tonight i'm gonna party like it's 5769

dinner at my folks tonight, marking Rosh Hoshannah
(which officially began last night at sunset)

Happy New Year ;-)

pardon the cursing

I am so tired. So. Very. Tired.

Mondays seem to be even tougher than usual now that I am having that weekly appointment in San Francisco with the guy that is working on my scar tissue. The trip into the city at that time of the morning (during the commute) is draining, and as I mentioned before, having the work done is pushing allllll my buttons. Good news is that as of next week I am trying out a new time slot to see if the traffic is any lighter at the new time.

I am so beat.

And I just had this fantabulous idea that I would force myself to go to bed at 10pm, whether there was more to be done around the house or not. Yay me!

It's 8:28pm right now, and I am sitting here typing up this blogpost and I am just about to get MyFavoriteKid into bed at 9, and then cleaning up, and packing lunch, oooo and possibly even a few minutes left over to knit a couple of rows (woohoo!), then I call TheMostImportantGuy to say hello/goodnight, and then...off to beddy bye land!!

(the torture of not watching Hereos, by the way....oh my gosh....but I am recording them and watching them with TheMIG when he comes for his midweek visit on Wed nights...very hard to wait, though)

So that was my plan, and I was going to stick to it, dammit. Turn the lights off and the tv off at 10pm and just make myself go to sleep (not that it would take much, I am sure).

And then I just remembered that it's Monday night.

I have a conference call every Monday night at 9:30pm with my bellydance co-teachers about our class later in the week. It occasionally starts later than 9:30, and it occasionally runs past 10, and I for some reason I cant manage to multi-task around the house while I am taking the call.

This call happens every Monday. It is not news. At some point during the day I recognize that it is in fact Monday, that the call is happening, and that I need to plan my evening accordingly. And then I forget all about it again. Sometimes right up until the minute the phone rings.

Fuckety-fuck-fuck!!!

(sorry for cursing. but that's how I feel right now.)



I think half the problem is that my life has become so danged routine, that I am finding it boring and predictable....and at the same time, I find it completley irritating that even though it is routine, I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT I AM DOING NEXT!
*sigh*

And there was a time kids, when I used to whine because my life was too chaotic and every day was different and needed some stability and routine. Bwahahahaha.
Grass is always greener, I guess.

everyone but me

Everyone around here gets a relaxing moment, except me!!


At least it is feeling that way.

And not just the pets.

I need to figure out how to fix that.

more bugs

This time, bugs I like!

(these bugs I LOVE, actually)

Handcrafted and sent to me by the famous JohnK of Napkin Please (Rav Link). Famous because he and his work are featured in the newly published book Knitting Art: 150 Innovative Works from 18 Contemporary Artists (although he was already famous for other things).

Congrats on the book, John!
And thank you for the scarf!!! You tooootally brought a much needed smile to my face today. The timing of picking up the mail and opening the package could not have been better staged. It was divine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Snaps On Saturday

Taken at the 1st Annual American Canyon Music Festival today (just to show y'all what a fantastically po'dunk town I live in!):

the main stage
and something like "the diablo valley band"
(sorry, I don't remember exactly)

the rest of the venue
the audience, as small as it was, was not in front of the stage, but rather on the sides, where there was shade

elvis, on a "side stage", between acts

laying on the blanket, staring at trees
my favorite part

best and worst

We have this tradition at my house called "Best & Worst". Most nights MyFavoriteKid and I tell each other the best and worst things that happened that day. Well, actually....the other way around. We tell the worst things first, though. End on an upbeat note.
It's always fun and enlightening.

Here are mine for today:

WORST: Waking up to hear the news that Washington Mutual tanked. I have money there. I also have money at AIG and Wachovia. Batting a thousand I am, eh?

BEST: TheMostImportantGuy commented on my post yesterday. I think that makes 3 or 4 comments over 3 years.


