Flirt and Flounce!

I'm such a spaz.. I totally forgot to post photos of new yarnie goodness!

This shall be a quickie..

Flirt and Flounce

This is on 20 Silk, 20 Bamboo, and 60 wool






It was a custom order that I decided to cleverly name and add to one of my colorsets as it was just perfect for it.

I'm quite happy, and it's soft..

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.

Such a bad blogger...

Work has been killing me, hence the lack of updates.

So this one is gonna be quick.

I am sorry if the updates are sporadic for the next 5 weeks. I'm gonna be brain dead. This I already know.

Here is the yarn I dyed a few weekends ago...



I'm quite happy with it. I've already sold one skein of it, and I've got plans for the others. One skein I am keeping for myself. I'm actually in the process of knitting socks to go with the yarn. Yup, a pattern of my own creation. Woohoo. I unfortunately had to frog it last night, as part of it was supposed to zig zag, well.. there was zig.. but there was no zag. Back to the drawing board as it were.

Writing has been non existent right now because of work. I'm hoping that when mother of mine heads out of town this week, I'll be awake enough to write. I think I've only got a few thousand words to go. Then I'll hand it off to my editor and we'll see if I can get a rewrite done in time for the contest. If I make it, neat. If I don't.. I'm not going to freak.

I've been crazy recently, and organized an massive Pen Pal exchange. Seriously over 150 signed up for this. I wasn't expecting that at all. But now the signups are over and all the assignments handed out. This will be fun.

Also to note, I'm finally officially a Yarnie over on Ravelry. Yup, I've taken the plunge. Woohoo.

Well... I guess thats all the time I have right now to write.

Ta peeps! Bugs and Hisses.

All's Quiet on the Western front...

Alright, so my beloved readers, you may (or may not) have noticed it's been a little quiet over here in my little journal of impossible things.

Well, there is a reason for it. A reason I went into vague detail about in a blog I have not posted. I do not know if I will post the blog or not.

Lets just say, it involved drama. Not just roll your eyes type drama, but the Erin coming home from work in complete tears drama, including a massive dose of cyberstalking just because some people thought it was amusing.

My profile from Ravelry has not yet been deleted, but it will be shortly. (oy, i've got over 700 items in my queue, so I don't want to loose all that, and transferring them over to the new profile takes time.)

I've pretty much been hiding on the down low for the last week because I was sick of the stalking.

I may or may not have to change the name of my shop. (there was slander against me and my shop)

For now I am leaving it as it is. I did have make arrangements to have my group on ravelry shut down, because that's where the bulk of the stalking occurred. I do not yet know how it has affected my etsy store (thank goodness you can't leave comments on someones shop unless you've purchased something, and for the record, all my product is Excellent, and I do not cut corners on anything. The materials I use for my yarns are tried and tested materials and the company I buy my dyes from has been in business doing what they are doing for over 100 years.)

I will have my shop minion open a new Group for me on ravelry when I feel it is safe to do so.

All in all, the whole situation has sucked.

But it did show me just how many friends I do actually have.
Okay, thats all I'm gonna say about that for the moment.

Moving along,
Knitting: I've been bad on the Fangtasm sock. I haven't been working on it. Mostly because I have been working on creating original patterns.
I have the start of the pattern down for a certain Repo Man sock.
I have 1.5 parts of a pattern for Blind Mag down. She's complicated, and is requiring to basically defy laws of nature here. So she's going to take a while, but I'm getting closer with each try. Once I get this one little part down, then I've just got 1 more element to figure out, and then it's just writing up the pattern to work with the over all construction of the project. (The over all shape is gonna be easy, but it's just the pattern elements in the design that are taking a while.)

Writing:
Well, due to all the emotional crap going on, I was slacking when it came to writing.
But this weekend, I did manage to get nearly 2000 words done. Not the full goal, but nearly.
I've also done the math. If I actually do 1000 words a "day" (which is not impossible for me), it will take me 11 days to complete the minimum required word count. So I really do need to make this next week count. I will have the house to myself for the next week (or is it 2 weeks? I can't recall exactly when Mother of Mine comes home) I doubt I'll be able to get 1000 words every night with how exhausted from work I generally am, but I quite possibly can get a couple of hundred. If I can get 500 done on a work night, then I'll be getting really close. I'm also going to see if in the slow times at work, if I can get even a sentence or two added.

I'm at quite the juicy part if I do say so myself. My minion Jo is enjoying what I've got written, and once I get it all done I'm going to put a call out for readers/editors.

Work: Right now is being odd. We are getting more inbound phone calls then we have been recently. But we are no longer getting Backlog tickets (my job), basically we get a handful a day, and I pretty much twiddle my thumbs to be able to work them. (Most of them are in Hawaii so I can't call until a certain amount of my day has passed)
I am taking advantage of this down time for me, as well... for the last year (and yes, I say year because it was a year ago that the desk started downsizing and our volume started dropping off) I have been the busiest person here. I have always had something to do, and generally a minimum of 4 times as much work as everyone else. The only exception to that was my work minion Pat who did the same amount of work as me. (Though, but for one month, I always beat him out in the amount of tickets I did, and really the month he beat me out was my "Hmm the desk is going away, I don't care anymore" month. He beat me by 5 tickets lol.)
So since the next 48 weeks are gonna be hell once this one ends, I'm taking advantage of the quiet now.

Oh, in other news:
The whole drama that happened... was so bad that Mother of Mine and Hunny of Mine had to divulge a BIG secret just to cheer me up.
Guy is coming out to visit in December. I cannot even express how happy this makes me.
They were going to surprise me, but unfortunately thanks to the major unpleasantness that occurred, they decided to tell me to cheer me up.

Dyeing:
Is going well. Well,I mean for the fact that I haven't dyed in a while. Squibstitcher from Fresh from the Cauldron (whos yarn I love) gave me a few secrets, which was really awesome of her.
I am going to venture into wool dyeing, as 1) I have beautiful handspun that needs to be dyed, and 2)people still prefer wool. Personally, I think they are crazy, but thats just me. I have very good reasons for not liking to knit in wool. And I am very annoyed that I can't get the same weights of yarn in the non wool stuff.
But just because I don't like to knit in wool, doesn't mean I won't dye it. I only started with the non wool stuff because I happened to have it. And with the way I plan on running my shop, I strive to make sure I can recreate any colorway I make on both wool and and non wool. So people get a choice.

I am actually going to participate on a swap on Ravelry, which I'm hoping works out. Basically, it's for new "yarnies" (people like me who dye yarn), we will get paired with a Knitter (or Crocheter), and we will trade 1 skein of dyed yarn for a skein of Undyed yarn. So we won't be out anything other than our time/the cost of dye/the cost of shipping, but in return we will get the publicity of our yarns being out there and used in a project.

Random note #2:
Finally got to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
I must admit I highly enjoyed it. I enjoyed it much more than the last 3 films.
Yes, they changed things.
Yes, they left things out.
But in the end, everything they changed made it work without feeling forced. At no point did I sit there feeling disgusted at how they had changed the over all story. (*cough* POA *cough*)
There was really only 1 scene that they left something out of it that I was annoyed about.

Yes, there were other scenes they omitted that will make the next 2 films a bit harder to make work. (Okay, gonna spoil here. There was no Bill and Fluer. So, if there is no Bill and Fluer in this one, the whole "wedding" from the 7th story is going to feel completely out of left field. Which, I know the wedding is going to be in the movie. Oh well, I'm sure they will make it work somehow.)

I think that the kids they got to play Tom Riddle were absolutely BRILLIANT. Little Hero is actually Ralph Fiennes nephew, and then the older one... just... perfect. Seriously.

