polliwannablog

BRRRR Baby It's Cold Inside

2008-12-16T23:07:00.000-08:00

WHN left my camera in his shorts and washed them. The camera still turns on, but it does not take pictures. Nice. So until I replace it, cellphone pics if pics at all!

December has been weird. The past 2 weeks I have been trying to talk WHN into going to see the 10 minute fake snow storm that Las Vegas Town Square puts on at 7pm nightly. WHN is not enthusiastic about driving to a mall, parking, wading through the crowds to get a good spot to wait for a fake snow storm. What a killjoy. Pretend climate changes are things I love about Vegas. I thought we could make a night of it and go see the new revamped fake volcano in front of Mirage too. Normaly the valley doesn't get snow snow-- maybe for a few minutes here and there. Yesterday, however, Vegas, got a real snow storm and we had 3-5 inches. Yes WHN was quite smug to have his own storm.

Personally December has been weird too, and I can't quite put my finger completely on it. We never turn the heat on in the house. Historically this has been because Petunia hated a warm house. She loved to sunbathe in 100+ weather, but the house, ALWAYS had to be cold. WHN said growing up in Ireland they never used the heater either. Not like I can fact check that tidbit, but I find it kind of doubtful, but for Petunia, if we were told to bring blocks of ice in, we would have. As for Ireland, they didn't have a microwave either, so anything is possible.

But now with Petunia gone, I still can't really bring myself to demanding we have heat. It's freezing inside believe you me, but just like I don't like to admit that it is kind of nice sometimes to not have to rush home to let her out, I don't want to be in a warm comfortable house thinking, "oh this is nice now." Don't get me wrong, I am complaining about the cold on a daily basis. I am huddled under my electric blanket, but I can't bring myself to demand we have the heater running. I realize now that I don't want to benefit from her absence.

Ironically, the month without a camera, is the month that I have had some major knitting output. Items to my non-knitting friends, I haven't sent yet because well... let's say that yes they do actually take pictures for me even though they don't really understand why I want pics of my work. I can really only get pics of them in it and not say a cool close up picture of it. I'll say that I want close-ups so I can document the yarn or the stitch, but you and I know that it's so I can be impressed with myself. Ah well, I need to put ego in check and send the stuff. Thankfully I have made a couple items of late that are going to a fellow kniter who will be quite happy to take pics.

I'm not sure what else is making December weird for me. I just know this month has been unsettling for me. I'm going to go with it and ride it out.

Kraft Mtn Loop

2008-12-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Just outside of Red Rock Canyon Park is Kraft Mountain which obscures probably one of the most spectacular Nevadan desert areas. Once past the first steep uphill mile, a whimsical color-filled area of yellow, red, purple striped and polka dot boulders.

Though there is no scrambling really, there are three areas where you have to sit and slide 15 feet down boulders. The first 2 slides, I was fine.

Slide 1- about 15 feet of FUN!

Second slide, look at that soft landing!

The third... OY! This one had an "ass groove," however, I had to sit to the left of the groove and leaning forward, push to the right to actually get into the groove. I know hard to picture. The groove provides a slide, but outside of this groove, it's a drop.

My arm wasn't as long as it should have been, but I did make it into the groove, but the shorts I was wearing rode, and now half of my right butt cheek is now at the Kraft Mountain Loop. Lovely.

I was going to warn about the nudity, but eh.

The combination of the intense colors and patterns with having to use rock slides, makes this hike magical (except for the ass part. That wasn't so magical inasmuch as painful.) Instead of being 20 minutes from The Strip, I felt like I was walking in the land of Lorax.

Mitchell Caverns

2008-11-13T00:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't had the desire to go out or once out go home, but thankfully I've got some friends forcing me out and then distracting me once home.

Recently, I explored Mitchell Caverns about 2 hours away in California. Fascinating little story of how they became a tourist attraction. Basically some guy named Mitchell moved his wife out to the middle of nowhere CA to start a tourist site. I'm not sure how enthusiastic his wife was about the idea because as soon as he died, she sold the caves.

Path to the cavern

Inside

One of the rooms inside the cavern was used by Oliver Stone in The Doors to replicate a cave in New Mexico. Stone asked the park service if he could put cave paintings inside as the caves did in NM. Though he was told NO, he had them painted anyway. After the shoot, his efforts at cleaning the walls, made the paint sink in and deepen in color. The CA Parks Service demanded that he get the paint off the walls. Stone gave the same company that screwed up the first time a 2nd chance. They tried to sandblasters, but were caught and promptly banned from the caverns. So now one of the caverns is permanently marred with faux cave paintings.

This formation is called the organ, but oddly....

This is called the gnome. Whatever.

I've been looking to make a homemade face exfoliant for super dry skin. I found this one from beauty.about.com

Ingredients:

* 1 bag cat litter (must be marked '100 Percent Natural Clay')
* Water
* Drops of your favorite essential oil

Preparation:
Mix in a couple tablespoons of the cat litter with water and drops of oil (we find the oil helps make the experience somehow less kitty litter-ish)
Apply mask to face
Wash off after 15 minutes.

Getting by

2008-10-23T17:49:00.001-07:00

Thank you so much for your condolences. The comments, emails, and calls meant so much. I really appreciate the support shown to me. I have to admit that it is still rough. I've avoided blogging not just because I haven't been in the mood because I've been sad, but I feared every post would be a treatise on it. Suffice it to say, the best way that I can describe how I am doing is if I have an overall bad day I think AND she's gone, and on good days I think, BUT she's gone.

However, I am working on it, as are the animals. Fred, who probably had as much of a hand in raising Petunia as we did, immediately became more needy with me. I don't know if he was mourning too, or if he saw an attention vacuum open and seized it. Sprinks new hobby is catching lizards to bring inside to torture and kill. MARVELOUS! So much for raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Maria VonTrapp.

I recently cleaned out one of the ferret stashes, which is underneath the bottom drawer of a chest. Tif snagged all the fiber related things.

The silverware, baster, insole and razor "belongs" to Babette. I'm not sure who stole The Method cleaner, but good for them for going green. They were not in Mexico as the postcard they stole depicts. The candy could be either.

In the "what's new that's not depressing" and in the "HAH I told you knitting would get me places" departments, I was recently hired by the wardrobe department for a Vegas show currently playing on The Strip. (I could figure out how to say Strip show without meaning, stripshow, something completely different.) I've mentioned before that I have weekly midnight knitting with members of the wardrobe department from the show. They like spending these Thursday nights with me so much, they wanted even more me time. So to all the people in my life (like my in-laws) that thought my knitting, stash, and drinking for that matter, was a waste of time, suck it. I got an iconic Vegas job through knitting (and drinking)!

I leave you with Tiffany who has been absent from the blog for awhile. Don't tell Babette. They're competitive.

Farewell Petunia.

2008-09-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

A rare picture of Petunia outside. Later she would refuse to pick up the ball on the ground because it was touching the ground.

Today part of me died along with my ever faithful Petunia. She went swiftly-- a quick seizure, and she was gone. I am still processing it. So much of my life was wrapped into the 40 lbs (yes, she had dropped the weight) of one neurosis after another.

Originally from Florida, she was meant to be a show dog, but because she didn't "thrive," she was taken to the vet who explained to her breeder that this puppy had to be on the only puppy in the house. We were happy to take and dote on her. She didn't like to go for walks, unless it was at the mall. Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Pier One, as well as boutique stores and a few restaurants that I won't name welcomed her with open arms. Five years ago on the first night of Hanukkah, I was sitting with her at The LA Farmers Market (we were getting her Santa pics done) and a minion, converted her to Judaism. I doubt they were converting every dog they saw, that was just her hold she had on people. Everyone from tourists to paramedics abandoning their patients to local gang members we encounter at Pink's Hot Dog Stand wanted to take pictures with her.

One time someone asked me why almost all my pics of her were on a bed. The answer was because that was her favorite place. She never had a wanderlust. She was my little crazy canine Howard Hughes. She only liked to be outside if she could sunbathe or get attention from people. If it wasn't at least 90 degrees out, she would go outside for the bathroom, and immediately run in like the dog catcher was coming for her.

She was allergic to grass and 27 other items including cats. She snored incessantly, and she NEVER woke up in the single digits. People always commented that she didn't understand that she was a dog. She did always seem baffled and a little offended when other dogs wanted to sniff her. I tried for awhile to make her more dog-oriented, but I grew tired of being in a pack of dogs in the dog park just to look back seeing her sitting on the people bench with the other owners.

Her favorite thing in the world was to play with tennis balls- and only tennis balls. She could catch as good as any dog with a snout-- except she would only play inside-- for hours and hours. My fingers would pickle throwing some mangy ball. And if a ball went out of her reach she would growl and bark until I got the ball for her even if meant dislocating my shoulder, because whatever ball she picked up for the day, she insisted on sticking with it.

Tonight for the first time I can ever remember, we don't have the A/C on. We always kept the house at 62 degrees because that's the temperature she seemed happiest at. I miss having my teeth chattering while she pants because I tried to move the temp up to 63 degrees, just to have her stop as soon as I would turn it back down.

I miss her and everyone of her little idiosyncrasies... I love you, my sweet Petunia.

Hat Attack 2

2008-09-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

I am such a follower sometimes. The knitters at my bar knitting were in the original Hat Attack, and though they were all killed off in the first round, they not only wanted to join HA2, but wanted me to also.

For those that don't know, Hat Attack is just like Sock Wars, but I think with more smack talk. My target is a LYS owner in Florida. My assassin is in San Francisco. I am basically dead knitter walking.

The "LV Assassins Guild" decided to have a knitting party the day the pattern was released (yesterday). As the back window will show, we were knitting for A LONG TIME. Not to go into gory exact times, but we watched Practical Magic, The Simpsons Movie, The Family Guy Movie, and Best In Show.

Emily, Jessica, Stefanie knitting start and end. Stefanie started with her hat from HA1 on for luck or inspiration or because it's great to wear a wool hat in 90 degree Vegas weather.

cupcakes baked by Stefanie

Because my assassin is a mere state away, my death is imminent; however, my tenacity would not allow me to go down without a killing:

Traveling rib= pain in my ass. I hate ribbing, so a completely ribbed hat, UG. However, if you want to make a ribbed hat, the pattern is free Ravelry download via Hat Attack search.

I want to say NEVER AGAIN, but I probably will be stupid enough to torture myself again for HA3.

Knitting Emergency

2008-09-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

We got free tickets through House Seats to Showtime Boxing out at State Line (I know I know, PRIMM) at Buffalo Bills. WHN loves boxing, and I can veg and knit, so I don't mind so much going. I do get quite a few odd, look at the sociopath looks while a knit and watch the pummeling.

I love knitting measuring things. I can never have enough measuring tapes or rulers, and this was so true Friday night because I didn't have a thing to measure with!! I search through my bag a million times as if my thoughts would create one. I'm near a point at a change in the pattern, so I am getting desperate. I look for something I could use that I knew the measurement of, and WHN suggests a dollar bill.

I ask WHN if he knows how long one is? He says 6". I ask how does he know? He replies, "What's 6" and makes a woman happy? A 100 hundred dollar bill" As much as I would like to rely on a old chauvinistic joke, I think I should confirm this source. I search through my phone list with the criteria 1) knitter so would understand and probably near knitting so near tape measure 2) even if thought was a pain in the ass, would still measure a buck for me 3) my time zone. Dani fit all these criteria! She came through too, and I could fold up the bill for smaller measurements. She totally saved my cookies! Now if she could just teach WHN a better dirty joke.

I think I am going to measure everything that I keep in my purse and label the measurements and stick on the objects.

We had 7 matches. Some quicker than others.

One was a female match for a belt. Melissa Hernandez vs Ella Nunez. Melissa enters the ring to Michael Jackson and dances for a few minutes which I think random, but her opponent is not amused.

Don't hit me!

Thanks Dani, you saved my night. Not knitting at boxing, would have done in my head.

Dale, Oprah, and Me or...

2008-08-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Does that tree look familiar?

WHN and I joined an organized hike through meetup.com of Dale's Trail in Red Rock Canyon. We actually had the choice of 2 hikes. The first, depicted a nice beginning hike alongside an idyllic creek to an abandoned homestead, while the latter, Dale's Trail, described a challenge through an overgrown cacti strewn path with deer ticks and an unused trail. WHN's ego made the decision, so we do not meander up along a babbling brook. Our hike leader hauls ass through this supposed trail (ironically, it is maintained by the NV Optimists), and at least I get to enjoy seeing signs of fatigue on WHNs exhaustive looking face while hearing his labored breathing. The area is not desert monochrome; green plants dot the red ground and multi-colored rocks like plum and yellow are sprinkled throughout. I wouldn't recommend charging through it like we did-- especially with the condition of the path.

Pulled this little silver dollar sized jerk out of my leg-- and the site is still itching me mad!

For the first time I wish that I had hiking poles as we also traverse some steep hills with loose rocks. The trail does not loop, so we plan to hike to the end and turn around. I quickly realize that despite our speed, we would be coming down a super steep slippery path in the dark.

A couple of weeks ago, Oprah had on the author of The Gift of Fear. One of his main premises is that humans are the only animals that talk themselves out of danger. All other animals when they sense a perilous situation peace out of it. I see the steep and long hill, and I refuse to go up it. Despite WHNs best efforts to dissuade my fear, I could not see myself coming down that steep slick long path in the dark. I told the others that I would be quite happy staying behind. WHN's cajoling does not work. The others are fine with leaving me on the trail to meet up with on their return.

Thank you Oprah.

Alone for the first time in my short hiking career, I am content and thrilled with the surroundings having a Snow White or Cinderella moment greeting animals. I confess, until this moment, I hiked just for the challenge. I enjoyed the scenery more as yeah ok whatever tree blah blah, but this area is truly striking. I take pictures of so many things that later I would look back and wonder what was going on in my head. Between the Oprah's fear gift moment and this, I am having a fairly momentous hike- but the excitement hasn’t even started.

Skull Rock, Dale's Trail, Red Rock Cyn NV

Rocks and plants look like candy here!

About 20 minutes go by and I hear WHN shouting. He had stayed with the group until he saw the end of the trail and decided to turn around meet up with me so that I wouldn't be quaking with fear alone in the desert. I will admit that I have a certain amount of satisfaction watching him slip and slide down the hill. He almost fell on his ass, but I guess I couldn’t have too perfect of a hike.

Where did the trail go?

We continue back towards the trailhead, but unfortunately, the hike in was so fast over rough terrain, we spent the hiking in focused on the ground. Dale really didn't spend much time marking his trail, and it is very difficult to tell if we were on a canyon trail or not. We could see the parking lot off in the distance- maybe a mile-- it's hard to tell. But we have a general direction to aim for, until the canyon lights went out. Instead of a gradual dimming, it appeared that a switched was flicked from day to night.

We have one headlamp between us. WHN wants it because assumes the lead--Something about being in the Irish equivalent to the Boy Scouts or some such. Fine. Knock yourself out. Thanks to car headlights, to the left I could make out the Red Rock Loop (a 13 mile road that circles through the inside of the canyon) and in front of us I see Charleston Road (the main drag that cuts through the canyon) We struggle staying on a path-- one moment we think we are on a path yet 2 steps later, surrounded by cacti, we are trying to figure out if we should have gone down into a wash or up over a ridge. WHN keeps a few steps ahead of me because with a head lamp can keep a faster pace while I fumble in darkness. He offers to hold my hand, but I envision instead of tripping through the darkness as I attempt to keep up, being dragged, so I decide to stick with Helen Kellering it. I periodically look in the direction I think we came from to see lights of the other group. No such luck. Does that mean that we are THAT FAR OFF that we cannot see the lights? I did, however, keep seeing the Big Dipper mocking me. Stupid nature. Even though it is dark and in the middle of a desert canyon, off a path, surprisingly to me, I don't feel scared. I'm alert, but not nervous. Maybe because the biggest animal I could think of that calls this area home is the burro. Who knows, fearless or not, I was getting over my original thrill being one with the desert.

Maybe another 20 minutes into the dark hike of finding and leaving various trails, I talk WHN into walking up to the Loop about 50 yards away even if it means scrambling in the dark (it didn't- we walk straight up the grade.)

A couple of pre-hike mistakes include me leaving my cellphone containing hike leader's phone number in it in favor of Emily's phone. What can I say, I didn't have any pockets. At least I had my headlamp (always on me because of Thursday bar knitting) which is more than WHN or later I found out, my hike leader had! Bar Knitting: 1 - Non knitters: 0.

We hike up to the road and it feels WONDERFUL being on the smooth black top, Civilization 1- Nature 0. Unfortunately, we make a right instead of a left on the road. I have a feeling we should be going the other way, but we decide to stay in the current direction until we could confirm it with a mile marker. Our theory is if we parked at mile 10.something, and we end up on Charleston, we only have to back track 2 miles on that wonderful black top road. Before we could get to a mile a marker, a truck pulls up and asks if we are OK. Evidently, the rest of our group, chickened out of returning on the path because of cacti and darkness. They were pulled out of the canyon by this truck. Experienced hikers: 0 - Oprah Watching Me: 1.

Unfortunately for us the Red Rock Loop is a one-way loop and we are going against traffic, so we couldn't get a ride and had to keep going up for another 3/4 mile uphill, but at least on a paved road. We get within site of the parking lot and could actually hear people. Another truck barrels up to us, driven by one of our hiking group people. Panicked, she asks ARE YOU OK?? I'm so glad I found you guys. blah blah blah. A minute earlier they just reported us lost to the ranger. She ushers us in to the truck and reverses to the parking lot, any potential search party is called off.

They are happy to see us, yet I sense a disappointment that we are nonplussed. I don’t think they wanted something bad to happen to us, but we could have appreciated the magnitude of the situation by appearing sufficiently panicked. But I guess we never felt lost per se, just off track. How desolate could we feel not only seeing the 2 roads, but the light of the Luxor too?

stars and bonnets

2008-08-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Shooting star left

Last week was the Perseid meteor shower. We drove out to meet up with others wacky enough to get to the spot, some wilderness area between here and Pahrump, at 3:30am. I am not sure if WHN has ever been to a meteor shower. He kept asking me if there was going to be one big moment with a bunch of shooting stars at once. Yes, that would be marvelous, but this isn't a fireworks show. I think being so used to TIVO didn't help much either. One minute a shooting star didn't seem long in theory, but in actuality, I think WHN walked away thinking TV-1, Nature-0. My nature loving Toonsters, jumped out of the car, poo'd and then try to jump back into the car.
**
I love finding out about sub-cultures. If I can see a fervor as someone describes their passion, I can listen to them for hours. I ask about the community group and the subtle rules etc or I can just listen to them chatter incessantly about whatever it is. One of the leaders of the Springs Preserves knitting group, Sarah, is an expert sewer. Her specialty? Period pieces! She spends her vacation time going to re-enactments. BTW, re-enactors and costumers consider themselves completely different animals. Anyway, with my desire to develop my sewing, and listening to her and her costumer friends enthusiastically discuss their world, is infectious. Somewhere between hearing about the upcoming Civil War Re-enactment, (Sarah: "I'm from Virginia, so I could never be a Yankee, however, I am willing to be a civilian attached to brigade") and the Jane Austen Tea & Dance... I found myself agreeing to go to the Old Mormon Fort for bonnet making. Maybe it was a combo of weak from hunger or the heat or a little cajoling or a weird desire to want to see it all first hand, but at the Old Mormon Fort for my first bonnet making class I was on Saturday put on by the Southern Nevada Living History Association.

Before the group met, I ran into these fellas who spend their Saturday playing an Old West version of D&D. Character sheets, play books-- all of it was present, however, when I made the comparison, I just got a dumb girl look from them. But trust me, it looked like a duck, it quack like a duck, and this duck was rolling those weird dice.