(MyFk's worst is that, "his mom is evil and wont let him stay up past 11 to play video games." His best was going to school)

s'all i got

Home very late from dance class. Too tired to type, let alone think, so a quiz it shall be.

You Are Stalking

You tend to be very obsessive. Once you focus your attention on something or someone, it's all you think about. You are also very secretive. People don't know much about the life that you lead. You are attracted to weak people. You may want to prey on them, but you also may just want to help them. You need attention, and you can get desperate if you aren't getting attention from the right person. You'll do about anything to get noticed.

What Felony Are You?

shirt nose dog

Last night my mom and dad came over for dinner. The "appetizer" was getting the 120 clean tuxedo/band uniform shirts into the car so I could deliver them back to the music teacher today.

After getting them all in the car, I said to my mom, "DANG!!! I had wanted to take a picture of all of the shirts hanging up here for the blog!!! Shoot!!! Let's bring them all back in!!" (kidding, of course)

That's when my mom looked me dead in the face and said, "Actually, what you should post on your blog is a photo of your nose!!" (if you recall, I carved up my nose the other day with my fingernail by accident while I frantically flailing about and trying to swat a mosquito away). Oh, and then I kid you not...at the end of that sentence, my mom literally laughed right in my face.

SO.

Here are the shirts (loaded in the car) to appease ME:


...and here is my nose (photo also taken in the car) to appease MY MOTHER:



(love you mom!)

Okay, and just for fun....here's a doggy photos. My neighbor Frank brought his Layla over today so she and Riley could have a "playdate".

Love her big ol' happy dog head :-)

scary potential

So when TheMostImportantGuy rescued our new kitten, there was no mommy cat to be found anywhere in sight. No kitten siblings, either. There was, however, this one big male orange cat that had been coming around recently though. The question of the day has been if this big orange cat could possibly be KittenDad.

TheMIG has been trying to catch a photo of PotentialKittenDad for me, and tonight he finally got a decent shot:


MUCH better than the pic he snapped of PotentialKittenDad a couple of nights ago:



TheMIG says KittenDad was not hissing when the photo was taken. Maybe he was meowing or yawning or something...???
Or maybe he is just insane...???
And maybe it is has been passed along in the genes to my new kitten...???
...And maybe I had best start sleeping with one eye open!

the more i learn about bugs the more i hate them

I got soooo many bug bites while away camping this weekend that I have itched myself to the point of bleeding. I even have this really funny gash on my nose. As we were driving away from the campground on Sunday, there was one last bugger flying around in the van, and I tried to swat the little twit away from my face and ended up slicing my nose with my thumbnail. I know. What a ditz. It was just a little scratch yesterday, but today it's a big old scab on the end of my nose. I look like the Wicked Witch of the West or something.

Anyhow, today I picked up some stuff to take away the itchy-scratchies...


I bought it because it says it is clearly marked for mosquitos....but what the f&%# are chiggers???!! (oooo, he's even scarier looking over here!).

And I honest to god thought that they were kidding about there being NO-SEE-UMS??? I'm thinking they just totally made that up. Like it's just a blanket term for any of those bug bites you get but have no idea from where. But then I click here (and almost have a heart attack because the volume was up on the laptop) and find out that No-See-Ums are a real bug!!

Gah. And I am still finding nits on MyFavoriteKid. Way less. But they are still there. Amongst other things, I am doing the blowdryer routine. Thanks very much to those of you who advised that the heat would kill the little shits.

I am beginning to think it might just be easier to stick my head in the oven though.
hahahaha

back on track

Hey there! Back on the grid. All the posts are going up tonight. Sorry to flood you with so much shit you couldn't care less about, like bug bites and bars and whatnot.

Here's some additional photos from the weekend:


Like I said, besides just hunting down dive bars, I also like to find the older parts of town. Above there, that's the old hall of records building in Yuba City, built in 1881.

Just up the street from that is the Veterans Memorial Park. Check this out:

It's a flag. And then the entire rest of the park is one big fat giant wheelchair ramp. Hahahahahaha. I know I'm a little strange, but I find that hilarious.