I'm gonna stop talking about HP because I really don't want to spoil it for those who have not yet seen it.

Alright, I guess I've killed enough time. Time to do a little work.

bugs and hisses.

Really cool peeps.

I did it.
I just sent the email to order my first set of Dyes.
only 4 colors, which is perfect for the starting point I need.

This morning while I was brushing my teeth I decided on another colorway I want to add to my eventual list.

But mostly I started this post to talk about the amazing people.

Reni, a friend on Ravelry sent me a little something something. It wasn't anything special in her words, but when she saw it, she thought of me.
Now, she has no idea just what she did.
It was a bookmark of The Wicked Witch of the West and it was green and sparkly and awesome (there shall be photos soon.. ) and it says .. ack I'm not awake enough to remember it word for word. But it basically says "You say Wicked like it's a bad thing"
Now, this basic sentence is what got me my nickname of Wicked all those years ago.
I was having a discussion with my friend Katie (Katie not Katte), and she looked up at me after I said that I didn't think Wicked was a negative word, and she said "Thats your name" and without missing a beat I said "your right." then we continued the rest of the discussion.
So it was just a little thing that Reni did, but it had a big impact as she didn't know anything about that little story. She knew I had a nickname of Wicked (as my ravelry ID is BewitchedWicked) but she had no idea where it came from.

Now also a buddy on Ravelry.. Spud's bud to be exact, sent me a package of herbs from his garden. that was freaking awesome.
Last night we had NY Strip Steaks (hey, they were on sale) with fresh Thyme on it. YUM.
Tonight, shall be salmon cakes with some of the fresh Dill.

I have also found, what shall be my UKBFF. Yes, i did in fact utter the word BFF. But, Jo (another Ravelry person) and I have been just chattin' up a storm, and have discovered that we pretty much love all the same things. Her passions? Knitting and Reading. Hmmm... considering my life goals... I'm alright with these hobbies lol. She and I plan on wearing Dead Fish hats (alright, her's is technically not a Dead Fish.. and mine won't be a dead fish, but instead a Blow Fish...) to the Tower of London. We also have Nights of Drunken Dyeing planned. Followed by Days of Sober Dyeing... tee hee.. methinks the drunken nights will instead just end up being Movie Appreciation nights.
Jo is one awesome lady. She's helping me out so much with my whole Dyeing plan.. I honestly... wouldn't have as much confidence if it weren't for her. She has done some dyeing. She also is an avid knitter. And most importantly, she'll tell me what looks good and what doesn't. This is important. For the past week now I've been bouncing ideas off of her. She has also graciously allowed me to someday steal a colorway that she created. It's freaking awesome, and of course she shall always get credit for it both in acclaim, and monetary format. It's only right. Also according to her, I think outside the yarn box. Which is a good thing, as most dyers find one thing, and stick to it.

I'm babbling because I'm not awake.

Seriously, I need to stop dreaming about yarn. lol.

Alright. I guess back to work for me.

Ramblings of the insane, and a few reviews.

Last night Mother of Mine and I watched Australia.

I must admit, that when I originally saw the trailers for it... I thought "hmmm looks like something I want to see.. but it looks like something I'd need to be in the mood for"

Which is why it hadn't been watched until now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE fan of Baz Luhrman. I do in fact own the Red Curtain Collection, and Strictly Ballroom has been one of my all time favorite movies.
I'm also a huge fan of Hugh Jackman. I mean, heck... I once recorded a PBS showing of Oklahoma! because he was in it. (I managed to somehow not watch it before I accidentally recorded over it, but you still get the point.)

Now, one of the reasons I was meh about watching it, was because I just have to be in a mood to watch one of her movies. I'm not saying she's a bad actress... I'm just saying I tend to have to be in a mood.

But Australia finally came in last night at the library.

Now, the first thing I will say... is if the trailers had actually shown what most of the movie was about... I would have watched it a LONG time ago.

The trailers made it seem that the movie was ONLY about War coming to Australia.
And also, that it was because of the war that Lady Ashely (Nicole Kidman's character) goes to Australia for.

Without giving away the movie.. I'll say, that only about the last half to last quarter of the movie has anything to actually do with the war.

Ironically, I'm glad that I've watched McLeod's Daughters a bit prior to watching Australia, because if I hadn't... I think all the Droving, would have just made me think of City Slickers (you know... Billy Crystal). Which, though there were a few times I snorted thinking about that movie... I was glad my mind was flicking more back and forth between what was on the screen and the droving of McLeod's Daughters. (Mostly, I was just thinking about the "Station House" and how something can in fact have been around for over 100 years, and doing the exact same thing as it was built for originally.)

The movie, very much had Baz's signature flair. OR at least, the very beginning did. There was no doubt in my mind watching the first 30 minutes of the movie that this was in fact a Baz Luhrman film.

The music was very gorgeous, and of course I ended up going to bed having "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in my head. Which, if you see the movie, you'll understand.

The cinematography was absolutely without a doubt breath takingly gorgeous. And they did such a great job with the Green Screen, that you can only tell it was employed in very few scenes. I don't know how many it was actually used in, but there are some where you could tell. Which, there were obvious reasons for it.

Wicked's vote: I'll own this someday. (And thats saying something!)

Moving along...
I quickly read over the weekend, the latest book by Joanne Fluke.
Cream Puff Murder.



I have to admit, though this book was slightly annoying in the aspect that it was mostly centered around Hannah's waistline and the need to loose a few pounds.
The person who died in this one... I, like others am very glad to see dead.
Mike, one of Hannah's two boyfriends... I have decided I do not like. Originally, I used to be more Team Mike rather than Team Norman. I mean.. who wouldn't want the hot police detective as opposed to the slightly normal looking dentist. Dentists have the highest rate of suicidal tendencies per year. Perhaps I'm the only who thinks about that in the grand scheme of things when it comes to choosing a partner.
Yes, Mike has more danger when it comes to his profession, but is less likely to kill himself when it comes down to it.

Right now, I'm definitely more in the Team Norman camp. I'd kill for his house. lol.

Almost through with Sandman Volume 3 by Neil Gaiman.
Started reading Summer Knight again by Jim Butcher. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it this time before it's due back at the library or one of my other "gotta read this now because there is a waiting list a mile long" books comes in.
That means Sookie has been put down for the moment.


Oh, on completely random news. I got something really cool, and I don't recall if I had talked about it yet or not.

Leslie over at Dv'yne Writes, has a contest every month for those who subscribe to her news letter. As I have known Leslie for years thanks to the Colorado Ren Faire... and I've owned at least one of her notebooks, and have lusted over many more of them.. I of course would be a subscriber to her latest news. I mean, I never would have known about her awesome leather covers for say.. Harry Potter, or the other books she has.. I mean amazing work.
Well, I happened to win this months free journal give away.
It arrived quickly, as well.. she lives only about 70 miles away from me. Ironically, the journal via the post office, would have traveled more than that, because though she lives in Littleton, I'm willing to bet it had to go to Denver (north), then back south to me.
I opened up the box, and was BLOWN away. I mean absolutely blown away by what I found.
I was expecting one of the little soft sided refillable notebooks.. (like the one I have) I mean, it's one of the less expensive books she sells (which is why I have it. I mean I bought mine at least 10 years ago, and I could never afford any of the more expensive ones), and one generally figures that for a free give away, it would not be an expensive one.

Well, the journal I got was a 60$ slightly hardsided non refillable journal.


Sad news is that Leslie will not be at CRF anymore. She officially sold her booth, and is moving on to other things. I wish her luck though, and I don't blame her for wanting to move along. CRF was not a money maker for her in the recent years (I know this due to having a friend who worked her booth for a few seasons) I'm sure she also has other reasons for moving along. She will be missed.

