rambling, rather than reading for class

Today's high was something around 60F, and it was sunny.  I'd be completely ok with spring starting in early February.  Well, until I realized what, exactly, that might mean for the environment....

In other news, I finished Sheldon today - at work (baby shower at work today, for pregnant coworker/classmate).  I remembered to take crochet hook, needle, legs, black yarn to embroider his eyes, etc.  And COMPLETELY forgot to take anything with which to stuff his legs.  Quick thinking had me taking care of his eyes first and then using the left-over yarn from the leg tails and his eyes to stuff the legs.  However, he turned out uber cute.  As soon as I can figure out how to get pictures from the cell phone to the computer withOUT using up a picture message, I shall post pictures.  Or just knit another one, cause I require a Sheldon in order to live.

I will say this for the midwest:  it has some amazing sunsets.  UofI's Hartley Gardens is right near the office, and during nice weather, it is a great place to sit and eat lunch.  Far enough away from campus, the gardens tend to be fairly quiet.  And, they provide a nice open space over which to watch the sun set.  Lately, I've been getting out of work just as the sun is setting so I hang out for a few minutes and watch the sun set.  It is almost enough to make me forget about the cold for a few minutes.  You know, until I can't feel my fingers anymore.

I got a sony Cybershot DSC-S750 for Christmas.  I wanted a little pocket camera to take everywhere with me.  With 7.2 mega pixels, this one takes somewhat sharper shots than the Canon, but I love the manual ability of the Canon.  It is kinda hard to "trick" the sony into the aperture/shutter speed that I want AND have my subject still be in focus.  The start up speed is also kinda slow, but it is nice to always have a camera on me without carting around the big one.

This one, however, was taken by my cell phone.  I had forgotten the little camera at home and made due with what I had.  I'm actually fairly impressed and forced to think back to the first digital camera my dad bought, which only had 2 mega pixels.. same as my cell phone.  Weird. 

In other news, I have a kitten curled up between my arms on the computer desk.  I'm gonna need a bigger desk if this keeps up, as I am eventually going to run out of room for the random assorted crap I keep on the desk, the mouse, the keyboard, the pretty pretty iMac and a kitten.  Plus, he keeps sitting on the keyboard while staring at the mouse cursor.   I really ought to download one of those pet games and get a kitten and watch as his mind is blown by the noise as well as the sight.

And just because I can, one of my favorite shots from this summer:  A fairly cool early morning, right before bring the horses in, alone on the farm.  I miss those early mornings, just me and the horses, before it is hot and ugly out.  I didn't even notice the bird til I had uploaded the shots to my computer.

sunshine

I've made some serious progress on Sizzle. Back on ... August 2nd, I had this: Today, September 1st, I have this: A completed back of Sizzle, plus the start of the front of Sizzle, that little bit at the bottom on the needles. Color is pretty close, though I think it might be a little less blue and a little more grey. The yarn is actually that shiny, though. I'm totally loving it. This is what I'm totally looking forward to: Penn State Football. Kickoff tomorrow is 3:30pm, against Akron. We should win. In fact, I'd be scared if we lost. But, new quarterback, lots of new players on the field. Will be interesting to see how the team has learned to work together. My body also wants to kill me. Going from physical labor all day, every day to sitting on the couch, sleeping in, taking naps, etc., is killing me. I'm getting headaches from ponytails, since I've worn my hair down every day. My knees hurt, my back hurts.. I hurt. I think I need to drag my butt up to the gym tomorrow or maybe today. We sent Ryan, one of my roommates, to the grocery store. So far, he's about half-way done his list and has called me three times to ask about what he should get, how much, if we have this, if we have that. He cracks me up. Wonder what he'd do without a cell phone? Or if I didn't answer mine? TheUrmily should be up here in just under two hours, so I prolly have time to get a hair cut, should I so choose, a shower, and maybe even read a little bit. This free time thing is weird. Weird, I say!

The socks, they are DONE

Done and blocked and everything. Already gifted them to my mother, who loves them.

(and her feet are smaller, so they fit her a little better. And is it possible to take a picture of ones feet without giving oneself cankels?)

A close up shot of the stitch pattern:


I really like how they came out, even though they took forever and I apparently knit tightly and loosely at the same time. (As in, with larger-than-called-for needles, I get smaller gauge AND holes in my fabric. What gives, yo?) Started sometime during the school year (you'd think I'd remember) and finished on a Friday. I think the Friday after TheBoy left, so the... 11th. In other words, they took forever. I am a slow knitter, specially when I ignore projects for a length of time.

