S. S. P. P. - 3

Can you believe it? I'm finished! Go check it out in the projects in Ravelry!

I don't have much else to share, except that I may have discovered an allergy to Mohair - I know! Sad, right? Itchy, swollen hands do not feel good. This I discovered while knitting on a Comfort Shawl for a fellow Ravelry member. It's a really sad story, and we lost one of our precious guy knitters, Rebekah's husband and father of their two girls. Joel was an awesome guy and the creator and founder of the Ravelry group SMACK and we miss him already, very much. Anyway, keep their family in mind, and treasure your own loved ones all the more so. Here's the shawl before I packed it away to ship off tomorrow to the next knitter in line.

S. S. P. P. - 2

Guess what?! I made it through the next chart with only one small mistake that I could never find, but was easily fixed. YAAAY! I must say that this chart was MUCH easier than it looked, and less thought intensive. (is that even a term?) I don't know why it was so much easier for me, but I sure am glad. Now onto the second to last chart, which is pretty much the same as the chart I just did, with just a little alteration. I may actually finish this thing in a few days! Shock and AWE! I'm glad. One thing this particular part of the project has done to me, though, I keep having the urge to shout out, "AW NUPPS!" - it cracks me up, hopefully some of you understand that. If not, don't despair, I'll explain it all in the end.

Until I can post something interesting for you to look at, here's something interesting to look at =) - yes I know, contradictory, see title of blog.

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Goddess. You are constantly giving and are unconcerned with reward, you simply want others to love knitting as much as you do. If someone wants to knit miles of novelty yarns, you are there for them. If someone wants to learn short row shaping, you can help. There are no taboos in knitting, only opportunities to grow. Everyone should have friend like you around if they want to learn to knit, and there's a good chance that your passion has rubbed off on a few others.http://marniemaclean.com Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Super Secret Project Progress

....or S.S.P.P. ? No, just looked like a good acronym. For those of you who know what I'm doing, this will make sense, and for those of you who have ever done this project, you'll probably recognize these instructions. Fortunately for the me, the person who is getting this super secret project as a gift will be SO clueless - bwa ha ha hhhhaaaaaa - (just to cover my bases... if you happen to be reading this and are clueless, it doesn't necessarily mean this super secret project is for you =( and it's unlikely you want it, anyway, because it's very, VERY perfect for the person who is getting it) heHEhehe (that's a Scooby laugh, in case you didn't know)

Anyway, I had to celebrate getting to this point in the pattern and having the right number of stitches because it was a serious challenge for me - sheesh - I dropped stitches, added stitches, sometimes by twos and threes. In fact, after 14 repeats of this particular chart, I am only JUST comfortable with it - and now I have to learn another one! ACK - oh well, it isn't a boring knit, that I can say for sure, and maybe once I'm a MUCH better lace knitter, I'll do this again and triumph at how easy it is - but today is not that day. Today I triumph at having the right number of stitches in SPITE of myself.


....and there was much rejoicing.

Pasta, a Scarf and the Zoo

I'm not going to narrate this entire post, but just going to sum up (to save time) Last night I made home made whole wheat basil pasta and someone insisted that I take some pictures, so I did =) It's rather easy, if a bit time consumptive, but very filling compared to the stuff at the store. No special equipment, just a cutting board, rolling pin and pizza cutter - I would like a pasta machine thing though, they're awesome.

Here's one of the scarf pics -
somewhere down the post there's
one with me wearing the scarf, I think
I like this pic better =)

The rest of these are Zoo pics, I didn't get the
names of all the ones that aren't obvious
because it was a challenge keeping
these 6 from wandering off from the crowd
and let me tell ya, Zoo and Spring Break,
is.... interesting - enough to
make one recoil into the fetal position
and... well you get the idea - lol

i love meercats

baby giraffe SO cute

SO pretty - don't know what it is tho

It was fun. We are tired.
Navigating a giant double stroller
in that crowd... INSANE

where's the tequila?