Moving along...

Yesterday.. or was it the day before? I got an idea into my head. This is always dangerous. As I should have been writing or knitting. Not painstakingly editing a photo so that I can maybe make it work in a chart, and then attempt to knit it up.

If this works, it will be FREAKING AWESOME.
If it doesn't work... I will be once again reminded why I do not like socks. lol.

I won't really say what I'm working on yet... but I will say this.. "Wuv... True Wuv"

Hmmm I wonder if this can count as part of my Read/Knit Along? I'll have to see.

Alright. I guess I'm done rambling for now. I guess I should try to write.
Oh, and I must say.. .even though I put down Alex and her world of vamps... they are still talking in my head. Constantly.

Which recently has come up a lot it seems. Marissa commented on her blog, how writing is an acceptable form of schizophrenia. I agree with that statement. (Mind you, I was paraphrasing) It reminded me of the introduction in the first volume of "Comedity", where Garth talks about his friend's experience when it came to being a writer.
His friend had a high paying job (he delivered payroll in his own car, through nasty parts of town.. so he was really really well paid due to the danger involved). He quit his job to become a writer and work on his novel. Well, of course when Tax time came around, he went from reporting a lot of income to reporting 0 income for the year. He of course was audited. He went in sweating and freaking out, and having everything he could possibly have ready to explain his expenses for the last year, and when the taxman asked "so... why did you go from reporting _____ much, to reporting nothing"
Friend: "Well sir. I quit my job to write"
Taxman: "Oh." *scribble and rubber stamp* "We're done."
Friend: "What?"
Taxman: "You are crazy. And this crazy is explainable. Have a good day."

Apparently, per the IRS, writers are insane, as we will willingly go from having high paid careers (ha i wish) to having zero income for a year or more.

(Again, paraphrasing.. but the words crazy, and insane were actually used, and the convo was that short. I'm not willing to dig out my copy of Comedity right now as it is upstairs)

So not only are we schizophrenic, but we per the taxman are also insane.
This makes sense to me. As I remember sitting in my 2nd period class my Sophomore year of highschool working on a play I was writing.. my first one "Just an ordinary day... like no other", and my friend Nikki (not the crazy Irish one, but slightly Hispanic one) asked me how I could write what I was writing. I mean, 70 pages of dialogue? She wanted to know where it came from. I couldn't explain it other than "I just hear them talking." And it's true. It's also the reason I only wrote plays for the longest time.. Because I could hear the voices, but I sucked at the "The color of the mountains at dawn reminded me of a glass of sherry held up to the light coming in from the window." That kind of stuff.. I sucked at it back then. I wrote poems and plays. That was me.
I'm partly still sucky at it, I have to force myself to do description, and thats partly why I end up putting down somethings I'm working on. Actually, that is one of the reasons I had to put Alex down, Denver and it's descriptions were kicking my ass lol. I digress..

Is it insanity, when I clearly hear entire conversations of people who do not exist? If I never put my pen to paper, and I only just spoke of the convos... would I have been forced to undergo meeting with psychiatrists? No, I don't think so. Mostly because I come from a family where we tend to embrace our creativity in all it's forms. (or at least we do now)
I was never a child who had "imaginary friends" or at least none that I remember. I don't consider the voices I've always heard my imaginary friends. Though, these voices in my head tend to be best friends. So, I guess in fact they are the epitome of what one would call an imaginary friend.

Well.. I'm rambling.. so I guess I'll leave it here. But yes, I guess I just confirmed what all of you have thought of me for years. I'm absolutely bonkers. ;-)

I think the only thing that really drives me crazy, is not only do I have Alex, Daniel and Kit talking in my head right now, but I've got my people from my new novel chattering as well. It can get confusing at times lol.

Oh and the final note. My gods... homemade chocolate chip cream cheese rolls.. are just still so wonderful.. no matter how many times I make them.

Yummy Non Woolly Stuff.

So I am totally BLOWN away. Today after spending too much money at the Evilmart, I came home and had a little package waiting for me.



Faux Cashmere, Milk Protein, Tussah Silk, Carbonized Bamboo
(Photo is not mine, it is stolen from Gherkin)

Gherkin over at Gherkin's Bucket did an amazing thing for me.

What did she do?
She not only battled with the evil mail delivery service not once, but twice.

The first package of non woolly fiber got stolen when they "delivered" it.

So, she finally got a new delivery of non woolly goodness, and spun some up.

Some of it, was a bitch apparently. I believe it was the Milk Protein that was the bitch.

I don't know what I'll knit these up into yet, as I need to test how my body reacts to them.

I have to say, at first impression, I am loving the Carbonized Bamboo.
The Milk yarn is just gorgeous looking.
The Tussah Silk is... oh my god.. .as beautiful as I imagined it. It really makes me want to buy some hanks of it when I start my whole dyeing thing.

The Faux Cashmere is cute... and quite... i don't know how to describe it. Very soft to say the least.

Now, you can find her over at her ETSY shop, and I hope that you all talk with her. (She can also be found on Ravelry for those of you who are on there)
Pretty much she is the most awesomest person ever right now in my book.

Gherkin's Bucket

The Things One Sees in the Graveyard....

This morning I woke up with time on my mind.

Specifically the passage of time.

All week long I've been complaining each day how I wanted the week to be over.
Then last night, I realized "tomorrow is Friday? wow."

I was once again reminded how The Day it's self goes slow, but the weeks go by quickly.
I mean, it's already the 15th of May.
I find this time warp situation most interesting. Am I the only one who experiences it?

This has been on my mind because I've been doing a lot of math.
Not my favorite subject.
But I realized I have less than 2400 work hours left in this country.
It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't broken up into 8 hour groups with 48 hours of nothingingness in between.

Man I can't wait to get out of here. but yes, I did the math. 2400 work hours. Less than that, as that was on a 60 week time line. Which, this week is nearly over and it is also including the holidays.

Nope, I'm not counting down at all... *innocent whistle*

But yes this morning when I woke up, this was on my mind. It's been on my mind a lot recently, but I'm sure it was compounded by having watched the season 3 finale of NCIS last night. Where, not to give things away for those who haven't seen it... Gibbs ponders everything that has taken place in the last 15 years of his life. Well, that is a way to sum it up, but not the full and correct way. But to say anything further on it would give things away.

This being fresh in my mind, it really made me look this morning at the last 10 years of my life. Well, not so much all those ten years, but what I was doing 10 years ago.

This time 10 years ago... I was finishing up my very first year at High School. Yup, 9th grade. 1998-1999 was my Freshman year.

We had just moved to Colorado right before the start of school..

Columbine Highschool, as of this day.. would have been only a few weeks ago.
You know whats funny about that day....
I remember it rather clearly. It was "Senior Ditch Day" and I remember this one senior.. who was one of the "smokers", he always wore this black leather trench coat. He was one of the many at my school who did. But this day, he didn't. Infact he was quite... normal looking. He was wearing a white tshirt and a pair of blue jeans. Now, this might be normal to you.. but for him, it was odd. He always wore dark pants, a dark shirt, and his trench. He didn't have his trench. We laughed about how odd it was. I don't remember his reason for not wearing it.
I remember being in the office talking with my friend Amy. I was sitting no more than 10 feet from the principles office. She knew I was there, it was a study period and I often had free license to roam the school. They knew I was responsible, and so I never got in trouble. Lets see, that particular semester... I was actually the assistant to the Swim Coach, and the pool area had been particularly muggy that day which is why I was hanging out in the office.
I remember watching everyone in the office go on alert.
They didn't say what was going on, but I remember Mrs Bailey come out of her office with her walkie talkie and listened to her as she gave the order to 'quietly' lock down the school.
The bell rang, and I went to my 7th period class. Which also was with my Swim Coach, as I was in Life Guard Training.
I was one of the few lower class men to be in the class.
I was sitting next to my other friend Amy, and we got the announcement.
We then of course put on the tv and watched the travesty unfold.
I remember sitting there and when they panned across the parking lot of the school.. I remember seeing a Yellow VW Bug. I remember giving a half hearted laugh and said "Yellow Bug" (as I don't know if you ever played that game, but there was a game involving the Bugs and if you spotted one.. I don't remember the rules)
I remember Amy looking at me and saying something about "how could I say that, with whats going on." Then she paused and realized "oh. you need to laugh" (mind you, I'm paraphrasing right now)
She understood why I needed to laugh about something so silly as seeing a yellow VW Bug.