It has been beautiful out in the last week. A little warm during the day, nice and cool at night. No rain, which we need, but beautiful skys and such. See?


What I call the Dr. Seuss Tree:


It totally looks like it came right out of a Dr. Seuss book. I love it.

See the three trees in the middle? The one on the left looks like a rearing horses, ears pinned back. And the one on the right looks like some sort of cartoon bird. I've been staring at that section of the treeline every day as I take horses out and that's what I think every time. Lexi agrees with me, and we decided that it's a garden-scape of her horse, Scout, fighting an ostrich over that thing in the middle. Someone else said camel, but we don't really see it. Or, the camel has some weird thing growing out of his butt.


Meet Flair. Flair is one of our mares. I dislike Flair. She's very pretty, as you can see. But she's a mare, and thus, moody. She's hard to ride (read: likes to rear) and hasn't been sound for the last three months. In fact, she's spent the last three months in that stall. AND IT DOESN'T bother her. There's something wrong with a horse that doesn't mind being inside. All the time. Alone at night. She's also not all that bright. Not that dumb, but ... not that bright.


Though, tonight, Flair has Harry to keep her company. Isn't he cute? And silly?


This is Rocket. Rocket likes sticks. He's so very cute and has the best sad puppy dog eyes I've ever seen. He makes me feel like the world will end if I don't throw his stick. He'll keep bringing it back to you until he's tired and needs a break. Then, he chews his stick for a while. The result is that you end up with very small pieces of stick that are really better mulch than toys. But don't tell Rocket that, he won't listen.


That's all I got for now. Still working on the back of Sizzle (which Wendy says knits up in about 3 days), about to finish the increases and work on the armholes. So maybe there is hope. Still loving the pattern, the yarn, the resulting fabric. Not sure if I like the increases in the back, they look wonky to me. Maybe I'll mess around and figure out another way for the front, a way that doesn't show as much as my most invisible method of a make 1.

I think I owe a few pictures

This:

Now looks like this:


The socks I started a long long time ago, at school, now look like this:

I'm about halfway done knitting the foot, so the end is in sight. I'd kinda like to finish this before I go back to school....

And because I'm insane, I started this:


I was bitten by a really nasty fly (no idea what kind, either) and my left ankle swelled up something akin to a balloon, resulting in this:


This is the first of the long promised pictures of the apartment:

my bed. Doesn't it look comfy?

This is the bathmat in the bathroom:


And this is what I spent Saturday doing:


I started this within the last week:

Wendy's Sizzle. I am LOVING this yarn (Karabella's Zodiac) and the pattern.

In other news, I move in about ... 30 days and have yet to start packing. I want to finish the one pair of socks, the scarf (so that I can give it to my boyfriend's mother when she moves back into (or near) town, cause that's not weird at all. Right?) My boyfriend will be here on Sunday or Monday, we're both hoping for Sunday. I need to go grocery shopping cause I've heard that eating on a regular basis is a good idea. I want to buy V for Vendetta. I need to buy text books online, at least the ones I was able to get ISBN numbers for from the student bookstore. Tina needs to finish my quilt so that I can take that to school.

My computer remains propped against my printer, my back is killing me as a result. I'm competing again on Sunday. It is hot here, but I have the pool. Of course, that requires walking outside, which is NOT benefiting from my A/C. So that doesn't always happen as often as it could.  

And that might be the last you'll hear from me until I move into the apartment at school- around the 30th.

just breathe

I don't have any pictures to show, sorry.

I have, however, started the heel on the second sock. I'm onto pattern repeat 20-something of the lace scarf, and I've started another pair of socks- simple knit2purl2 ribbed socks with Opal.

I also recently bought yarn and the pattern for Wendy's Sizzle. I'm very excited for the yarn to arrive. I think I ought to finish at least one sock first, though.

Problem is, I've finished season 4 of the West Wing. I need to find something new to watch on DVD then, so I can sit and knit in front of the TV still. I think Marie has Friends on DVD, but I'm not all that interested in Friends. Maybe I'll steal TheUrmily's House? That'll do me for a while.

I've got three dogs for the weekend- two big dogs, one little dog. One of the big dogs snores and has horrible gas. Sadly, I can't convince him to stay in the spare bedroom. He does know he's not allowed in my bedroom. It is kinda nice to have the company, though.

My life revolves around horses- who's where and when, who needs drugs, who needs to be ridden, who has lost a shoe. I had a day off a little while ago and walking through the barn that evening, checking on the one horse that is in due to an injury, I realized that I do more than just bring in horses, feed them, feed them again, and turn them back out. I know who goes where, when, and why. I know who gets fed what, who gets what drugs - and for how long. I know where the new horse should go, when Chris will not be around. I'm the glue that's keeping everyone else together. It's kinda nice.

