in yarn shops, I swear. But I suppose there are worse and more expensive things to be addicted to. I know that's a lame justification but it's the best I can come up with right now.

American Idol just gets better and better! Country music night - every year they have one and every year it gets crazier. Here are my thoughts:
Michael - didn't do much for me and he seemed to run out of breath due to all those words.
Allison - she manages to put her own personality into her singing and she's getting better at talking after she's done; I liked it.
Kris - I know I liked it last night but now I can't remember it!!! Does that mean it was boring? Probably.
Lil - didn't like it much at all. It wasn't so much the singing but the song itself just didn't seem to fit. Listening to the words and looking at Lil - it just didn't match up. Her dress, while pretty, wasn't really suited to the song, either.
Adam - OMG. I don't know what to say. It had that sitar/Easter influence thing going on that makes me think of the late 60's and early 70's, when Nehru jackets were popular and everybody was stoned. I'm not sure I actually liked it, but he gets credit for staying true to what his style is. I voted for him because he's still my favorite, even if this wasn't my favorite performance. I'm a little worried that it only took me 90 seconds to get through this week vs. 37 minutes last week.
Scott - he's so sweet and he's blind so it's hard to be mean, but he's kind of boring. He reminds me of the entertainment in a hotel bar near some big airport. Just put a tip jar on the piano and he's good to go! I'm looking forward to I mean anxious about the group dance just to make sure he doesn't get separated from the group and wander off and fall over the side.
Alexis - "Jolene" is a country song that I like, so I was hoping for better things from her. She just seemed kind of blah through the whole song. Nice dress.
Danny - not impressed with the song, the singing, or the outfit. He's still safe, though.
Anoop - who knew? Not bad at all but I like him better when I listen with my eyes closed - he just doesn't look like a "star" to me.
Megan - "Walkin' After Midnight" is a favorite of mine (even though I'm not a country fan) and I just am not sure what to think. Her voice is different and at first I liked it and then not so much and then I liked it again. But the outfit has got to go - it just made her look like a giant pair of boobs with some singing coming from somewhere up above them. Plus the colors didn't match her tattoo.
Matt - I'm sure he's safe this week, but like with Kris I can't really remember much about it.

I think Scott or Michael will get kicked to the curb tonight. I'll know for sure in about three hours.

Tomorrow is my Friday. I'm doing the Happy Dance about that, believe me! Then 10 days of freedom!!!! When Spring Break is done we have what seems to be a really long haul to the end of the school year. But the end is at least in sight now. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I'm ready for a break. And the closer summer gets the more my mind wanders down to Mexico and my body gets jealous that it can't go there with it.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I wore green today in honor of St. Patrick. I read in a history book that St. Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland . I always thought he was remembered for driving the snakes out of Ireland. Either way, I'm not quite sure how it evolved into an excuse to get drunk on green beer while wearing a shirt/button/hat that says "Kiss me, I'm Irish" after eating corned beef and cabbage for dinner. How did that happen? Corned beef and cabbage - I'm craving it now. And since I can't cook it and have a meeting at 5:15 I'm going to have to get on the phone and see if I can find a restaurant where I can get some to go.

Tonight is an American Idol night - the remaining 11 will be singing country songs. YeeHaw! I'm not a big country fan, but the evening does promise to be entertaining nonetheless. And by that, I mean entertaining because someone (or two, or three, or more) has a great chance of having a total trainwreck of a performance on national television. I know it sounds mean, but come on, do you honestly remember the good performances for more than about 10 minutes?? Not usually. No, we remember the truly awful ones. The ones that make you watch in horror and think "OMG, is this for real?" and as much as you want to look away, you just can't. The ones that make you squirm in embarassment for the singer. The ones that you discuss with your fellow AI followers, usually opening with the question "Can you believe (singer's name) totally sucked?" So prepare to be entertained - one way or another.
Having said that, I must mention that I do remember a few good performances: Chris Dautry "I Walk the Line", Jason Castro "Hallelujah", and Blake Lewis "You Give Love a Bad Name" come to mind.

Knitting: The "guy" blanket is coming along great! It's probably about three-fourths finished, and I have enough of the yarn I've been using to get the job done. I guess I should start thinking about which guy in my life to give it to. Hmmmmm. I was good today - I resisted the urge to buy some yarn from an online store even though it looked totally yummy and was on sale. I did write down the items I want, just in case I discover a project that absolutely can't be made with anything else. :o) Yarnaholic - that's me.