It did help lighten the mood in the room. (there were only like 7 of us in there)

School was then over. I don't recall how I got home. Whether it was via a ride from my 1)Mom, 2)friend, or 3) the bus.. I honestly can't recall.

Mom had not yet been diagnosed with cancer.
I was still a very good student. Participating in school plays, and the swim team, and a few other things.
I think my best friends were Jen(Diz) and Nix (Jess??) and of course Gabe.

10 years ago, Mom and I were living in a town house in Denver. I most likely had a mountain of laundry (it was a common occurrence that I quite literally wore every single piece of clean clothing I had before doing laundry, simply because we had to pay to use the washer and dryer, and it was always such a hassle.)
I didn't know how to drive. I had absolutely no desire to learn. (Ironically, I wouldn't actually learn for at least 5 years)

I saw my very first Hockey game that year I believe. Watched it on the Telly of course. It might have been the year after. I mean my memory is slightly fuzzy.


Alright.. enough of a trek down memory lane.

Last night, I cast on a new project. A project I had been putting off, as I was missing 2 skeins of yarn (well, I had bought enough for the project, but I got 4 skeins of 1 color, instead of 2 of one and 2 of another.)
I have decided to say screw it, and use the yarn I have.
I will not post pictures yet, as it is for someone.
I've never started a project like this, and it's taking a bit to wrap my head about it. I'm sure I'll do fine, it's just... odd. I'm actually really liking the colors. I might have to make one for myself. I mean, I had saved the pattern for myself as well before I ever decided to make it for someone else.

Review:
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
I did enjoy this one. Though, I have to say I am annoyed that it was a different actress that played Sonja. Yes, I realize the original actress was.. not an actress. She was Miss Turkey '03 if I remember correctly. (The country, not the bird..)
I can understand then why they didn't use her. I mean all she did was writhe while chained up. Not much acting involved.
But I remember Sonja in the #1 (and #2) as being blond. The actress they used for Rise of the Lycans, was very much not blond. And it kind of bugged me.
Michael Sheen of course was fabulous as Lucien.
Bill Nighey of course is brilliant as always. No one could ever play Viktor like him.
It was nice to see everything from the Lycans point of view.
I will of course own it.

Having just watched the trilogy, I have to say I'm very glad I did. I forgot how much I love the movies... and it brought an interesting perspective to my own writing. Mostly the "rules" of the Vamps.
These vamps are not "dead". They are immortal, and need blood to sustain them.
They can bear children, as they are not dead. They can in fact age... (look at Viktor)
I like the reasoning behind why they are what they are. It's a genetic defect, but they didn't go too much into the science. (Well, they did a bit, but not going so far as to claim "it's nano technology, and we are from Atlantis!" (ahem.. looking at you Lynsay Sands) )

If I continue, I'll start rambling.

Yesterday, I was reading the blog of one of my Boys..
Alan Doyle from Great Big Sea. Now you all know I am a huge fan. His most recent blog amused me. It was talking about his experience while filming the new Robin Hood movie.
Yup,Ridley Scott is directing... Russell Crowe is Robin... Cate Blanchette is Marion .. and a little musician from Nova Scotia is playing Allan A'Dayle. We know him better as Alan Doyle from GBS.
I'm very happy that he got a role in it.
But so he was musing on his recent adventures in regards to his horse Arthur. Arthur is a screen veteran, and has been in many many recent horse involved movies.

For those interested in reading the quite amusing musing, here is the link:

Alan From The Road

Today is Friday, and I shall be going to see Angels and Demons today. Woohoo. I can't wait.

In other knitting news... I have discovered the pattern I will use for my Avalanche Hockey sweater.
Oh yes, I had forgotten to mention that.
I cannot stand the team sweaters (jerseys) that are out there. They are made of material that.. I can't stand to have near my skin.
Not to mention, they are never flattering for the female form.
So, I'm going to knit myself one. A little reminder of home as it were.
Now, I'm a huge fan of the 3rd Jersey, when it comes to the Av's.

This one: And ignore the "Your name" part, it's from a website that will do custom jerseys.


I have found the pattern I'm going to use for the base sweater. The only thing I will have to change, will be the neck line, as I do in fact want it to lace up.

There is no good way to link to the pattern I'm gonna use, as most of my readers are not Ravelry peeps.
I will be buying my yarn from KnitPicks, as they have the right colors, and it's cotton. Woohoo for cotton!

I haven't decided if I'm going to put "Wicked" on the back, and my number, or if I'm going to put my last name. Which... with how long this sweater will take me... My last name by then will be Grandison, so I still haven't decided what I shall do. Either way, I'm not going to put a real player on the back, because.. that would be like picking your favorite children. I've just got too many.
I think, in a pinch.. I might pick Roy... but meh... I don't know.
I think I'll put up a vote when it comes time.

Still reading Death Du Jour by Kathy Reichs. It is quite enjoyable, and I'm zooming through it. Though, I think I understand why some people have problems reading the books. There are times I laugh because the description to me at least seems a bit.. Technical. I don't know if it's just me or not, but there was a scene, the only "romantic" scene in the entire book thus far (and i'm nearly finished the book), and it was very "His hands were here.. then they moved here counter clockwise" I don't know.. it just felt... a little like a text book lol.

But it's still enjoyable. I'm still so early in the series that I quasi try to put faces to characters. Like, I'm thinking that the Booth character in the show is the Detctive Ryan character in the books. So, for me.. I see Detective Ryan as David B. Not bad at all lol, but I don't know if that is supposed to be the closest book character to the tv character.

Does that make sense?


Alright, I guess I've yammered enough. I'll certainly let you know what I think about Angels and Demons.


Oh, and today's blog title, is not as profound as you might have suspected. I was just listening to the Repo Soundtrack before coming into work.

Vote on a name, Startrek, and knitting.

The eye is twitchy.
The body didn't want to get out of bed.
The mind was having some odd NCIS/Top Gear cross over like dream. I do not recall the details, but lets just say it was odd.

I very much wanted to not acknowledge Monday's existance, but unfortunately the universe and my conscious "adult" mind had other plans.

I have a little project on the needles right now. And I must say I am really not liking the Caron Simply Soft Eco yarn anymore. I absolutely am just being annoyed with the texture of the yarn. I don't know how to describe it other than.. skuzzy. I will still finish the project I am working on though, as well... I want to be done with this yarn. And if I use it all up then I can just make sure I don't buy it again. Well... if I absolutely need yarn and the only option is that, then yes.. I'll buy it.. but I won't necessarily like it.
The project is not for me, and I haven't a clue how it'll turn out. Honestly I'm winging it. Which.. once the project is complete, you'll find that pun amusing.
This little project did though, teach me something quite useful which will allow me to go forth and do some other projects, so all in all it's a good thing.