Then there was the janitorial supply company that offers...


...free bibles.

Okay. Onto Marysville. If you remember from yesterday's bar version of this very same tour, this would be the historic D Street:


These next two shots serve as additional proof that I really do look around for old buildings (not just cold beer):



And this should serve as proof that I can in fact sniff out a yarn store without even trying:

The Sew-So Shop on D Street in Marysville. Quilting, Sewing, Knitting, Everything.



That's grandma. Her daughter owns the store, and her grand-daughter runs the register when mom's away. Grandma? She just likes to come in and hang out ;-)

And yes, I did buy yarn. *sigh*

saturday. travel day. delayed post!

**no internet access, but mwahahaha....the content was created and I am within blog 365 guidelines, so here ya' go:

I'm not sure I have written about this on the blog before or not. Have I mentioned that when TheMostImportantGuy and I go exploring new places, that our absolute favorite thing to do is to go hunting down dive bars??

Well, not just that. I also have a knack for sniffing out yarn stores (go figure) and I like to find old downtown streets and check out old houses, too. But we looooves us a dive bar.

Well, we found some gooooodies up the ol' gateway to Gold Country area. TheMIG reviews them over at yelp.com so you can find more details there, but here we go:



See?? DIVE. BAR. hahahaha.
This place was actually pretty cool on the inside, believe it or not. It's called the Corner Bar and it's in Yuba City. It's for sale, if you ever want to buy yerself a bar, too. It's currently owned by an active fireman and some of his partners who apparently never show up to help out. The fireman's wife tends bar and apparently at night this place is packed with a 20-30 crowd and there is a dance floor. And fights. And then the cops come and then the fireman hears about it the next day at work, and it's giving him a headache.

We got all of that out of the fireman over an icy cold beer. Then the fireman told us that since we were on DiveBarTour2008, we should check out the Silver Dollar:



Place serves food and was voted best Tri-Tip. We only had bar snacks, but they were suprisingly good. Still cannot figure out why the buddhist temple is situated so close behind it that it almost seems attached. Kind of odd. But neat in a quirky sort of way.

The Silver Dollar is at the dead end of the main drag (D Street). So we cruised around and window shopped and found this dive:



Ooooo what I pit. Super nice bartender, though. Actually, every bar we went into had nice people. I'm a wimp and since I had already had 2 beers (in what, 3 hours?? I had a diet coke).

Last but not least, my favorite bar of the day. We were driving back to the cow pond to hang out some more at the "exclusive rv resort", and we had to make some adjustments to our route due to road construction. That is when we stumbled into this place.



It was in the middle of nowhere. Like, we stopped in the middle of danged road and fished around for the camera and then took a few shots while the van was in the middle of road. There was nobody around. Well, almost nobody. A guy comes out of the bar and yells at us that if we are going to take a picture, why not come in and at least have a drink for crying out loud.

Turns out to be the best stop of the day, in my opinion. It's a guy who bought the bar 7 years ago and lives in the mobile home parked in the lot right next to it. I don't even know what to tell you about the place except the beer was ice cold and if I ever went back the same people would be sitting at the bar next time probably. It was a hoot. They made us feel totally welcome, which doesn't always happen at a place that is just for locals. It was very cool.


Okay, so there you go. A peek into our hobby. Now I just have to find internet access so I can post this damn thing.

friday, travel day, delayed post!

**content created Friday September 19th, and subject to delayed posting due to lack of internet access (but I'm still within Blog365 guidelines...so there!)

Yay, me for planning a 3-day get away weekend in the MiniMaison with TheMostImportantGuy! We left this morning to head to a place that is something like time-share campground set up for RV-ers. I am not a member. I've only been solicited for the sales pitch. They've offered me a $25 gas card, a $50 gift certificate at Camping World, and a free 3-night/4-day stay at their "resort"....but of course we have to sit in on the 90 minute sales pitch. Ugh. I actually am a little bit curious about their offer, but I dunno. It's not even my first full day here, and already I'm not quite sure if any of their establishments are going to be my type of place. It's totally not gimp friendly in terms of a manual wheelchair, and that makes me not a happy camper. More on that later, if I can get it to come out without it sounding too kvetchy.

