Summer's end

I have to say that I'm not really excited that fall is here. Yes I like the foliage, but aside from that... yeah not so much my season. The weather prediction is for mid to high 70's for the next couple of days, so I braved the chilly 40's this morning so that I can enjoy the heat this afternoon. I anticipate taking my bike in the next couple days as well to try and get any last minute riding in before I wimp out because of frost bite!

Other news... Hg's sister and two of her friends are going to be staying with us tonight. That should be interesting. She (and roomies) are on a short, long trip, coming from Missouri and driving to Prince Edward Island in Canada all within two weeks. I believe the drive would be 40 hours without stopping one way. The drive from PEI to us will be about 14 hours, so they won't arrive until 9 pm-ish. It's sort of an odd stay over, since HG is in Mass all day, will be home for maybe an hour and then heads off to a "fishing trip" meeting. He won't be home until 9ish either, so I'm praying his sister & friends won't show up until shortly there after, because, well I'm not such a big fan of strangers. I've never met the sister, so that in itself is a little pressure but then top it off with two other strangers. Loads of fun. The plans sort of got changed, and really they will only be hear to sleep for the night, then they are off to drive and we are off to work. I guess I thought they would spend some time here, I don't know, since last time HG & Sis were in the same state was 4-5 years ago... It is what it is, hopefully all will be well.

I'm scheduled for a short kayaking excursion on Saturday, and of course the current weather prediction is rain. HG is also schedule to be away camping on "fishing trip" and this is the 3rd time he's had the rain forecast, yeah Murhpy really loves us both. HG is considering taking a sabbatical and traveling to drought stricken areas with his tent... He'll be the next wonder of the world when he brings rain by setting up his tent.


Wedding talk:
Me: When do you want to get married?
HG: What do you want to do?
Me: I want ...xyz...
HG: Outdoors or indoors?
Me: Outdoors
Hg: indoors

HG: Fall, Winter or Spring?
Me: Fall, Spring or summer. I'll be too busy hibernating to get married in the winter.

Me: Small, casual, no bridal party?
Hg: Big, causal, bridal party
Me: I thought we were going low key?
HG: You just don't want to have to pick between T and J...
Me: hmm... you got a point. Well... T could walk on your side :-) Think I could have male-of-honors too?
Hg: (laughing)
Me: No seriously?

HG: band or DJ?
Me: both

Me: Should we wait until next year?
HG: Whenever you want dear
Me: Fine next weekend (his fishing trip weekend)
HG: You're an ass (chuckling)

What we established:
Not a winter wedding, and not next weekend.

Not established:
When, where, or how.

I love suprises

I

received a package from my secret pal today, and man does she rock!
Two skeins of really beautiful hand painted merino, some hand made citrus scented soap, and a post card of a bridge in her State.... I'm not sure if she made the post card, perhaps (sp did you?) The picture shows the yarn as mostly blue, but it's actually a mix of blues and purple tones.

I have to hurry up and finish some of these UFO's so I can start playing with the yarn she sent :-)

Thank you SP!!

Do you see?

I almost forgot...

HG's birthday was this past week. He was in Mass for work again, so it was a pretty quiet birthday. I bought him the first season of the Family Guy, (I love that show!) and a TV. Yes you read that right. I bought him a 32" flat screen (since that's the size TV we already had in the living room) only to realize that HG had been planning on a 50" for Christmas.
A 50". WTF? That's huge. I don't like it (stomping foot here).
Anyway, our compromise was to exchange the 32" and go for a 42". Not as small as I'd like, but not as big as he'd like. Hg's friend Timlake came over to help install & hook up to our current surround sound & whatnot... Timlake is a big electronics geek. (In a nice way of course) He had been in that business (although the much higher end shite) for the past 10 years, so he was helpful to have around. Except he kept filling HG's head with visions of Sugar plums all while filling my head with $$ shock. It was like he was pumping the heroin into HG and giving me sneak peaks at the bill. HG is into electronics, like a fat kid loves cake. Telling him about add-ons is like pushing the plunger on the needle.