The amazing Cathie, who is a buddy of mine over on Ravelry was totally awesome and sent me one of her spare copies of "Dead Until Dark" woohoo. Now I get to start the entire series all over again without having to wait for the library. Once I'm done, this one will go on the stack of books I need to send to Guy in the next care package. She also sent me a cute little bookmark she made. It was an attempt at some lace, and it is quite pretty! It's pink, but it happens to be the 1 shade of pink I like. All in all, I say this was a WIN. Cathie rocketh most verrily.

Oh.. So Friday Mother of Mine and I went to see StarTrek.
IT. Was. Freaking. Amazing.

Yes, yes it was. I highly enjoyed it. I want to see it again. (But I won't until it's on dvd, because I'm being "responsible")
I won't go into detail because I respect that not all my readers might have seen it yet. But just gotta say.. freaking.. awesome.
They cast the film brilliantly, and if they decide to keep the Star Trek saga alive with the younger cast.. I welcome it.
And Karl Urban was just perfect.. PERFECT as Bones.

Well alright, actually everyone was PERFECT. I would end up just listing the entire cast if I went that way, so I wont.

The rest of the weekend was spent pretty quietly.
I did laundry. Did a few other chores. Knitted.
Started watching:
NCIS season 3.
BattleStar Galactica 2.5
The State Within, Part 1 (well.. not part 1, but disc 1 of 2) - Which was really good. It's a political thriller by the BBC, set here in the US. Specifically in D.C. and it's all about a terrorist attack on the US by a British Muslim and how the British Ambassador in the US has to handle it. (played by Jason Issacs) It's very good. A heck of a cast, and I can't wait to see the second part.

Underworld - man I forgot how much I love that movie. Mom never saw it, and as Rise of the Lycans releases tomorrow on DVD (and netflix is sending it to me today), I gotta have her catch up.

Tonight we'll watch Underworld Evolution

Okay, on to the knitty gritty. I need ya'lls help.

Please vote on this name:
Mathais Davenport

poll can be found on the right hand side.
I will explain the name later, but for now.. just need to know if ya'll like it.

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...

Moorish Tile Swatch

Been meaning to post this for a while.

But this was my attempt at doing the Moorish Tile pattern by ... someone lol on Ravelry.

The original pattern calls for color changes etc, but instead I did it as a Knit/Purl to make texture instead of color changes.

I do have another photo that I need to post up, but I haven't actually.. well taken the photo yet. And now that the sun has gone down, it's too late to do the swatch any justice.

Tomorrow with the light, I will take a photo of my big swatch, where I did both versions of the pattern.

More knitting stuff to go..

Hmm I don't work tomorrow.. mayhaps I will go and see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

Who knows though..

Today already is not a good day.

It technically started yesterday, and just hasn't gotten better at all.

My beloved mp3 player.. my Creative Zen, has died on me. It freezes, and will not charge due to the frozen status.
After much troubleshooting on my part and frustration, I submitted a "hey its broke" ticket to Creative, and this morning..
I got an email back from Creative saying "oh your past your 60 day email support, but if you want to pay out the butt we'll give you 30 minutes of support, after that, we charge you more."
Luckily, when I bought it, I bought the 2 year protection from Overstock.com, which means Overstock will take care of it. But I can't call them until after work.

Yesterday continued:
My knitting was making me frustrated beyond belief, but mostly it was a silly mistake on my part the last time, tonight I am hoping for better results and I think I am understanding the situation more and more. That is what is keeping me from being actually "insane" by Einstein's theory. I am learning each time I do it, therefore I am actually getting different results.

Mother of Mine made pork chops for dinner with Pacific Rose apples that I had picked up, it turned out really good. The apples stayed crisp and yummy. I can't wait to try them in a pie. That was the only highlight of the evening.

I went to bed.

I turned up my heating blanket, as it has been cold, and one of the blankets I normally have needs to be washed, therefore it's a tad chillier than normal.

Well, I woke up to my heating blanket being completely off, and me in serious pain due to shivering.

And a cat who decided to meow incessantly from 4:45 until 5:10 when it was time to go downstairs. I honestly wanted to kill him.

As I was driving to work I realized I had forgotten my scarf at home, which attributed even more to the cold factor.

I'm at work, I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm still cold even after a cup of tea. I've been here for 2 and a half hours already and I am still not warm.

Thanks to the tea I had to use the ladies room prior to when I normally do, and of course ran into the cleaning guy who ALWAYS shows up to clean the bathroom when I absolutely need to use it. And it does not matter which of the 3 bathrooms I go to. He's always there. It's like he has a 6th sense about me having to pee desperately.

Work has been busy, and I sit here wanting to cry. It's just a craptastic day. Yelled at Guy for something that really I should have just kept to myself, but it had been nagging me for a while, so now I feel bad for snapping at him about it because he feels about the reason for what I had snapped at him about.

I wanted to tell a person to fuck off in Ravelry, because I had mentioned a neat idea I had and I wanted input.
Basically: Character in my novel is blind. Just due to old age, but because she had been going blind for many years, she learned how to read braille.
I had an idea that not only did she use her Minds Eye (as she's very witchy), she also had a deck of tarot cards in Braille.

Well someone asked me why i felt she "needed" to read braille.

Ummm.. practicality?

Just for the novel's sake, the way to make my world more believable is to have just enough "real world" in the fantastical world. That way when someone reads what I've written the sit there and go "yeah.. I can see that happening."

Not to mention, if I truly was going fully blind, and I knew it. I mean not just partial vision, I would learn to read braille. And as someone who throws the tarot at least once a month, I would want a deck that I could read.

I even think I might someday actually make a deck of tarot cards in braille, I think it's a neat idea.
But the way that person commented, after everything I've dealt with for the past two days, just made me want to tell them to fuck off.

I was polite and didn't do that, but it urked me.

I want to go home.
No.
I want to get on a plane and go to the UK. I don't want to be in this damn country anymore, I don't want to be in this job anymore, and I want to have something go right for once.

Repo! and Coraline

So I know I've been a total slacker and haven't posted anything recently, but I've been honestly busy, and exhausted.

So just a quicky about Repo, this shall be the very watered down version...
There I am, dressed, as the Grave Robber (I mean after all, he is the coolest character!)
I see someone dressed as Pavi.. I go to take my photo with him. There is someone standing in front of me.
That person turns around and looks directly at me and my knees went weak.
It was Terrence!
I completely did the speechless fan girl practically pissing herself with excitement.
He was highly amused with my reaction (you could tell by his expression)
He loved my costume, and we got many photos together (yes, I will link to photos when I finally pull them off my camera.)

I got to chat with him for a moment, and informed him about my plans:
1) I’m moving to the UK in 17 months and I want to do a weekly Repo type showing situation so I want to talk to him about that.
2) I got inspired to make a scarf inspired by the GraveRobber and when I’m finished it, I want to send it to him (honestly, you should have seen the expression on his face, it was so touching. He looked like I had just given him a puppy)

And 3) a bit about my novel, as there is a character homage to the graverobber (its a Steampunk novel) and I wanted to make sure that an ‘homage’ was alright. I don’t want to get sued.

Had to go inside, time for the film.
Got to hear all the stories from Darren, Terrence and Bill (yes, Bill Mosely.. Luigi himself!)
Watched the movie. Sang with every song.
After the show was autograph time.

Terrence was so cool and wrote a note about my costume on my poster. And he gave me some more info about another Road Tour going to the UK hopefully in the next few weeks, but thats still in the works.

All in all.. I had a fabulous time.

Pictures will be added soon. But I'm at work and don't have access to them right now.

