My sincere apologies

Wow. I cannot believe it is already the 16th of January.

And wow. I cannot believe that my last blog posting was LAST year.

I haven't forgotten you. Really, I've just been... busy yet not.

I finished one super sekret knit project. But I can't talk to you about it yet.

I gave up on one project, as it was kicking my ass and I've sent it to it's room. That was my Ishbel project. First Lace project. It could be that the yarn just didn't want to be that project. We'll see when I come back to it.

I started my Doomsday Cardigan. No photos as of yet, as I'm only like 8 rows into 117. (Link goes to Ravelry)

I am theoretically starting my first aqua aerobics at the gym on Monday. Which of course means I'll be having a gym membership for the first time in my life.

I have been writing every day. Which is a very good thing. And I have noticed it has helped. Only one day in the last week or so did I not write much, but instead did brain storming. I do not feel guilty for this, as brainstorming is a much needed piece of the machine. Especially since I was quite unsure where the story was going.

I have to admit it is odd working on two pieces at the same time.
But, the Blitz novella is almost done! I'm in the home stretch of the 1st rough draft.
Small aside on that. Today I started reading M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman. In it is an introduction explaining things a bit. On the subject of short stories: "In the beginning they were a great way to begin to learn my craft as a writer. The hardest thing to do as a young writer is to finish something, and that was what I was learning how to do."- Neil Gaiman.
This made me exceedingly happy to read. I often forget that the things I am going through, are things that the greats themselves have gone through.
When I had to stop writing a few months ago due to work, and I realized that I was giving up finishing the novella in time for the contest, I was quite... put out. Truth be told I was down right depressed. It had been a deadline that quite literally went wooshing past. Then the last few months, with no deadline... no work stopping me, I found excuses. "I've got company coming!" "It's the holidays!" Before I knew it, it was the end of the year.
Well, the time for excuses is over. I don't have a deadline. But I do have a commitment to writing every day. I've been finding myself writing more and more each day. Mind you, this is written long hand in a spiral bound at about 10:30 at night when I'm in bed.. But I'm getting more use out of the time I am writing.
(Generally I try to shut off my light by 11:30)

Last night I found myself in a very short span, writing 2 pages. This made me exceedingly happy. I could have written more, but I had reached a point that I needed to ponder on, and as it was the end of my writing time, I decided instead to call it a night.

Yes, I realize I'm rambling. Deal with it.



Today I did some dyeing.
I dyed 3 different colorways.
Nothing that I had planned, as I was simply working on technique.

I will photograph them hopefully tomorrow, and post photos.
2 of the skeins are already spoken for, but I'll have one skein up for grabs.

I received a wonderful gift from a friend of mine in Nova Scotia. You've heard me speak of her before, but Crystal is just absolutely fab.

The little bag of Cheshire Cat fabric was made by Pheelya.
The shawl is "Traveling Woman" based off of the character Angela Montenegro from Bones.

The yarn is amazingly soft, and I absolutely cannot stop petting it. I love it and I want more of it.



Other than that, there is not much new. The library is doing it's 8 books in 8 weeks program like it did last year. Not as many sponsors which is a bummer. But oh well.

My life right now gets divided up between "Write, Knit, or Read?"

I don't know if this should worry me or not lol.

I promise photos of new yarn soon!

Edit: Details of the shawl project can now be found on Halifax Mommy's blog: Knitted Things for Knitting Friends

Made it through day one of Hell, and the neatest thing

I survived the first day of hell.
I can honestly say I'm shocked at how unlike Postal it is. We were in the hole pretty much all day, I mean not just some... it was a constant 60-150 calls waiting for 30 minutes or more. But some how, I made it through without wanting to cry, without hitting my mute button and wanting to call someone something I shouldn't repeat... None of that. And I didn't have to ask for much help unless it was one of the issues that we supposedly never see and aren't supposed to ever happen in the computer world in general. My team lead still needs to learn the art of talking to people without making them feel like idiots.. but... whatever.. he's not going to learn it anytime soon. And I've only got to survive 9 months. Less than that actually.

But I'm not going to go on about work. I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune about it by the end of the week, so whatever...

The reason I am blogging right now, is I can honestly say I have had tears brought to my eyes.