All together there were 5 of us. Sarah and Catherine were the pros having made multiple bonnets. I went in thinking I was going to get a frame, slap on some fabric, and VOILA a 1860 bonnet to wear to The Station for BJ or craps. I was SO WRONG. First, I had to trace and cut out the 3 flat pattern pieces out of buckram, a very stiff cotton/glue combo. Sewing these pieces together- back, middle, front took a bulk of the time.

1860 Buckram bonnet with my 2007 cellphone.

After, another long tedious process was bending millenary wire to the bonnet brim and sewing it on with a blanket stitch completing the bonnet skeleton for the layering of flannel and satin. I got as far as the flannel, so no amazing pictures of my fabulous bonnet that I am sure will make you all jealous and want one, thereby starting a new trend. However, I do have some pictures from the day and other finished bonnets made by the talented Sarah and Catherine.

The bonnet Sarah was working on. She says she works fast because she used to work at Colonial Williamsburg, evidently in a bonnet making sweatshop.

Bonnets by Catherine.

Catherine modeling bonnet. Maybe it does work with her shorts and t.

Not a bonnet, but she pulls this out and says she is almost done. She knocked this out in less than a week.

So, the good news, I can learn to sew all sorts of garments from these ladies, but they will all be pre-Victorian.

Last week, I got an email from LaFujiMama who said GO TO THIS. As evidence by my bonnet making class, I am clearly subsceptable to suggestion.

So there. Proof I went.

Ash Grove trail at Spring Mountain Ranch

2008-08-08T23:31:00.001-07:00

Out past the scenic loop drive in Red Rock Canyon, is Spring Mountain (Ranch), originating with the Paiutes through the Spanish Trail, Mormon Fort, Howard Hughes and now a state park. I wish I could say that I knew about this place, a mere 15 minutes from my home, before this week, however, my Vegas knowledge can be quite limited.

Drive to Spring Mountain Ranch

Ranch at dusk

A park ranger led the moonlight hike along Ash Grove Trail. We could hear the burros settling in (eventually we saw them), bats flying around, and critters like this guy ribbiting away:

After years of Spring Mountain use as a way station for people traveling west, the area was formally settled and a ranch was built. The most famous owner of it is Howard Hughes, but much to WHNs disappointment, Howard didn't spend any time there. Before WHN found out the truth, he kept talking about Hughes and Katherine Hepburn and other starlets frolicking around the ranch.

Main area of house. The brick is brick from Olvera St. The wood beams are re-purposed from the railroad.

Though WHN was quite fascinated with the Hughes connection, I found the most intriguing owner to be Vera Krupp, a German actress that married into money via a well-to-do Nazi that she eventually divorced after he was convicted of war crimes. The look of the ranch today most reflects her occupancy.

Vera appeals to me because was she was a crafter! She was into lapidary work-- oh believe me, if I would have found out she was a knitter, I would have probably peed with delight.

Her "public" master bedroom. This will soon make sense.

The only thing that can make a posh vanity even posher is a chandelier. Closet space is to the right and left. Behind the slatted doors on either side of the vanity is the shower (right) and the bidet (left).

One of Vera's closet with her clothes.

Another thing she did that was after my own heart, was build a secret bedroom past the regular bedroom where she could be left alone to sleep and craft!

Beyond this hidden door is a left turn down a narrow hallway leading to a master bath and her secret bedroom.

Secret bedroom

Vera said this was her favorite place in the world. When she died her ashes were scattered in the back canyon where she often camped out. The next owner, Hughes Corp used it as a corporate retreat; Robert Maheu spent a lot of time there. Fletcher Jones in the early 70s bought it with plans to develop the area into houses and businesses. Luckily he did not get the re-zoning approval, and the state bought the grounds for around 3 mil.

Today, visitors can hike the trails, tour the house along with other historic buildings on site, picnic on the grounds, or say hello to the horses.

Also adjacent to the ranch and part of the park is an outdoor theater. Again, I am so clueless-- I had no idea. While we were walking around we could hear the rehearsals for Aida which begins in a couple of weeks. I definitely want to go. Picnicking and knitting under the stars while watching a musical, sounds WONDERFUL!

Zion Narrows

2008-08-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday I went on my first hike at Zion National Park, Utah, about 3 hours outside of Las Vegas. Though the park has several hikes, its most famous is the Narrows.

After a 30-minute shuttle to the Narrows and a 10-minute hike to the trailhead, hikers enter the glacier water, which actually in the middle of the summer, feels quite comfortable. The Narrows are about 16 miles long, and if a hiker wanted to do the whole thing, a permit is required, but for this section, the lowers, no permit is required.

The water depth on Saturday varied between ankles and waist deep, though mostly it was just above my knees. A few sections are deep enough to swim in-- those were fun to accidentally discover. The depth wasn't an issue as much as the slippery rocks! Combine those with some parts having strong currents, and people definitely struggled at parts. A few sections had no rocks, but lots of sand-- I LOVE THOSE AREAS. I spent so much time jamming my toes in between rocks that I feared when I finally pulled off my shoes that that my baby toes would jump off my feet and run away. You can rent canyoneering shoes in town, but sneakers seemed to work as well on inexperienced hikers. I didn't use hiking poles, but if I did it again, I would, though I did pretty well without. I didn't fall at all going in, but coming out, I don't know if it was because I was tired, or ready to leave the Narrows after being in there for several hours, but I fell a few times, Thankfully, I had a set of clothes vacuum packed in my backpack as well as my camera double ziplocked. I thought that falling would release my fear of falling, but I admit that it had the opposite affect. But again, I think it was fatigue setting in to my body and mind.

Sand bars on either side are intermittent on the route. I remembering being in a heavy current with the water up past my waist, and I noticed I was alone. I looked to the opposite side of the Narrows and saw people on a walking on sandbar. CRAP!

We took a break inside the Narrows for lunch. My hiking buddy Kiwi, brought sushi. I had a wonderful packed lunch, but all I could focus on was eating the butter beans. I my body and brain was so scrambled at this point, I de-evolved, and I couldn't even fathom using a fork.

Several yellow caterpillars joined us,

but other than them, I didn't see any other animals until outside the Narrows. The ubiquitous squirrel, deer, a bighorn sheep, and this fellow I found next to the walking path.

I definitely want to not only try the Narrows again, but other trails including Angel's Landing that is 3.5 feet way with sheer drops measuring 900 feet on one side and 1200 on the other. However, I want to be a more experienced hiker before I attempt something like that.

Bristlecone Trail

2008-07-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to escape the desert valley heat for by taking a 25 minute drive to Mt Charleston and hike the Bristlecone Trail. The weather was wonderful-- cool and breezy. So many times as I stepped over pine cones I had to remind myself that I was in the desert. The trail itself is a 6 mile loop with a 700 foot elevation that happens slow enough that it doesn't seem so strenuous, yet is satisfying jaunt.

View of the ski lifts from trail

Trail

Trail
A fellow hiker kept stopping people to ask them to listen to the trees. That was a little granola for me.

The views are so expansive, and not a cactus in site!

I think I've been in the city too long, because I looked at the tall trees and realized how weird they looked as just trees and not cellphone towers.

Don't get me wrong, I love the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas, but this hike is a wonderful respite! I ran into US Forest service volunteers who provide hikes with trained volunteers. You can also ask for a volunteer to join you on a hike of your own. The guides I ran into disected a flower on the spot to show how it was built for insects to pollinate. They have interpretive hikes schedule throughout the summer. For more info, check them out at Get Outdoors Nevada. I'm thinking about joining them on their Aug 9 Cathedral Rock hike. Dogs are invited on this one, but the regular reader of this blog will know that I would need to borrow a dog if I wanted to bring one because Youknowwho doesn't do outside unless it's to sunbathe.

Stray update: Dani at Knit Las Vegas I think was referring to him the other day when I was in the store. I wasn't thinking at the time, so I didn't really answer her, but here it is: I finally found the crazy cat people I've been looking for: a spay organization, SOS. I am to pick up a trap later in August. Bob Marley (yeah I named him) will hopefully be snatched up, snipped off, and returned with as little stress as possible to us all. I asked, so how often do I check the trap to make sure I didn't catch a neighbor's cat? The SOS person says, bring 'em in anyway. They are a nuisance running around not fixed. Hearing those words made miss CA. Things like that totally happen there. I could just imagine trapping the neighborhood cats, fixing them, and returning them with notes saying YOU'RE WELCOME.

Sewing and Surprise from Japan

2008-07-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

This summer I have been taking a sewing class through UNLV. I've made a t-shirt, pants, and skirt, but for my SILs bday, I decided to go with something simple- an apron out of Amy Butler's In Stitches book. Unlike the classroom, I don't have 2 long desks all to myself, but have a kitten that is a jerk.

I didn't finish my apron because one thing I didn't learn in sewing class: wash fabrics. I will have to do some re-cutting. I also planned to make another project that day, but -- OK thankfully only 2 people read this blog-- and I am one on of them, because this is embarassing: I was working on this very popular pattern from Nancy's Quilt Shop. Even though this pattern has been out for a couple of years,and I have been sewing a couple of months, I saw something that didn't make sense and proceeded as if it was a pattern mistake. AAAAHHHH! Whatever. I need to get more fabric. I know. I'm awesome. I did find a little comfort in blaming Sprinkles. Yes, I am the type that would blame a kitten. I'm a bad bad person. Though just as I realize Sprinkles' cutting error, a Japan box arrives to calm down my cursing at and blaming of kitten for what clearly is her fault.

The box is bittersweet because it is my last Tokyo box since LaFujiMama as of this writing is now LaTheOCMama. Sprinkles decided to help me with the opening of this box too. Thanks kitten.

A Bento box with all the accouterment:

Random stuff:

The Pashmina shawl she picked up in Cambodia. I love the wooden doll that I plan to introduce to WHN's Chinese head that sits on our mantle. I have to admit my fav though is this adorable bracelet. I hate taking it off! She says she saw it a craft fair and it looked like something I would like. How well she knows my likes! The book on the right is especially fun, combining both knit and crochet projects. I love Japanese craft books. They are always well-diagramed and have a key to help with code. I will definitely be making some things out of this book.

A lovely farewell Tokyo box that arrived at the perfect time. Sprinks agrees too.

Here is the doll with the head on the mantle. The brown thing is an amber trinket WHN picked up on Ebay for $2. I have no idea why. He has a knack for finding the most random stuff. The diodes (that's what they are called right?) because WHN likes cracked opened rocks. And the the milagro is mine, because I LOVE milagros!

As a thank you, I am making a sun dress for Baby Fuji.

The top, was a pain-- physically and mentally. The yarn has to be pulled really taught to get the smocking. I thought I would have enough red for the dress, however, I won't, no matter how much I try to will it to be so. I originally bought both these colors because one day LFM said she wanted me to crochet some random basket she saw online for her. I thought how mindless, I could crochet this quick thereby setting the precedent of pointing something out and receiving it. So my plan is do the same to her when I find something horribly complicated and miserable that I don't want to make, but want. I know CLEVER CLEVER!

Any cat people out there? I need advice!

2008-07-07T21:06:00.001-07:00

I'm a S-U-C-K-E-R for animals. All but Toonsters are rescues. I noticed this particular cat when we moved here. Before we shut the cat door because Sprinkles is still too little, I knew a stray visited at night and ate Fred's food. Since Sprinkles arrived, we've kept this door shut. I started leaving food out for kitty.

I called a local cat rescue, but was told they were 100 cats over their cat allotment. I can't get kitty to come up to me really, but today have discovered: he's an unfixed boy. Unfortunately, I can't bring a third cat in to compete with my ultra alpha Fred. As a reminder, Fred's an old alley cat that is so broken down (see below), we got Sprinkles to be Gramp's escort outside from just this type of cat. Thankfully, Sprinkles so far (inside and supervised outside) is a scrapper. Also, I can think of 2 ferrets that are having a hard enough time dealing with said scrappy kitten.

Looking at his ear, he is clearly injured. I am sure there are other issues he has (besides those furry little balls that have GOT TO go) Unfortunately, Las Vegas does not have the stray resources that other cities do, so I am at a loss how to help him.

Fred's tore up'dness

And a token ferret picture:

Ferrets have no fear of the animals in this house. Now imagine a cat that has been on his own in the wild... not a great combo.

Any thoughts given the VERY LIMITED resources of Las Vegas, would be appreciated.

Flora great. Fauna nosomuch.

2008-07-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we transfered our cherry tomato plants (yellow pear and super sweet 100) to upside down buckets. Cherry tomatoes are supposed to do great in Vegas. Whatever.

Happy planting day:

Unhappy two weeks later:

The yellow you see are not tomatoes, but leaves. Ug.

And my peppers are doing just as well!

I bought some native plants grown in the Springs Preserves. I look forward to killing indigenous plants too.

The animals are coming along kind of sort of.

As for Sprinks and the ferrets. Very odd dynamics. Tiff still wants to befriend Sprinkles. Babette and Sprinkles are in an all out war. Sprinkles stalks Babette until Babette flips out and chases Sprinkles. To remind you, Tiff is the alpha ferret, so the fact that Babette evidently is trying to keep a kitten from usurping her 2 position is kind of cute. Sprinkles, too afraid to really challenge Babette, takes out her frustration on Tiffany (who is still trying really hard to befriend Sprinkles) by swatting, chasing, and being an all-around jerk towards poor Tiffany.

However, the bigger animals are adjusting better.

OK so not all days are great...

'
If you noticed the couch-- hot off the success of my summer gardening, I plan to re-upholster this sectional. If you are thinking, "oh I didn't know she could sew..." You are correct my friend. However, I have learned to thread my machine, so I figure I'm golden.

If you noticed the slender dog-- as of her last weigh in, she is within 2 lbs of her goal weight (from 49 to 41)

Summer in Vegas.. so far

2008-06-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Up until last weekend we were enjoying record low temperatures. Yes that's right, we had not reached 100 degrees. Scratch that now. I must be acclimatizing because the heat felt good when I moved from one A/C place to another.

I haven't done anything too exciting so far, but here are some of the things I have been up to:

Boxing match in Primm

I have to admit, I enjoyed myself. I didn't know that the ring girls are actually competing too for most applause. Boxing matches are great places to knit, btw.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid book signing:

Nevadans know exactly who ol' Harry is, but the rest of you, he is very popular Nevada. Barbara Walters and Amistead Maupin are also coming to town soon. I am more interested in the latter than the former.

OK enough of me. I know why you read this blog. Animal updates.

Sprinkles is adapting quite nicely, unless of course you ask the ferrets. They aren't so fond of her. We had a brief period where Babette chased her, but now she is back to terrorizing them. Again, if the ferrets and Sprinkles filled out their profiles on match dot com or eharmony, they would be put together. SO MUCH IN COMMON! Whatever. Let them be jerks and miss out on a potentially beautiful relationship.

However, the bigger animals seem to be adjusting better.

Oops posted wrong picture.. how about this one?

Wait that looks a little too much like corner the kitten... I got a more harmonious one somewhere...

As WHN would say, TV brings everyone together. Since they are asleep, must be the European Soccer Championship is on. Even typing it out made me YAWN. Though, I did form an attachment to a Romania player, Nicolita.

And if you little crocheters out there are curious and notice the afghan, it's one that has been around since I was a child, made by Grandmother. Though now as a knitter/crocheter myself, I notice so many things about it... little mistakes here and there, which I have to admit, are fun to find.... though no one better do that to my creations! Got that?!

Liberace lives

2008-06-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

I always wondered about the Liberace Museum nestled in a strip mall a couple miles off The Strip. If Elvis-o-rama behind The Strip couldn't stay open, I figured Liberace's days were numbered.

I was so wrong.

On a Thursday 2pm tour, there were 28 others basking in the campy crystal glory.

The museum is divided into two buildings. The front building where the tour starts, houses his cars and pianos. From that building the tour continues along the strip mall where his furrier and costume designer still have store space. When his costumer is there, she comes out and tells Liberace stories. I am sure this is delightful in the spring or late fall, but probably not so much in the 100+ degree summer. Other businesses renting in this mall include an Asian grocery store and a bar. The 2nd building holds his costumes and jewelry as well as the snack bar and gift shop.

The whole strip mall is owned by the Liberace trust. He bought the land in his heyday and started a non-profit organization as part of his continual battle with the taxman.

When I was a kid my dad had one of these cars, but in the more tasteful red sparkly paint. It's a kit car and a piece of it would arrive each month. I can't remember how many pieces arrived before he was like "SHIT I don't know how to build a car- and trying to figure it out kinda sucks" and took it it to his mechanic to put together for him. He drove this little deathtrap on the LA Freeways daily. Every day that he picked me up from school, the kids crowded around it.

Liberace kept track of his costumes and didn't duplicate them at a tour stop unless specifically asked (the Australians always requested the hotpants).

Swarovski crystals were struggling before Liberace discovered them as a cheaper way to bejewel his costumes. You can buy crystals from the gift shop tax free and as a charity write off because of their non-profit status.

Liberace was unhappy with this painted portrait of his mom because of the swollen foot that was faithfully rendered.

A desk from Versailles. This reminds me: You know what Vegas is missing? An IKEA!

On the 2nd Sunday of the month, locals and their guests get in free. The rest of the time admission is $15, $10 for students and seniors. There is daily shuttle service to/from Strip hotels.

Adjusting.

2008-05-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

So far the animal utopia I envisioned has been slow coming. We did accomplish a name for the kitten: Sprinkles. I love that it is a wonderfully ridiculous name for a cat. Office fans might notice that Sprinkles is the name of Angela's cat who met a sad demise when Dwight, deciding not to give her anal rash cream, put kitty in the freezer. I normally wouldn't name a creature after pop culture references, however, SHHH secret part-- WHN is not an Office fan. In fact, I think he wants to not like it because everyone does (sad attempt at him being a cool outsider, whatever) Once Sprinkles sticks as a name, I will let him know where the name comes from. So yes, Sprinkles is getting her name as a cruel joke to WHN. In fairness, I know he saw this episode, though probably doesn't remember the cat's name. But come on, as he said when I suggested the name, "That's a good name because Sprinkles are always good!" Well we shall see, WHN, we'll shall see.

I don't know if Sprinkles knows what the ferrets are, but she's not liking them. She swats, and they freeze (ferrets must suck in the wild) But they are really really trying with her. I think we are making progress.

Unfortunately, more meetings are like this.

Babette, has this weird wanting to be submissive thing about her. We know Tif is the alpha ferret, but we didn't realize how easy it is to be the alpha with ol' Babs. Babette is more interested in Sprinkles than Tif is. She follows Sprinkles around just to get smacked. My sweet simple Babette is getting something out of it though-- look how she poofs up. Ferrets poof when they are excited-- good, bad, whatever.

Look at that tail!

We must be very vigilant because this submission thing, her name, and being in Vegas, she might end up on the pole if we aren't careful.

The bigger animals are taking Sprinkle's existence and the extra attention she requires in stride.

NEW KITTEN!

2008-05-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

I know what you are saying. She has a tenuous grip of control over what animals she has now! Why is she throwing a kitten in. We got sucked in. Her mom, a teenager herself, got into a family way while her owner was away. The story is the kitty sitter didn't know that she wasn't fixed. Her mother is a mottled orange/black cat. The babydaddy unknown. The litter was full of mixes of blacks, gingers, and calicos.

I'm trying to come up with a name. So far Aisling, Penelope, Daphne, and Pleasejustusethelitterboxonce are in the lead.

My initial thought was that the ferrets have always wanted to play with Fred, but he rejects them. I thought a kitten, would just think they were funny looking kittens and want to play with them.

Fred, being between 12-15 yo, having only 2 teeth and a limp, I thought could use a young strong lieutenant out there with him when he makes his rounds outside.

I thought that her and the ferrets would be fast friends given that they are the same size. So far, she is spitting at them. Toonsters, my pride and joy is growling at the scared, tiny 8 week old kitten. Way to go, dog. Fred, well, I am sure eventually it will work out. But in the interim, I am learning a whole new range of sounds that he can make.