Alright, on to Coraline. Book was by Neil Gaiman

Mother of Mine went and saw it this past Sunday. I am so glad we did. Though my only real complaint is the 3D glasses they gave us were out of a hard plastic and therefore hurt both my mother and I in different places (pinched my ears, hurt her nose)

The movie was amazing. And it was MADE for 3D which was so cool. They did stray a little from the story, but all in all they didn't do too badly, and the changes they made are understandably necessary.

Of course anyone who plans on seeing the movie I recommend to read the book first. It's a quick read and won't take you long at all. But it will make some things so much more amusing if you do.

The only MAJOR change they made was the addition of a new person. But, I see why they did it as to get it out of just being all Coraline all the time.

There was some amazing knitting in the movie, which yes.. those WERE real pieces of knitwear. Made on tiny needles by a person with far more paitence than I shall ever have. Think about it.. the scale was 1:8 (they were expecting 1:10, but she gave them 1:8!!!!!!)
Someone has already made the gloves, (in adult size) which I might have to someday make, and the sweater was neat as well.

All in all I had a lot of fun.

More posts to continue when I can finally function. work has just been insane, and I cannot wait for 16.5 months from now. Cause I'm just exhausted.

A Hard Days Bite, book reviews, and happy knitting.

So tonight, I did what I said I was going to do.
I sat down, without anyone around and worked a bit on the miscreant chapter 5.

Well, in truth I only worked on it a little. I worked on the end of it, which is where I was the most stuck.

I've got more I've got to work on in the middle of it, and bridge a few key areas, but the end is what was making me feel guilty- I just didn't have a good feel going on the end of the chapter.

I moved on to chapter Six, which was written months ago... Honestly months ago. Like I had this chapter started before I even finished chapter 1. I might have to tweak 5 a little bit more to make 6 work a little more smoothly, and there are a few kinks, but we'll see what James has to say about it.

It was a quiet evening in, which is what I needed.
Yesterday, I was stuck at the auto shop getting my car worked on. I was a good car mommy, and finally got the O2 sensor repaired. Gee... all in all, I've only got just over 800$ worth of work left on my car for it to be "spiffy". But thats all normal stuff, like I need a new battery as mine most likely won't last me to the summer. Or certainly not next winter. I need my coolant changed, as apparently it is Chocolate milk like right now. And a few other various things, but all in all no big deal. The expensive part is always the "labor" sigh.

Today I went out and bought myself a spiffy memory foam pillow, hopefully my neck won't feel broke in the morning.
Went to the dreaded Walmart to pick up some sinus meds to avoid getting sick *knock on wood* and had a most horrible interaction while there. Seriously, employees were called over, and end result was Mother of Mine speaking to one of the managers to
inform them of how upset we were. I'm not going to go into details, but it's all due to some crazy bitch who even went so far as to bust out and start screaming at me that she was going to "pray for me" WTF?! I didn't do anything other walk past her.
Again, not going into it, but it was just bad.

Came home after that, and just chilled. Started laundry, took a shower, and started watching a few flicks.

Mother of Mine borrowed my car and drove to Denver (Littleton actually), for a Blair supper night with some of the clan members. Which allowed me to work on my knitting, and also work on my chapters.

So, quick little reviews:

Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke:
This one seemed a bit odd, as the story went everywhere but the investigation. Yes, there was investigating.. but it just seemed a bit scattered. You got to see more of the real Mike, and also more of Norman, and again I can't seem to want to choose between the two of them. For a while there, I was very Team Norman, but now Mike has shown a side of him that really makes me like him more. The recipes were a little meh... I certainly won't be frying candy bars any time soon, but the book was all in all enjoyable. Though one thing, yes the story seemed a bit scattered.. it didn't seem like "filler" like previous novels.

Midnight Brunch by Marta Acosta:
I had the same issues with this one as I had with the first one. It feels like "wah wah wah. Everyone thinks I'm a slut because I'm Latino." Where in truth, seriously.. if you dress like a slut.. what do you expect people to think?
The reason for her to stay at the spa was so plot contrived it was ridiculous. I don't care how desperate someone is to prove themselves in a working way, if I was being treated like a doormat by some egotistical actor, and practically being blackmailed.. well they could kiss my ass. And for the main character who is supposed to be some "strong female" she did absolutely nothing but cave and give into every whim and demand of every man around her. The story was passable. And I still really _want_ to like the books. I may or may not give the 3rd book a try. It all depends on my mood. To be honest, the only character I have really grown to love is Edna.

The Day I Swapped my Dad for two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman:
Absolutely adorable and fantastic a story.I cannot wait to own it and read it to my future children. Neil Gaiman is once again brilliant with his story, and it was a very endearing story on how sometimes what you have is better than what you think you want, and what you'll do to get what you want. Most certainly a brilliant read for both adults and children alike.


I know i have a few more books that I've read recently, but meh... just ask if you want to know about them.

I've also been watching a few things recently:
I just watched "The Incredible Hulk"
Okay, I actually enjoyed this one. Ed Norton is always meh in my opinion. But the fact that they had a cameo with Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark (Iron Man) was totally awesome. It wasn't nearly the garbage that they did a few years ago. Including a cameo with the original Hulk. Come on.. you gotta love that!
Tim Roth is like as always the best baddie in the world. I love him.

The Journey to the Center of the Earth:
I also enjoyed this one. I only saw it in 2D, but it was cute, and very family fun entertainment.

Get Smart:
Yes, the new one. It was.. surprisingly enjoyable. I was a huge fan of the telly show growing up (and i've got season 1 on my library queue), but honestly, this wasn't as bad as it could have been. Yes there were a few more fat jokes than necessary, but they were actually done in a tasteful way. Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 bothered me, as I didn't remember Agent 99 being such a bitch, or so competitive. So yeah, I was not fond of that.

Rescue Me season 4:
I was shocked at this season, so much happened, but at the same time not. It wasn't like previous seasons where they went for the shock value. It was more... "real" to me. The season finale was also unlike any season finale I've seen in a while as it was just quite, and yes there was something "drastic" but it wasn't the main character in a house fire for once.

Hu$tle season 3:
I love this show, and season 3 was just as good as previous seasons. Seriously if you have not seen Hustle go and see it. Great British tv.

Crap, there are a ton more things I've seen recently but I can't recall them at the moment.

I know I know I've promised a report on Repo. But I want to do it all justice when I type it up.

Knitting news:
I feel very accomplished!
I have successfully mastered Seed Stitch at the moment. YAY! Seeeeeee pretty huh???






I also, have successfully (today even!) completed a swatch of the Moorish Tile pattern. Woooooooot. It's a bitch of a pattern for a noob like me. But I was determined. I'll get photos up eventually.

The good news, is that SquibStitcher (or Pygstiches she's known as one of the blogs I follow here) over at Ravelry is being totally totally awesome for me. She's a dyer. And she's totally willing to play with Bamboo yarn for me to get the nifty colors that are not available in most shops. It's a battle. I guess people don't think that those of us who are allergic to wool and most yarns, actually you know.. LIKE colors, and cool looking yarn. But so she's totally awesome and is going to make me cool yarn. I foresee her getting a lot of my "splurge" money lol.

Well, I guess I'm done rambling for now. Kinda just enjoying watching Ranma 1/2 - I'm so glad they put that on DVD. I love that show.

holy crap. It's 10:10 at night. It's sooo past my bedtime. Sheesh. I'm pathetic. lol.

Well, wish me luck on getting more chapters written, or at least bridging the gap between the chapters I already have written. I do have quite a few chapters already done that fall after chapter 6.

Rambling again.. Sorry.

A Hard Day's Bite update.

So, as a writer.. I've been slacking. Thank goodness I don't yet do this professionally, as I would be well behind deadline etc.