I started a phenomenon on Ravelry... seriously epic. I started a little group about doing a Pen Pal exchange. I figured no one would sign up and I'd have to beg people. Round 1 had 150 people officially sign up (and a quite a few more that didn't actually sign up but thought they did).
It was a major headache to be quite honest. For the most part everyone who signed up was really great and helpful, but there were a few... well... calling them snarky twits is being reallllllly polite.
It all got to the point where I was ready to tell everyone to effff off and someone else gets to organize round 2.
I had even started composing the notice informing everyone that I was stepping down from organizing round 2. But I have not posted it and I don't know if I will. No matter what though, I will be adjusting how the signups and partner assignments are done.

Today though, I got my first letter. A woman who when she signed up specifically asked to be my partner (if that was alright by me). Neat!
I can say it brought me to tears reading her letter. I was smiling, and most of all.. I was amazed.
I've been keeping my personality on the downlow for a while now due to the whole 'incident' on Ravelry, and I know that she doesn't have access to my Facebook, and though she admitted that she has checked up on my blog... she hadn't prior to me actually saying "sure I'd love to be your partner" I swear it's a situation where I think I was destined to know her.
She owns a costuming business... (hmmm how many years have I been costuming now??)
She has a sailboat... (hmm... entire summers spent on the family boat when I was a child... sailing? me? never!)
We have a lot of the same taste in books, and movies and music. (Well, other than the fact that she hates The Beatles.) She even mentioned one of my favorite movies of all time. ;-) Won't mention it here since I'm not entirely sure she's not still stalking my blog.

I can officially say, all the headache and frustration was worth it. All because of one letter. How absolutely neat is that?

Well, time for bed. I worked over 9 and a half hours today, and I'll be doing the same tomorrow. I'm going to curl up with Tempe Brennan and my cat.

Angels and Demons, Bones, and a moment of panic.

So, I cast on and started my special project.
Some how, I messed up, and either cut an extra bit, or I split a bit, and I have to figure out what I did.

Figuring out that I messed up was actually only found out after I finished my second row, and 3 parts came off. It left me with a WTF? moment.

So after giving up last night due to frustration and sleepyness, I have not picked it back up again. I don't know if I will pick it up tonight or not, as my back is hurting, and I do not want to transfer any of the back pain vibes into the knitting. Which happens. And as this is a gift... I have to make sure it doesn't happen.


Yesterday I nearly had a heartastroke as, well mom and I went to see Angels and Demons.
We went to Whole Foods to buy a bit of lunch, and I must say that I feel as if I am cheating on my Whole Foods every time I go to the WF over on that side of town. It is a smaller one, and not nearly as good on top of the whole "I'm cheating" feeling.
After eating lunch, mom and I went to Coldstone next to the theater and got some ice cream.

Then we went into the theater. Of course we were the first ones there.

I sat down, got up, went to the loo, got us napkins, sat down, chilled, got comfy. So on and so forth.

I reached for my chapstick in my right pocket, and realized there were only 2 items in my pocket. My chapstick and my Orajel (the tooth I had a root canal on, and has been damaged etc has been bugging me, so I started keeping numb stuff with me again... you'd think that after 3 years (or more) of sucking that stuff down I'd be immune to it... nope. still works.. well for the most part. The problem I have can't be fully numbed, but I'll do my darndest.).

What was missing from my pocket was my flash drive.
I had distinctly remembered putting it in my right pocket when I left work.
Que me panicking.
I search under my seat.
I trace my steps back to the loo.
I come up with nothing.
Mom said she remembered seeing it poking out of my pocket while we were in the car eating.
I did technically have time to go out and check the car, but there was a reason I didn't. The reason was this: If I simply clung to the hope that it was in the car, I'd be able to possibly enjoy the movie. If I went out to the car and it wasn't there. I'd cry, and thus not really enjoy the movie. So, the fear of not knowing helped me in this case.

Fast forward, yes. It was in the car. Thank gods.
Seriously, I'd rather loose my wallet then loose my flash drive.
Not because the stuff isn't replaceable (at most I'd loose a few reference images, that I had just added, because I'm a smart girl and saved a copy of everything on my computer.) but because that would mean a copy of both my unpublished novels, my resumes, documents on the whole "starting my own business" thing. (Including a list of all my colorways.)
a wallet would be, though expensive (just the fees of replacing my cards etc) would be less frightening to replace then the creative content that would then be floating into the world without my control.

Now, on to the movie.