Have a fun evening - however you decide to celebrate the day!

Sarah

Monday, March 16, 2009

James Madison's 258th Birthday

Happy Birthday, Mr. (4th) President!
I don't really know much about James - following after George and Thomas was probably really hard. Too bad there's no record of the opinion polls from back then. But, he was President for 8 years so he must have done something right. And he was married to Dolly, the awesome baker. She must have been, right? Her cakes are still around today - I rest my case.

When I got home from work, I tossed in some laundry, loaded dishes into the dishwasher (note to the guys in my house: those dishes don't voluntarily jump in that square box next to the sink!), and immediately got online and checked about four different sites for American Idol updates/gossip. I'm beginning to think I need an AI support group. A friend emailed me today and asked when Idol is on this week because "you always know'. You're probably wondering what I do during the 7 months that Idol isn't on TV. Well, I'll tell you. My year is divided into three seasons: Summer (no school, trip to Mexico, getting projects done, stuff like that), Football (preseason begins about the time I go back to my school job) and American Idol (starts the week after the Super Bowl, ends our last week of school). That's how the year flows for me. Right now, we're smack-dab in the middle of Idol season and moving towards Summer. My friend who's going to Mexico with me and I again had the "I can't wait to get there" discussion at lunch. We've both had some pretty frustrating days with students lately, so we're definitely ready for some palm trees, ocean breezes, and tropical drinks delivered by cute guys who's mission in life is to make sure we have a good vacation.

As far as this blogging thing goes, I don't think I've developed much of a readership yet. I've told some friends. It would be nice if those friends told their friends who told their friends...you get the picture. I'm still not completely sure why I started this, but now that I have I feel the need to try and be good at it. A teacher friend came by my room this morning and said she'd read my blog and enjoyed it and is going to start one, too. That's good - she can follow mine, I can follow hers and at least somebody will be reading my stuff on a regular basis. When I've asked friends to read my blog, I also ask for their comments, which so far have been positive. Of course, these people are my friends so maybe they're not going to be able to say "Hey, you suck, give it up already". So I need non-friend comments, but nobody but my friends reads me yet. Catch 22!!!

My knitting is fine - still adding to the "guy" blanket. I swore I wouldn't start another scarf until the room-switching and yarn organizing was done, but I'm soooo wanting to begin something new. I think I have hobby ADD. Which would explain why I have scrapbooking paper but no scrapbooks, photo boxes but no organized photos, coordinating fabrics but no quilts. I also have some cross-stitching stuff, but I did do that for years until I had to get bifocals and couldn't find a spot where I could see the pattern and the cloth at the same time plus look up at the TV. One or two were always blurry. So you can't really give me any grief about that one. OMG - in talking about this I just realized that some of the yarn in my stash is from like 20 years ago when I learned how to crochet and was going to make stuff for me and all my friends. When I also consider the fact that I kept that yarn all this time - well, maybe I need therapy. No, I don't - knitting is my therapy! :o)

Enjoy the evening!

Sarah

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Happy Pi Day!