ANYHOW. Getting to the campground was half the fun! We left this morning and I had figured out where we could stop on the way to see a matinee. We cruised into this little town called Woodland to see Burn After Reading. It turns out that the theater is a very old, very tiny little theater on little "historic" downtown drag. We got there a little early so drove around the block. That's when we spotted this:




I actually think it is someone's house and they really live in there. Very cool.

Then we found a shady place to park the van right about here...


....where I kid you not, we opened up the door to the van, and the dog darted out and went tear-assing through the neighborhood. Ha.

We walked around a bit on the main drag and I snapped some oddball shots:


Main Street in Woodland.


The Democratic headquarters on the main drag.


An antique store with an old wheelchair out front (dudes, I am so happy I live in modern times. Pushing that would SUCK---although I do find it interesting that the large wheels are in the front instead of in the back. hmmmmm.).

So we saw the movie and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Brad Pitt's character totally cracked me up every single time he opened his mouth, but actually everyone in the film was awesome. Loved it. I'm a big Coen Brothers fan.

After the movie we headed over to the campground. It's a little place called "Lake Minden" and it sort of looks like what used to be a watering hole for cattle, and it is situated between a corn field and some walnut orchards.

What's it been like so far? Well, let's see (here comes the kvetching part, by the way). After selecting our camping space, we had to go back to the front gate to turn in a registration paper with the space number. We decided to do that by taking the dog for a stroll around the lake back to where the entry gate kiosk was. It didn't take long to figure out that was a really bad idea, but the van was already set up and plugged in and I didn't want to go back and unplug it and drive it over.

So I'm in my wheelchair, and the roads?? They are large-type gravel, and it is not well compacted in most places. What that means is that my front wheels are getting stuck like every 2 feet. TheMIG had to wheel me rickshaw style through the tough spots. What should have been maybe a 40 minute stroll to get around the lake?? It look close to 2 hours.

Oh, and by then the sun was setting, so the mosquitoes were coming out. We got eaten alive.

Oh yeah. There's more. Back at the kiosk, when we turned in the registration, we asked about the free Wi-Fi they had advertised. Come to find out it's only in the clubhouse. Not in the whole RV-park. And guess what?! The clubhouse has stairs and no wheelchair ramp. Yay. Know what else is not accessible? The little market they have on site.

I am happy to report that for all my grumpiness about accessibility issues, it did not dampen my spirits. I chalk that up to being in good company :-)

i am nitpicker, hear me roar

nit·pick (nĭt'pĭk') intr.v. nit·picked, nit·pick·ing, nit·picks
To be concerned with or find fault with insignificant details.

I cannot believe that when you look that up at dictionary.com, it doesn't give the origin. Sheesh.

Well,here's MY definition:

v. the act of spending more than two hours combing through the louse infested hair of your beloved child only to determine that you are not winning the war against the little buggers.**

GAH. I am SO sick of it.

**from AmpuTeeHee's "TotallyAnnoyedWithEverything Encyclopedia of Whining and Useless Information"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At least the knitting is soothing:

shawl in progress

That is, when I get to knit, in between nitpicking and doing mounds of laundry (gosh, now that I think of it, this whole nitpicking experience kinda makes me not want to ever shop at KnitPicks again. Hahahaha. Doubtful, though.)

ANYHOW.
Loving. This. Knit. Totally simple, fast, and just what I need right now. I am calculating that if I can manage to do a repeat a day, I will be wearing this sometime during the first week of October. I hope I can do it. Not too sure I can, because I also have quite a pile of gift knitting I am working on at the same time. But it's my goal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news about annoying household events, today I pulled the mini-maison out of the RV-parking lot and parked it in front of my house (where the lawn is laid out straight to the curb...no sidewalk). Opened up all of the doors of the van to air her out, and went back into the house to do some more nitpicking. When I returned, I realized that the sprinklers had come on during that time and had soaked the upholstery inside the van door. Which is fabric. Yay me.