Springs Preserve Knitting

2008-05-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

A knitting group at the Springs Preserve meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursday each month. The group founders, Jessica and Sarah, picked a perfect day/time because the Preserve is buzzing with a farmer's market from 4-8 and Wolfgang Puck's Cafe (where we met) holds seasonal events on this day too. Half way into our group, we had prime seats for the Mozart & Mojitos.

Happily knitting and crocheting away.

Our view- the Farmers Market in the courtyard (that is faux grass!). The background is downtown Vegas and the north end of The Strip in the background.

Jessica would not let her mojito drinking interfere with her knitting... or was it the other way around?

They have FANTASTIC gift shop. All items are from sustainable sources, or recycled materials.

Such as newspapers (they also had purses made from tires)

And of course I could not not take the picture of the knitted socks called soul mates (ie similar but mismatched socks) could this be a result of the sock knitting craze and the creation of fraternal twins socks?

A balsy little rabbit that insisted I take his picture.

If you live in Vegas and haven't checked out the Springs Preserves - GO! Thursday is 2 for 1 admission for the exhibit halls, a great bargain. The trails are free all the time. Check out their website for the tons of events they have.

Prom season in Vegas

2008-05-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

Casinos, especially off-Strip properties are not just places to gamble, many have movie theaters, bowling alleys, and other amenities that you might not necessarily think of when you think of casinos. Though I have learned to take much of this for granted, sites that are quotidian to most Las Vegans, still stand out to me.

Tonight, while we used our 2-for-1 buffet coupon at Red Rock Canyon Casino we found prom kids. I loved seeing the mixture of fanny packs and formal attire.

To get this picture, I said I was a tourist from Oklahoma.

I'm sure that all regions have their own take on what a prom night entails. In Los Angeles, I can guarantee that you will find prom goers in limos hitting Pink's Hot Dogs.

In recession gets felt everywhere news, the only fish at the buffet tonight was fried catfish. Normally, you can find salmon and halibut at the very least. I read that other buffets are now adding a surcharge to the crab legs that have become popular buffet fixtures.

But who cares tonight! It's prom in Vegas!

When was the last time I blogged?

2008-05-02T05:58:00.000-07:00

WOW! It has been a long time. Some of you know I have some icky deadlines so I have self-imposed internet limits for myself. I've only allowed myself Ravelry and CNN and 2 Vegas news sites in 10 min bursts a couple times of day. It's been tough. I miss blog reading! However, I saved a little time, by going uninformed so I could do a quick post.

I have a couple FO's to share, both hats knit for a 12 year old, hence the colors, though I think by 12, I had completely switched to my all black all the time wardrobe. Both hats are for the same child, who is currently going through chemo. People are trying to organize lots of hats for her because bad enough going through chemo, but having to do it as a tween girl.

I knit a good portion of these hats at a new knit group here in Vegas which meets midnight at McMullan's Pub. You Vegas people should come and check it out. We meet 12:30-3:30am. No traffic to/from, and it's a great time!

Fellow midnight knitter, Maddiehatter models both hats. WHN saw the pics and complimented me not showcasing in the shot the fact that I am taking pics of a kid's chemo hat in a bar. I reminded him that I am class and discretion all the way.

The first is a slouchy beanie.

I think on a kid, and worn further back it will be slouchier. Also, I'm thinking it will slouch up because I used cotton yarn.

The second hat is Verity. I knit size small using Rowan All Seasons Cotton.

This is the second time I have knit this, and both times it has come out more tam than beret, hopefully she will like it. I was sadly reminded that if she doesn't, she probably has a whole new set of friends that need hats.

I noticed on the Ravelry group, there were a few questions on knitting the band onto the hat. I took pics as I went on, because it was a fun technique.

First step was to knit the 1.5" of tab that overlaps and the button will be sewn on. Once done, I slid the tab (12 st I think) onto the needles that held the hat, with the inside of the hat facing me. The band will be knit onto the hat in the opposite direction that I knit the hat.

Tab ready to slide onto needles holding hat

Great thing about needle kits, I could knit on the needles and then connect to the cord holding the hat.

I knit in the band pattern but the last stitch of the band, I knit together with the closest hat stitch. The first couple of connecting stitches were loose, but easily pulled together tight.

The vertical row below the needles is the connected band. To the right is the band itself going and to the left the live hat stitches waiting to be connected.

Both hats were a quick satisfying knit, which sadly, is the only kind of knitting I can do right now. I'm knitting more for relaxation than for the challenge for the next few months, but hey, knitting is knitting!

Beware of the Ides of March

2008-03-20T03:26:00.000-07:00

My birthday on Saturday was forgotten. It was kind of funny. I don't want to name names, but I'll give some initials to indicate how deep this amnesia went--> WHN!

But luckily for me my birthday was not forgotten in Germany or Japan! I was quite proud of myself because normally when I get a box, I tear it open like a hyper 2 year old. Instead, I put them in the closet and waited 20 hours, 10 minutes, 7 seconds before I tore into them. WHN ofcourse was cruising nearby because he knows Sibille always sends candy. He says something like wow you got 2 boxes how random. I am used to his lame jokes, so I am nonplussed. Thankfully Rachael includes a card because the look on WHN after he made the mistake of asking to see it was beautiful. You know, when you actually see the evidence on someone's face of their brain clicking into gear. AWKWARD. I won't bore you with the lame excuses. Just trust that they were unimpressive.

But enough of his trifling! Onto what I actually got!

From Sibille in Germany, I got an awesome shawl, the Mystic Waters Lace Shawl! This was knit during her sock hiatus. I am always thrilled to get knits from her. I will get much use out of it, though I think Dani is thinking right now, "yeah it will go great with the old sweats you always wear to knit night." I was thinking that too! Actually I think it will be really nice in the casinos where it can be ultra cold while the outside is very warm. Plus seeing the effort that went into this shawl made a certain WHN feel like an asshole (as a former Spanish teacher liked to say EXTRA BONUS!) She also sent some Easter candy (gone) and vegetarian gummy bears (also gone, save one bag) as well as a cute sheepy guy that will go into my craft loft.

The day before I was eyeing a glove book that I hadn't seen before. Somehow Rachael and I were on the same wavelength because THAT book, Knitting New Mittens and Gloves was in my gift box from her. She also sent me candy, including Japanese chocolate that I am bit worried about because their chocoreputation is nosogood. But this beats the insects that she has been eating of late, so I am not complaining. She did include Pockies which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. The yarn is Malabrigo silky merino. I am looking forward to playing with that. She also sent me a hat pattern, probably because she was sick of me sending her WHAT ABOUT THIS HAT emails. You will also notice some really pretty chopsticks behind the card (with the cake) that says, "hope WHN spoils you or I will kick him." So not only did he get to feel again like a jerk, but he also has a good dose of fear because he knows how feisty Rachael can be.

THANK YOU BOTH!

Interesting (at least to me since it is my bday) I share my day with the death of Julius Caesars in 44 BC (condolences, Julius) I would also like to extend birthday wishes on that day to FABIO and Michael Scott in Scranton.

March o'recipe: brown bread

2008-03-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

In honor of March, I am sharing a very Irish recipe- brown bread. This is a fabulous quick bread that is hearty, dense, moist on the inside with a crispy crust on the outside. It is easy-peasy to make, so give it a try. No special bread making skills or knowledge required. I can't think of an American equivalent to it. I will be offering 2 versions (the second one later in the month) so you will be able to compare.

1/2 lb white flour
6 oz oats
2 oz bran
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking soda
2 beaten eggs
1/2 pint water
1 pint buttermilk
3/4 lb whole meal flour
2 oz wheat germ

Optional: sesame or poppy seeds to sprinkle on top (I don't bother)

(I know you have to weigh the stuff... always meant to do the conversions, but this is more authentic. They don't use cups etc as measurements in Ireland. If I would have put out this recipe in Feb, then I would have had to do the conversions, but since it's March, pogue mahon.)

Pre-heat oven to 390 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients, add egg, then buttermilk and water. Mix very well by hand and spoon into 2 well-greased loaf pans.
Smooth surface and sprinkle seeds if you want at this point. Bake for 1 hour. Pop out and enjoy.

Stashbusting and ferrets

2008-02-27T21:27:00.001-08:00

The ferrets are pissed since that they haven't made an appearance in the blog lately. They've been jerkier than their normal jerk selves, but there's no living with them until they are featured yet again doing what they do best- irritate me.

I want to stash bust. I plan a blanket, 2 shawls and a bag that hopefully will lessen my load. I read on Ravelry some chick saying that her stash consisted of 3 skeins of yarn. And she will not buy yarn until she uses those three skeins. I know what you are thinking, WHORE. Me too! However, I thought, what I great thing to aspire to. I figure if I get to 3 give/take 100 skeins, I'm golden.

I started to pull yarn for one of these projects and I got some unasked for help.

I get bogged down in the details of picking yarn, so as of yet, I haven't made the final decisions. I wanted to do a shawl in all reds and then one that has a bunch of colors, but without looking like a 4 year old picked out them out.

WHN has never complained about my stash. I think he is finally cashing in this ticket because he is getting his own stash. He recently went out into the desert and brought back some rocks that he is convinced has gemstones in them as soon as he figures out how to crack them open, I might get jewelry (not holding my breath.) He also brought back dirty rocks that show life a zillion years back. Fossils great in museum, books, everywhere but where I can stub my toe on them.

Fern. I'm not sure when this desert last had ferns.

Thankfully, he hasn't figured out how to bring this bad boy back, but he and his buddy are convinced that this is a dinosaur footprint. I so don't want more big ugly rocks in the house. I'm sure the ferrets are working out levers to move the rocks so they can create a ferret civilization somewhere for me to trip over. They will then tie me up and sacrifice me as part of their fledgling religion.

AND finally...Thank you Claudia for the compliment! Since I am the last person in the blogger world to get the YOU MAKE MY DAY award, there is no one left for me to distinguish. I am always the last on these things. But suffice it to say, Claudia is now my favorite blog reader. The rest of you need to work harder.

Does this fur make her look fat?

2008-02-17T07:14:00.000-08:00

So maybe her harness is tighter and we are down to the last hole. And yes, she is winded when she runs up the stairs. And we have been getting a lot of YOUR DOG IS FAT when we've taken her out (so when did saying that become acceptable, by the way) but we weren't prepared for the number on the scale at the vets. Toonsters weighs 49 lbs and she needs to weigh closer to 42 (OK so really 40 but I am trying to make her not seem so gargantuan).

Her big problem is-- I don't want to name names--but someone in the household other than myself, the ferrets, or the cat is giving her people food such as blueberry muffins.

While her turn on's include people food, her turn-off's include going for walks, grass, other dogs. We live right across the street from a dog park, but unfortunately, unless they install carpeting, a couch and get rid of the dogs, she is not interested.

If you are wondering, no she won't walk onto the grass to get that ball. She will stand and stare, then stand and bark, then maybe walk the perimeter, but she will not pick up a ball on the grass. And yes, it is embarrassing when she does this.

In fairness to her, who does like to play in their toilet. And it's not that she doesn't like other dogs, she is just ambivalent to them, or more like she doesn't see herself as one of them, OK so my dog is a snob. I didn't raise her to be one, but c'est l'vie, she's from Venus, they're from Mars.

She isn't completely an inactive bon-bon eating couch potato, her favorite past time is her tennis ball, which we are trying to get her more back into fetching versus throwing the ball in the air and letting her catch it without actually having to move.

Though only the 3rd day, she seems to be adjusting well to her new diet.

And WHN assures me he will do his part by walking her more.

Wish her luck and when she is down to her svelt 40 lbs, I will post a picture for you to ooo and ahh over (even if you don't notice a difference, still ooo and ahh.. it will make her feel better.)

As for the cat whose presence is keeping me from new furniture, that fat toothless moany jerk can eat until he explodes.

blending colors

2008-02-09T21:57:00.000-08:00

Saturday was my monthly spinning group at Nancy's Quilt Shop. This is more than a spin-along as Barb conducts a workshop with always interesting spinning techniques. This time we had a carding class for use in color blending. Drum carders, blending boards, and hackles were all present and available to use. First we had lessons on basic color chart use. With this knowledge in hand I grabbed colors and went to the carder, a Pat Green for Deb Menz carder. I was in a raspberry mood, and I am ALWAYS in a green mood so those were going to be my initial 2 colors. The green was too dark, so I tried mixing it with yellow.

Later white was added to the green mixture to lighten even more. Each pass through the carder made the individual colors less distinctive.

I blended the roving 2 different ways- as stripes (blue was added in because I needed a third color and since it was late, I wanted one that I wouldn't have to mess around with) and also on top of each other.

Laying the roving along side each other yielded:

Layering the roving:

Here's a closer look

I was fascinated by the different looks once spun. I was going to be the blogging superstar by plying them, but I can't decide if I want to ply them together or separately on themselves or with other roving. I do need to get them off those bobbins.

Hackles are used to make pencil roving. The roving is put on, and the pulled through a diz.

Blending boards make a bat. Basically the roving is combed onto the board and then pulled off.

Some more random pictures from the day.

striping vs layer

Llama fiber mixed with wool

Making sparkly yarn

This day really opened up my eyes to what a drum carder can do. I could have blended for hours. I want a drum carder (I know what a shock!) I don't know if I want one that is heavy duty ie can take a manky ol' sheep and turn it into combed fiber, or a more delicate one that is more into blending colors and already combed fibers.

Happy Chinese New Year

2008-02-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

My rats are being their normal jerk selves by stealing my yarn to keep with their collection of WHNs dirty socks. I haven't shown one of their stock piles lately, so please enjoy. This is Tiffany's. Babette's is under the couch and contains pens, cutlery, razors, and bathtub stoppers.

Tiffany doesn't even have the decency to be covert about it.

Recently I made Christine's Baby Booties for a friend. I can't say that I enjoyed the pattern, yet I feel compelled to make them again. Don't know what's wrong with me there.

Really they are the same size.

I put them next to former Communist Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin's shoe for size comparison (and yes, he is holding a scarf that I recently knit that needs to be felted)

Another FO SLIPPERS!

2008-01-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

Last June my SIL asked me to make her live-in BF slippers. I thought it a good opportunity to use some LOPI that I bought years ago at a sale. Stitches From the Heart, a charity LYS gets yarn donations that can't always be used for baby garments so they sell them at CHEAP rates. My yarn was a dollar a skein.

I originally bought it to play around with Kool-Aid dyeing. These slippers were a great opportunity to get rid of all my failed experiments.

I dyed the yarn in red with parts over dyed in a darker crimson.

Then I forgot about it. But completing the afghan inspired me to picked them back up and finish them.

Have you ever felted LOPI? It is the fuzziest of the wools! Also, it took forever to shrink all the way down. I cranked up the water temp, but I couldn't bring it down its last 2 inches until instead of normal detergent I added Borax and the last bit of shrinkage happened in the dryer. I know people talk about the easy-peasyness of felting, but I ALWAYS struggle with it. I have yet to have a pleasant experience doing it. I am happy with the results, but the over dyeing was too subtle and loss in the felting. But at least it is done and out of my life.

And I am getting stuff too! Another great package from Sibille!

She sent me delectable Euro candy, including what I am assuming are vegetarian gummy bears. She knows that I can't read German, so it could be extra meaty meat gummy bears and only she would know. She also sent a gingerbread Santa (I love Gingerbread!) Also included is this pretty yarn I can't wait to use. I haven't seen yarn with gold color flecks in it. How are those flecks done?? But the true treasures of the box...

Aren't these socks wonderful?? If I remember correctly the patterns are from Favorite Socks. Am I glad I got her that book! She says she doesnt want Cat Bordhi's new book, but I think might have to send that one to her too... ;) Thank you Sibille! My feet have never felt so stylish and happy!

DONE! DONE! DONE!

2008-01-17T02:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, at 12:16pm pst, I FINISHED the blanket that I started when I was 7 years old. I am in shock. I have this sense of freedom.

I started with 69 squares from my childhood. Some of the color combos came from my Grandmother. I made 71 more, some of the combos from you! I think that is a nice full circle moment.

1. Sibille, 2. Morkirlan, 3. Rachael, 4. Claudia, 5. Shelby, 6. Jinann, 7. Abbeykins, 8. Javajem, 9. Telmah

Yes, I was thrilled when this happened:

And this:

And this:

Fred has never sat on this chair before. It took him 3 minutes between setting the afghan on it and his stupid self discovering it. Earlier I had joked that I wanted to turn the guest room completely white with all white furniture and put my blanket in there. He was not in the plan.

The granny square monkey is off my back.

Squares done!

2008-01-14T02:27:00.000-08:00

I finally finished all the squares for this afghan. I originally did not mean to make so many, but I decided I rather make more squares than have to make a super never ending border to get to a decent size. I also knocked back the pastelness of the squares of 7 year old me. I'm not sure if I was into pastels, but I think my grandmother made a lot of baby afghans and I got her left over yarn. 7 year old me will be thrilled that her squares were put together finally. Though I am thinking about blowing off that kid, because assembling squares is TEDIOUS.

It felt good to make that final square. Everyone was excited about seeing it.

The ferrets offered their help in laying out the squares.

Toonsters felt that the square design was fine as is, and felt we should move onto other things.

But I got her to focus and we finally got done. Now if I can just teach them to use a crochet hook and put them together for me.

Prudence was here

2008-01-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

I was at Wooly Wonders for a knit night, 1 of 2 (and I think possibly soon to be 3) LYSs in Vegas. While sitting among the lively crowd, I notice a woman named Prudence wearing a free form vest sitting across from me. Put these two facts together and sure enough Prudence Mapstone! She is visiting Vegas on her way to TNNA. I was so excited to have the queen of free form knitting and crocheting in front of me. I thought about playing it cool, but I decided to fawn and pepper her with questions. She patiently answered them all. I loved spending time with one of the knitting luminaries in such a relaxed atmosphere. She let us preview a book by one of her former students books, Myra Wood who combines free form knitting and lace. Myra Wood bridges the gap for some that see the scrumbles as too frenetic by adding the elegance of lace. Prudence also brought some finished garments, that are amazing. Check out here site if you havent done so already. At the end of the night, Prudence gave me a signed copy of her latest book, Coat of Many Scrumbles, a collection of scrumbles from scrumblists throughout the world. I love looking at it for ideas. Scrumbling is the ultimate portable knitting/crocheting project. Just a little baggy of smatterings of yarns and a hook and needles. No thought or pattern or anything required!

I have 2 spots left for squares... so if you haven't picked some colors for me do so now. If you have, go ahead do it again! 2 squares!! I will love and admire and be grateful to you forever!

Granny Square HELL!

2008-01-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

I am working diligently on my 30 year old granny square afghan, and I have to say, it was as monotonous as I remember. And I am officially spent on coming up with color combos. WHN as been doing a few lately and I have to admit he is coming up with things I wouldn't have thought of. He calls some of his ugly creations able to fit in quite nicely with kid Polly's... Ug. So now I am calling to the smattering of you that read this, to pick colors for me:
- 4 colors let me know in what order. I numbered them so you wont have to describe the color. If you can't read the number, upper left (1) to upper right (7) and so on to 31.
-email, leave a comment, or send me a message via ravelry

Just a couple notes:
6- cranberry (and 21 crimson so you figure that out)
7- primary color green
11- Vanna White's acid green
14- not that dark brown
27- bright neon pink
Thanks! I have been picking the same square colors over and over again. I will make the square and post the end results (with your name, so don't try to screw me with your color choice ;)

We have a new hotel in Vegas- The Palazzo, the tallest hotel in Vegas. It's connected to the Venetian. The Palazzo was scheduled to open on Dec 28, but I guess they were behind so it opened, but the rooms arent ready as well as most of the shops. But their atrium is lovely. For people that are familiar with the Vegas resorts, this hotel is lovely, but it does have the WOW of the Bellagio or Wynn.

Happy New Year! And don't forget to pick for colors for me!

EDIT: Thank you so much! I am thrilled. You guys are picking things I wouldn't have thought of! I LOVE LOVE just mindlessly crocheting. Keep on picking! I'm keeping up with you and will post everyone's squares next week.