The reason for lack of updates about the novel is because there hasn't been anything to update.

Due to work, work, and work... with a smidge of a life thrown in, I haven't had much chance to write.

I've been coming home brain dead and basically unable to do anything.

Also, I've been doing a 8 books in 8 weeks thing, and so if I'm home and awake, I've been reading.
I took one night off from reading so that I could work on a new kind of knitting stitch. Which lets just say once I figured out allllll the details, it went smoothly. Prior to that.. noo.. it was not going so well.

Well, I'm less than 100 pages away from being done with my 8N8 event, so i can go back to reading at my normal speed.

The only thing I've accomplished recently is I did in fact type up many of the pages I was lacking in digital format.
I need to once over my notebook and make sure I remove any pages I've typed up, and type up the ones I haven't.

Even with the lack of moving forward, I still feel there is progress. My brain is still constantly seeing the scenes, and on the drive into work, I realized I need to start writing down one of the important scenes. This is my next goal. write out that scene, and I'll feel accomplished.

Now, I haven't sent my pages off to anyone as of yet, because I still haven't finished chapter 5. Yes, I know.. I've been working on that chapter for far too long now.
But the truth is.. I haven't touched that chapter.
Maybe I just need to steal the laptop upstairs with me one night, lock myself in my bedroom, put on some of my inspiration music and just attack that chapter. Then I will send it off to James for first edit.

-Yes James, incase you were thinking I wasn't going to have you as my editor, thats not true. I just haven't had anything to say to you, even after I got over hurt feelings time.

Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. I'm finally back to my normal schedule at work, I'm no longer working 12 hour days (hence the not being able to write when I get home and being brain dead), so tomorrow I'll be getting off of work at Noon. woohoo.

Reading update:
Bed Book: 100 pages away from being done with A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Couch Book: Less than 100 pages away from being done with Key Lime Pie Murder

I already have Carrot Cake Murder and Candy Cane Murder waiting for me at home, but I'll no longer be in a rush. I also need to hunker down and read the Hellblaser GN I have at home, as it's just gathering dust and needs to go back to the library soon.

Well, I'm avoiding work. I really shouldn't do that. We finally got caught up after a week of nightmarish work. So... look at me go.. this is me going back to work...

hmm I might have to check Ravelry one more time...

Another month bites the dust. (Really long. Sorry)

Today was most bored at work. I mulled my way through it though, doing enough work so that no one can say I didn't. Yes, I could have done more. But to be honest.. I'll still have done more than anyone else, so why should they be complaining??
I left work early at 12, which is normal.
I for some odd reason went over to the mall. GASP.
Yes, less than a week before Christmas and I went to the mall.
There were a few reasons for this. I wanted to find a calendar for us. Nope still didn't find one. But i have a better idea of what i want. That was at Borders. Which apparently was having a 40% off one item sale. As I had walked in the store, I came across two printed off coupons for it that someone must have dropped.
Well, I used one and I handed the other to the girl standing in line behind me. I did buy something, but I can't talk about it as Mother of Mine happens to follow my blog now, to quote her (said with a smile) "it's none of your(her) damn business!"
Then I wondered over to Old Navy in hopes of possibly finding a pair of jeans on the clearance rack that fit me. The jeans I have right now.. both jeans that i currently use most in my jean circulation both hit me odd at the ankle and it drives me crazy. I detest my socks being so visible when I sit down. Now these jeans are fine during the summer when I am wearing sandals. But for winter when i wear socks... no... i can't stand it.
No, I did not find anything. They actually had like no jeans on the clearance rack. And I am not about to pay full Old Navy price for a pair of jeans right now.
I did find on their 5$ tables a few shirts I wanted. Simple, long sleeved, light weight shirts, and one tank top that will do me in the summer. it's amazing how quickly those 5$ add up.
I also looked at the mens coats. honestly, my GAP coat that i have had since 2002 is really sad and pathetic, and you can see more of the guts of it from the outside than you should or is decent. I loath the idea of buying a new coat, but with how much I wear mine.. I should do something. Both my main winter coats, are dying. A slow and painful death. Both of them are at least 5 to 10 years old, (honestly my black bomber might even be 15 at this point as I bought it BEFORE moving to Colorado), and they have been worn hard and almost every day.
The only men's coat that was appealing to me, was not too bad looking, but the inside felt like.. well... felt. Which meant all my clothing will catch and I'll also always be miss static shock! I'm already electric people, I don't need another coat to add to it!
I didn't get a coat. But I did buy a men's thermal type shirt to replace my GAP one, which most certainly is about 10 years old, and is literally falling to pieces. Yes, I'm finally retiring it. Considering, I only spent 10$ on the new one, thats not bad. (I think my GAP one, I might have spent 30$ on. Ahh.. youth... with a bank account.. no cares... sheesh. Though, even if I did spend 30$ on it, that was nearly 10 years ago.. I think I got my money's worth!)

I wondered around a few other shops. I stopped at "It's Your Move" and spoke with dear Monsieur Weasley! You'll not know of him on this blog. But it was back from the Deathly Hallows release party at the mall I attended (the Borders)with my last roommate. He was the perfect Bill Weasley. He had the hair. The body type. The boots.. the earring. Yup. He was perfect. We flirted with him. Dot had a crush on him. Hell.. if I was single, I would have had a crush on him. And between you and meself.. if it had come down to a contest between me and Dot, I would have won hands down. Amanda (room mate before Dot, and ex roommate of Dot as well)learned that one quickly. The blokes always went after me if there was the option. Comes down to the fact that I have a flirty nature and most importantly confidence. Okay, I'm done tooting my own horn. But back to Monsieur Weasley. Whos name I just now remembered is Cody. We had run into each other enough over the last year and a half that he does remember me. He informed me that he has put in his notice, and that the end of the month is his last working there. He is moving back to New England. Ah well, I don't blame him one bit. Colorado Springs does not have many options for living. Unless you have a security clearance that is.

Moving along, I managed to resist the temptation of buying some Pretzel bites, even though they were smelling delish! And nothing in any of the stores that I frequent were appealing to me. I saw a shirt in Hot Topic that Mother of Mine mentioned she saw a girl wearing. it was "I (heart) boys who sparkle" Yes, it was in fact a Twilight reference. Sigh. I hate fangirls.
I looked for a pair of shoes, as the ones I currently am wearing for winter, are bothering me. I paid 7$ for them on my birthday, so I've gotten my money's worth out of them. But still, the are just a shade too small so my poor big thumb toes slightly hurt by the end of the day. (Wow.. that was a reference that took me back to my youth. Yes, I did in fact used to call my big toe the "big thumb toe")
I skiddaddled on home, only having been at the mall for an hour and a half. Not too bad all in all.
I have to say the crowds were not as bad as I imagined they would be. It actually reminded me of shopping in my youth at the Thousand Oaks mall. Yeah.. thats it. It was a normal day at the T.O mall was how crowded it was here for christmas. So it could have been a lot worse.

Mother of Mine is apparently not feeling well, so I have been chilling talking to my hunny and watching The Da Vinci Code this afternoon.

Today is the anniversary of meself and himself.
As of today, we only have 1.63 years left to go. That also breaks down to still being 17.5 months away.
Today, I also received my care package from himself.
The one that had all my pressies pretty much for the last year.
Our Yearly anniversary (which is different than today's anniversary, same date, different month), Valentines Day, My birthday.. and the Solstice. Or Christmas. Whatev.

I was told to open the box, as my Solstice presises were wrapped up. The others weren't. So it was safe.

I sat there with tears running down my face, bawling like a little girl as I looked at all the wonderful, and most importantly thoughtful things that my sweetie gathered for me.