We tested the graphics by watching "300" again. I nearly felt the blood splatter on me.

knit off

I seamed my socks :-) All done. Yay! After seaming the toes I promptly put the socks on and ran to HG and shook my foot in front of him saying "Look, look. I did it!"
I've got the first one of the ankle socks done, just need to cast on for the match. I'm back to my old antics and have been distracted from this match sock again... but I did stop to sew ends in to a bunch of dish clothes I had made (that had been in the bottom of the knit bag for *cough* 6 months) so that's a good thing. I also came across this cute flower dishcloth pattern so I am anxious to start that. I'm also knitting a mat/rug but that's none thinking knitting because every row is knit, knit knit some more, turn and repeat. It sort of sucks really. But at least I can watch (and focus on) a movie while I do it.
I picked up some cheap Lion's Brand micro spun yarn for a pair of plain socks... in hopes that I can convert HG's non-knit ware mentality (without spending a lot in case he won't convert)... baby steps right. In this case literally.

My Secret Pal spoiler let it slip that there should be a package coming my way... so I'm anxiously waiting on the post man.

I finished making some stitch markers for my secret pal spoilee, as well as a "Caribbean scarf", and picked up some fabulous yarn (as in, hmm maybe I'll keep it and buy some other yarn for her) , so I really need to get that packaged up and shipped out this week. The person I was matched up for as giver has bee knitting for years, so I' m a little concerned that she's going to see a mistake, or the seam or uneven blocking or something (anything)... so I'm a little hesitant to send her the scarf, but I did make it for her... hmm.. what to do what to do.

I bought some smaller rings for stitch markers last night so I'm planning on making a few more stitch markers, perhaps for another package, or maybe just for some random gifts.
I've been meaning to drop a card in the mail to couple of my blog world friends, but I keep getting side tracked. (Not hard to do in my ADD world)

Maybe I'll have to start making lists outside of work... augh. Carry over!

Weekend recap

Ok...is anyone really surprised by this ? Seriously?

I finished reading "Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Piccoult this morning. I was slightly surprised by the ending, and it brought a tear to a glass eye. The book was definitely interesting, fictional yes, but given today's medical and technological advances, not far from the truth.
{Designer babies isn't a new term, nor one that doesn't have it's fans. Perhaps your one of them. Perhaps I am too. I'm not sure that I would genetically engineer a baby to save another's life, and that may be narrow minded, and perhaps that opinion would change if I was facing different circumstances. There is the ability to test babies or fetuses or embryos (whatever pc term you prefer) for certain diseases or deformations that give the parents the ability to terminate pregnancy if those are undesirable traits/characteristics. I can see the value in this. I can also see why people would be opposed to it. It's also in research the ability to selectively design your baby to have specific traits, say you want a blue eyed brown haired little boy, you could design him genetically. That, I do have qualms about. It's one thing to screen your baby for genetic mutations causing diseases or deformations, but it's a whole different story to be making Barbie and Ken. That is an area I'm strongly against further advances in. Really do we need to be producing a world full of Barbies? I don't see the value in that. Not at all. But I also expect that the people who would choose that path are also the ones that blow 100K on designer clothing in a week.}
That tangent sort of went no where, but it was a thought provoked because of reading My Sister's Keeper.

In other news...

Saturday HG and I took a sweet ride up to Kittery Maine, on our bikes (again plural :-p). It was the longest ride I've taken on my own bike yet, and man was it crazy! Lucky us, we had no idea there was an "event" going on, so we were surprised (to say the least) when we drove up to find it a complete madhouse. That part, wasn't so fun. When we left, we took a detour to visit some of HG's friends for a bit. We were there for a couple hours visiting. The snl of the person we were visiting was there, and has not liked me since HG and I met. I'd like to say "L" has a valid reason not to like me, you know sometime peoples personality just don't mesh... but in all honesty I think she's been acting like a 12 year old for the past few years. Really. She had a thing for HG (again this was before we were dating) and she got divorced around the time that HG & I started dating...some how that translates into her hating me (and refusing to even in a social environment talk to me). The first couple time I tried to talk to her, I was blown away by her reaction (seriously think of a 5 yo who is mad at you...) and decided that she wasn't worth the effort to get to know. Now, I get along with the other people in this group, so I just avoided being around L at the parties and had a grand old time. (Secretly I think it pissed her off that I wasn't worried about her). Like I said, this has been going on a few years. Anyway, as a result of the Justin Rollin's Memorial motorcycle ride, a picture of HG & I, and Ruffy & his wife was in the newspaper the following day. I hadn't seen "L" until Saturday, where she climbed out of her ice queen role and asked me if I knew about the picture, and how she had cut it out in case people hadn't seen it. It took me a second to realize she was even talking to me. Seriously the other people were staring at me... As soon as the shock wore off, I did converse with her briefly. I think L may have said a few other things to me before we left, but it was a shock. Who knows, maybe the recent heat waves have melted her outer layer. I was tempted to revert to my 12 yo self and ask her, but figured I'd leave well enough alone.

