Back to Normal

Well after two nights spent relaxing and enjoying the company of my friends, I am feeling much better. I don't know if I can honestly say that I'm not mad anymore, but I have kind of gotten past it. If I think about the situation I find that I haven't forgiven, and I'm still pretty irritated, but I have to think about it. It's not just in the front of my mind like it had been the rest of the week. We call that progress.

The downside is that now that I don't have that to obsess over, my brain is feeling free to return to the regularly scheduled stressing out. This morning I found myself thinking, "Why on earth did you goof off for two nights?!? You have so much s**t to do, and you're not even going to be in town this weekend!" I'm still glad that we did it. I needed the time off, and honestly something had to give or else I probably would have snapped.

So now I have too much to do again, but that's okay. We might even do some wedding work when we go out of town this weekend, so then all would not be lost. Meanwhile I'm trapped here at work and not able to really accomplish anything. It's really hard not to yell at people who expect me to think at work, "I don't care about the company; I have a wedding to plan, and only 2 1/2 months left before I'm officially out of time!" Somehow I'm controlling myself, and I'm counting down the days. Even if I don't get everything done before April 19th, once it's April 19th I'm done and I can take a vacation.

My Socks That Rock

Okay, that's a total lie up there. That title, that's what I mean. See it implies that I have socks, which would be more than one, and that it rocks, but it is in time out right now. I am knitting my first sock (see not two) of my first STR club pattern. The January color is called Dragon Dance, and the pattern is Serendipity.

The yarn is really cool in person, even if you won't believe me after you see the photos. I can't help it that my iPhone cannot photograph red for some reason. Here see this photo, it's not terrible, but the yarn is a deeper, darker red than that. I'm not normally a red person, but even I have to admit this yarn is cool. I'm digging the pattern too. It's not quite something that I can memorize, but it's simple enough that I can drink, watch tv, and still keep from screwing the pooch. Ew... that's such an awful saying, don't you think?

Anyway, apparently the thing that's a problem is if I try to knit this baby at work. I managed to knit away for quite a while before I discovered that I had done two of the same repeat. Those little pattern things alternate right and left, and it's cool. Only I did two lefties in a row so they didn't... oooo ... bad sock!!! You can see the details of this boo boo here. So I had to make some adjustments. I'm working on the re-knitting because this is not the most attractive way to have your knitting look. God that photo is neon.

Okay, so knitting is fun lalala. Here, I shall also show you my other works in progress. I've talked about this sweater before, so here's a peek at the purple. I've finally finished both sleeves, and I think I've done good. I've started working up the left front now. I started it, decided it was going to be too short, so I started over, and then I started knitting this sock. But that's not the point. The point is that I must now remember that both the back and the right front will need the added 20 rows to the pattern or that jacket will funky to the max. So let's hope that I remember.

I also have another sock on the needles that I started a while back for random knitting to and from work. I don't want to lug the sweater around because I constantly need to reference my pattern, and also I've buggered it up so many times that I like to give it my almost full attention. This sock needs no such attention. I'm just knitting away on it, or I will be some day. For now it languishing in a pretty little bag just waiting for me to run out of love for the STR. Speaking of which, it is time to get back to the knitting. I want it to look pretty again before I go to Ian's for beer.

You know, my friends are pretty cool. I got an invite earlier to go to Tim and Julie's for some beer tomorrow night, and then on the way home we got a call from Ian to come and have beer this night. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be on a diet, and I will be good except for those two times, but for now I just need some unwindin. I just thought you'd like to know how lucky I am.

I R Poosay

My previous post has been deleted. For the record, everything that I wrote was true but I did choose words designed to inflict the most damage should my victim ever stumble upon that page. That's the big issue, is what if years down the road that comes back up? In theory I am justified, but realistically it is not a battle that I want to fight.

I feel lame for removing it, but I think it's for the best.

What I've Been Up To

I was so excited last night that I was going to be able to post about finishing sleeve #2. I thought about all sorts of witty things that I might say. I considered knitty puns.... Then I found that I'd knit the second sleeve about 2.5 inches too short!?!

All the witty knitty things that I had to say flew out the window. I haven't got a clue what they might have been. I alternated between anger and despair as I ripped it back and began to knit again. I can't even blame this one on the written pattern, it was all me. I just stopped too soon.

If I knit tonight there should be a second sleeve. I got close last night, but it's slow going when you know you're just going to F it up again.