Today is March 14th, also known as Pi Day after the number Pi - which starts out 3.1415....... and literally goes on forever. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around things that go on forever: space, time, whatever. And a number that never ends - that's just mind-boggling. But that's OK because I believe we should all have our minds boggled on a regular basis. Who knows - thinking about something so outrageous that our brains have a hard time taking it in is probably good for us on some level.
We celebrate Pi Day at school, but we had to do it yesterday since there's no school today. It was fun! Our 8th grade math teacher, JoAnn (who taught my kids and is one of the best teachers ever) made us all Pi buttons to wear. She has a program that finds your birthday in Pi and that number was on the back of the button. My birthday (month, day, year) shows up after 70,351,812 numbers. WOW! How cool is that! 6th, 7th, & 8th grade students all got a little individual pie and at the end of the day they had a pie-eating contest. There was also a contest to see who could recite the most numbers of Pi - a boy named Jonas won when he recited 120 numbers correctly. I think he got an extra pie for his pi. Sorry, I just couldn't resist.
Weather-wise today is much better - warm enough to go outside without a coat and the small amout of snow we had yesterday is gone. Here's my idea of the perfect amount of snowfall for the year: it snows on Christmas Eve (after we're home from church, visiting friends, whatever), snows through the night so that we have an absolutely gorgeous white Christmas morning, and then then sun comes out, the temperature goes up, the snow melts and doesn't come back until the next Christmas Eve. Yes, I live in Colorado - home to some of the best ski areas in the world, and those ski areas (and the entire state) depend on good snow to bring in visitors. I understand that snow is necessary to the Colorado economy. But I don't live in a ski town and we don't rely on the snow so it doesn't need to come here.
On the knitting front: In my email this morning was an offer from a company I recently ordered some yarn from (arrived last week - nice yarn). They asked me to sign up for a monthly knitting (or crochet, they send two sets of instructions) kit. These kits have the yarn and instructions for a different project each month. So, sucker that I am - I signed up. Since I only knit scarves and blankets, you're probably wondering why. Me, too, actually. But here's my justification: it's only $14/month and I can probably use the yarn for one of my own projects. If not, I have knitting friends I can give it to. Plus, I do occasionally still crochet, so I might find a crochet project that interests me. The first month's kit is half-price and I can cancel at any time. So what have I got to lose? I'll keep you posted.
Have a great Pi Day - bake a pie, eat some pie, do some math problems with pi - just enjoy the day!
Sarah

Friday, March 13, 2009

I'm Ready for Summer!

I drove to work this morning through a dusting of snow and the temperature was down close to single digits. The last couple of weeks we've been spoiled - it's been in the 60's and one day a record-high 80. So you can't really blame me for thinking winter was over. Reality check - winter doesn't officially end for another week and experience tells me we will probably have a big spring snowstorm (or two). But I want it to be summer. For a number of reasons: hot weather, end of the school year, annual girls' trip to Mexico. I'm just not a cold-weather person. I know that our area is relatively mild compared to some (I could never in a million years live in Minnesota), but the older I get the less I like anything below 60. Sunshine, at least, is not a problem - we average something like 325 days of sun a year (take that, Seattle!) but I definitely prefer the sun/heat vs. the sun/it's *&%^ cold. At heart, I'm a beach & ocean person. So of course I live in a land-locked state. :o) My dream retirement would be a small house on a beach somewhere. Whenever I mention this (in passing, retirement isn't really anywhere on the horizon), my husband just gives me the "look". The one that says "dream on, babe". Unfortunately, not only do I live in a land-locked state, I'm married to a man with a sun allergy. The first time we went to Mexico together, he broke out in horrible blisters after two hours of beach time. So he spent the rest of the week wearing a T-shirt even in the pool and sitting in the shade. Bummer. It's probably safe to say that I'm not going to get that beach house. But, hey, a girl can dream, right? This problem of his prompted the start of the aforementioned annual girls' trip. Anyway, I have about 13 weeks left until this year's trip. I could probably tell you exactly how many days it is, but I don't want to seem obsessive.
Another week of school done. One more week and Spring Break will be here. The kids are getting antsy and so is the staff. We finished our state-mandated testing this week and there was a collective sigh of relief that it's over. It's too bad the break can't start the day after testing - we'd all be happy then. No big plans for the weekend. It's my week of after-hours call for the local domestice violence center, so can't go out of town. That's OK - I'm in a "put on sweatpants and stay at home" mood anyway.
Knitting update: Still working on the "guy" blanket. Since it's been cold, it's kind of nice to be working on a blanket - it keeps me warm as I work on it. I'm itching to do another scarf, but I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't do another one until I got my bedroom project done. This project involves moving me and hubby into a different bedroom, turning another bedroom into a real guest room (as opposed to the storage room it is now!), and making my current bedroom into an office/hobby room. Why do all the moving? Right now, our bedroom is what used to be the garage - we converted it shortly after we got married and realized the two adults, four boys, and one girl just weren't going to fit in what we had. It's OK as a bedroom, but now that only one child is left at home and two "real" bedrooms are available, I want to move back into one. Plus the garage-bedroom is bigger and will be a better place for me to keep all my stuff. My hope is that I'll organize it better and be able to find things when I want them. That's my plan anyway. This is all going to happen when Spring Break gets here. Jordan owes me money so I told him he could work it off by helping me move everything around. We'll see. :o)
Enjoy the weekend!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

