It's a week away from August and I have to admit, I'm "sock"ed out! I've knitted eleven pairs of socks since May. I don't think I can look at another one for at least three weeks. Question is..what to knit next. I have two projects that I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to knit.
Project one is the Susie Hoodie from More Big Girl Knits. I have been "hunting" yarn for it for two weeks. I've priced yarn at every place I normally get yarn. Do I do it in wool? Do I do it in something that is washable? Given the yardage it needs, the pricing ranged everywhere from 28.50 to 197.00. Yes, the latter price just about gave me heart failure. I can't possibly justify paying that much for yarn..even if it does last me ten plus years. My hoodies/sweaters tend to last. I finally gave up and then re-thought it out.
I live in Oregon. It rains here..alot. I have two cats who love to hug up on me. I have a dog that I swear is on a mission to shed enough fur to carpet Oregon. Therefore, it has to be sturdy, able to hold up to our long rainy season, not be too heavy but yet heavy enough, is animal friendly (meaning little claws that love knitted items) and will not cause me to go to a payday loan place to afford to knit it. I had all but given up on the thing when I was in Joann's today and found my good old stand by...Red Heart! Yeah, I know, it's what grandma's make ugly afgaans out of. I found a gorgeous cherry red and trust me, I bet this hoodie goes to the grave with me once it's knitted up! Best part, a 25% off my purchase coupon!. My very expensive hoodie cost me a mere 17.00 in yarn. Yay!
Project Two is the Hitchiker scarf that Rilana swears by. If she's willing to knit a second one, then it's a pattern worth checking out. She's my gauge on knitting patterns. If she will knit from it more than once, it's a keeper. Do I feel ashamed using her as a guinea pig? Erm, well...um...let's be politically correct and say yes! *laughs* I just trust her judgement in this things. I always have.
For that project, I already have the yarn. it's Paton's Lace in "Sachet". It's a purple, white, green variegated. Should be pretty. We will see how it knits up.
I might cast on both projects and just knit between them. I've learned in my long years of knitting, I'm horrible about finishing things if I have too many things going on. So, I'm really thinking long and hard on the two projects at once. The hoodie will be a on going one, while the scarf will probably knit up faster. Long as it's not a damn sock, I'm good.
On the Family front...I'm fixing to have a house full for a few weeks. Kind of excited. The family will be staying with me till their new place is ready to go. It will take some rearranging and lots of patience. Six people, two cats and a dog...in less than 1200 square feet! I'm thinking of it as summer camp. *laughs*
It will be fun and I'm sure interesting to say the least.
The Heat? Well, it's kind of gone for the week? I think the summer heat when on summer vacation? I actually had on a sweater this morning. Yes, it was that chilly! Wow. I keep waiting for summer to go "Oh shit, I forgot to turn the heat on for you...here you go". It's got to hit us sooner or later, right?
I'm off to start dinner, doing burgers tonight. Cruds, just looked over at the sofa and realized, I dumped my bag out looking for my bluetooth and never put the stuff back in. Good time to clean it out, right? I know Ford will approve, it's in his nap zone. He's quite grumpy if his nap zone is cluttered up. I swear my animals are so set in their ways.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Break Ups are Hard To Do
Today Starbucks and I ended a long long relationship. We've been together for decades now and today was the end.
It's been going downhill for months now. A nasty barista here and snarky one there. A twenty minute wait for a latte on a Monday afternoon and 30 minute wait in a drive thru with only four cars in front of you. It all added up.
Today, the drive thru line was so bad there were police involved making cars move. Yeah, it got that bad. So, today was the end. No more Starbucks for me. As of late, the coffee I make at home has been better.
I admit, the ease of swinging by is really tempting and so easy. However, when you have to schedule an extra 40 minutes into your routine just for coffee, you know it's enough.
I simply swung around the corner to Dutch Bros and had a white chocolate mocha in my hand in less than three minutes. Hello, can we say excellent service! Not only was the service speedy, the baristas were super nice and pleasant! If I had not been sitting in my car, I would have fallen on my ass in a faint!
However, as one thing leaves your life another moves in, twice over. I found Dutch Bros for my coffee AND found a pizza place within walking distance that sells pizza by the slice! BY THE SLICE! I was so happy!. To celebrate my slice of pizza, I squeezed in a mile walk which was pleasant. Even at high noon, it was not bad.
I got one smurf sock knitted. Need to start on the next one. At the rate I'm going, I'll have a drawer full of hand knitted socks by winter! Not a bad thing. I seriously need new sock yarn though. One of these days I'll get some ordered.