Wedding planning is coming along. We've settled on a photographer, put deposits down for the florist and the rentals. I bought shoes and got fitted for the alterations. This weekend we will bust out some registry stuff, and hopefully get someone lined up to do the actual marriage ceremony thing.

I'm trying not to freak out, but every step forward in the planning reveals a bazillion more to go that I hadn't seen before. On the bright side there are less than 3 months to go, so there's light at the end of the tunnel.

**edited to try and sort out some funny formatting business**

How Was the Show?

Um, apparently my nap didn't turn out the way I expected, and I didn't make The Unbearables show. *sigh* I'm old.
I woke up briefly at 2:45 am when Jeff got home, and ate some of his chicken strips that he brought with him. Due to nap I missed dinner. I was back in bed shortly after 3. You know, maybe I should start a campaign to have more bands play shows around 11am on Saturdays. I could go get my rock on, and then still have time to run my errands afterwards.

Luckily Jeff put in an appearance for us, and even got to hang out with Erin a bit afterwards. So luckily my sleepiness didn't cause him to have a boring night. Still, I'm kind of bummed that I missed the show. Next time I'll have to try and take a nap earlier in the day, and not so close to my normal bed time.

Another Book Review

I just finished reading The Phantom Tollbooth yesterday, or rather I should say re-reading it. The first time that I read The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster was in the 5th grade. I remember because it was just after we had moved from Richmond, TX to Carrollton, TX. (I also only spent a couple of years at the school where I read it, so that helps to narrow it down.)

I remembered this book with fondness for how many years? How old are you in the 5th grade? 9 or 10? and I'm 30 now? I had worries that this book would not hold up to my expectations. How is it possible that a book that I thought was good 20 years ago would still hold any fascination for me now? Still, I had to give it a go, and lucky me, it was grabbed off my wishlist and gifted to me.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. All of the word play that fascinated me back then still tickled me today. The island of Conclusions that you get to by jumping, or the Doldrums where you aren't allowed to think or do anything at all, and a whole kingdom thrown into chaos when the princesses Rhyme and Reason are banished.

Maybe it's not a serious classic, but I think it's wonderful that it not only withstood the time between when I read it first, and today, but that it's lasted since the first publishing date in 1961. This is definitely going some place safe within my library so that I can re-read it again from time to time. If you haven't read it, then I think you should.

Now I believe that it's time to work on some knitting. I have spent the last few weeks reading and playing video games, and that makes knitting progress slow. So tonight is knitting night. ... Well until I go out to see The Unbearables at Trophys. I'll not be taking my sweater project into Trophys, no sir. Hmm... but maybe some mindless sock knitting that I don't need to be able to see? Time to go diving in the yarn box for some sock yarn!

Long Time No See

Wow, it's already January 8th, and still no first of year post. FAIL. Of course there are many reasons for my fail, and most of them are my own. I desire to put pictures in my post. A roadblock to pictures is that I can no longer view Flickr from work. I would talk to someone somewhere about this situation, but I suspect that my desire to be able to update my personal blog from work is a problem they would be less than sympathetic to. Of course, if you check out my Flickr you'll also find that I haven't uploaded any photos lately. I have slews of photos that need to go up. Hell, I still have slews of photos that need to get copied from the camera to the computer. I've just been filling my time with other things. I'm sure I'd be more motivated if I could play with those photos at work, but even still, it hasn't happened and that's that.
I've completely undone all the work that I had put into knitting a sweater/jacket for myself, and started over. I had knit 1.5 sleeves before realizing that I had misread the pattern from the start. I've re-finished the one sleeve and started another. I fear this warm weather gear will not see completion before we run out of cold weather here. It's still pretty fun to knit, it's just going to be a lot of stitches. I feel my hands and brain itching to knit a pair of socks just so that I can finish something quickly.

We had an excellent Christmas (despite some last minute car repairs on the 22nd) and a wonderful New Year's Eve and Day. I hope that you and your families did as well. We spent quality time with family and friends, and it was terrific. I only wish that I had one more week of goofing off before having to get back to work.

I read the Golden Compass books or His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman. I found them to be a quick enjoyable read. I think it took me 4 or 5 days to read all 3 books. I suppose that I should admit that I spent several hours a day a work reading; once I got into the story I just couldn't put them down. I will warn you that the ends of book 1 and 2 both are horrible stopping points. I would not recommend getting to the end of the book before you have the next one ready to go. Jeff is currently reading them, although in his line of work he doesn't have the luxury of reading and not getting busted. Next in line to borrow them is Tim. So if you want to borrow my copies you'll have a bit of a wait.