TGIAF - Thank God It's Almost Frday

This week seems to have been going on for at least a month. I don't know if it's the time change, the return of my inability to sleep through the night, or what, but I am soooo glad tomorrow's Friday!
I love my children dearly, but sometimes they do things that make me think: "Is this really my child?" For instance, this morning I was drying my hair and my youngest son (and the only one left at home), Jordan, barges into the bathroom and says "I have track team dinner tonight." Since my husband had just told me "I'll be late tonight - I'm going to Business After Hours" (which also means "After we spend two hours b-s ing and eating free food, we'll probably go down to the brewery for awhile"), I smiled because I thought the two statements combined meant "We're eating somewhere else, don't bother cooking anything." Not a chance. Jordan repeated, "I have track team dinner tonight." Which, it turns out, meant he had volunteered to bring spaghetti. Of course, Jordan couldn't tell me exactly how much spaghetti I should cook or when it needed to be finished because this is his first track team dinner and he didn't get any details. (Sigh) So, the spaghetti is cooking as I write this and I suppose I should be grateful he only asked for spaghetti. My oldest son, Austin, once came to me at 9:30 at night and announced "I have to make the solar system inside a shoe box tonight." He didn't really understand why I was so upset because he thought I'd have everything he needed hanging around somewhere. I will admit, I'm a packrat so I did have a shoebox. I did not, however, have 9 styrofoam balls and planet-colored paint. Anyway, I hope Jordan gets home soon to pick up this spaghetti, otherwise it will be limp and cold and then his entire track team will think I can't cook. Oh, wait - maybe that's not a bad thing. :o)
I watched American Idol last night and felt smug when the two I felt should get kicked off actually did get kicked off. I do have a few comments about the show This new rule about being able to "save" a contestant just one time and only until they get down to five left is OK. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. The group sing and dance was OK. Can something be considered a medley of songs if it's only two? Because I only heard two different songs, "ABC" and "I Want You Back". This year has the added benefit of watching to see if Scott, the blind guy, falls off the stage. Last night, the others did a pretty good job of pushing/pulling him around, but as the number of singers decreases there's going to be more empty stage for Scott to wander around in. Please don't think I want him to fall off the stage; it's just one more reason to watch. And speaking of watching, I noticed that when Michael learned he was safe and Allison gave him a big hug, the camera went to the audience and showed Michael's wife looking like "Hey, get your hands off him!" And when Allison learned she was safe and Michael hugged her, they didn't even show his wife. I bet she wants him to move out of that mansion and into a Motel 6 until he gets kicked off. How about that mansion?? It's like American Idol meets Big Brother. I hope they show us what really goes on in there each week! Could be fun. Also, did anyone else notice Megan's face when she and Jasmine were standing together and found out that Jasmine was going home? For a split-second, she looked like she was going to scream and jump for joy, but then she remembered "Oh, crap, I'm on national TV and I need to look sad because Jasmine is leaving." Sure, we believe that. If it were me, I'd be thinking, "Hey, better you than me, sister." But that's just me. Now, let's be honest: Lil, Danny, Adam, Allison, and probably Alexis didn't really need to show up. We all knew they'd be safe and they could have stayed back at the cool mansion and played beer pong and then jumped in the pool. Finally at the end, there's Jorge and Anoop - who's done? I don't think Anoop will last much longer, but since I had picked Jorge to go I was really happy to find out I was right. So I could be smug, as I explained earlier. Now, next week will be country songs, which is good for Michael and probably Scott, but I can't wait to see and hear Adam do a song from the Grand Ole Opry. Don't get me wrong, I still love Adam, but it promises to be extra-entertaining. We'll see.
Knitting update: I'm still working on the "guy" blanket, but I've been eyeing my yarn stash and imagining different combinations, so I'll probably start a scarf pretty soon. And I did want to add something to what I said about using leftover yarn for these other things: yes, most of what I use is from my own stuff but my dear friend Judy, who's partly responsible for this knitting addiction of mine, also gives me her leftovers and sometimes more because she doesn't like having a bunch of yarn hanging around. Unlike me, I have lots - but that's a conversation we can have later. :o)
Sarah

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

What Dreams Get Shattered Soon?