Angels and Demons

I absolutely LOVED the movie.
It was breathtakingly beautiful.
The music was fantastic.
The changes they made, for the most part were completely understandable, and did not affect the overall story too much.

The only gripe I had, was the "Illuminati Diamond"
I will not give spoilers as there are people who haven't seen it yet.

I have to say also, that it is amazing, how just 1 scene.. an innocent scene, can cause the entire audience to collectively gasp. And no, it's not a scene any of you prolly think it is.

I'll wait at least 2 weeks, then I'll chat about it.

One thing I can say without spoiling anything.. .because I doubt anyone other then myself would have noticed it...

But the writers created a paradox.
That, is amusing to me.

They created a paradox because, the story of Angels and Demons is supposed to be set prior to the events in The Da Vinci Code. This, was also established in the DaVinci Code, because of Robert Langdon saying "I've met the pope" or whatever the line actually was. It implied the story that we didn't see. The story of Angels and Demons.

Well, in Angels and Demons, they set those events AFTER the events of The DaVinci Code, and makes a point of setting it AFTER.

Which means they created a paradox. Considering the subject matter... the fact that they created a paradox just highly, highly amuses me.

After the movie, mother of mine and I went to Hobby Lobby, as she needed to pick up some more paint. Why is it, you can have over 50 bottles of paint in the house, but not have the exact color you need?? I swear it's a giant conspiracy.
I picked up two rubber stamps, as I couldn't not get them.

One is of a crooked witches hat, and the other says "Bugs and Hisses"

I had to.. I just absolutely had to.

Caught up with Moonlighting season 3, man that show was good. And oh my gods, Mark Harmon was a hottie in it. Yes, the show immediately started to jump the shark after the whole "hook up" moment, but I'll still continue to watch the seasons as they come out on dvd.

Right now, I'm starting Season 4 of Silk Stalkings. Again I love that show.

I finished reading Death Du Jour by Kathy Reichs. The 2nd book of the Bones books.

I know I've commented on this already, but it was highly enjoyable, and I honestly can't wait to read the next one. Got to actually see more of Detective Ryan, which was enjoyable.. I very much am starting to imagine David Boreanaz when I see Detective Andrew Ryan.

Next book up, I'll be finally actually starting The Princess Bride, and I'll also quickly reread Dead Until Dark.

Today mother and I went out to Panera for breakfast to use our last free sammich certificate before it expires. After that we hit up Evilmart, and I bought myself a new pair of jeans. Mother of mine found a pair for me, that actually fit, and when we rung them up, 3$ oh yeah, nothing like finding a pair of jeans that fit and paying less than 5$ for them.
Wait, no that still bothers me. I hate shopping at Evilmart, but I just can't justify spending 40$ on a pair of jeans right now when ever penny is trying to be saved.
My last pair of Evilmart jeans lasted me nearly a year, and that was a year of tough wear, so these should at least last me till the move if I'm good at rotating all my jeans out.

Alright, I think I've rambled on enough. I gotta go check on my dinner.

Bugs and Hisses everyone.

Frogged and A Hot Fairy Tale

I do feel like such a slacker for not having written any of AHDB recently, but the stress of normal life, was making me unable to write as my cathartic release.
I've been knitting instead.

I started to teach myself how to do Cables, so that I could get a leg up on the Alexandra coat that I've been talking about for months.

I'm very, very glad that I decided to give it a go with normal yarn as opposed to my Lucien. (Which, I know has been dyed, but I have not received due to the "club" nature of it. I'll get my first two skeins of it in the next few weeks)

I was banging my head against the wall trying to do the cable chart, and then I finally said screw it, and cast on the entire project, as if I'm doing it entirely.

Well, I discovered my first problem. I was counting the chart as 26 stitches, instead of the 25 it actually was. That was just my mind merging a symbol that looked like another symbol, hence getting 26 instead of 25.

But, once I got past that, I discovered other problems. I didn't get 7 rows before I ran into this problem.
After frogging and putting it back on at least half a dozen times, I gave up and started poking about online.

Thats when I made a significant discovery. Everyone (minus one person) has had extreme problems with the pattern. There are many bugs in it, and entire parts missing from the instructions.

Woohoo. This means it's not me messing it up! It means that it's just a bad pattern.