Hopefully this is only a so far preview...
Telmah

Javajem

Abbeykins

THANK YOU!

2nd to last FO of 2007

2007-12-29T00:30:00.000-08:00

I finished the Christmas gloves for WHN right on time. The timing was so good that I was able to present them to in reply to him busting my balls about not making him gloves. So not only did I get the joy of seeing someone appreciate my handknits, but I was able to feel extra superior-- Merry Christmas to me!

The pattern is from Not Just More Socks by Sandi Rosner. I love alternative uses for sock yarn, however, I am not pleased that she only includes 2 sizes (medium man / woman.) I used Regia yarn that I bought about 4 years ago at a guild meeting in California. So good for me, I am stashbusting! OK maybe one skein isn't exactly busting, but it's chipping and that's close enough for me.

I'm spending time now trying to catch up with knitting. I should teach the dog how to do it so I can take the pressure off of me.

Someone who doesn't feel pressure, Tiff:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

2007-12-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

I got my cast off FRIDAY! I am thrilled, though my arm feels cold and vulnerable. It is now in a brace, and I am still limited on my computer usage-- for the 3 months. Normally I am doctor advice, schmoctor advice, but it's my right hand so I am trying to be more diligent than I have been.

But not too diligent! I've missed knitting so much, and I promised WHN convertible gloves. I popped some pain pills, drank some hard cider, and got to work. I want them done by Christmas, so I have been doing a lot of secretive knitting.

As I started to knit them, I was reminded of all the great people I've met out there. The stitch markers (weasels!) are from The Crafty Weasel in honor of my weasels Tiffany and Babette:

I've been hiding them (socks not ferrets though they'd love it) in a Amy Butler print bag made by the lovely Javajem.

And because it is 53 F in the house, (the heater makes Toonsters pant), I've been nightly (and daily) wearing the most comfortable socks ever by Bentota. Thankfully she has knitted me a few pairs!

And for Christmas, my SP, La Fuji Mama sent me a crappy box from Japan-- literally.

I'm not sure what she was thinking about me, but who can resist such lovable poo! Mr. Happy Poo was crocheted by her, and she took this picture, because currently Mr. H. Poo is being held captive in a secret location by Tiffany the ferret. I love the poo and TP stickers. But I am not sure when I grade papers, would the good or bad papers get one?

She also sent some treats from Japan.

-Pancakes - I love thick wonderful pancakes!
-chocolate - I love chocolate, but this is supposed to taste crappy (sticking with that theme eh Fujimama?) Anyway, when WHN has his Belgian chocolate, I plan to trade him for it and let him figure out the inadequacies of Japanese chocolate on his own.
-litle candies and ornaments... and a stamp of guess who... HAPPY POO with the associated brown stamp pad.

Then she went random... patches, calendar, and Santa Coke ornaments... I haven't examined Santa closely, but I will assume no continuation of theme there.

And finally, a little stowaway, her mascot, Keito-chan! I promised her that I would show little KC a good time. So far she's been getting into the Vegas way of life. Some of her adventures can be seen on La Fuji Mama.

And finally a card with happy drunk animals,

to go along with my joyous ones:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Christmas at Las Vegas Square

2007-12-14T13:38:00.001-08:00

Recently a new outdoor mall opened in Vegas on S. Las Vegas Blvd at the 15 and 215. The mall reminds me of a small town, or should I say, the set of a movie of a small town. I expected the Gilmore Girls to pop out at any moment. They have parking lots, a garage, but for the lazy person in us, also available are metered parking along the "streets" of the inside of the mall. And it wouldn't be Vegas without the valet option.

Not all the shops are open yet, but some that are Apple, Eddie Bauer, Banana Republic, Guitar Center, and Claim Jumper. They also have RAVE movie theater.

Ofcourse right now I love it because it's now 5000 degrees out. Come summer, it will be dead to me.

If you are into Norman Rockwell, through the holidays, they have statures recreating 6 of his magazine covers scattered throughout the mall.

A few days ago, Santa was seeing the doggies. I thought the combo of new mall and Vegas not being the friendliest dog town, it wouldn't be that crowded, but it was packed with pooches! And most of them were dressed. We got there at 6pm and left at 8pm- and there was a still a line.

I was in sweats and having a terrier out dress me was quite embarrassing.

More dogs in clothes:

dog in a kilt

the other bully there

the pony there.

Figured out that mom and dad took her to see Santa on pet night (but look at the fab dog sweater behind her!)

Lil' Dolce & Gabana

Dog in fur...and fur

Dogs that should have called each other before showing up.

Santa's lil' doppelgangers:

Please don't make go over there dressed like this!

I saw someone holding their German Sheppard in this exact same pose!

These evil little girls wanted to be wheeled over and see Toonsters. Once there they stood and started jeering her. They hissed and called her fat and Toonsters just looked at them like what's your damage?

Waiting patiently with her list.

The photo people did a great job. Instead of herding the animals through, they let one into the building at a time and shut the door behind. They also stayed until they got a good shot, so the line was slow moving, but looking at the dogs was fun. Oh, and Toonsters, she got it on the first shot, thank you very much.

What I can do

2007-11-30T08:02:00.001-08:00

My right hand is completely immobilized so knitting is out. Completely out. But I had this great idea that I could teach lazy lefty to crochet left handed. My right arm is good for a weight.

I present to you a piece of my yarn history! My first ever UFO!

GRANNY SQUARES! Oh enjoy the lovely color choices of a 7 year old working with scrap 70s acrylic. As exiting as it is to pul squares out to individually show them to people, I am connecting them. Black Wool-Ease** is the only yarn I will be buying for it. I have enough scrap acrylic (including some from the 70s!) that I should be able to make any additional squares to make an even number and make a border. I need to make a lot of rows of border to make this blanket size. Oh yes, I plan not only to proudly display my first ever crochet project, but to use this bad boy!

I set these up outside because I didn't want animals tromping on them. Will Puppypup respect the squares?

**About 10 years ago being a novice knitter, and before knitting blew up in popularity and on the internet, I decided to take them to a LYS and get advice. Granny squares were so dated! Roseanne's (the self-proclaimed queen of white trash) couch had a granny square blanket on it. I wanted to try and hip these things up. I go to L'Atelier, a very posh knitting store on a very fashionable street (Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA) They recommend that I buy any yarn I like in the store and knit squares and connect them. I spent $90 on 5 balls of yarn. Thankfully, I really hated the squares so I put them away and forgot about them. I am staying old school acrylic!

Injury Update

2007-11-28T16:32:00.001-08:00

First, I feel very posh having someone type my blog for me. Even posher because this person is not related!

My hand is still healing from the fractures. OMIGOD I'm so tempted to rip my cast off and scratch, let my arm breathe, let me sleep better, to look cuter, to wear a bracelet, to knit etc etc. It's not that I never appreciated my right hand, but I have now realized what a free ride my left hand has been on. That hand is useless! Everything takes 5 times longer with lefty.

I have got a few more weeks in this and then back to the brace for another month at least. I will be still have to use the brace part time for months to come. Yea me.

People have been so great to me! From typing for me to proofing my left handed writing attempts to foraging in and out of my bag at school. Even though I can't write, I still pull out my notepad and pen. I would like to think that the others aren't looking at me like an idiot, but grad students are merciless. Nonetheless, people are taking notes for me. I have to admit that there are times where I think they should be writing and aren't. I want to tap their arm and say, "shouldn't you be writing that down??" I am not sure how long I would be able to get away with that with casual acquaintances, as at home, the whole injured thing is wearing thin:

Today I felt mopey because I wanted to dye, but I needed help. I then thought I wanted to play in the garden. I blame not being able to do this on my hand, but I know, it's winter in the desert. But somehow that is my hand's fault too!

I saw this book at the store today: The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost his Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden WOW I didn't know you could grow tomatoes so cheaply! I spend much more trying to get tomatoes to grow, and well, each year I miserably obsess and fail. I have over 20 kinds of heirloom seeds and they represent hundreds of little chips in my heart. But I guess it's a little early to start growing seeds even inside. I say to WHN I wish there was a Smith & Hawken here so I can get a 50% off orchid. He says, "Oh I think the orchids in S&H are just finally feeling secure that La Diabla isn't coming to get them!" La Diabla?! But I ignored this, and said "I just want something that is within my physical ability to take care of and maybe will get results from this time and feel some level of satis--" "and dress it up and take it shopping," he interrupts my waxing romantically. Obviously, the empathy for my predicament wanes.

SP11:
I was disappointed to have to give up my group. Checking blogs and the amount of coherent emailing was completely out of the question. But Jenn stepped in, and I am sure sent a wonderfully welcoming and coherent email embracing them and hopefully left them thinking NicWho?

On a personal SP note, I came out to my spoilee LaFujiMama. Besides learning all sorts of things about Japan, she edited most of my papers this semester (and will continue to do so!) So good for me getting a spoilee that was confused on who should be spoiling who! I totally lucked out! I don't get opportunities for law school grads such as her to read my papers, and bonus! if I ever snap at WHN mouthing off like above, I got my defense attorney sorted. She is also a former competitive ballroom dancer, so now I feel like I have my own Carrie Ann Inaba when I watch Dancing With The Stars, So You Think You Can Dance etc! I plan on keeping her.

Wait! I think that is her emailing me now! Gotta go!

hand snap ow

2007-10-21T00:44:00.000-07:00

My right hand has been officially immobilized for the next 6 weeks.

I will post when I can talk someone into typing.

Almost a month??

2007-10-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

EEE GADS! I have been in moving hell. Partly because of moving during school as opposed to a break, incompetent movers, animals that not only wont help me move my stuff, but make me move their crap too etc

The one highlight of the move was my SP sent me an amazing package! I didnt have a camera at the time (did I mention I dropped my cellphone in a toilet at a bar??) but she sent me roving which is PERFECT FOR ME. I loved the colors but also, I have a ton of yarn, as my MIL keeps pointing out to me, so roving is much appreciated. I also got a cute pair of earrings that I had to keep on my ears for fear that MIL was going to steal. And the box was wrapped so cute too. Lots of color etc. I live in a world where noone ever wraps anything for me, so it was very exciting. THANK YOU SP for bringing a little fun to a crappy crappy weekend.

Without going into the gorey details, the move itself was disaster. I can't believe we got everything out and into our new house, but we did, but it took 24 hours of straight moving and car trips, as well as, literally just loading up our garage without thought of where something would eventually end up or when we would need it next. My MIL showed up a few days later. We spent our mornings in the garage until the heat would creep up on us and then the early evenings back in there. I did at least 8 car loads to the donation bin. We sorted through so many boxes. I had a bunch of before pictures just so I could really see how much progress I had made, but my camera went missing yet again. I have a strange feeling I left it at the Stratosphere.

Anyway, the one area where I have made no progress is my CRAFT LOFT!!! Yes, I am taking over an area of the house for all me. ME ME ME ME ME. But as you will see, I have just made a junky mess. I have no skill for deciding what goes where. My yarn I thought I would store up there, instead is in a cabinet downstairs. My dining area is covered in stuff meant for the loft, but as you can see, I havent made room for it there either.

Unfortunately, my local friends just stare blankly at me when I say craft, so no convincing anyone to spend an afternoon helping their dear ol' friend! But the dream of the loft will be a knitting, spinning, sewing, jewelry making mecha. My back patio will be dye central. But alas, all just a dream. Everytime I walk up there I just shift stuff, get overwhelmed and retreat to the living room to watch Dancing With the Stars with margarita in hand. (BTW, besides pointing out how much yarn I have, my MIL liked to point all the booze I have-- yes both are used solely by me. I tried to explain that if she too started drinking at 8:30am, she would too would have to have a large stock.)

Below are pictures from my new cellphone. Camera still gone. Please enjoy my shame.

The gorgeous view from below of my "fabulous" loft:

Stair leading to the loft. Yarn is unprotected there, so lovely ferret TIffany has been putting yarn away herself, under the couch.

Loft entrance:

Loft from different angles. Notice it has progressed from unpacked loft, to shithole.

But this problem is not just contained in the loft, these boxes all belong in the loft... all sorts of stuff like a Xyron, felting supplies, the ironing board (sewing's dirty little brother). That green cabinet that will be staying downstairs for now, is FULL OF YARN. I will open that up on a different show your shame day.

So there you go. All the stuff I found during packing, I have re-lost. THat's how awesome I am! Don't expect much progress as I am adrift in unsurehowtooganizemyspaceforbestutilizationness.

On the road back from Yuma

2007-09-18T01:35:00.000-07:00

Finally the end of the road trip! I know a 3 day trip was stretched into weeks of blogs, however, you saw something different each time. Trust me went to DQ at least once a day and I have pictures from each time that I could be regailing you with!

We left Yuma in the afternoon, so we did hit many places in the dark.

On the way out we stopped at the phallic big gun by the Yuma armory.

We saw funky little businesses in the middle of nowhere.

Look at all the services this one thing provides- AND IT WAS CLOSED! That looks like a place that should be open LONG HOURS.

We saw the sun set

And finally we came upon the honey place again. Can you believe that my friend never had gone into it. Something about she being female and that being a dodgy trailer advertising self-serve honey. However, I was all over it!

There wasn't a creepy person in there, he left a notepad and sold on the honor system.

I looked around for the mansion that this little honey empire built, but I didn't see it. Probably because it was too dark I am sure.

But the funniest part, was a little town called Searchlight, Nevada. It is where Senate Majority leader Reid is from. Now Searchlight is teeny tiny, so not a big budget for policing.

They even move Officer Stiff around so people wont get used to him and, I dont know, pass him off as "human."

Next post I plan to bring some culture to the blog and post about my latest museum trip.

Imperial Sand dunes (aka Algodones sand dunes)

2007-09-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so I was really surprised at all the things I could do in Yuma. I actually even felt like I could stay a couple more days and be fine. I am also quite happy that I visited Yuma, and now what is the #1 movie in the nation this weekend?? 3:10 to Yuma. I am very familiar with California, but I was taken to an area that I had actually never been, which is a few minutes outside of Yuma.

The Imperial Sand Dunes stretch for 40 miles and reach 300 feet high. Return of the Jedi was filmed there (the opening sequence when Luke is captured by Jabba the Hut and is taken out to a sandy duney area to be eaten by a monster.) The next time you see Tatooine you will know where it really is. Star Gate and Road to Zanaibar were also filmed there.

There's nothing I can say that will do them justice. I hope the pictures will convey some of their extraordinariness. Included is one with a truck in it for scale.

In SP news, my spoiler sent me a spindle! It is gorgeous, which I am glad because I have no spindle spinning skills. I am going to display it in the living room. It doesn't deserve to be hidden away. I love the green stem! Thank you SP.

But not to make my Suzie jealous with the newer cuter model... I plied 73 yards of colonial top. I have no idea what I am going to do with it.

Tiffany was outside when I was taking pictures of the spool. I tried to get shots of her, but she was too busy bouncing in the grass to stop and pose. This was the best I could get of her. I do however have lots of pictures of grass and tips of her tail. I told her that she needed to pose cute because whatever I got was going up, but ferrets, bad focus. She'll be sorry once she sees this on the net.

Mexico

2007-08-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

I am combining 3 days worth of Mexico trip into one post. I went to UCSD so my Mexico was Tijuana, or as we call it TJ. And I would like to say that I got to know TJ pretty well in my tenure in SD, however, I didn't like to go there because it was sleezy and dirty and we students and tourists alike never really ventured outside of one area, Avenida Revolucion. During the day TJ sells touristy trinkets and at night it turns itself over to the nightclubs where students go to get shitfaced fast. Then ofcourse I knew your Spring break Mexico, the Cabo, Cozumels, Acapulco... but those are other posts for other days...

So the prospect of discovering a new Mexico (no pun intended) was very exciting for me. The first day we crossed over into San Luis. San Luis felt like being in any other built up city except the signs were not in English. San Luis is a popular destination for people that cannot afford or do not want to pay the crazy prices that drugs companies charge in the States. There are pharmacies everywhere! You can get anything without having to present a prescription. The limit to bring back into the US is a 3 month supply. And ofcourse some drugs cause more suspicion than others-- narcotics like Xanax, are not going to go over well at the border crossing. I am happy that this option is available, but sad that it has to be. An example of a price difference, CRESTOR 1 month supply in the States cost approx $130 per month while in Mexico, $42. And with that the pharmacist was apologizing that it was so expensive. 200 amoxicillin cost $6, 1000 ibuprofren $3. This is all the same stuff. In fact, WHN told his doctor about it, and was telling him about it and his doctor whole heartedly supported it.

Another health care cute anecdote... my friend's two youngest brothers were born in Mexico. Their parents lived in Yuma but crossed the border to give birth. The youngest's birth cost 140 pesos.

Bringing them back over the border is weird. The first crossing at San Luis everyone in my party that had drugs were questioned by the same guard... ex. what is this for? DIABETES are you a diabetic? I wonder how many people get tripped up on that. She really pawed through my stuff and treated me like I was trying to pull something over on her. I was asked the last time I was in Mexico etc etc. Frankly, if it is not a popular narcotic drug which I am sure they have a list of, and you only have a 3 month supply, I don't feel you should be questioned too severely. A person's health condition is his/hers. A person bringing 3 mos is pretty innocuous. It seems a lot of trouble to protect the profits of the US pharmacuetical companies.

The border wall Mexico side- Dubya's handiwork (and also my breast... I really need to get Photoshop Elements!)

The American side:

While we were in the pharmacy, Tony the friendly pharmacist suggested we drive to Golfo De Santa Clara about an hour away for the freshest seafood. Going to the beach sounded really appealing. The following day we drove across the border (for San Luis we parked on the US side and walked over) after we stopped for Mexican car insurance.

The road between San Luis and Golfo De Santa Clara was a 2 lane road and it was sparse. Just desert. Except lots of litter.

When we got there it was pretty deserted. I don't know if it was because they were out of season, or people just don't go to Golfo De Santa Clara anymore.

We had lunch in El Dolfin. I had a fabulous breaded fish (god I hope it wasn't their signature dish) And I was far enough in to
be able to practice my Spanish. Though I did notice that the Mexicans that understood English would just start speaking to me in English (San Luis) and the ones that didn't know English at all wouldn't even try to understand my Spanish (Golfo)

At first glance, one thinks oh they ran out of room painting PARKING... but look at the bottom line.

The locals were in the water despite the jelly fish, which were also dead on the sand and the sharks.

(Yes, evidently is quite normal to deflate your tires and drive onto the sand)

For $3 you can get a 6 bottle pack of Mexican beer packed in ice.

Bimbo is a popular cake like treat. I just like the idea of a slutty little teddy bear:

On the way back we were stopped at a random Federale check point. Notice no pictures. This is because I was in the middle of a foreign country with 18 year olds with really big guns. Imagine a 2 lane desert road with a makeshift stop sign and road block. I think they chose the spot because there was a tree for shade. Federales have a reputation for being roguish or is the Mexican cops-- which group expects bribes and which ones are insulted by it? I am quickly trying to remember. We had to get out of the car while they poked around. I felt nervous even though we had done nothing. Though, I'll be honest with you, I did in my best Spanish ask one of the guys if I could take a picture of him. I figure what's the worse he could do. Don't say it... That didn't even enter my mind, but later when I was talking to the family in Yuma their answer was SHOOT YOU... and WHNs first response was the same. Look, I just wanted to practice my Spanish and really being shot over that didn't enter my mind and who knows I might have gotten a picture! (JavaJem would understand.) They let us go, don't worry I am not using my internet time to blog from Mexican prison. And crossing back over the boarder in the car, the border guard was really pleasant.

The last day we went to Algodones.

Algodones is closer to the touristy feel of TJ, but without the filth.

Algodones along with having many pharmacies, is known for dental work... (I would birth a baby in Mexico, but they aren't touching my chompers!)