So far so good. I'm here for the third day in a row. (I'll try not to break my arm patting myself on the back!) I read on one of the blog advice postings that when you start a blog you need to post often. I think once a day should count as often, don't you?

I watched the 2-hour plus a few minutes extra of American Idol - here's what I think:
Lil, Kris, Matt, Michael, and Megan were OK. Note to Megan: do not dance again, ever.
Allison was awesome! She may be only 16 but her voice is about 35. She's kind of goofy before and after she takes the stage, but of course she is a teenager. When she gets out in the spotlight she's in her element. She may not win, but I bet somebody gives her a contract. I still don't really like the fake red hair, but the shorter style is better.
Alexis was good, I thought. Better than the judges gave her credit for anyway.
Danny was great. He can't dance either (see note to Megan) but he managed to pull it off. I can't figure out why, but it worked for him. He was good enough that I actually forgot about his dead wife.
Scott is blind, so he'll probably be around for awhile. Nobody wants to pick on a blind guy, but last night wasn't one of his better efforts. Michael Jackson songs and Scott just don't go together.
Anoop. What can I say? Other than don't ever try to be like Mike again. In his defense, I have to say that if the judges thought "Beat It" was untouchable and iconically Michael Jackson (I think those were a couple of the comments.) they never should have included it in the song choices. Thank God nobody took on "Thriller" or someone would have stroked out right there on live TV.
Jasmine and Jorge: It's time to go! The more I see of Jasmine the less I like her and Jorge just creeps me out.
And finally, Adam. I know rumors have abounded lately about his man-kissing photos and his gayness and blah, blah, blah. Here's the deal - I just don't care! He's hot and he's definitely got presence and a voice to die for. Do I like his hair and nail polish? Not particularly. I must admit I kind of like the "guyliner" around his eyes. (Don't tell my sons or I'll get way too much grief about that! ) Anyway, his was the best performance of the night and we all know he'll be around for awhile.
I'm anxiously awaiting tonight's results so I can either congratulate myself for being right, or yell at the TV because the voters are stupid. Speaking of voting - I did my part and spent 37 minutes hitting redial until I got through to Adam's number.

My plan to work on my novelty-yarn blanket didn't work out - not enough leftover yarn to do anymore just yet! Which means sometime soon I'll have to take a break from these blankets and make some more scarves so I can have leftover yarn for that blanket (this process is one of those never-ending loops). In the meantime, I have my blues, browns, greens, darker colors blanket to work on. It's made with leftovers, too, with 4 rows of a beige fiesta (light brown w/blue, green, and burgundy flecks) between the color changes. It could be for one of my boys - they'll accept knitting from me if it's not girly-looking (their phrase, not mine). This one will look great in a guy's place, so when it's done I'll find a guy for it to live with.

I guess I should explain about my knitting. I mentioned the first time that I'm no expert. I'm not even ambitious. I just like to knit. (Or purl. Or a combination of both.) But I only do scarves and blankets. Why? Because I don't want to have to follow a pattern and get frustrated when I screw whatever it is up. And I would screw it up, trust me. So I make up my own patterns for scarves and I never have to write anything down because they all consist of casting on as many stitches as I think I need for the yarn I have and then kniting until I think it's done. It works well for me. I do like to combine different types of yarn and see what happens, and sometimes I add buttons, fabric, jewelry, whatever, to them when I'm done knitting. I give them all names, too. Not names like Joe and Marsha, but names like Mountain Amethyst or Monet's River. The names seem to come into my head as I'm knitting. Don't laugh - the voices in my head could say much meaner things than scarf names. :o)

That's it for this time. I should get off the computer and find something to cook for dinner.

Enjoy the evening!

Sarah

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Spring forward.....into jet lag

Well, here I am for the second time.

I don't know about anyone else, but this time change thing has hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel sleep-deprived and cranky, but it's only a one hour difference! So why do I feel like I've just flown across an ocean the wrong way??? I'm kind of over this daylight savings thing - we "fell back" in November and now we did the "spring forward" before Spring actually starts. Why can't we be like Arizona and just stay the same all year?
Oh, well - enough venting.