Well, one of the girls I was chatting with, talked about picking up the project again and completely rewriting the pattern, but she hadn't thought about that in forever (really not since she had put down the pattern in the first place)

But, me chatting with her reminded her how much she loved the sweater and how it looks, and thus is inspired to possibly pick it up again. If she does, she'll send me the pattern. Which at this point, I'd trust her pattern over the original author any day. (The author put errata up on the pattern site, only after the girl I was chatting with pointed out the mistakes, and it doesn't count all the mistakes)

I'm about to start Marissa's project, as I picked up the last skein of yarn I needed today.

This, most definitely might count as the "neat thing" & holiday gift, as it is quite a well.. it's a good project. I hope she'll like it.

Everyone else is just getting a little small item.

I am also, starting a "Princess Bride Read-Knit-Along"
I've never read the Princess Bride.. I remember starting it in the 5th grade, but that was the day before school was ending, and I couldn't borrow the book from my friend. So I read a total of 1 page before I had to give it back, and somehow it has managed to not make it in my reading pile all these years. So I have till June 21st to finish reading the book and knit something related to The Princess Bride.

I now have a copy of the book, as I finally checked out "Hooked on Books" which is not far from my house. I like it much more than The Book Rack. But still not as impressed. I guess I'm just spoiled thanks to The Bookworm (Boulder).

The version I have is amusing. I think it was a cover that was directed towards the adults rather than kids. It's got artwork from like the 80's. But the back... the back is amusing..

“What Happens-
When the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince in the world and he turns out to be a son of a bitch?”






I also picked up:
Death Du Jour by Kathy Reitchs, it's the next in the Bones books.
Shakespeare's Landlord by Charlaine Harris, first in the Shakespeare series
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris, 4th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series - mmm Eric. love him.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, woohoo.. finally gonna get to read it.

I was able to justify buying the books, because I only spend 23$ for all the books, and they are all books I plan on sending to Guy to read during the summer break and books to get him through exam times etc.

We ended up going to the bead store, and I'm honestly surprised how much I got for as little as I spent. Mother of Mine had a 5$ gift certificate, so with buying a bead for her, I only ended up spending 3$ (and 1.60$ of that was the bead for her)

Oh, random knitting note (sorry, typing past my bed time.. what do you expect?)

Having figured out how to DO cables, I have now accomplished one of my two main goals for the year. The next is to tackle simple socks. Woohoo.

Mother of Mine and I hunted slightly for Easter dinner. Which I can't recall if I've spoken of or not.

Now as you all know, I do not celebrate the christian holidays as I am not christian. But as Mother of Mine is connecting with her church and stuff like that, I am supportive of her. So I was sitting there thinking what we might want for Easter dinner, because she'll want to have something nice.
And really, the only thing that came to my mind was "Hmmm.. Rabbit would be nice."

Yes, I am that twisted.

Rabbit on Easter. bwhahahahaha

Unfortunately, the rabbit is not meant to be (this year). We left of inquiring about it till today, and the only kind we would be able to get would be whole (ugh) and frozen.

Nope, won't work for this year.

Oh, random jump.. sorry again..
I finally found the damn buttons. Remember the quest for the buttons? I hadn't gone to JoAnn's. Honesty I just should have looked there first. Perfect purple buttons, and I'm slick enough that they are the perfect size. Again, they were 50% off. SWEEET.
They are even stitched on to the leg warmers. So, as soon as Mother of Mine finishes weaving in the ends (i did the buttons, but it was her knitting project) i'll get to wear them, and will also post photos.
The purple was a grand choice and goes well with the blue. Woohoo!

Random: watching Alias season two.. and it is just always weird to see a Russian Cowboy bar and Russian cowboy songs it is not new, but it still amuses me (First time I ever saw it was of course James Bond, Goldeneye. But that was still in english)

Work: It was a rough beginning of the week just because things were changed and other things were in the spotlight. Nothing was my fault as I wasn't there. But it was blown out of proportion due to it being something that really NEVER happens. It just happened to happen and it bit us. (Mostly, the only reason it happened at all, is because one of our agents screwed up in the first place. Then things just slipped)
So that lead to meetings, and more meetings, and more meetings. Which just made it an unbelievably tiresome and hectic week, and made me freak out about my job. I really do just need to remember to take a deep breath and remember that I am a good worker, and I do my job, and that I'm not one of the people they want to let go.
It didn't help my mindset either to find out that another one of my Ravelry buddies ended up being let go this week as well. It was completely out of the blue, which is another reason everything that happened made me so freaked.