Spring Fever

It's Spring Break here in these parts, so I haven't had much blogging time (or even the desire, to be totally honest) We've been out riding our bikes to the park and around the neighborhood and stuff like that.

I finished my scarf (yeah, I hope so, it's like the smallest scarf I ever made) and it's SO cute, but, I've looked rather odd the last couple of days, at least when I thought about taking pics of it, and all the pictures are SO scary. bleh - SO... maybe I'll wear it to the ZOO tomorrow and get one of my lovely sisters to take a shot for me, since I clearly stink at the self portrait thing. ugh

Hopefully my camera will cooperate tomorrow and I'll have some awesome stuff to share. Yaay! The ZOO! =)) I love it that my kids are big enough now that the thought of taking them somewhere all together doesn't make me recoil into the fetal position and sob uncontrollably. It's been a LONG time coming!

I love my new books, they are hilarious. I love random seemingly senseless comedy that still reads intelligently with made up words. Yeah, those Brits - such wits!

....and it's official, I'm all better! (mostly) =) I've been released until I feel like going back to therapy - wooo hoooo! I'm not getting too overly confident, but it sure does feel better in this place than where I was previously.

yaay

Yaay Books, Yaay Yarn!

sis suggested reading

I discovered I was low on sock yarn

and self striping is the BEST =)

been lusting after Noro for years
it doesn't disappoint - sigh

must have yarn for DS4YrOld
(he tried to escape with 3 skeins, but he had to choose his fav)

The Noro is on it's way to being a simple mindless st st scarf
(after I knit 3/4 of it in ribbing
and realized it wasn't such a grand idea
but really, I could knit and re-knit it forever,
it's THAT wonderful)

O happy acquisitions!

A Word to the Wise

If it isn't broken in half, smashed, belching smoke, leaking, or completely dead, DON'T FIX IT! My laptop has never been perfect. I received it in some sort of weird trade scenario in which my husband reformatted and set up some random person's computer in exchange for it. It overheats and shuts off without warning, invariably in the middle of something important. I can't use it as a laptop, really because of the overheating issue AND the fact that the battery is useless. That means it has to be plugged in at all times (yes I took out the battery) and also has to sit on a cooling pad that constantly attempts to keep it fanned. It's a bit loud and can be slow. It also holds ALL of my pictures and my recording software (such as it is) and all the stuff I've done for the last couple of years.

Yesterday, it overheated and turned off yet again, so I took it to my husband, who was working already on another computer (so all his tools were handy) and asked him if he'd get the dust out of it again, since that staved off the overheating issue really well last time. He did.

When it was hooked back up and turned on - NOTHING. No "disk error" message or any other resemblance of life, just NOTHING. He looked and looked for a problem, but couldn't find one. This just hours after I installed a NEW recording software that seemed to pick up MUCH less of the ambient hiss associated with recording in your house.

The timing couldn't BE any worse, since I've been working on a piece for Zeeche who is doing a tribute podcast in honor of Dave (I totally almost typed honour - this Canadian/Brit thing is getting serious, lol, I need to just give in and go with it, but then someone will think I'm pretentious? do I care? not really so why am I having this subtext argument with myself?)
Dave, who has been absent from his podcast since November.

BTW... If you'd like to add your two cents (or pence - hahahaha) you have until Sunday March 23 to email your songs, your poems, your comments, your skits, your stories, your anything to:

zeeche @ gmail . com (no spaces)

(those are Zeeche's words mostly, btw, copied from the comments at chubcreek)

Anyway, so I'm rather distraught about my computer because I really wanted to send something cool. I've been practicing the guitar accompaniment so much that I have my callouses back and can play better than I was doing last year at this time. (I must have not been practicing much back then) The computer I'm using now is dying as well, or at least it sounds like it is. It makes a horrible loud grinding/groaning noise which is very inconducive to recording. I thought about making a video of it so you could hear it for yourself and pity me more, but I'm too busy (lazy) today =) (I really am doing mountains of laundry, and rewarding myself in between loads with rows of my super secret project - which has a deadline btw which I think I won't be making)

me sad

I really really don't know what to do about getting what I hoped to be an awesome tribute thing recorded.