So now it's dark outside and I have to try to soak that up.

At least tomrrow I am going away for a few days.

I think I am free and clear, but one never knows. I hope I don't infest the van.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You know, this was just supposed to be another photo today. I uploaded the shawl pic and then all of the sudden there was all this useless content filling in around it. Strange.

I am still catching up on blogs, though. Slowly but surely. And it is good fun :-)

from the garden

rainbow chard

* many more blogs read
* many many MANY middle school band uniforms laundered
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This photo was taken and this blogpost was typed up 9/17. It is 9/27 and I just found it sitting as an "edit" rather than as a "posted". GAH. So here it is, delayed.

kittenhead + dogdogdog = love

Gaara & Riley

At least the pets are mellowing out a bit. Unfortunately, everything else is super chaotic. Especially on my insides.

I have been having some "work" done on my scars lately and the treatments are managing to also push all of my emotional buttons. I knew that going into things, but still. It's really hard. Like, really really hard. Flashback land, basically.

Meanwhile, I knit. Thank goodness for soft fuzzy things.

I did read a couple of blogs today, but not as many as I would have liked to (thanks to the emo buttons...they make me weepy and I can't see the screen).

I am hoping tomorrow will be more productive.

what it is, what it is not.

So, early this morning, I took out my camera and shot a photo of this yarn:



...not for the blog, but so I could put it in my "stash" on my ravelry page.

Right after doing that, I drove into SF for a morning appointment, and I saw about a kajillion cool things to take photos of for the blog. Then I realized I had left my camera on the bathroom counter (see, I took the yarn photos on top of the toilet seat because that is where the best light is that time of day...aren't you glad you asked).

What SHOULD have been here as photos today:

* a photo of the 100 or so Hells Angels members that pulled up alongside me on the freeway going into SF. They were going to a funeral. I waved at them. They revv'd back.

* the approach into the Castro District, with the largest Pride Flag ever.

* a greeting card shop on Market (also in the Castro) with a sign in the window advertising wedding cards for same sex couples

* a huge Andre the Giant poster stuck on a billboard peeking out from behind a tree.


As luck would have it, it's a repeating appointment, and I have to return next Monday, too. I will try to remember the camera next week.

Oh, and that yarn? It's going to be this shawl when it grows up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As an aside, I have been HORRID about replying to comments. I would like to thank you all for the great info about lice. You guys rock. Very helpful.

It is kinda funny to me how many of you comment when it is about bugs, though. The last time I had a big turn out in the comments about bugs, I was writing about fruit flies. Maybe next we'll cover spiders or ants or something ;-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also....
The bloglines has been reduced by about 700 posts. Many read. Some dumped.

I am on the path.

i'm just thinkin'....

I am thinking about the idea of only posting photos for a week, so that I can spend my internet time catching up on reading blogs rather than writing 365 posts for my own.
* I am sick to death of hearing myself think

* I am really feeling like I am feeling disconnected from people that I know through blogs that I consider "friends"

* I am really tired of seeing my bloglines pop open every time I log on, but never reading anything (as of this exact moment I have 1821 posts in my feed--yay me)


I know I wont read all 1821. There are a whole bunch of blogs in there that I dont care all that much about (craft forums and reviews, travel info, recipes, stuff like that). But the people that I actually care about?? And the fact that I got behind on reading posts when I was on tour in July, but then never snapped back? Hate it.