Two of the girls who normally help us out each day will both be gone the next week. That means it will be mostly just me for a week. I'll have help in the mornings, but shall be on my own in the afternoon, to turn out and muck. Should be interesting. I guess it is a good thing that I have next weekend off- gonna go up to school with TheUrmily and visit for Arts Fest. Should be good times.


Ok, need to escape the dog. And go to bed. Maybe pictures next time. I've discovered that I get great signal strength from the pool.

you'll think of me

I'm all settled in the apartment, though I have yet to take pictures. I'm rarely in the place during the day- I come upstairs between 5:30 and 7pm, take a shower, and often turn around and leave again.

I've got wireless internet from the main house, but the signal is really low. This is my current set up:


That's the only place my computer doesn't a) over-heat (stupid Dell setup) and b) lose internet signal.

As a result, blogging hasn't happened. I'm hoping to fix that, but no promises. In exchange, I offer this following shot of the first completed sock:


I've started the second one already, but have limited time to work on it. Three nights a week are devoted to homework- at least two hours of reading a night. Reading about things like the library, what a card catalog is, and why I might want to use it. Technically, I'm a junior in college. If I don't know that by now, I should be failing out of school.

The lace scarf hasn't gotten much farther, either. I got a good 5 pattern repeats in at the Outer Banks, but haven't touched it since. No wonder it takes me so long to finish stuff.

I'm debating with the idea of devoting a day of the week to cross-stitch. I have a ton of kits left that I haven't started/finished and I love it. Problem is, you actually have to pay attention to that. And count. A lot. We'll see.

Hopefully, I'll soon have a better set up that doesn't kill back, arms, and hands to type.

A short reappearance, only

For some odd reason, Blogger.com wasn't loading for me for the last week or so. I could read blogs hosted by blogger, just not up-date my own. Once I got the new Ethernet adapter, random pages stopped loading. Other pages randomly lost pictures- they would load, I would scroll to the bottom of the page, and they would have disappeared when I scrolled back up. Very strange.

Lots of sock process. Not last Wednesday, but the one before, I cast on again- with a bigger needle size and two more pattern repeats. That Saturday night, I turned the heel. I didn't knit as much as I had wanted to during finals week, but I have evenings for knitting now. Well, knitting and reading.



That was taken on.. the 2nd. What day of the week was the second? The sock is now about 5" long, all said and done. Hopefully, I'll finish that this coming week and start on the mate. I'm not taking any other sock yarn in hopes that that .. mental trick will work. Can only knit what one has.

I've finished 13 pattern repeats with the lace scarf, so I'm about half-way done that. Supposed to do 27 pattern repeats, but I have this weird ... thing with odd numbers. Plus, I think the scarf looks better when folded in half with an even number of repeats. But again, that could be the weird ... thing with odd numbers.

I'm heading to the beach tomorrow- the Outer Banks, actually. Spent a good 20 minutes tonight, going over maps and stuff, figuring out my directions. Should be an 8 hour drive, what fun! But I plan on leaving at 8am, so I'll still have the evening there.

I've been attempting to unpack from school, reorganize, pack for beach and pack for apartment, without losing my mind. So far, I gave up on the packing for apartment and getting everything neat and organized and out of the way. Many things need to happen, like taking the queen size down comforter off my twin bed at home (my bed is really high. Think mid-thigh to hip level.), replacing it with the twin size comforter from school, and taking the queen size to the apartment. I need to sort through clothing, figure out what I'm going to do as far as clothing storage- closet in the bedroom over there is TINY, with one self. And the room contains only a bed. (but said bed is comfy. And large. But very low- that's gonna be weird.)

life taught me to die

12:14am of the day my 6 page paper is due. 20% of my grade in a class I need an A in, to get my 4.0 for the semester. (Yes, I'm a Type A personality.) (and I like parentheses.) I'm on the top of page 5, with one person yet to comment on and then a conclusion to add. 

And somehow, I need to make the introduction fit the rest of the paper, thesis statement in particular. 

In other news, the sock is completed. My very first sock! It looks hand-made, but I'm ok with that. I pretty much made up the pattern as I went along, so I'm not too surprised either. Next time, I'll try a knit 3/purl 1 pattern, rather than knit 2, purl 2 and continue the pattern onto the top of the foot. And maybe try a different toe. But first, I need to knit another sock to match the first one. And maybe finish this paper and go to bed.