(Unlike San Luis, Algodones is a bit more unabashedly going for tourists combining what they think people want liquor and pills.)
They also have many optomotrists. It was quite weird walking down the street with men saying HOLA SENORITA DO YOU NEED ANY DENTEEESTREEE? HOW ABOUT YOUR EYES??? They also had many shops where you could get knock offs of your favorite designer bags. We would have spent more time there except it was so freaking humid that day. We were pulled into one jewelry shop and were immediately served Coronas. Ofcourse being from Las Vegas, starting to drink at 9am is normal.

Crossing back into the US I had Ibuprofen and Imitrex (which I did have a perscription for on me.) I just said they were both for headaches and the gaurd said boy you get a lot of headaches. I replied yes, I'm married. With that, he let me back into the good ol' US.

I wish this picture could convey how hot and sticky it was!
Next time, Luke Skywalker's home planet!

Yuma Prison

2007-08-16T00:28:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to remember all the Yuma facts I picked up. Yuma is one of the oldest towns in Arizona because it sits on the Colorado River which makes the land quite fertile. Yumans (haha I love that's what they are called) grow such crops as citrus, cotton and hybrids like caulicolli.

Yuma has a casino that sits on the California border. In fact, one building is in Arizona while the other is in California. Each state has its own gambling laws so in one half of the casino dice are used, but in the other half not allowed.

Near the casino, is the Yuma Prison which was a federal prison. Actually, the prisoners built the prison themselves. As much as I loathed walking around in 104 degree weather, I really got an appreciation for how miserable this clink was. And then to have to do hard labor in it. OI!

This cell slept 6. 3 tier bunk beds that are so closed together, I couldn't get a picture, but they could reach across and touch each other because in the joint that's what you need, a little tenderness.

I was interested in the prisoners. They had everyone from murderers to adulterers. I wonder if they divided them up; I doubt it. Could you imagine meeting your murderous cellmate and having to tell him you're in for loving too much?

I am not sure if the prison wasn't as bad as I thought because they allowed pets, or this is one really REALLY naughty chihuahua.

They also cracked down on polygamy and there were Mormon prisoners.

They also had female prisoners. And though in every level of society women were treat unequally, in prison there was equality.

The fact that she ran off with jugglers seemed sexier to me... though I would imagine living with jugglers would get very old, very fast.

I don't know if you can read her blurb, but it said that she asked for fabric and made her own prison uniform in the style of the time!

They also had crafts!

Entrance to prison yard:

Cell blocks:

I like this picture because it reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode
.

Watch tower. The cement structure below is the water tank. I was miserable going up the stairs, I can just imagine building them, and schlepping wood up and down them.

So there you have it. Where really bad and not so bad in the scheme of things went. Next time another place I went Mexico. OLE! Yes I am stretching this trip out. For everyone but one particular person who knows who she is the post is over. Unless ofcourse you are dying to get me a present, but have no idea what-- then feel free to keep reading.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
A. I'm pretty easy. I'm not really into fun fur unless it's really soft posh fun fur and then maybe not that either.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
A. I mostly use my Denise's which have a case. I also have a great straight needle case made by SP9 and a circ needle case made by SP10.

3. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
A. I have been knitting for 10 years. I am intermediate/advanced.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
A. No.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
A. My favorite perfume is Fresh Index Apricot Fig (to give a concept); I love lavender, plumeria, I love this hand lotion I put on because it smells like cleaning fluid, so obviously my scent pallatte is not that refined. Go into the fall I will like warm curl up by the fire scents. I love the smell of coffee, but hate the taste.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
A. chocolate (but not together). As a vegetarian, I don't eat marshmellow or my beloved gummi bears. I also don't like tea.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
A. Yes I have a spinning wheel. I am a beginning level spinner, but I love spinning and fiber.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD).
A. I like alternative, jazz (not smooth jazz or the the kind I have to think about), big band, 80s. My favorite song this year is Read My Mind (Killers) My favorite song that irritates people is Hey There Delilah (Plain White Ts)

9. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?
A. It's fall so I am going into a green, claret, olive phase. These are actually the colors that look best on me. But I also like retro color combos.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
A. I've got all sorts of pets. It's like a petting zoo but without the cash intake.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
A. I wear scarfs to dress up outfits going out on The Strip. I feel like I am 30 years too old to wear mittens, but I do need to wear them and gloves. I have tiny little hands (the size of a 6th grader) that get cold very fast. Not really a poncho girl... but HATS... I LOVE HATS! I would wear a hat constantly if I could. I love hats.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
A. Anything that I can finish.

13. What are you knitting right now?
A. I'm not knitting, I am ripping right now. I did the Brea bag, but decided I wanted that yarn for something else.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
A. I love handmade stuff.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
A. I use my Denises the most then Addi Turbos. I like speed baby. I dont knit for leisure, I knit for some nuerotic speed torture

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
A. Yes I have both.

17. How did you learn to knit?
A. Barbara Walker's LEARN TO KNIT AFGHAN BOOK

18. How old is your oldest UFO?
A. See #17. Also I have granny squares I made when I was 8 or so (look at previous questionaires for that ugly little story) I am determined to finish the blanket next year..I just have to figure out how to make these 70s squares look posh and sophesticated yet honor the little 7 yr old, who, now that I think about it was posh and sophesticated then too. Unfortunately her grandmother wasn't and there is some ugly 70s yarn.

19. What is your favorite holiday?
A. Halloween! The air smells like fire and the wind is just crisp.. and daylight savings is ending. Oh and Christmas because I get gifts and my bday because I get gifts. I would love Arbor Day and Presidents Day if it involved a gift for me.

20. Is there anything that you collect?
A. Bulldog and ferret stuff, and tiki/ polenesian stuff, mermaids (evidently I have the taste of a 50 year old man)

21. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
A. I once saw this book 99 crochet flower motifs. You put them all together and voila you have a flower afghan. I meant to buy the booklet, but I was distracted and didnt.

22. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
A. Armenian knitting

23. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
A. I love to knit socks but it takes me forever to start a pair. I love it more when people knit them for me. I wear a US 8.

24. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
A. 3/15. Same day as Fabio, Judd Hirsch, Eva Longoria, and the character Michael from The Office. Also it was when Caesar was off'd.

Homespun boucle

2007-08-12T00:31:00.000-07:00

Today at my local quilt shop's spin-a-long, we made boucle yarn. It takes three plies to do it. I am not sure what I would knit with it, but I should come up with something, because I LOVE TO SPIN IT!! It was so much fun. But enough of me rattling on, here are pics:

First ply next to roving unspun roving in same color

Second ply

Third ply

Better or worse, finished boucle.

Knitted boucle

As much as I would like to stay home and practice my boucle making skills, I am going to the Stray Cats and Pretenders show. Oh yeah and ZZ Top will be there, but I hope to be well plastered by the time they come on so hopefully it won't matter by then who is on stage. Ug ZZ Top.

Purse WIP Hell minor

2007-08-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

I have no idea, but without being aware of it, I have been knitting purse after purse and nothing else. Detailed details can be found on Ravelry (nicknits). Suffice it to say, they are all WIPs. But good for me, all knit from stash (a big improvement for me.)

Brea bag:

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it's made with a variegated green yarn that I bought last year in Santa Fe. I need to finish the gusset, seam it, crab stitch the top, and sew a lining (haha) but instead of doing that, I moved onto Isabeau.

Isabeau:

I am in lining hell. I am currently trying to sew in a plastic canvas linining. I didnt like the hippy dippy unstructured look, however, I am not loving the lining right now either... so it be hard to work on something that isn’t turning out the way I envisioned, so I started yet another bag.

Coco:

Yeah I got issues with this one too. This is originally a Magknits pattern. The stitch pattern I had a problem with one of the cables. A purl stitch kept popping up where I thought a knit stitch would look better, and the more I knit the ickier it seemed. I looked up a Barbara Walker stitch pattern and decided to go with that. This is going to be a small clutch. The original pattern has a chain, however, I don't see that happening either. But now I am thinking the yarn is way too bright orange. I was going to give it to my SIL who likes bright bold colors, but wow this is really bright and bold and metallic. Maybe too much.

So this is where I am knittingwise. None of them are exciting me, and what's worse, it's not like these are big knitting projects that I have to devote attention to for months or weeks or even days, yet I can't muster it.

I've decided to make Thursday travelogue days, so stay tuned for that where I will have more from fabulous Yuma, AZ

On The Road to Yuma

2007-08-03T03:40:00.000-07:00

When I last left off, I was on my way to Yuma. I am back and to force me to be more regular of a poster as well as not feel guilty about inundated you with pictures, I am dividing the trip up into digestable chunks. So here we go....

Yuma is a bordertown with Mexico. In fact, many of Dubya's immigration speeches happen there. It's also on the border of California. It was crazy for me one minute in California the next in Arizona then California then Arizona then Mexico and around and around. Also Arizona doesn't follow daylight savings, but California does.

The drive there is literally through the middle of nowhere Nevada, California, and Arizona. Two lanes. One to get you there and the other to get you back. Miles and miles of desert. I know what you are thinking... surely there was a LYS to be had. Living out in the middle of nowhere you need to do something besides make meth. No. Literally "towns" were just an intersection. And not even intersetions with lights-- just stop signs.

However there were some interesting and enterprising businesses.

How many people call this place the Vidal Junction Cafe vs the Chicken place or the Big Chicken or Cluckers or insert chicken here. But this wasn't the only place in Vidal into BIG ASS animals:

Way Cool stuff!

Because ofcourse a dolphin needs to be in water!

I wonder if the proprietor poses the bears like this or the two teens in Vidal Junction with nothing better to do, constantly repose them.

There were also resorts nearby, and quite economical:

And like all deserts, we found an oasis with grass and non cactus trees. This is the Colorado River.

We also passed this honey place, but decided to hit on the way back when there was light. More on this in a later post.

We arrived in Yuma around 9pm and were greeted by the 9 cats and 1 dog that live at the family home. I barely like my cat. But little one eye... shit what was his name... Call him Blindey, he was quite the charmer. He was really the only cat the paid attention to me. But, it became weird attention. If I sat in a chair he would knead my shoulder then my breasts... it was really quite creepy and embarassing. As a guest, I was unsure what the protocal was. I didn't want to be mean to their crippled cat, yet letting him get to 2nd base with me without even buying me a drink and in front of everyone was not acceptable either.

But Larry was appropriately loveable.

Also while getting a drink out of the fridge, I noticed the chore chart for the 19 year old son.

Yes, everyone wonders what he is doing wearing, but not using one...

On that responsible note, I will break until next time - THE PRISON!

!!

2007-07-10T15:03:00.000-07:00

Actually, I am sitting in my walkway waiting for my ride to Yuma (thank you WIFI)

Wanted to thank my SP who is Monica at Rubys N Purls. She was fabulous. Although I loved everything from her, my fav now is the circular needle holder. It is in a color combo that I love and now I will be able to organize all my sock needles. Need to change needles- I will be able to stealthy whip out whatever size I need! Thank you Monica! The yarn she sent wasn't even in the Ravelry DB (dont know how common that is) but I think I already know the project it will be used for.

My friend's my mom who I will be seeing in Yuma finds it odd that someone not in their 70s knits. She has 9 cats. I married the two thoughts, I made for a hostess gift FELINE DIM SUM from Knitty. There is also a little mouse at the top. I had to quickly add ears and whiskers because since I did it in red well.. it needed the extra mouse parts.

EEK SHE"S HERE

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Vegas is still very much new and open to exploring to me. Today, WHN and I drove past Red Rock Canyon.

There was a fire yesterday (and 117 degrees today thank you very much)

Next, we found Blue Diamond (B). It's this lush green area that is like an oasis in the middle of the desert. Instead of desert landscaping (rocks instead of grass), stucco houses, and typical desert plants, they had GRASS not a single house had rocks. In contrast, in my neighborhood there are only 2 of us that still has it. The streets were tree lined. If you were just planted there without knowing the surrounding desert, you would have no idea. There was no more than 200 houses in this enclave, and they had a TINY library and post office and public pool. We drove through in about 2 minutes.

We then continued on our exploration. We got to a T-stop. To the right, Pahrump where the infamous brothels are located about 45 minutes away, and the new location of Heidi Fleiss' "sud farm," a coin-op wash.

Yes, pine cell phone trees are indigenous to the desert. I know AMAZING!

We went to the left which brought us towards the Strip to a casino we had never been, The Silverton (C). The Silverton has a huge outdoors shop. And since it is Las Vegas, it's big and showy.
They will show you how to kill:
lions (because they eat gay German magicians here... but don't do it

Meeses. (don't do it)

Fish (go ahead)

There were also bears, deers, and assortment of other critters to inspire the blood thirsty.
La Vida Loca...

Do you think WHN is bitter that he has to eat veggie burgers with me at home? Thankfully, Bambi, he is a lousy shot. Oh wait, WHN said the the site was off. The Silverton evidently doesn't use slot machines to make money, but a little shooting gallery.

I heard a guy say to his kid, "I think they got it wrong-- I don't think leopards in Africa" as he and his kid through coins into the waterfall creek that looks through to the slots machines and Pai Gow tables.

The Silverton also has a big ass fishtank. On Thursday-Sunday they have mermaid shows. I want to go back for that.

In California, I went to the LB Aquarium weekly I loved it so much. I actually even almost accepted a position there before we moved (yes I was there so much, they were going to start paying me)

Another random thing that Silverton boasts about is Hootie and the Blowfish perform there a few times a year. They have a stake in the lounge. I could see getting trashed and going to that show.

Hope everyone and their pets had a happy 4th. Our main neurotic household member was nonplussed.

I'm back. FINALLY!

2007-07-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

I have had a migraine for almost 30 days. Doctors think I have allergies, which is quite common in Nevada. Evidently, people (like me) who have never had allergies in their lives move to the desert and BOOM allergies. I think I am even allergic to the stupid cat now.

So now I am catching up. Next week I am going to fabulous Yuma, AZ. When I found out about this trip, you know what my first question was (OK after where the hell is Yuma?) are there LYSs along the way? But here, let me show you the route and you can do the math on the odds of finding one.

The biggest cities I will be going through include Blythe, Needles, and El Centro. Knowing that I will be spending a bunch of time in Mexico, what was my next question-- I wonder if I can get cheap yarn!

It is 116 degrees here, and evidently it is hotter there. My friend doesn't think I will still be thinking yarn... haha I laugh at the naivete non-knitters.

Hope everyone has a great 4th. WHN plans to shoot off all the firecrackers I brought home for him on my last roadtrip. Again, I am still amazed that you can buy year round fireworks in some states. Actually, I found out that Nevada is one of them-- in Pahrump, where all the brothels are, there are also fireworks stores.

I'm currently restricted on my computer time as it is still a strain on my eyes.

Black Sheep Trailer

2007-06-24T21:44:00.001-07:00

Longer post later this week.

ROVING!

2007-06-03T16:12:00.001-07:00

Last week I did some dyeing... I forgot how much I love it. What was stopping before was all the measuring, but this time, it was all eyeballing it. Ofcourse, no replication... my favorite was some BFL I dyed. (It wasn't the only BFL I did, but the other is going out as a gift... so no pics there) I really should practice my math and do the measuring, but now that the lazy way was introduced to me...

Speaking of documentation... though the yarn was tagged superwash vs non superwash, a key wasn't written so I have no idea if this yarn is or not. Maybe when I sit down to knit I will figure it out. I know for someone that likes reds and greens, there is a blue, but I was trying for a teal and did I mention not writing things down... more throwing stuff together. I want to do the same colors but with actual stripes.

I did some others, but I will post after I take pictures with a camera-camera opposed to my cellphone camera. Yesterday someone asked me if I could remember I time when I didnt have a camera on my cellphone. I can probably remember that as well as I can remember when I used to wear diapers. Last week was really blur.

Fidelity

2007-05-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

So last night, I say to WHN, quick take a picture of the cat and Tiffany together-- use the flash. They are so sweet together.

Instead, he thought it would be more fun to use the night vision. So much for documenting my tender, the pets really do get along, moment.

And speaking of my wretched cat, he has gone back to cheating on me. He has another family-- possibly families-- again. That miserable bag of fur had 2 other families before we moved a couple of years ago. He even got a going away card from one of them. Mind you, I saved his pathetic life and this is the thanks I get.

Before

After

How do I know besides past history?? It's over 100 in Vegas. He is not only gone for 10 hours, when he comes home, he is not warm. When he is outside normally, his fur heats up. He has dirt and leaves on him from rolling around. So yes, the little fucker is spending his time indoors somewhere.

And like the betrayed, I know I am not getting the best of him. I am sure at his other houses he is not moany or needy or tearing up furniture. The ungrateful little beast seems to have forgotten that I resuced him from death's door. I wish I could drop him off there. He is really very irritating. And to think I was trying to figure out how he can pull grass up when he only has 2 teeth left. No trips to Jamba Juice for wheat grass shakes for him! And I know when he comes home, I will feed him Fancy Feast and the fish flakes that he loves but then get annoyed and pull his tail. I'm so conflicted.

He's gone right now. It's the afternoon. I've called for him outside. He's with THEM right now.

Another stash cometh

2007-05-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

WIth all the bags of yarn I have, and now the roving, I do not need to create another stash, but here I go...
FABRIC.

The first 2 pieces of hopefully something that wont turn into something sucking up an incredibly ugly amount of space. To my credit, realizing that I am not a great sewer, I bought both of these fabrics on sale.

The pink and blue one is Amy Butler, 2 yds. I have no idea what I am going to make with it. I got it more because it was on sale and I need practice...

The second 4 yrds I came across and fell in love because it features milagros. I dont know if I will be making stuff that will use the entire amount I have or cut it for different projects.

When WHN and I were at the counter I said to him, I'm going to learn how to sew by making all your clothes now. It will be just like we are Amish or Mormom minus the other wives (which still is a novelty for him to walk into Costco and see the sisterwives roaming the aisles--especially the ones that appear to be sister sister wives. I dont know if he is more concerned about having several more women busting his balls besides me, his mother, my friends, the abuela across the street, his female co-workers... or if he is thinking how many more stashes he would have to contend with.)

On the knitting front, I started a scarf like the one from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but I don't like how stripey it is turning out. So I will unravel and let the yarn be what it was intended to be... socks...

Meat is still murder in the summer right?

2007-05-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Summer bbq weather normally gets me excited, however, being a vegetarian now, it just fills with me dread. Why do pigs have to taste so good? Getting through the holidays was no big deal... getting through bbq season is a whole new proposition. My two favorite foods in the world are Indian and BBQ. I love BBQ. If I saw a BBQ restuarant I would want to stop and try it. I watch the BBQ competitions on Food Network. I love pulled pork... and bbq sauce..mmmmm but I digress. Just to add to the cruelness of the world, we just got a Salt Lick bbq restaurant 5 minutes away in the Santa Fe Station.

And Costco had all the meaty treats out yesterday! I would love your hot spicy links Mrs. Sample Lady, however, I would feel to guilty that some poor animal had to take one for me. OOO your friend over here has barbacoa... oh wait I remember what that means. Oh chasquido. I'll just enjoy the flavored water and granola samples. (BTW, WHN hates OH SNAP, but OH CHASQUIDO he finds charming for some dumb reason, but I suppose that is another post.)

This looks like chicken hell to me.

WHN says he sees it more as a chicken sauna.

But thankfully the world is not THAT cruel to me... I was watching Bill Maher and ol CNN Dr. Sanjay Gupta came on saying that all the stuff that was in the dog food that was killing dogs... they found that it in the people food supply. I know I'm not supposed to laugh or feel superior or feel vindicated. However, I was talking to an ex and I mentioned that I was a vegetarian and he asked why, and I said that I can no longer make the distinction between my dog who I share a bed with and a pig/cow whatever. Then I joked that I do feel superior that I don't eat dead animals. He replied, you feel superior because you know not to eat your dog? He could have a great big ol' melamine sandwich as far as I'm concerned. OK so I know it's a weird thing to feel smug about, but I need what I can get.