So my thought was to post pics for a week and read instead. So don't bother looking for me here. Look for me in your comments instead.
About time, eh??

feeling louse-y

So the plan for today was to take MyFavoriteKid in for a haircut. A minimal haircut apparently, because he doesn't want anything more than a teensy trim now that he believes it is the long hair that is causing the girls to chase him around. After the haircut we were to go to what we refer to as the CrazyCrazyDogPark (crazy in the best way), since it is near the hair place. Then after that we head home, so that I can wash those 120 tuxedo shirts belonging to the middle school band department. See, I have had them for over a week, but haven't been able to wash them yet because I keep having to wash all of my linens over and over again, thanks to dear kitten.

SO.

We get to the hair cutting joint and our favorite lady there calls me over to point out that MyFK has head lice.

YAY.

(I sort of find it ironic,yet sadly disgusting, that a gaggle of goofy girls were chasing down MyFK last week to play with his hair. I bet the school officials are going to loooove hearing from ME on Monday morning, eh??).


So we did go to the dog park, but then instead of coming home and washing the damn dress shirts (failing again), I now get to wash bedding (again), de-louse everything, and then maybe have a little cry due to all the exhaustion this last week has caused me (oh, I forgot to mention that to DogDog and TheKitteh were playing Tom & Jerry on my head at 5:30am, and I couldn't get back to sleep after that.....and I also forgot to mention the trouble MyFK got stuck in the middle of on the bus ride home from school bus on Thursday--drama).

I shall overcome. Surely, I shall.

Alright. So I have a question for you knitterly folk out there.
I am not showing any signs of infestation myself, but I'm probably going to dose myself with shampoo goo anyhow, just to be safe. But do you think I need to worry about my knitting?? Like, do like like wool?? Or do they need a warm blooded host? Do I need to be concerned?? What do you all think?

myfk-isms

MyFavoriteKid has been cracking me up lately....

Mom, my legs are too hairy. People stare at them and it makes me feel uncomfortable.
Hmmm, well I don't think they're that hairy.
Well I do!
Okay then, what do you propose you do about this?
Well, I don't really think I should shave my legs. Or waxing. Maybe I could try electrocution.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, how's the new PE class going?
Great! Look at this!
(lifts up his t-shirt up to show me his belly)
I have a 4-pack!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I changed my mind. I don't want to get my haircut tomorrow. I like it long. The more-than-average-girls chase me around and hug me and want to play with it.


(good lord)

please please oh please

puhleeeeeeeeeeez let this mean that you two have called a truce....





....and that I can get some sleep and not have to wash bedding every day.

*crosses fingers!*

just so it isnt all about the kitty

Have seen two stupid things in the past two days:


Store Closing. Now Hiring.
Ummmmmm, okay.


This KFC is CLOSE.
It might be hard to see, but someone hand drew in a little arrow so that now it reads, "This KFC is too CLOSE".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dog and the cat get on my bed and cuddle and play. It is very cute until the dog overdoes it and scares the shit (or pee) out of the kitten. I have had to change the bedding 3 times in 5 days.

Let me tell you....changing a king sized bed, in a wheelchair, all the way down to the waterproof bed liner (thank God for THAT at least), SUCKS ASS.
It is do-able.
But it takes me about 3 times as long as it used to (back in the able-bodied days), and it exhausts me.
Especially when it happens at 10pm.
And especially when my washer and dryer are not large enough to accommodate a king sized comforter.

I am so cranky it's not even funny.

This had better not be that jinchuriiki or SandyWhoopAss y'all were warning me about yesterday.

more cat

Sorry.
But the kitty (and breaking up my version "Tom & Jerry") is still pretty much all consuming.
It shall not last forever.

Kitten had his first trip to the vet today. He was just thrilled to be back in the cat carrier.


Results:
He's healthy. He has had his first round of shots. He's been de-wormed (and matching meds were sent home for the DogDogDogTheCatButtLicker, too). He's been assessed at being about 8 weeks. He's 2 lbs 3 oz. OH! And he is a he! Officially!