It's been going downhill for months now. A nasty barista here and snarky one there. A twenty minute wait for a latte on a Monday afternoon and 30 minute wait in a drive thru with only four cars in front of you. It all added up.
Today, the drive thru line was so bad there were police involved making cars move. Yeah, it got that bad. So, today was the end. No more Starbucks for me. As of late, the coffee I make at home has been better.
I admit, the ease of swinging by is really tempting and so easy. However, when you have to schedule an extra 40 minutes into your routine just for coffee, you know it's enough.
I simply swung around the corner to Dutch Bros and had a white chocolate mocha in my hand in less than three minutes. Hello, can we say excellent service! Not only was the service speedy, the baristas were super nice and pleasant! If I had not been sitting in my car, I would have fallen on my ass in a faint!
However, as one thing leaves your life another moves in, twice over. I found Dutch Bros for my coffee AND found a pizza place within walking distance that sells pizza by the slice! BY THE SLICE! I was so happy!. To celebrate my slice of pizza, I squeezed in a mile walk which was pleasant. Even at high noon, it was not bad.
I got one smurf sock knitted. Need to start on the next one. At the rate I'm going, I'll have a drawer full of hand knitted socks by winter! Not a bad thing. I seriously need new sock yarn though. One of these days I'll get some ordered.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Why thank you, I will have a large coffee this morning!
After our blast of heat, it's Perdyactiit'st's still kind of creepyually coolish this am. Perfect for coffee. You know it's hot when I've been laying off the coffee. And it's a holiday here!
Most people make "new year's resolutions". I don't because I just feel things are doomed. I prefer to start new things on weird dates..like today. Today has a few new starts all designed to instill new habits in myself. A little personal growth is never a bad thing.
So, later today, I will light up my grill, grill a few things then pig out and go find a semi close parking structure and park on the top to watch fireworks. It's the lazy way to spend the day...along with my "Castle" marathon that is running, courtesy of the stacked episodes on my Tivo.
And one last bid for freedom...I'm helping my sister set up her android phone. Nothing says "have it your way" more than the android O/S...oh and well, Burger King.
Happy 4th of July!!!!
HAPPY JULY 4TH!
I'm kind of torn this anniversary of the birth of my country. For a country that was founded on freedom from oppression, no representation and from religious persecution, I find today a bit ironic.
At the present, the public has found that the government has been spying on us via email, phone calls and web history.
While I have nothing to hide, persay, its still kind of creepy and kind of goes parts of the constitution. Yes, I have read the constitution word for word...it pays to take political science!Most people make "new year's resolutions". I don't because I just feel things are doomed. I prefer to start new things on weird dates..like today. Today has a few new starts all designed to instill new habits in myself. A little personal growth is never a bad thing.
So, later today, I will light up my grill, grill a few things then pig out and go find a semi close parking structure and park on the top to watch fireworks. It's the lazy way to spend the day...along with my "Castle" marathon that is running, courtesy of the stacked episodes on my Tivo.
And one last bid for freedom...I'm helping my sister set up her android phone. Nothing says "have it your way" more than the android O/S...oh and well, Burger King.
Happy 4th of July!!!!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Left of 90 degrees
It's hot. Those two words say so much yet not enough. When I say it's hot, I'm describing the kind of heat that causes you to sweat just standing still. The kind that makes your pets want to commit suicide. The kind where an ice cube might last 30 minutes in a glass of water?
I know, if you look at the map of the US, you will laugh at what we call a heat wave. But let me tell you...115 degrees while sitting in an air conditioned house is NOTHING compared to sitting in 90 degree heat with no a/c. It's HOT!
I was two hair widths of putting a/c in this summer. I was actually looking at units and then got to thinking. It's hot like this maybe three weeks out of the year. Maybe four, if we are not lucky. It is feasible to block windows with A/C units if they won't be used for more than three or four weeks? After standing there for twenty minutes arguing with myself, I gave up and just decided to suffer through as best I could. Between the fact they wouldn't be used much and the fact my electric bill might creep above 75.00 a month...I decided to just suffer. I do feel bad for my babies though...they are truly miserable.
Normally, if it's 85 or so outside, inside it gets maybe 80...that's totally tolerable. In fact, 75 to 80 is kind of pleasant, especially if there is a breeze. Even the babies don't mind those temperatures. At the moment though, they are laying around like dead bodies after a battle. All are positioned in front of a fan.