Just had to share.

On a much more positive note, though, I had another part of a ME day yesterday. I thought I had a Dr's appointment, but there was a scheduling hiccup - so I had two free hours to play hooky! Half Priced Books - My fav health food store the Sunflower Shoppe - and my LYS !

I'll share pictures of the spoils of that day tomorrow or the next, right now I have to go feed the animals, I mean the children =))

A Day at the Gardens

On Saturday my kids and I and my sister and her kids and my brother all went to the Botanical Gardens here in Fort Worth to see the annual "Butterflies in the Garden". It was a very sunny day, if a bit windy and chilly. We had a sort of picnic in the park before we went to see the butterflies.

Inside, it was like a sauna, especially when you first come in, you're met with a wall of hot/damp air. It blows super hard right inside the door to keep the butterflies from escaping.

I tried to get the names of all the butterflies that I took pictures of, but I couldn't find them all, even after trolling the internet for hours. SO, I gave up. Some are named, some are not. I also didn't get the names of the flowers in there either. So, if you happen to be able to fill in any blanks, I'd be EVAH so grateful **dashing smile**

I didn't take any of myself - ah rats =)

Here are some of the early Spring bloomers in the park

Daffodils

Jonquils

and I meant to get the Narcissus, but forgot =(

As soon as we walked in the door in the atrium where the butterflies were,
my camera lens completely fogged over.

Totally foggy picture of some sort of awesome Swallowtail
Oddly, this is one of the more in focus shots I was able to get
(cue rant about camera)

Here you can see the really pretty colors in the blurry shot =)
I really searched for the name of this one

This is the GORGEOUS Blue Morpho, when this guy opens up
it's one of the most stunning specimens I've ever seen.
They don't open up much when they are resting, and they flutter by SO fast.
(I want a different camera)


This awesome dude is an Atlas Moth. I really should have taken
one shot with my hand near it (without touching b/c that's a serious no no in there)
because this thing was HUGE. Probably like 10 inches across, maybe more. Just.... wow

This is the Small Postman. This is without flash, those colors are so screaming
that my camera totally freaked out.

These are called Common Mormons and I guess it was just another season
just another reason, because they were pretty much all making babies =)

This one is the Great Mormon, when you are looking at them
with your eyes, and not my weird camera, it's not quite so blue and most
of them have more red on the shoulders.

This pretty little thing is called a Pink-spotted Cattleheart
I wonder why they call it that?

This one is the Paper Kite, one of the easier ones to find and photo
I wonder why I didn't get more pictures of it? Probably because it was too easy
weird me

This lovely thing is the Giant Comet Moth
related to the Luna Moth, which accounts for it's somewhat similar appearance
So pretty!

Here are some Zebra Longwings and Tiger Longwings at rest.
I think there is another one in there, but I don't know which genus and species it is =)*)

This may be another Pink-spotted Cattleheart, but it is different enough
to make me unsure, so it's in here, too.

Another shot of the Common Mormons,
you can see what they look like better from this angle.

I don't know the name of this one, but it seems to have the shape
of the Mormon butterflies, really it's somewhere between those and the Cattlehearts
No clue, really.

I don't know the name of this one, either. It probably has "Banded" in it's name.
But I really don't know. I don't think I've ever seen one before.

Man it's late, and I'm already torturing myself this particular Spring Forward nightmare time. I guess I'll push on through and post the few flowery things. (lucky you, right? haha)


Gigantic Fern - 3 to 4 foot fiddle head there

Part of the giant fern over my head - huge monster fern

don't know, sorry about the crappy focus, but the color is right for once

very odd true to life color of the buds of this tree that is related

somehow to a pea plant (that's what the botany guy told me)
It blooms like this:
with flash

without flash



sorta looks like a snap dragon type flower
but still, no clue

Okay, well that's pretty much the end. Except for the group shot of all the cousins together. =)

the camera was still foggy and we were behind a waterfall

It was a really great day!