Speaking of sleeping pets, my friend said to me that she could never imagine sleeping with a dog in her bed (funny I've seen some of the guys she... rim shot please) I have a cat, dog, and WHN, and frankly, the dog isn't the worst of the three as a bedmate. She said that pets should have their own bed. Is everyone else sleeping sans animals?

When Anna and I were driving across the the western states I felt good seeing the cows. I used to feel guilty, and sink down in my seat as I would drive by them. But this time I waved to them saying HOW NOW BROWN COWS... You've got no beef with me. While I found that quite amusing and cute, Anna I guess got tired of hearing it because she started to stay Yeah but you probably ate their parents or grandparents. She can eat a great big ol' melamine sandwich too.

Road Trip Day 3 (FINAL)

2007-04-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Despite knowing we were 9 hours from home, we still wanted to take the 90 minute tour at Acoma Pueblos. They are the longest inhabited dwellings in the western hemisphere (or something like that.) They were built on plateaus for protection. It's really impressive considering they had to lug all the building material up. Thankfully, in the 90s a movie crew gave them a paved road, so I didn't have to haul my cookies up and could take a convenient shuttle. (View looking down to the visitors center that thankfully has nice bathrooms)

The homes are passed down matrilineal ending up with the youngest daughter (who should live the longest and take care of the older siblings) Their government is run by men.

This last picture is a good representation of the old along side with the restored houses. They tried to keep as close as possible to the original look, but stuff from Home Depot can only do so much. There is no running water or electricity, because they don't want to run visible above ground lines. Most houses have generators that they use for special occasions like Super Sunday (they are Broncos fans). Most of the people live year round off the pueblos in houses that have modern conveniences, however, many of the elderly do live up there year round. I did point out to one of the residents that the Taos Pueblos have DirectTV dishes, and she said REALLY??? So I expect by the next time I visit they will have satellite as well as DSL.

The Spanish forced them to build a church. And ofcourse the materials besides having to be carried up the plateau, weren't exactly conveniently near either... and it's the middle of a desert. To this day they still have a form of Catholicism that they combine with their original beliefs (frankly, if I were them, I would be kind of soured on the whole Christian thing.)

This part of the walking path seems innocuous enough, but lower there is a point where they have to turn around and go down by rope. They still use this path on planting day.

Outside the church is a graveyard. They had to build a retaining wall and bring in dirt because they couldn't dig into the mountain. They have people stacked in the ground about 6 deep. Surrounding the edge of the plateau, besides porta-potties, there are mounds with faces on them. From a distance they are meant to look like sentries station and guarding the pueblos. Up close, they are adorable!

Unlike the Taos Pueblos, they dont have stores to sell their wares; instead, they set up tables outside and have the tour times pretty well down.

Clay ovens still in use:

So Anna and I were walking along and I saw this entryway, and I said, "wow I would sure hate to come home drunk to THIS house." In any other community, an innocuous comment. Unfortunately, I forgot that I was in a community with the drunk Indian stereotype, which probably explained the odd look that a tourist guy that was walking near us gave me. Anna thought this was hysterically funny and immediately insisted on taking the picture.

There are packages where you can stay at their casino hotel and then observe some of their rituals. I might have to check out some time. Though, I will admit, that casinos outside of Vegas, irritate me with their goofy rules. Luckily or not, it was a Sunday, I didn't even try to look for LYSs. We left the reservation around 2pm MDT and drove back over the Hoover Dam around 9pm PDT. I've always kind of written NM off, as well, Arizona, which I have really written off as a lot of space between my point A and whatever my point B is. But my 2nd trip now checking out NM, has made me want to explore it even more. I'm thinking for sure I will be back there in 08 and exploring more and more pueblos... and maybe a few LYSs ;)

Driving back to Las Vegas was a bit frustrating because the lights can be seen so far away... I would think I was a lot closer than I really was. Suprisingly when I got home, I got luke warm greetings from everyone but BABETTE! The ferret that hates people, greeted me! I was shocked. My faithful dog and WHN, barely lifted their eyes from the TV. The cat, once he got home greeted me... so he's off the hook.... but the rest of them... little beasts.

Road Trip Day 2

2007-04-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

We last left off with shitty weather in OK that continued through Texas. In Texas, we drove by the 2nd largest cross in the western hemisphere. We also hit a big snow storm. The traffic on 40 slowed down to less than 20mph. Mainly because Texas doesn't plow. They can build the 2nd largest cross in the western hemisphere, but they can't build a plow? I think a misuse of resources there. I always see WWJD stickers, I think he would plow the highways.

Once we hit NM, the roads were clear. We stayed overnight in some random NM town. We slept in since it was our first chance at sleeping in a bed since we left Las Vegas. Sat we travelled towards Taos, famous for Julia Roberts and their pueblos. We visited the latter. I had been before, but I thought Anna would appreciate going since we both had a professor from there.

They live and work at these pueblos, though the top levels aren't still inhabited.

Church on site.

I didn't see any of the don't pet the dog signs from the last trip, but I wasn't really looking for them either if you know what I mean. How can I reject a dog??? In the bottom level of the pueblos, residents sell their crafts- jewelry, pottery etc. Some sell food and the dogs know which ones. One particular dog saw Anna buy cookies. He saw that not only was she an easy mark, but he would have an ally in me.
Anna: how do I get rid of this dog??
Me: give it a bite and it will go away. (hehe hehehehee hee I still laugh thinking about it).
A: REALLY?? That doesn't make sense?
M: you can't apply logic to animals that's a human thing. Don't you watch the Dog Talker?
A: Whisperer
M: Whatever just give the dog a bite. He'll leave you alone after that. I promise.

I couldn't say NO to this face.

So she did and she made a friend for it who stayed with us to the bitter end...

...the bitter end. And he brought a friend!

We basically tossed the cookies and peeled outta there.

I wanted to go to Taos Sunflower LYS, but we didnt get there in time for them to be open, but I did hit La Lana and bought a natural dye kit. I dont know if I want to break into now, or wait until Javajem is here next month to help me figure out.

We left Taos at sunset, and had dinner in downtown Santa Fe. We had the most gorgeous pistachio encrusted goat cheese. I still dream about it. We spent Saturday night getting more NM behind us. I could have spent days there, but we needed to be back in Las Vegas Sunday night.

We were aiming for Acoma, NM because Anna wanted to see their pueblos (NM is lousy with pueblos) Even with a GPS we were hopelessly lost. We went down some road that best could described as an alien spotting road. I think we kept making eye contat with each other to ensure that the other wasn't replaced with a creepy crawly. What can I say, I grew up on Scooby Doo. We finally get find a casino/hotel in the middle of all this darkness. But, hey hey casino, that makes us feel at home. IT WAS SOLD OUT! GO FIGURE. There was nothing around this joint but Acoma pueblos, darkness, and cacti.

Not Las Vegas, NV, but Las Vegas, NM! They were quick to point out when we stopped for gas that they were the first. Sounds like some town is feeling a little insecure.

Next time Acoma!
.

THANK YOU SP!

2007-04-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

My lovely SP sent me a great package, which I am embarassed to say that I didnt even realize the green theme until I took the picture a few days later. I am slow. THere are votives and tea lights and tea and candy and cute container... but my favorites are the stitch markers she made for me! I love them. And my other favorite which I have been using like crazy so not in the same picture is a little cable bag. For me, it's one of those things I have really wanted, but never got around to making.

She even lined it!!! God I need to learn how to sew!

Road Trip Day 1

2007-04-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

My friend Anna and I have been on a roadtrip timed with all the shitty weather going on. Reminder, I am from coastal California where the weather stays a comfortable 73 degrees year round. Through Flagstaff it snowed.. hard. The snow came towards our windshield and not straight down. It was very mesmerizing which probably wasn't great when trying to navigate icey roads. In New Mexico, we contended with snow, ice rain, and rain. Texas, where everything is big, had rain drops so big that it seemed as if the clouds were just puking. Ofcourse, we were under the impression that it was SPRING and so dressed for spring weather. Anna even wore crocs. The warmest thing either one of us had were UNLV sweatshirts. Not only were we not that warm, but since we walked around coordinated, we looked like a happy gay couple.

In Oklahoma we stopped at the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial, and it was quite moving. A fence outside the memorial had momentos that brought life to the names of the people who died.

Right outside archway to Memorial:

Once inside, the memorial consists of several components. Two archways display the time of the minute before the bomb, and the minute after. Inbetween the two sits a relecting lake.

To the side of the reflecting pool are chairs-- one representing each life lost with smaller chairs for the children in the daycare of the builidng.

The chairs are sorted by floor and arranged to match up to the footprint of the building. At night the glass part of the chairs light up to illuminate the name of each victim. The ranger explained that during the day the chairs should appear floating. They represent the whole of the lost, while at night seeing the individual names.

Part of the building still stands behind the chairs.

The tree in the background is over 60 years old, but survived the blast. Behind that is the museum. The windows that were blown out just got boarded up. Any that survived the blast were blacked out.

Across the street, a Jesus statue weeps.

After, for dinner, we went to Bricktown, a retail area with canals running through. We wanted to walk around, but the weather was still way too cold and dreary. Overall, we really enjoyed Oklahoma City. It was a pleasant surprised after driving through Tulsa.

After dinner we left Oklahoma for Texas where evidently they don't plow.

Confessional FO

2007-03-31T23:51:00.000-07:00

I admit it, I can have a teensy-weensy itty bitty little tiny, miniscule really ego. I made a scarf for a local friend, but I knew she wouldnt get all posey with it or get why I would want my scarf showcased. Also, I was inbetween cameras, and my photog skills are not so hot... however Javajem is a great photographer. Yes, I am lame enough to send my scarf 3000 miles out to be photographed.

But here are the results!
My So-Called Scarf
Manos Del Uruguay, Woodland

Thank you Javajem!

In other news I have a purse felted, but I need to figure out how to line it and add a zipper. Hopefully that will get done in the next couple of weeks. I can't promise that I wont be shipping that off for photos either. I know, I know.

OK so you scrolled. One more bad confession. While it was in Maryland getting photographed, Javajem also washed it to soften it for me... and well OK remove some of the extra cat/dog fur from it... So not only did she photograph it, she laundered it for me. THANK YOU AGAIN Javajem!

The Happy Hooker Presents: Knitters vs. Crocheters!

2007-03-19T18:05:00.001-07:00

This is cute (and I despite the large panned out shot of NYC, that looks suspiciously like Marina del Rey, CA... I definitely recognize a couple of buildings! Plus it looks bright and sunny like CA)

Spinning Sunday.

2007-03-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

This is some of my latest handspun. I have no idea what I am going to do with it. None. I keep thinking I will take all these smattering of homespuns and make them into felted zipper bags. Forget that I dont know how to sew zippers. Or how many of them do I plan to make? Or that I'm spinning less than worsted weight so how not fun felting would that be... Anyway, until I am inspired I will just keep practicing my spinning.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2007-03-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

We are doing nothing for St. Patty's Day. I wanted to go to O'Shea's and at least get shots from the leprechaun they have running up and down the bar, but the pressure of being Irish on such a party day is too much for WHN, so he is hiding out. But because I am not the pill that he is, I thought I would show a couple pics of one of the prettiest parts of Ireland, Giant's Causeway.

Last night though, we saw The English Beat at HOB. BTW, for those of you that live in a HOB city, they have 2forTuesday where select upcoming shows are priced 2 for 1. This came in handy because The English Beat wasn't really THE English Beat, so I was much happier paying 1/2 price. However, to his credit, Dave Wakeling and "other musicians," however, did have the joint jumping. WHN was thrilled because he loves ska dancing and it's not like he has a lot of opportunity to do so. Poor WHN is getting old, he was stiff today from it. So I guess that's what happens when you don't die young and leave a beautiful corpse. Dave Wakeling, the young hot guy, has turned into a middle aged lacivious guy with a creepy laugh. WHN said Wakeling was always sleezy, I was just too young and shallow to look beyond his beautiful hair and cheekbones and Britishness. I'd like to think I was more sophisticated, but WHN assures me I was not.

So I got quite the birthday spoils from near and far and inbetween. Since the inbetween and far are fiber related, I will show some of the cool stuff.

From Jinann yarns and fiber! Hand-dyed stuff because she knows I can't get that here and yarn for some quick projects. The fiber is Bluefaced Leicester. I've been dying to check it out. I will be getting to that soon. She also included candy and a sock pattern, but my favorite part was all the post it notes explaining the though behind the choice! I left them in the picture. because I thought they were so cute.

Petunia also enjoying the gift:

From Germany, Sibille graced me with her socks! I love love love her knitted socks. She also sent me an Opal that I was eyeing as well as German candy with funny foreign names. Speaking of funny foreign languages, my MIL sent me Celtic language CDs. Joy.

Aren't these great? I can never decide if I will give more pleasure taking the credit for making them or letting people know they were made especially for me. Do I want to appear skillful or popular. HMMM clever or well-liked?

I thought about holding out on opening this one and waiting for my bday, but you know who had different plans:

On the FO front, I finished the knitting part of the Noni Prism bag. Now it's the felting part, which I always managed to screw up. I am not looking forward to risking my blood, sweat, and tears (but ug, if this bag has all that, maybe it should go in the wash)

Ofcourse one's Noni masterpiece, is another's wubby:

He knows he shouldn't be on it, but he won't leave it alone.

Another token ferret picture because I'm just seeing if there are any of the SP10rs with them... and also to prove I have rung the little shit's neck for stealing all my stuff.

Happy March!

2007-03-10T22:46:00.000-08:00

I managed to finish the bottom part of the bag before the ferrets ran off with it. I am sure it is lining some happy ferret nest somewhere. ARGH! Here it is in better days:

Which I suppose is good since my pattern is being used by someone else:

Seriously they have no respect.

Does she look fat? Someone called her that after seeing the picture?

I wasn't going to do SP10, but was talked into it. I had the most amazing SP10 spoiler, but more or that when I get a camera next week.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I like things I can felt. I like soft and smooth stuff. I love cuddly yarn.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
My SP8 Spoiler sewed me a lovely straight needle holder.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I have been knitting for many years. I taught myself with a Barbara Walker Learn to Knit afghan bookl. Crocheting I learned at my grandmother’s knee in her afghan making sweatshop.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes Amazon

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Since it’s getting springy I like fresh smells.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
YES Chocolate (esp white)

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I have a spinning wheel that I am still getting to know.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I like all sorts of music: alternative, 80s, big band. Right now I am really liking Regina Spektor, The Killers, but in my CD player is Travis. Though if you saw the type of stuff I have saved on my Sirius radio, I would have to turn in my way too cool card. Yes my computer can play MP3

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I like greens (except mint green) I love emeraldy greens. I'm really into retro stuff like burgundies, browns with pale blues and oranges... I also like bright saturated colors (but not primary)

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Husband, cat, dog, ferrets, iguana.. and they are all a pain in my ass. Do you want one of them?

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
YES, YES, YES (prefer gloves), NO (I think I need to use my small pool as a hostess to get this questioned revised. Ponchos are so out and out of all the blogs I have read as a hostess, I have yet to see anyone make someone else a poncho)

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Things I can finish.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Touch Me Scarf, a cable purse, socks... it goes on... don’t judge.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
YES

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I like metal. I like to knit with speed.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yes, they are the pets I always wanted but never had. And unlike my husband, they don’t bitch about dealing with my yarn.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
15 years or so. I told you not to judge

18. What is your favorite holiday?
My birthday, then Christmas-- guess what these holidays have in common and you’ll know why I love them.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
I like Mermaids, shells, tikis, milagros, -- I have the taste of a middle age man named Maury.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I subscribe to Interweave and Vogue. There is always some pattern I want.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? Armenian Knitting.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? YES I am. Size 8.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd) 3/15, the same day as Fabio and Judd Hirsch (or Eva Longoria if you want a more recent reference or the day of Julius Caesar’s Death if you aren’t into that Hollywood scene) However I am greedy and immature enough to make any day my birthday if it means I will get prezzies and cake.

2007-02-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

I think for awhile now I have been knitting for the end result. Knocking out presents or just to feel a sense of doneness. My projects have been not what you would call concentration heavy. So imagine the transition for me to the prism noni bag which is all charted colorwork. OI! I thought it would be a cute bday present for my SIL, however, depending on the effort, or more realistically how much I fuck it up, I may keep it for myself (to avoid at least one of these phenomena I shouldnt chose to knit in colors that I would like myself.) At least if I keep it I will know how to position it so the non-mistakey parts are shown ;) Granted for some of you non-lazy knitters this is nothing, but I have been oh so lazy.

I know I am not enjoying the knitting because I am getting knitting philosophical. Like is something worth knitting if it sucks while I am knitting it but the end result should be great? Or is knitting about the challenge? (and again by challenge, this is difficult in as much as tedious) Will this be more rewarding than say stuff I can do without looking sitting in a movie theater? Shouldn't I knit for the fun of it? With the easy stuff, If there is a mistake I can get to it fairly quick and fix. What if I go to all this effort and I find a mistake-- will I be able to access it as easy? Will I just say screw it, but if I say screw it isnt it worse because this isnt an easy pro-- see the mental mechinations? No wonder I need so many sticky notes!

Also You Know Who isn't helping any. I'm sure her stupid bro will use it for a ass pillow just before a ferret obscounds with it. And I haven't even gotten into the whole will the recipient even get the effort put into it... or WHN constantly saying, you're still working on THAT?

At first I thought I would avoid the effort of too many sticky notes, and be able to eyeball it. That didnt work out so well. Rows 2-5 I had to keep ripping, so instead I am going sticky paper happy. I have been working the bottom piece while watching Bee Season. I dont want to spoil the ending for anyone wanting to see it but, Wha??? Really? That's how it ended? I don't need tight happy endings... really?

So learned something interesting in Spanish. Motito is little scooter. Motita is nickel bag. I didnt know whether I wanted to take the hit for a mistake in my paper, or let the professor think I was stupid enough to admit to illegal activities in a college paper but have the higher score.

My SP9 sent me a gift certificate... I think I am going to go indulge myself now.

Happy Year of the Boar

2007-02-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

These are pictures from the Bellagio's garden. They are quite impressive in person. Yes I suppose I took the picture of the Pig with the Chinese people near it because I thought how authentic as well as an endorsement of the display.

Did you all have a good Valentine's Day? For all of you who had hope for WHN coming through on Valentine's Day, well this is what he came up with. Lunch at the local casino's buffet (he had a 2 for 1) and I know, what more good a girl want, he brought home take out from our favorite Indian restaurant for dinner. What was funny (besides take out) was that recently I converted to vegetarianism. Before that no matter what Indian restaurant I would got to, I would order the same dish- chicken tikka masala. It is my all time favorite dish in the world. WHN would always order something else. Maybe vindaloo, maybe a lamb dish whatever. This particular night, guess what he ordered??? I couldn't believe it. Happy V-Day! He says it was an accident. hmmmm. But it was definitely hard for me since there is no veggie equivalent to it. I then suggested we go see Music and Lyrics which he coincidentally said he had planned, but I dunno, I probably would have believe him more if he knew the movie times. A friend of mine to teach her BF to shape up for V-Day went out on a V-Day with another guy. I think I might try that next year.

I have to start a tedious Noni purse pattern. I want to do Prism, but I don't know if I will have the time to sit and devote. I need something I can pick up and put down in little spurts. I wonder if I should do the harlequin purse. Who knows, but I need to knit a purse by May for SIL's bday. Before I get any words of encouragement, know that I am still working on that Channukah gift.

Happy V-Day!

2007-02-14T16:38:00.000-08:00

How have you been spending your V-Day? I can tell you, I spent it with 300 plus people in court-- JURY DUTY! Let me preface with I've always liked doing jury duty for the most part. I've served 3 times in Los Angeles, with a positive attitude even when I was stuck at the downtown moldy old courthouse in their dirty smelly waiting rooms. I was hoping the jury gods would smile on me and not force me to serve this time because as you may well know I have 2 language classes. TWO! Anyway the juris gods were not and at 8am I was walking through the Fremont Street Experience to get to the courthouse.