On the non-heat front, I finally broke down and got a new desktop. My poor laptop was unable to keep up with the graphics demands I was putting on it. I lucked out and got a quad core i5 processor based unit on sale. Thank you 4th of July! I do need to add a high end graphics card but that will be in a few weeks. As is, it's managing nicely.
My little chromebook (I am currently writing on it) is holding up nicely. My O/S has actually updated three times already and it still boots up as fast as the day I bought it. I was kind of leery of the whole Chrome OS thing but honestly...it's really not that bad. The only thing I can't do is heavy duty graphics work, like photoshop/illustrator or any of the adobe products.
I can however, do light photo editing with the pixlreditor that is in the chrome shop. It doesn't do skype yet, but I think a workaround is coming soonish? I think you will be able to access Skype via outlook.com soon? Or that's what they are purporting. Other than that...this is working perfectly.
I can write a paper and save to ms word...via docs. I can do spreadsheets and presentations. I have hangouts for video calls. Plenty of games in the chrome store. What is funny, is I can hook up my monitor to this thing, add my usb hub to it and get access to my external keyboard/mouse, hard drives and tablet. It prints via my home network courtesy of google print. I can see why some people swear by this thing.
I like the fact it weighs next to nothing, fits in my bag and is extremely portable! And the battery life is to die for. I actually charged it off an external battery and it went to full charge off it. Plus, in this heat, it generates very little (unlike my desktop).
Got a new book.
I know, if you look at the map of the US, you will laugh at what we call a heat wave. But let me tell you...115 degrees while sitting in an air conditioned house is NOTHING compared to sitting in 90 degree heat with no a/c. It's HOT!
I was two hair widths of putting a/c in this summer. I was actually looking at units and then got to thinking. It's hot like this maybe three weeks out of the year. Maybe four, if we are not lucky. It is feasible to block windows with A/C units if they won't be used for more than three or four weeks? After standing there for twenty minutes arguing with myself, I gave up and just decided to suffer through as best I could. Between the fact they wouldn't be used much and the fact my electric bill might creep above 75.00 a month...I decided to just suffer. I do feel bad for my babies though...they are truly miserable.
Normally, if it's 85 or so outside, inside it gets maybe 80...that's totally tolerable. In fact, 75 to 80 is kind of pleasant, especially if there is a breeze. Even the babies don't mind those temperatures. At the moment though, they are laying around like dead bodies after a battle. All are positioned in front of a fan.
On the non-heat front, I finally broke down and got a new desktop. My poor laptop was unable to keep up with the graphics demands I was putting on it. I lucked out and got a quad core i5 processor based unit on sale. Thank you 4th of July! I do need to add a high end graphics card but that will be in a few weeks. As is, it's managing nicely.
My little chromebook (I am currently writing on it) is holding up nicely. My O/S has actually updated three times already and it still boots up as fast as the day I bought it. I was kind of leery of the whole Chrome OS thing but honestly...it's really not that bad. The only thing I can't do is heavy duty graphics work, like photoshop/illustrator or any of the adobe products.
I can however, do light photo editing with the pixlreditor that is in the chrome shop. It doesn't do skype yet, but I think a workaround is coming soonish? I think you will be able to access Skype via outlook.com soon? Or that's what they are purporting. Other than that...this is working perfectly.
I can write a paper and save to ms word...via docs. I can do spreadsheets and presentations. I have hangouts for video calls. Plenty of games in the chrome store. What is funny, is I can hook up my monitor to this thing, add my usb hub to it and get access to my external keyboard/mouse, hard drives and tablet. It prints via my home network courtesy of google print. I can see why some people swear by this thing.
I like the fact it weighs next to nothing, fits in my bag and is extremely portable! And the battery life is to die for. I actually charged it off an external battery and it went to full charge off it. Plus, in this heat, it generates very little (unlike my desktop).
Got a new book.
I've been reading this series and love it. I have a few authors that no matter what they release I'll buy the book, review unseen. Kenyon, Day, Ward, Cole, Ione, Moning, Harrison and Brown. They get my money no matter what. Even when they write a book that doesn't captivate me, it's still a good read. They are tried and true authors that I trust totally. And honestly, on a hot day, nothing beats laying in front of a fan reading.
4th of July is this week. My plans? Grilling on my balcony and staying cool. I was going to go downtown for fireworks, but the thought of all those people in this heat and the traffic...um..no. Now, if I lived downtown, I'm sure I wouldn't mind at all since it would be a walk over and not having to drive and park and all that hassle. Ick. I really need to live downtown, that's all there is to it.
Oh well, I have a banana smoothie, a new book and some work to do.
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