I wasn't entirely sure, to be honest with you. I mean, I had guessed that he was a he, but I wasn't 100% certain. No wonder. His little kitten bits haven't descended yet.
hahaha

Now that we are sure that he is a he, we got to the bit of naming him. MyFavoriteKid has been ranting that he MUST be named Gaara (one of his favorite anime characters, from the Naruto series). MyFK told me that even if I named the cat something else, he would still call the cat Gaara anyhow.


Gaara's a redhead and has kitty eyes, so I guess it's pretty fitting.

I like Gaara (the character) but I aint too thrilled with the name because it doesn't quite roll off the tongue. Unless you say it like you are Japanese (sounds more like Gah-da instead of Gar-rah). And then if you say it in Japanese three times fast it almost sounds like kittykittykitty. Or maybe even a bit like purring.


Truth be told, I supposed it doesn't really matter what we name him. All of my animals end up with 20 nicknames anyhow, so I'll probably just be calling him KittenHead or something most the time.

But the vet records and the tag on the collar will say Gaara!

mini post with whine

I'm beat. The dog and the kitten are driving me nuts. They mostly get along super great....
And then the dog "over-luvs" on the kitteh.
Then the kitteh dashes and hides underneath the nightstand.
Then the dog goes and fetches his dog toys one by one and lays them out in a trail to seduce the cat out of hiding....



...which I admit, is very cute and entertaining.
But then the cat comes out to check out the trail of toys and gets over-luv'd on again, and then dashes in the closet.

It's got a Tom & Jerry sort of feel to it.

Back n forth it goes, and I keep having to intervene and fish the cat out of hiding to make sure he has a chance to eat and pee and poop (which is important, since he has tagged the bed twice already because the dog wouln't let him pass over to where the cat box is located. Lovely, eh??).

It makes me tired.

blessin' knittin'

My girlfriend had a "Birthing Blessing" ritual last night (the baby is due at the end of the month). It was her version of a baby shower, basically. Before going to the party, TheMostImportantGuy's mom asked me exactly what we were going to do there. I said, "I have no idea, but I bet you ten bucks it involves drumming and chanting....and probably granola."

Sure enough, a lady showed up with a basket full of candles and rattles and sage. Under the other arm she was carrying a small drum and a book entitled, "Women's Rituals" (no granola, though).

The night was everything I guessed it would be, and it was actually quite lovely. We all got to rub her belly and give good thoughts, and there was a part where we got to share any wisdom we might have from our own birth experiences. It was really different from the types of unsolicited/unwanted advice that everyone wants to share with you when you are pregnant. At least it seemed that way to me. I wasn't the prego lady though.

The other thing we did was that we each brought a gift to "adorn" the mother-to-be with. I knit her a Chevette:

That's me in it (obviously). I snapped that on the ride up (which is when I finished the thing...go figure...I loves me some pressure).

Actually, I'd had most of it done, but then I decided to re-knit the flowers in a different color choice. I also had trouble with the buttons I had chosen. The pattern says to use 7/8" buttons, and I found some gorgeous matching vintage buttons for it while I was down in L.A. Sadly, the didn't fit through the button holes, so I had to order more and wait for them to arrive.

These are some vintage glass buttons that I used, purchased here.

Fun little knit. I added some beads to the center of the flowers to sparkle it up a bit. I want to make one for myself, but make it long enough to wear as a hair band, I think. Here's a link to it on my Ravelry project page.
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In other news, today I went to monthly meeting of the San Francisco One Sock A Month knit-along group. I dragged Donna along with me, and I think she's going to join in the fun and knit with us on the next pair. I betcha I can at least get her to come along for the shopping part we all do together at the end of the meet up, at least....hahaha. I am loving this yarn store. It might just be my favorite.

Hey! Look at our socks!



Mine is the periwinkle-ish and oak colored one, dead center. The pattern is Nutkin (rav link), and the yarn I am using is "Soft Spun Plus" from Brooklyn Handspun, in the colorway "Tough Times".

Except that Times aint really so Tough right now.....at least not around these parts ;-)
*knock on wood!*