Nevada has the one day, one case system. For my foreign friends, this means that they have one day to assign a person onto a specific jury case (a typical case lasts 3-5 days) If they don't, I am free to go for the next 18 months. If I am assigned to a case, I get $40 per day, starting my second day seated on a "panel." The old way which I am sure many of you remember, is to be "on" jury duty for 10 days or 1 case. The time is spent in a holding tank reading, knitting etc while waiting to get assigned a panel. I've gone the 10 days and then on the last day been assigned a case that then has kept me there another few days.

A big difference between Los Angeles and Las Vegas (and probably the rest of the world) is that the orientation video in Los Angeles has celebrities doing it. Danny Glover might thank you for serving, Meg Ryan might come on and say it's a bitch but even someone like her does it, Chewbacca is detained at the metal detector etc. I miss that- today's video just had court staffers. I was hoping for Celine to say her that like her heart, justice will go on, the tiger from Seigfried & Roy etc...

A big similarity is the freakshow that is there in the waiting room. A woman with her white bear holding a red heart raised her hand and asked if she could get out early because it's Valentine's Day because her and Mr. Snuggles (who she then had wave his arm) would like to go as they have plans.

However, my day was different in that I am being considered for a high profile case. A 4 month high profile case, UG! This would not bode well with my foreign language education. Because it's a big high profile case (and before anyone gets excited, it would be a BORING big high profile case. After Feb 26, I can tell you all about it) instead of being questioned in the courtroom by the judge and attorneys, I got to fill out a 43 page questionnaire. Once that was filled out, I was excused for the day until Feb. 26 with the instructions not to read or watch local news. Because of my circumstance, I am an unappealing choice as a juror and I was sure to make that clear on at least 42.5 of the 43 pages. I am not sure if Mr. Snuggles or his holder filled out the form. I figure he's the brains of the outfit, but being a teddy bear, no opposable thumb.

Since I can't tell you about this case, I thought I would let you know about a previous one I sat. I was on a hooker trial! A "masseusse" was caught in a prostitution sting at a hotel by LAX. The undercover cop ordered her up and they agreed to "full-service" which got her arrested. He said full service is common lingo for sex while she said that it meant topless massage.

Though she was supposed to have had dozens of condoms on her, only 4 were booked into evidence. 4 MAGNUM. The cop said that there were more, but he only checked 4 in. She said that there were only 4 on her and that they were for her well-endowed bf whom she was spending the weekend with. Further she said if she was going to use them for work, she wouldn't have magnums.

We heard a lot of talk about her bf's big schlong and yes, pictures of it were defendent's exhibit 1-5. We were more interested in seeing the man behind it. I know immature. Anyway, when he finally did show up, he was this tiny little middle aged man that tittered on the stand. It was the goofiest thing. I guess it is a guy thing because he was thrilled to keep the conversation focused on his lap taffy, but when they asked about his GF, he acted coy and then looked at the ladies of the jury. It was bad. He winked at me. He even asked if we were going to get to see the pictures soon. Ug. We did look at pics of his wedding tackle in the juror room, which btw, looking at naked junk pictures with a bunch of strangers, very surreal.

Tonight I have a date in the library with my study pal to prepare for a Spanish test. I am thrilled. Maybe we will hold hands under the table and pretend. Considering WHN has said nothing about V-Day, not even HAPPY, going this alternate route may be more doable than previously thought ;)

First FO of 2007

2007-02-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

OK so my knitting as been muched slowed since starting this semester. I am taking Latin, which is a pain in the ass, and I completely get why it is a dead language. I think it died a long long time ago because most of the sentences deal with poets, farmers, pirates, and charioteers. These guys spend a lot of time praising and giving flowers. So for all of you that looked at askew at my beer appreciation class, know that I suffer too.

I made a malagaiter for my SIL . I used malabrigo (a fav-- I think it is so much softer than manos) Anyway, my in-laws when they take pics of them modeling my work, they focus on them and not well you know, the stuff I made. I got lots of pictures of them. So instead I am taking a picture of a friend modeling.

Shhh... she doesn't know that I have a blog or that the pics will end up here... but remember the naughty accidental message sent to her dad? This is her. Did I say SHHH? A cautionary tale.. you never know when you'll end up on the internet. If I knew how to black out her eyes, her anon her face, I would, but I don't know and what can I say, my ego to show off my work is the greater influence.

There is this silent poetry read going on, and I thought I would jump in with a poem by Rochester:

The poem apparently dates from late 1673, shortly after Mary of Modena arrived in London. It first appeared in print in 1703 in Poems on Affairs of State.

Signior Dildo

You Ladyes all of Merry England
Who have been to kisse the Dutchesse's hand,
Pray did you lately observe in the Show
A Noble Italian call'd Signior Dildo?
The Signior was one of her Highness's Train
And helpt to Conduct her over the Main,
But now she Crys out to the Duke I will go,
I have no more need for Seignior Dildo.
At the Signe of the Crosse in Saint James's Street,
When next you go thither to make your Selfes Sweet,
By Buying of Powder, Gloves, Essence, or Soe
You may Chance get a Sight of Signior Dildo.
You'l take him at first for no Person of Note
Because he appears in a plain Leather Coat:
But when you his virtuous Abilities know
You'll fall down and Worship Signior Dildo.
My Lady Southesk, Heav'ns prosper her for't,
First Cloath'd him in Satten, then brought him to Court;
But his Head in the Circle, he Scarcely durst Show,
So modest a Youth was Signior Dildo.
The good Lady Suffolk thinking no harm,
Had got this poor Stranger hid under her Arm:
Lady Betty by Chance came the Secret to know,
And from her own Mother, Stole Signior Dildo:
The Countesse of Falmouth, of whom People tell
Her Footmen wear Shirts of a Guinea an Ell:
Might Save the Expence, if she did but know
How Lusty a Swinger is Signior Dildo.
By the Help of this Gallant the Countesse of Rafe
Against the feirce Harris preserv'd her Self Safe:
She Stifl'd him almost beneath her Pillow,
So Closely she imbrac'd Signior Dildo.
Our dainty fine Dutchesse's have got a Trick
To Doat on a Fool, for the Sake of his Prick,
The Fopps were undone, did their Graces but know
The Discretion and vigor of Signior Dildo.
That Pattern of Virtue, her Grace of Cleaveland,
Has Swallow'd more Pricks, then the Ocean has Sand,
But by Rubbing and Scrubbing, so large it do's grow,
It is fit for just nothing but Signior Dildo.
The Dutchesse of Modena, tho' she looks high,
With such a Gallant is contented to Lye:
And for fear the English her Secrets shou'd know,
For a Gentleman Usher took Signior Dildo.
The countess of the Cockpit (who knows not her Name)
She's famous in Story, for a Killing Dame:
When all her old Lovers forsake her I Trow
She'l then be contented with Signior Dildo.
Red Howard, Red Sheldon, and Temple so tall
Complain of his absence so long from Whitehall:
Signior Barnard has promis'd a Journy to goe,
And bring back his Countryman Signior Dildo.
Doll Howard no longer with his Highness must Range,
And therefore is profer'd this Civill Exchange:
Her Teeth being rotten, she Smells best below,
And needs must be fitted for Signior Dildo.
St Albans with Wrinkles and Smiles in his Face
Whose kindnesse to Strangers, becomes his high Place,
In his Coach and Six Horses is gone to Pergo,
To take the fresh Air with Signior Dildo.
Were this Signior but known to the Citizen Fopps
He'd keep their fine Wives from the Foremen of Shops,
But the Rascalls deserve their Horns shou'd Still grow,
For Burning the Pope, and his Nephew Dildo.
Tom Killigrews wife, North Hollands fine Flower,
At the Sight of this Signior, did fart, and Belch Sow'r,
And her Dutch Breeding farther to Show,
Says welcome to England, myn Heer Van Dildo.
He civilly came to the Cockpitt one night,
And profer'd his Service to fair Madam Knight,
Quoth she, I intrigue with Captain Cazzo
Your Nose in myne Arse good Seignior Dildo.
This Signior is sound, safe, ready, and Dumb,
As ever was Candle, Carret, or Thumb:
Then away with these nasty devices, and Show
How you rate the just merits of Signior Dildo.
Count Cazzo who carryes his Nose very high,
In Passion he Swore, his Rivall shou'd Dye,
Then Shutt up himself, to let the world know,
Flesh and Blood cou'd not bear it from Signior Dildo.
A Rabble of Pricks, who were welcome before,
Now finding the Porter deny'd 'em the Door,
Maliciously waited his coming below,
And inhumanely fell on Signior Dildo.
Nigh weary'd out, the poor Stranger did fly
And along the Pallmall, they follow'd full Cry,
The Women concern'd from every Window,
Cry'd, Oh! for Heavn's sake save Signior Dildo.
The good Lady Sandys, burst into a Laughter
To see how the Ballocks came wobbling after,
And had not their weight retarded the Fo
Indeed 't had gone hard with Signior Dildo.

It was either this one or his premature ejaculation piece, "The Imperfect Enjoyment" Ah well, there's always next year.

Friday Vegas

2007-02-03T12:29:00.000-08:00

People that live in Vegas don't drive on The Strip because it is always packed except in the wee hours of the morning. I have to be on campus really early on Friday mornings, and so I enjoy taking The Strip to see what's going on. Recently, a place I stayed at a lot as a kid, The Stardust, shut down. (I like the space theme and it was close to Circus Circus another kid fav) I have to admit it was sad to see it without it's windows in preparation for it probably to me imploded.

I've met people that have worked in Vegas during the mob times and wax poetic about how they were treated as people and not as numbers like the now corporations do. This always astounds me because they are basically saying, sure they were thieves and murders, but they were soooo polite! What?? Because Lefty and Junior Big Nose tip their hats on the way out to bury a body in the desert, they are supposed to be great guys. Historians, economists etc all agree that Vegas was dying because it couldn't grow because no on wanted to invest in precarious business situations. When Wall Street started to invest, the face of Vegas changed and now it's bigger than ever. But though I love seeing the new resorts, I still get a bit *misty* to see the old ones go.

Another structure you can see through, but because it is going up. The Palazzo will be the tallest resort on The Strip.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Vegas... or so I thought. I had just picked up 11th row tickets for $25 to see The Producers (starring David Hasselhoff!) and was driving home when my car died on the freeway. This particular freeway is a 4 lane job, but people use the right side breakdown lane to drive even faster than the average 85mph on this stretch. Luckily AAA came fast.

I was torn between going with my car to the garage which is far from house or hoofing it to the local quilt shop that has yarn to kill time until WHN could get to me. Instead, remembering I was in Vegas, I got the tow truck driving to drop me off at the closest casino where I drank margaritas, played video bj at the bar, and then saw a movie (yes most movie theaters here are in a casino.)

BTW, here is a tip that I am so used to now, that when Shelby was here I forgot to tell her. If you are playing any game in the casino you will be comped drinks. The standard is a $1-$2 tip for each drink. If you tip on the higher end you will see the waitress (I've only see one cocktail dude) But what if you just want to get hammered without worrying about dropping cash at a table or in a machine while you wait? The cheapest way to get smashed is to sit at a Keno bar. The bets are low, the games stretch out... you don't have to play every round. You could probably even sit there holding the keno crayon and still get served.

While I was there they had a slot tournament. Basically people stand at a bank of slots and press the spin button (no one uses the arms anymore) repeatedly as quickly as possible. Whoever does the best at the end wins a prize.

Waiting to start.

GO! I decided the perfect person for the up and down motion in this tournament would be a teenage boy.

I did OK, didn't lose any money and my movie ticket ended up free, but for those that do get out of control with their gambling, and desperately go to the casino ATMs, hopefully will read this sign:

I lost my knitting project so no progress there. We are going car shopping this weekend. Ug, I forgot what that experience is like. I guess because I have to buy a car versus feel like it, is also affecting it. I know I want a hatchback. That's it.

January Duldrums

2007-01-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

I am so stuck in this space where I just can't even figure out what to blog about. It is the weirdest thing... normally I can think of something that is at least mildly interesting to me. I would be in a moment and think OO I should blog about this later but then later would come and I would think eh I dont want to blog about that. I just haven't been able to get interested in anything. I noticed this mood has carried over into my lack of interest in other things. I was stuck on a scarf if you can believe that which seemed appropos to this month. Finally yesterday to kick start me I went and got my hair cut. As soon as that was done I found out that my computer was even out of the shop. Isn't that Hindu or Buddhist where even if you aren't into something, you go through the motions until the meaning comes? So hopefully I will be able to get out of the January funk soon.

So to jump start my blogging I will do what I normally do when I have bloggers block: post random pics from my cellphone (yea! I know a thrill a minute here)

What I spun today at my spinning group. I haven't decided if I am going to ply it with some spun periwinkle blue or cream.

Though my car has a new roof, WHN still hasn't reinstalled my passenger seat. It's a very lonely feeling. Hopefully I will have my seat in by the time I pick up Shelby from the airport (don't worry Shelby if you are reading this, I you wont have to ride ghetto style, I was going to borrow WHN's car anyway.. but I was going to use you as the excuse to get him moving)

If you wondering I brought my fiber stash bag, wheel, purse, sewing machine and spinning bag with me today. Yes I have replaced the idea of people with clutter of things.

Speaking of clutter, I found this sewing/yarn/whatever other crap this little old lady has decided to carry in the past 50 years. This place is in Boulder City, the little town next to guess what... yes it's a dam town. They don't have any dam gambling so there are lot of dam speed traps. The dam town is full of dam antique shops.

One of these days when I have the time and a helmet, I will sift through her stuff.

How cold does it get in Vegas?

Token cute animal picture

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2007-01-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

You know people want to tell you the truth but they really dont because they know you don't want to hear it? Well, that was the case with New Year's on the Strip. Barb, one of the spinners kind of sort of said it would be miserable as did WHN, but they didn't really convey it to me. You know how you get into one of those frames of mind where you really want to do something so much that mere hints against it aren't enough? So since no one grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me, New Year's Eve we were on the Strip for "America's Party"

And America was smelly, drunky, touchy, pushy, barfy...

There were also crazy religious people out there. I almost felt sorry for them because as they are yelling at the fornicators, people are running up to them and dry humping them while a friend takes a picture.

I found out that they have a policy on New Year's to only write incident reports if there are broken bones. Evidently it's a toss up for working on New Year's. It sucks to do it, but then they get to take out all their hostility from the past year. That's a lot of freaking leeway by The Man if you ask me..

The guy's sign says "SHOW YOUR TITS!" and people did. Finally some girl tries to take it from him and he said get away you uptight dyke! And she said FUCK YOU and he said FUCK YOU too! That was one of my favorite exchanges along with hearing people on their cellphones say:
"You're in a bush? What bush? How did you get in a bush"
"I'm standing by a fountain" (The Strip has a ton of fountains along with...)
"I'm next to the treee"
"A guy just pissed on my leg"
"I can't find a bathroom... I'm takin' a leak here"
"I can't find my bra"
"I can't feel my tongue"
"Some guy just licked me"

By 11:38 I had enough of America and was reminded that once midnight strikes they are going to get kissy huggy The idea of the unwashed masses germs... I was convinced if there is a way to get gonorrhea non-sexually, this would be it. Only some of the hotels were letting people in. It took us what seemed like forever pushing our way against the wave of people but we got out. We left the Strip just in time to watch fireworks with other locals on the Desert Inn overpass.

Afterwards we drove to our locals casino, got to skip the queue in because we eat there THAT much and had a peaceful meal.

I wanted to present one last FO of 06 but I couldnt find the pins to block it, so instead, I will present a scarf I made for my SIL. I plan to make it exactly the same again as a Chanukah gift as soon as I re-order the yarn (SIL and friend have same taste) I had close up pics of it but I can't find my camera... so instead you just get the happy recipient wearing it.

HAPPY 7!

HERE I AM!

2006-12-28T18:28:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a great set of holidays. Good news is I finished my Christmas knitting, but I am still behind on Chanukah knitting, and as any 2006 calendar will tell you, I am really behind. But tell me if this isn't a brilliant plan. I am going to stay with one of the recipients of unfinished gift and part of the present will be watching me knit it. She doesn't knit and isn't around knitting, so what could be more fun than watching her gift grow before her very eyes? OK OK I'm pushing it.

I've also been quiet on the web front because I am cleaning out a walk in closet. It was in really bad shape because the climbers in the family got in it and pulled everything down. I'm in the middle of it- you know the stage where it looks worse than before because everything is on the bedroom floor? (no pictures there!) Good news is 3 bags of stuff so far is getting donating and I found a bunch of knitting projects stolen by the ferrets!

The number one question I've been asked by people that know I went vegetarian 18 days ago, was what did I do for the holidays? I found my fellow vegetarians at an Indian restaurant. It was really weird going to THAT part of the menu. I ate some sort of cheese dish and supportive WHN tried order my absolute all time fav Indian dish (chicken) before I threatened to create a scene and he ordered some other chicken dish. So far I am doing OK with the non-meat thing.

For Christmas I struggled with what to get WHN. Up and until 12/23 NO CLUE. And if you ask him, he says I DUNNO and I reply with I DO KNOW that if you have nothing to unwrap you will be unhappy. Finally I remembered a year ago he was looking for a rock tumbler (yes like the 8 year old toys) He has it going now for I guess 30 days and it makes a buzzing noise.

Today I went spinning at the local quilt shop and had a great time. I took 8 oz of Shetland that I almost finished plying (picture of that later) but here is the unplied singles (and other random pics)

(Thank you Sibille for my XMas gift and yes more please!)

It's very windy (50 mph) in Vegas so trash cans are being blown around (as well as dust, trash, branches, leaves etc etc) The wind itself is noisy and couple that with the banging noises, it's disturbing for someone like me who is not used to it. So at night with the wind whistling I come home alone to a dimly lit house with a grinding/buzzing noise. CREEPY! Then I took the dog out and as I walked in the screen door pulled out my hand just as Babette was jumping out to startle me. I've seen enough horror movies to know that the first startle is an animal and the next one is the homicidal maniac. So far I am doing OK all organs,limbs, skull intact.

And I have a great SP package to live for! It was delivered to my neighbors who have been out of town so sorry SP for the delay. Enclosed is peppermint hot chocolate (YUM), sweets, a cute knitting book and my favorite that I can't wait to to sit down and make, a SUSHI WALLET! I think I am going to do the one with 6 rolls. 07 will be the year I learn to sew, so the zipper and lining will hopefully have a neat appearance.

And since the Tiffany and Babette haven't made an appearance here in awhile:

Season Greetings From Vegas

2006-12-25T17:21:00.000-08:00

Low Knitting Morale

2006-12-18T17:41:00.000-08:00

I've tried to explain to her numerous times that stopping to throw a ball is not helping me get fingers done. I decided to do fetching for my SIL (another one- stupid big Irish families) but then decided that gauntlets probably aren't great for Ireland. I thought no biggy I will just convert fetching into convertible gloves. This was last week. I don't know, last week I kept making stupid mistakes: Do a knit instead of purl, forgetting which glove was which. Accidentally pulling out the needle from the work. Frogging the wrong stitches. The list goes on, but the final straw was I made the pinky next to the thumb AND I forgot to redistribute the stitches so the top of my hand had 5 extra stitches. At this point, I decided to take a break.

Tonight is the first night I am picking them up and unfortunately guess who is oblivious to my needs. She doesn't care that I am not just trying to finish a project, but get my knitting morale back up.

Note: pinky looks big because I have abnormally small hands- the size of a 5th grader or a Vietnamese female manicurist. Since I am making them for someone else I am going by the finger sizing in Magknit's Urban Necessities.

Mans best friend my ass.

Christmas in Vegas

2006-12-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

Forget the trees turning or snow on the ground, we know it's Christmas in Las Vegas when the cocktail waitresses switch to their holiday uniforms:

And speaking of Christmas, I finally felted the clogs. I did the pairs separately, and midway through, the pinkish pair developed a hole.