I have to admit that in addition to knitting, I'm also addicted to watching TV. Because I can knit while I'm doing it. Anyway, last night I watched one of my favorites, "Two and a Half Men" and Charlie proposed to his girlfriend by putting the ring in her glass of champagne while her head was turned. So she, since this is a comedy, turned back to the table and immediately chugged all the champagne- ring and all. I think someone actually did this a few weeks ago, only in a milkshake or something. My question is this: why do guys think this is romantic? It's a recipe for disaster! Years ago, when I lived in Italy, my friend Carla went out to dinner with her boyfriend Claudio. Claudio had gone to the restaurant earlier in the day and had them put the ring in a little dessert cake so he could pop the question later in the evening. (Obviously this was a restaurant they frequented often - if you try this at a new place you run the risk of being served your cake ringless because the guy you gave it to promptly ran to the closest pawn shop.) Anyway, dessert time came and the waiter presented Carla with her very own little cake. She took a couple of bites, bit down hard on the ring, broke a tooth in the process, started coughing, and spit both the tooth and the ring out. Murphy's law, being an international law, took over and the ring rolled across the floor and down a heating vent. Carla's eyes were watering from the coughing and the pain of the broken tooth, which caused her makeup to run, and she never even saw the ring before it disappeared. Claudio wound up paying for dinner, Carla's visit to the dentist, and for someone to come and root around in the pipes of the heating system to find the ring. They went ahead and got married a few months later but I have no idea if they're still together because Claudio never forgave me for laughing about the whole thing and making sure all our friends knew about it and Carla, being a good new wife, agreed when he banned me from their lives. The point here is: forget trying for a unique method of giving her the ring - just give it to her! If a guy wants to do something romantic he should take her away to a five-star resort for the honeymoon and make sure she gets pampered.

Tonight is the beinning of the Final 13 on American Idol. American Idol is another addiction - it started as a guilty pleasure a couple of years ago but quickly attained addiction status. So for the next three months, expect to hear my opinions about who sang what and how, and if America voted correctly. My prediction is that Jasmine will be the first to go - she's just not that good and has never lived up to my expectations.

Now for the knitting update: the baby blanket is now officially on hold waiting for more leftover yarn. So I will switch to my second blanket-in-progress - this one is being made entirely of novelty yarns. Leftovers of course. I get all these leftovers from scarves, but that's a subject for another day.

That's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed spending some time with me.

Sarah

Monday, March 9, 2009

A New Adventure

OK - here goes!
This is my very first posting to my own blog. I did some reading about blogging, starting a blog, etc., and was advised to think about my blogging goals. Hmmm, kind of hard to set goals for something totally new. I guess I just want to be able to write in small increments about all kinds of things and see what happens. The blogosphere is a whole new venue and I want to be a part of it.

I suppose I should act like I'm talking with a friend, sharing my life and thoughts. Hopefully someone will be interested! One "starting a blog" article said don't worry about what you say when you first start posting because nobody will read it anyway. This must be one of those "good news/bad news" things: The good news is that if nobody's reading I don't have to worry about sounding like a total idiot, the bad news being that I'm writing to share with others but there are no others. I guess I'll just write and hope for the best.

In this first effort, let me tell you about my family. When I talk about them later you'll know who they are. My husband is Glen: we've been married ten years, ups and downs, but we're still together so obviously there were more ups than downs. He has a degree in accounting but works as a real estate agent. Not the best field to be in these days, but we're hoping things improve soon. The accounting degree comes in handy to find out exactly how much money we're not making, I guess.
Glen and I have five children between us: two are his (boy, girl) and three are mine (all boys), but we are beyond the "yours/mine" "his/hers" labels and now just consider them "the kids".

I think I'll wait for later entries to talk about each child individually - it will give me something to talk about. :o)

Since this is called Sarah's Heartstrings and is supposed to be somewhat about knitting, let me close for today with a word about my current project. First, though, I have to be honest and tell you that I'm in no way an expert -I just like to knit. A lot. And shop for yarn - that's fun, too. I actually have about four things going, but the one I'm working on right now is a baby blanket. I'm using leftover yarn from other projects, different weights but all pastel colors. There are no shades of blue, but plenty of pink so somebody needs to get pregnant and have a girl so I can give it away when it's finished. I'm knitting on size 10 circular needles and between each color I use four rows of white yarn to separate the stripes of different colors. Some stripes are solid colors, some are varigated. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself. It's probably about halfway finished.

So that's it for my first entry - I hope someone reads and enjoys it!