I should stop rambling about it. As I am rambling as I am quite tired.

Later peoples...

Oh, one last note:
Doctor Who season 4... FREAKING AWESOME!
We just finished watching it. And OH MY GODS.

I still don't like Catherine Tate, but I do like Donna a bit more.

And everything else... just... wow.. wow wow wow wow.

Another random note:
I have an entire rant to post soon, but I'm too tired to try to rant about it now, and when I first went to rant about it, Blogger didn't want to work on my work computer. So, I've got it sitting waiting for ranting.

The impossible hunt for raw fish...

So yesterday was Mother of Mine's birthday as I had mentioned.

As I also mentioned part of my day was not so bueno. But, as I cut myself off from a lot of things (oddly, I was extra chatty on Ravelry and Facebook) it made it a sort of okay day.

My afternoon was spent suffering through training I did not need. But as everyone needed to officially take it, I was stuck listening to things I had mentioned we as a desk need to work on.

My last break of the day, I call to check on my car. Still no news, but a promise that they will call me back shortly. Yeah, I still have not recieved a callback from them the entire time they have had my car. The only reason I know anything (which amounts to nothing) is because I call them at least once a day. (I didn't call on Sunday because I didn't expect anything really till Monday). So yeah. No news. Bummer.

Then Mom picks me up. We head home. my two packages arrived, one was mom's birthday gift, the other was my Zen. Woohoo! I tried not to be tooooo excited as it was supposed to be mom's day.

We finished watching Army Wives, and then about 4:45 we started to head out for dinner. The plan: Sushi.
So we go to Mobo down the street. They were supposedly open at 4:30 for dinner. Nope, lights are off and nobody is home.
So we head down the street to Jun, I've been there once for my own birthday many years ago when I first moved to Colorado Springs, once again lights are off and nobody is home. But they aren't supposed to open till 5:00. It's about 10 till. But there is absolutely no movement inside at all.
So we head across the street to Tako, which neither of us have been to. Lights are off, nobody is home, it's 5 till 5 and they are supposed to open at 5.

We are both hungry, so we decide to just say screw it and go to Whole Foods. I don't mind cooking and we can get something good.
So, for the price we most likely would have spent on a good meal of Sushi, we got a few meals and dessert.
For dinner, we ended up with Asparagus, steamed Fresh Wild Clams, and sourdough bread. YUM. Of course my clams all were gritty, but thats fine, mom's weren't. And when you have clams, your gonna get some grit. It always happens. Specially when they are wild. We shared an eclair type concoction that mom wanted, and it was good, just not my cup of tea. I'm a Bavarian cream filled eclair type girl as opposed to whip cream filled. But the ganache on top made it alll so yummy. Of course I felt sick as a dog after two bites, but still it was worth it. (Whip cream and I don't get along)

We watched Stargate Continuum. I liked it. I miss Stargate. I miss the humor. I will own it on dvd. Hmm I really do need to start working on my Stargate washcloths again..

Now, as everyone is dying to know, I got mom her first set of Knit Picks interchangeable needles.

Which, are these:


I also got her The Tudors Season 2

Now, I hadn't planned on buying any dvds, as the goal was to buy things that were super useful, and not things that might not work later if she moves to the UK. So dvds and books are no longer my fallback.

But for the price, it was unbeatable. So I had to get it. Not to mention, neither of us have seen season 2. So it's something we can both enjoy for the first time. And I know she'll use it later on.

I also made her a card. Yeah I'm silly that way. I make cards rather than buy them.

For the house, I bought us Bones Season 1, as it was only 14.99$. Which was a STEAL! Sadly, it's not Bones Season 3 like I really really want right now, but I'll survive.

Today, I did not want to get out of bed at all. Which is not uncommon on Wednesdays. So far my back is not yet tweaking but it's not happy my neck is a little stiff and mostly I just want to go back to sleep. I hate DST.

Almost done with Deja Dead, but not quite yet. Didn't get to read yesterday afternoon, nor at work. So I've got about 90 pages left. I'm sure I'll finish it before it's due, which will be nice. I haven't decided what my next book should be. Hmm I guess I should decide that today, so that it will come when I return this one.

Well, I guess it's time for me to get back to work...