I received two James Bond books:
Quantum of Solace
and Devil May Care

The irony is that I just finished reading Casino Royale this morning while I was at work. So the timing was perfect.

I also got a Torchwood book. "Another Life" (the first one)
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (which I believe Mother of Mine will most likely steal.)
Chobits volume One

A beautiful bracelet from India, made of enameled copper and bronze tones (on copper- i think that it is copper), it looks like it depicts the sun and the moon, but I could be wrong. I don't know if it is something I would have chosen for myself, but I love it. (I think the reason I wouldn't have chosen it is the actual bracelet part is colors I don't think I would choose, light tanish brown tones, where i'm more darker tones when it comes to my browns) But I do love it. I will have to coat all the metal bits in clear nail polish, so that I can wear it. And I will take a photo of it sometime in the near future.

I also got some buttons, a grouping of Beatles buttons, Vampire buttons, and a little button that shows a flying witch, and says "Neighborhood Witch". It's cute. I like it a lot.
I got a Geek tag that says "wicked" on it, I'll have to change the chain on it, so that I can wear it with other things, as I like the tag.

I got a set of DVD's, Life on Mars being most prevalent on it. WIth a few other movies also burned. (Wall.e and Highlander (snerk.. like i don't already own that), and The Secret of NIMH - squeeeeeee I love that movie)
I finally had a chance to test my region hack for my dvd player.
Which appears to have worked... but... I still couldn't play the dvd's as the format was set to AVI... oh well, sweetie forgot to change that, or it didn't take when he changed it. It's alright. It plays on my laptop. And, I have him hunting down a cable that would work to hook my laptop up to my ANCIENT telly. (Seriously.. who still uses AV RYW cables??? Yeah. I do. And my telly is such crap, that it's just the Yellow White cables, not even the red cable. *sniff* that poor red cable just hangs limply down from the front of my telly looking all forlorn and unloved.)
Can I just say I cannot wait till I have a new Telly? I'm sick of the streaking I have down the top 3 inches of my telly, and the fact that it's so ancient to begin with. I doubt I'd be able to hook up a PS3 to it. (Sweetie and I will have a sweeeet setup to snuggle in front of. Not right away. It'll depend on the budget. But there will be HD. There will be Bluray. Oh yes, there will be a computer hard drive hooked up and set aside specifically for the telly.)

Meep Rambling. Sorry. Moving along, I also got a framed Doctor Who image thingie. It's got my Doctor (10.. technically 9 was the first Doctor I fell in love with, but I'm more than happy to claim 10 as my Doctor as well. I'm a bi doctor kind of girl.), an image of the Tardis, and a Dalek. There will be jealousy running rampant of all my friends. Oh yes, very much so.
Speaking of Doctor Who, and this blog being called "Journal of Impossible Things", those in charge, have decided to release as a toy.. John Smith (aka The Doctor)'s very own Journal of Impossible things.. SQUEEEE.


Sorry for the large picture size, but it's the little book thingie on the left side.
Sweetie of Mine has promised me that some day I will have it. Yay! It's just a toy, an in expensive toy at that, and I actually want to make one. Which I will some day. But having a little one like that means the future little Child of Mine will get to run around with a prop.

Hmmmm.. That almost gives me an idea. Mayhaps Alex (main character in novel- A Hard Day's Bite) should have a Journal of Impossible things for her ever changing world.

Or.. maybe I should leave that for my Steampunk world? Mayhaps it would fit better there... hmmm I'll have to ponder it.

Speaking of the novel (A Hard Day's Bite), I actually have a little research project for Mother of Mine, as she is the go to girl for the Scottish stuff, and for anything relating to Diana Gabaldon's world. Something in "A Breath of Snow and Ashes" stuck with me, and I want to know if it's actual myth or something Diana created. It's sad, a few years ago.. I would have been the go to person for the answer to this, but thats what happens when you break away from that world for so long.

Moving along (sheesh this is a long entry.. sorry peoples, I'm in a chatty mood)... I have been sucked in to Ravelry. It's a knitting ... BLACKHOLE. It sucks you in. I've joined many groups on it, and all of this is in hopes of getting my knitting skillz up. After all, I won't be able to run to Mother of Mine and ask her to make me things. I do need to learn for meself. Hmmm.. I wonder if mayhaps I'll mention some really cool knitted item in my novel and get my own group on Ravelry. That'd be neat. Hell, even if I don't mention something knitted in my novel, I could possibly end up with a group, as there are groups for everything and everyone. That'd be neat.

Okay, I guess I'm done rambling now. Later people

A Werewolf Moon, Inspiration, and future promises.

So today, I have not written any new pages.

Nor have I typed up those 8 pages of long hand staring me down. Which I've been staring right back at all this time.

No, today I some how managed to get roped into *someday* writing a Vampire Steampunk Novella. - They wanted a full novel, but apparently will settle with a novella (aka short story).
Mother of Mine will dutifully reply to her Ravelry friends that yes, I will someday do it, but I need to finish writing both A Hard Day's Bite, and my steamy airship story.

Now news on A Hard Day's Bite. Like I said, I didn't get anything written or typed, but I did just spend the last hour looking for "Character Inspiration Photos". Meaning looking for qualities in famous people whom I think about when I think about some of my characters. Now this does not mean that I think of a specific person then base my character off of them. No, it is I think of qualities then find the person to match. That way I have a visual representation to remind me "oh yeah, thats how I wanted the hair" sort of deal. Also the other day while I was at work, I was bored and decided to do a bit of a search on Gargoyles. Just for the hell of it. ;-)

Lets just say... mmmmmm i just got a lot of eye candy.

Who might be on my list?
Weeeelll fine I'll tell you.

Keira Knightly
Alex O'Loughlin
David Boreanaz

Those are just a few mind you. I've been gathering images for a while.

And no. I'm not going to tell you who represents who, or represents aspects of whom.
Ha ha ha. Yes, I'm evil. I doubt even my 1st readers would be able to figure it out at this point. Muhahahahahahaha.

Sigh. I really should type up those pages. Mayhaps I'll get more inspired if I get it down.

Last night, by the way was absolutely a gorgeous moon. It was the fullest moon of the year. Which, actually I had to print out an article about the moon, as part of my research. Friday (when the moon was going to be full) was actually quite a good day for inspiration. Got two ideas written down, and research started, and also nabbed another reader (see previous blog).
Mother of Mine is going to try quilt what we saw of the moon. Specifically as it was surrounded by a full circle of rainbows. The colors went double even. And it was rather neat as there was a contrail running through it, and also there were "werewolf" clouds floating around it. (That comment was stolen by Dave Lowe, whom has an amazing photo of the moon- sans rainbow and contrail on his blog. You can find him under the list of blogs i follow)It is actually the Wolf Moon, which was neat, with those special clouds. It has many other names, but honestly I do believe the Wolf Moon was perfect for it. Mother of Mine is going to actually do the quilt as how I saw it when I was walking back into the house, through the barren tree branches. That will give it a neat perspective, and a focus point so that it isn't just a moon in the night sky.
I have warned her that I will most likely steal it if she makes it, barring of course if she sells it. Which considering she hasn't sold any quilt I've laid claim to, I think that this not yet made quilt will be snuggled safely amongst my things to move to the UK.

So no, I have not written down anything since yesterday in regards to A Hard Day's Bite which is sad. But, I do have to say this.. the world is very much fleshing it's self out to me, and for that I am happy. It is no longer shapes in the mist. It is now defined faces, defined personalities, defined locations. What vampires can and cannot do, what a little bit of their mythos are. Cute little nods to the past vampires that came before them.
This, makes me very happy.