I needle felted the repair before I tossed them back into the washer:

Finished felted repair:

Finished Fiber Trends Felted Clogs. Each clog took one evening to make using a combo of Crystal Palace and Loft yarns.

I'm happy with how the pink/orange/purple combo turned out:

Petunia, tired of me using her toy for sizing, interrupts my photoshoot:

Last week we had the National Rodeo Finals. Part of it involved a Cowboy Christmas at the convention center. So many people in cowboy hats in one location!

Brokeneck Cowboy:

Kid cowpoke:

Donut making cowboy:

Saddles and boots:

Basically you could meet all your cowboy needs:
From Top:

To bottom:

Tacky T-Shirts:

WHN succumbed and had ordered custom cowboy boots. I am sure they will look lovely in the back of the closet.

In other knitting news, the cable booties from One Skein are basically done. I just need to weave in ends and remove cat and dog fur. I want to make a men's scarf with with worsted weight navy blue yarn, but my ribbing always looks crappy (even knitting in back loop) so what to make what to make...

Knocking 'em out

2006-12-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

So I finished the knitting of the 2 pairs of slippers over the weekend. I haven't felted them yet. I planned to borrow a slipper for sizing (I need size 8 and 7.5), but I haven't gotten around to it blah blah blah, and so here I sit with my clown shoes. I Google'd for a conversion chart of feet size to inches. At first pass I didn't find what I was looking for, but found the formula for converting shoe size to penis size (shoe size + 5 / 2 if your curious) Interesting, but not knitting cozies, so needed to focus. The few charts I pulled up, when I compared my size to inches (my feet, not making any anatomical confessions here today) it seemed off. Maybe I don't know my shoe size. Maybe all these years that I thought I was a stumbly drunk, I just had on the wrong shoes. Anyway, I hope to get these bad boys felted this week. Until then, enjoy some before pictures.

Do you see the cat hair sticking out between them??? Bain of my existence that stupid cat. I don't think I have had one UFO that he hasn't found and started to lick his ass on. Drives me mad!!! Anyway, if you can look beyond that cat hair, I don't know. I think these shoes are looking a bit too clownish... not because of size, but color. The recipient, says she likes all colors of the rainbow, particular reds, pinks, and greens. When I originally saw the yarn I thought felted it would look really good, but now I am thinking too orange and too Barnum & Bailey.

The other pair, much more subdued, I wanted to pose with the dog for a size comparison (dog and slippers, a natural pair) but dog is sleeping with her face buried. The next thing I thought was one of her manky tennis balls.

So hopefully I will get my act together and get these things felted and sent away soon. I have just turned the heels on the cable booties so hopefully I will have one pair done tonight. After that, a Chrismakuh scarf to do and then I can go back to my current obsession, spinning, which I will have to add dyeing to my repetoire because these cream sheep are bringing me down.

Yes this is yet another spool of plied beige yarn- approx 190 yds.

Crap.

2006-11-29T06:32:00.000-08:00

So I've been reading blogs reading about people and their long list of Christmas knitting projects. I've been feeling pretty superior since I opted out of that. I admit I laughed and thought FOOL to each blog I read... My smugness came to an abrupt end last night at 1:46am when I asked my SIL what we (WHN and me) should get my MIL for Christmas. Without skipping a beat she suggested a scarf. I've knitted her a scarf before, so we came up with either the felted clogs or One Skein's slipper socks. SHIT! Then she said how she would like a pair and it's not like I could say no... I mean it is Christmas. (Now if it was Arbor Day I would tell her to...)

SHIT! I'm no longer better than you! I'm worse because I am trying to pull this together now. I tried to kid myself that I could have a year off. And have I mentioned my last few felting projects haven't turned out so hot? Sonofa... This month I was going to leisurely work on convertible mittens and spin. You know work on projects that I would keep so I could drink during the making of them. Now I have pressure knitting that I will have to do sober.

Why did I have to ask her... I should have just gone with my first idea of a Vegas shot class and a t-shirt:
(I'm saving the poker chips and ash tray for her birthday)

some yarny goodness and not so goodness!!!

2006-11-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

I have so much sock yarn, I could open a shop. But that didn't stop me from getting more yarn at Stitches East. Yes, I had a personal yarn shopper there. I feel yarned out now. A yarny confession... I like going yarn shopping, but the actual selection process is too stressful for me. I have the worse time with decisions. It is so much easier to give someone parameters and just be surprised. I know. I know.

But this time it worked out well! Among some of my gems:
Fleece Artist (sock yarn)

Shelridge Farms finger weight that will be turned into gloves:

Interlacements:
Alabama cotton yarn (with a funny smell)... 800 yds. Size 7 needles. What can should I make with this... hmmm. I wonder how clapotis would work with it. Or actually because it is a cotton the spiral scarf would be cute or a bag. So many ideas are going through my mind. It has short color repeats so fair isle I dont think would work.

100% wool dyers choice (I think these could be really cute felted bags among other things):

I have also been making yarn! I use the term yarn loosely. My begininng spinning efforts aren't so hot. I have some brown Lincoln spun that I don't think is ready for it's close up if you now what I am mean. But I thought I would post skein #2:

I can't remember what it is made from. These are pics from my cellphone, so picture quality not so hot, but let's just say that close-ups and good lighting aren't going to be doing this yarn any favors. What it lacks in spun consistency, it makes up for with horrible scratchiness! Like if a baby ass is smooth and soft, I guess this is the baby at age 104. It is rough. So I'm thinking rough and low yardage... hmmm a little bag? Striped into something else? I spun it too thin to felt. (That's what I have been saying about all my spinning... ahh I'll felt it and it will look fine!)

I've also spun my first ply of Corriedale. It's nice and soft and springy until I get ahold of it! I hope my poor spinning skills are just a matter of days on the job and will improve.

My new spot for taking yarn pictures is my neighbors front rock lawn. I don't know if she has noticed my photo shoots, but my neighbors across the street have. They wave to me I think so I know that I am not alone and should stop this odd behavior. Or maybe they do it to check if I am OK like this is the first step before the next which is running down the street naked becuase yarn monsters are chasing me. I wish the yarn monster would fix my roof because I am on day 5 of car out of commission!

button!

2006-11-18T20:13:00.000-08:00

I have a button now!!! Thank you Javajem!

More German stuff!

2006-11-17T23:36:00.000-08:00

I received a package earlier this week, and promptly took pics, but I can't find my USB cable (again) I even went to Best Buy last night to buy another one (which ofcourse would then make the loss one appear) but they didn't have any my size. They did have a 30 person line waiting for the PS3 though!

Tonight I figured a way around the USB cable to at least get a couple pics up.

SOCK YARN! Because I don't have enough of it. Trekking and Opal, but the real excitement is the hand dyed sock yarn. Equivalent to the hand dyed you can get in the US, but for a great deal less. WOO! WOO! I normally don't get these colors (oranges, yellows) but I decided to step out of my box. At first I thought what was I thinking, but once I took them outside to take pictures of them (that I can't upload to my computer) I really saw how gorgeous they are! I can't wait to find the perfect patterns for them. And if I dont want to get slippy with them, Sibille sent me non-slip pads.

Once I get my camera connected, I will put better pics up that better show the wonderfully vibrant colors of the yarn. On my camera are pictures of the 2 balls in front before I wound them and they are truly gorgeous!

I'm really interested in why German yarn is cheaper. I figured Opal would be because it's made there, but now this sock yarn is working out less expensive too. I've been getting so spoiled though that when I find yarn with a German sounding name I immediately email the info to my German connection.

And it wouldn't be a package from Sibille without CANDY!!! WOOWOO!! (Seriously, candy and yarn is like a dream box for me) I love Euro choc and I think I found my new favorite candy bar (not picture because I gobbled it down pretty fast) Also notice the gummies. As I have mentioned before the Germans have taken gummies beyond the bear (which I also got, but I bit their little heads off and swallowed Yogi and his buddies) I have gummie bugs and gummie alphabet. I picture the gummie scientist experimenting with shapes in the gummie labs.

Also the German knitting mag has some cute patterns that are very chart oriented so it's not the big cruel tease it could be.

Speaking of expensive yarn, Lion Brand has learn to knit kits at Costco! For $24.99 you can get 2 skeins of wool-ease and a pattern a scarf or baby kimono.

My new convertible roof arrived in the mail last week and WHN has spent 2 days so far installing it. He was hoping I would take it somewhere but the company was insistent that with the 24 page installation instructions anyone slightly handy could install it. He is just slight enough to have to install to keep his manhood intact. I put him on the phone with the manufacturer who pretty much guilted him into it. Thank you kind manufacturer! He's been struggling with tight spaces, tough screws, exacting measurements, and cut fingers, but hopefully tomorrow I will have a brand new roof that will stay on if I drive above 10mph. As he has been getting frustrated, I have been reminding him that the cause of all this was me trying cook dinner. I don't think he will ever use my name and any form of the verb cook in a sentence again. So there is a silver lining to my car getting broken into.

OK OK new exceptions to my sock/blanket rule!

2006-11-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

(As I type, I can hear the ferrets playing with scanner printer. I'm the only one home. Maybe Tif is scanning Babette's ass.) I got my Japanese felting books in the mail today. I bought them because there was this bracelet I thought was cool so I was hoping the rest of the book would be too. I bought the other becasue I was annoyed that a LYS was selling it for $25 when I could buy it on Amazon for $10. The books are predominately Japanese, surprise, I know, but they are good with the pics.

However, they do have little weird English sayings "The smell of my forrest is not forgotten" Say what?

Last night WHN was watching one of his heros, Gordon Ramsay on his stupid new show, The F Word. (the premise is to get women back in the kitchen... what where the belong Gordon- is that the missing part of the phrase Gordo??) One of the other features he is doing is teaching his kids where food comes from so they are fattening up X-Mas turkeys (who all have names btw) Anyway, to the point. Check out the sweater!

I don't know if it's a handknit (Noro?) or one of the color forward Euro designs. Either way I am dying to make one for WHN! It would bring me such pleasure to make a fuscia, orange, and black sweater for him to wear. I'm still working on WHN. I mean if Gordon Ramsay can still feel like a man in it (OK so fine he was wearing it out at the turkey coop and he does dress a bit goofy normally) WHN said that Gordon is married and has 4 kids to prove his hetero virility. Evidently the animals and I don't count. I should have just knitted it and given it to him with the most earnest face I could muster and say, "See just like Gordon Ramsay!" He might doubt my sincerity but wouldnt have the guts to ask.

back here again

2006-11-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

OK so I know I moved to polliwanna, but I wanna come back here. MAC was just driving me crazy. Though their IWEB does do some neat things, there are some annoying things that I just can't get around. What I will use that site for is my yarn stash. Yes I plan to record all my yarn... ok not the acryllic (no wants to admit to owning that)... but the rest of it... definitely.

This weekend not a lot of knitting or spinning. I started a new sock. A socky confession-- somehow when I do my decreases I always end up off. Socky confession 2- I hate the way my toes turn out. So until I can hone my counting skills as well as do nice toes, I am going to do simple stockinette socks. Once I can make a perfect pair of socks, I will then do a more complicated ones. I'm tired of rewarded my sloppiness by fudging it.

Even though I have afghan squares in various stages of completion, I am going to be starting on another! (SHHH don't tell WHN I am doing more squares- he will go fucking spare. Seriously, there is a square moratorium imposed.) But I can't help myself. I decided that next year I'm going to exclusively knit blankets and socks. The only exception will be gifts... Why? As I introduce you the next couple of weeks to my blanket UFOs, you will see that this is definitely a good plan.

But I can't live on UFOs alone...

The blankets that I plan to start are the XRX blankets:
The Great American Aran Afghan:

The Great American Afgan:

I joined a KAL for the first the aran one, but the second I am knitting alone (unless there are some that want to start it up with me)

Now I am not promising that I will finish either of these in 2007. I have squares from 1979 for chrissakes. (more on those in a later post)

OK another exception to my blanket and sock rule... any project I can do with stash yarn... and purses! (and by purse, I mean any kind of bag) I love to knit cute purses.

One last bit of housekeeping. I want a button for my blog. How do I make that happen? Assume limited skills. Remember I evidently can't even count.

I leave you with my matching pets. I dont think I could ever again have a cat and dog that didn't coordinate.

Las Vegas Bites

2006-10-25T03:59:00.000-07:00

if you wanna see pics... go to

Polliwanna

This past week weekend was Vegas Bites. It’s their version of every other major city out there TASTE OF .... For those that don’t know, the restaurants have booths and serve samplers, or bites, of their food and charge anywhere from $1-$5. It was medium size as far as these events go.

This year the performers included OK GO! and appearances by Gilby and Lucas of Rockstar Supernova fame (where the other guys were, no clue... I would imagine Sapphire or Spearmint Rhino.

Though I don’t have a picture of it, our favorite Indian restaurant, Origin India was there. We eat there so often that they recognized us and gave us extra food. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, however, I am so in love with Indian food I didn’t care.

Another highlight was my Yard o’ Margarita. It just isn’t an event or anywhere fun in LV without the margarita yardstick being served. This one was courtesy of La Salsa. There’s a big bowl of margarita at the bottom of this yard that I can’t make appear in this picture. I will have to casually bring it up at a MAC lesson. Jody- this is where fingerless gloves would come in handy. My hand wouldn’t get cold cupping the drink yet my tight little fingers could still stay grippy without spilling a drop.

Sock WIPs

2006-10-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

if you wanna see pics... go to

Polliwanna

I’m taking Socktoberfest seriously. OK maybe it’s that I feel like knitting but I am in that you know the I want to knit, but not sure what to commit to.

The blueish sock is Opal- I think one of the rain forrest ones. I can’t remember now. The second is sock yarn I bought (yes do you fucking believe I am buying sock yarn considering the socky stash I have???) I couldn’t resist. I was in Santa Fe... I was on my way to Taos... I was just ITCHING to buy some yarn. It didn’t hurt that it is in my 2 fav colors green and burgandy. The neat gimmicky thing about Austermann is they put aloe & jojoba in the yarn (how long that will last no clue.) It’s weird because switching between the 2, was soft- scratchy- soft- scratchy. It’s not like Opal is scratchy or probably this isn’t as soft as I think, but the combo... Notice the blue one is ready to join it’s mate. I knit this way, so I am always completing and half through another pair at the same time-- double accomplishment to me. Yes, my life is a series of negotiations and mind tricks on myself.

My next sock that will join the second mate of the Austermann is another Opal, that seems nice and fally (I probably won’t finish it until spring and then I will say it is nice and summery ;) I haven’t decided on the pattern, so if any suggestions for this bad boy, let me know.

I also thought I would include some yarn that I got from Taos :

The blue will end up in Germany...unless of course the middle one is preferred. The vendor recommends it for sock yarn, but I haven’t decided. I love the left one, I am thinking of making gloves. I don’t know yet.

BTW, the middle one, as well as the Austermann sock yarn is one of a few examples where Javajem and I grabbed for the same things. We have enough similar tastes that if I ever become a shut in, I can just send her out with cash and tell her to buy 2 of everything. That’s a very comforting thought for some reason... especially because I can also be very indecisive.

As I blog I am watching Shopgirl. I LOVED the story of quiet desperation told in Steve Martin’s first novella. So I have a soft spot for the movie. It’s a rainy day today so I am staying inside switching between this movie and The Waterboy- same theme just told differently. I’ve seen them each a bunch of times ever since I TIVO’d them last weekend. Yes, I can watch or listen to something over and over. I’m like a child that way. Maybe once Dancing With the Stars gains momentum (and I’ll be able to skip the commercials, the you better vote or a kitten will die lectures, the review of last week etc etc) I will switch to that.

Last few notes:
For SP9rs: You selected a winner, “I realize that I want a hug from Mr. T” had all the concise quirky charm expected from a random fact.

Everyone else: I think I fixed the picture issue. Are they coming up faster?

Shelby's questions

2006-10-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

if you wanna see pics... go to

Polliwanna

Actor - Ewan McGregor Actress - Ewan McGregor Animal - Otter Band - Bowie, The Proclaimers Book - Anything by John Irving Bubble Bath - anything really bubbly Candy - Chocolate Color - Green  Drink- rootbeer, lemonade Flower - stock Food - mac ‘n’ cheese, curry Lip Balm - anything really waxy Lotion - no pref Movie - Valley Girl Place- anywhere by the sea Song - Take It On the Run TV Show - Curb Your Enthusiasm, Top Chef, Maury (come on those Babydaddy episodes are the best!) Yarn- anything in my hot little hands Vacation Spot - Aruba

I finished FETCHING last night. They are a gift for someone that loves green, but then after I made them, I realized that the scarf I made for her last year is almost the exact color made from Knit Picks Andean Silk. BTW, was not great to work with it was splitty and got fuzzy... you know like sometimes when yarn is overworked or washed rough it gets really really used looking. I didn’t overwork it and it just did not seem to hold up great. But back to this year and Fetching:

I was able to whip these up in an evening so I might keep this for myself and make her a pair in darker green (which I have thanks to my SP8) or black. Who knows they might end up under the couch with everything else I knit thanks to the ferrets.

Shane, Man of Many Words and Few Teeth

2006-10-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

OK accident of the 5 prevented me from getting to my MAC lesson so I will have to wait until later this week, early next to resolve blogline problem. Until then posting text only on blogger... if you wanna see pics... go to

Polliwanna

Now the post:
Tomorrow I have a MAC lesson so hopefully I will have the RSS feed resolved.

Last night I saw The Pogues (full original line-up.) The band was really tight, though more poignant was watching Shane McGowan. His long battles with drugs/alcohol can be readily seen in his face and as he stumbled around the stage. His voice was still wonderful, but he had the drunken toddler walk. Let’s just say there are no more worries of him jumping off the stage and picking fights. Those days are long over. He did have a drink and a cig in his hands the whole time-- it wouldn’t feel like Shane otherwise. (Random fact: When WHN worked on the road, had to be Shane’s babysitter and make sure he got on stage and kept the whiskey down to 3 bottles. I can only imagine how many people have to watch him in Vegas to keep him from wandering off... there’s all sorts of ways for him to get into trouble in here-- and I don’t just mean eating too many 99 cent shrimp cocktails.) The picture is from my cellphone when they did FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK--My favorite all time Pogues song and WHN’s name fav Christmas song of all time. In the end when they waltz, she was totally holding him up-- just like Kristy McColl used to have to do.

(Second Random fact: Spider (tin whistle) got married yesterday in Vegas.

I had a spinning breakthrough! Turns out that learning to spin with merino sheep was a bad idea. It evidently to slick for a newbie spinner with no skills. I switched to Lincoln sheep and it is working out much better because the fibers are much grippier if that makes sense (hope you don’t get lost in my techno-jumble ;) I have a huge bag of it now and hopefully once I work my way through it, I will be able to kick Merino’s ass.

I’m still working out the kinks... and the not spun enough as you see in the center of the spindle.

On the knitting front, the ferrets stole my knitting to a new hiding area so my socks (they really don’t seem concerned that it’s SOCKTOBERFEST at all) and Fetching are at a stand still. Again, I knew the ferrets like to steal, I just didn’t think it would be my stuff. Yes, before you even go there, I envision them to be little cat burglars that would be go out and bring me back diamond necklaces, sports cars, boats etc.

I've moved.

2006-10-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Im still working out the glitches... but I wont be updating this blog anymore.

GO TO:
Polliwanna

Spinning. OI.

2006-09-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

I am the type of person that will buy something and ignore it. For days, weeks, months, but then one day I will become obsessed with it. NOW NOW NOW. Currently, it is my Majacraft Suzie Pro.

As you can notice, I am putting too much twist in my yarn. I haven’t been able to balance twist and pick-up.

Also exciting news, my German friend let me know of sock yarn that in the next few months will be making the journey to America:

This yarn is not available in America. I am so excited! If you want to see the rest of the colors she received (they are gorgeous! I especially love the top which she ordered for herself!) Check out Bentota's Blog, where she has the full picture