Cell phone providers suck. Doesn't matter which one your with, they suck. For real. Another dilema for another day.

Dear Self,

Little girl, I know you are excited about riding your bike to work, really I understand. But in the future, like tomorrow, check the weather before you go.
Or freeze all morning. In the 40 degree cold. Your bike wasn't appreciative either.

Thank you.
The Colombian

"You bought a box of this today...".

My weekend... was fabulous. I need 3 day weekends every week. I would so definitely work 10-12 hour days if it meant I could have my long weekends. At least in the summer. HG and I didn't actually go anywhere, which in itself is unusual as we typically hit the road for our 3 day-ers, but we still packed in a lot of stuff. Friday night we visited with some of HG's friends, parents of Cole...the cutest little boy. (Butterbones, thankfully he's too old for Anna!) Our visit turned into a night of playing "taboo"...which I loved. We rotated our partners, with HG and I one game, Christi & I another game and Christy's husband and I the last game. I hadn't ever played taboo before, actually I hadn't heard of it before. It's a cross between pictionary and jeopardy where you are trying to get your team member to say a specific word, without drawing and without using some specific descriptive words. It's harder than I initially thought, because the words you can't use are often the first ones you would. For example say your word was alcohol, words you wouldn't be able to use would be like drink, drunk, scotch, rubbing, bar. The other part of this was that all 4 of us are a bit competitive, so we were talking trash to the other team and calling 'em out if we thought a word was borderline unusable. It was hilarious, and swapping team mates also made it interesting. For example Timlake & Christi used their son for a lot of their examples such as movies or songs but had to think differently with HG or I as their team mate since we were unfamiliar with the kids songs/shows. Oh...and top that off with alcohol consumption...I think Mike T was feeling those teas...

Saturday HG and I hit the road on our bikes...that's right plural... I was on my own. On roads with traffic for the first time...and it rocked!! HG's complaint...you need to go faster. I think I should mark that in the history books because typically the complaint is that I need to slow down. We put on about 70 miles Saturday. Not hard, but enough for me to get comfy on my bike.
Sunday we went out on HG's ride (after much prodding) and we ran the gamut of places, but we also took a tour down to Alstead area to see the rebuilding from the flood devastation last year. While HG was there literally for the thick of it because of work I hadn't been down in that area prior to the flooding, or since but you could see the trail the water had cut out. It was pretty incredible. Plus again since HG had worked in the area prior to the floods as well as during, he could give me details and water markers in relation to what was there now.

Monday we went out on our bikes again, this time to force me into more traffic intersections because I'm not a big fan of stopping & starting, once I'm going I like to stay moving. But I guess being able to stop at an intersection has it's benefits... I guess. :-p Actually it really wasn't bad, and speed (or lack of) wasn't so much an issue since it felt comfortable and stable to be on my bike. I did actually take the initiative to accelerate heavily and pass some cars, it was great. It was all great until we were headed back and in Enfield... then we ran into an old camper that drove so slow it actually caused a traffic back up where I had to ride in first gear doing 10 mph, that really really sucked. I could have put my feet down and Freddy Flinstoned it faster.

I decided last night that I would take my bike to work this morning. I was like a little kid before Christmas, I couldn't sleep I kept waking up hoping it was already 5 so I could go... and when 5 finally came, I was exhausted. I took my bike to the gym, which made me a little sketched since it was still a bit dark and the previous week I had had a family of raccoons race out in the middle of the road, but I made it with no problems. I think I'm keeping the bike, so now I am going to tell my family.

In knitting news, I am half way thru my second sock and already thinking about making more. With alterations of course. Amy had posted a while back, some pictures of short socks she makes for herself that I like, especially since I rarely wear tall socks. I'm thinking I had enough yarn from this first set to make a second smaller set. I'm starting to have a guilty conscious since I have Anna's wrap sweater that is almost finished but needs to be sewed together and finish the collar, and I have booties for her, plus I still have to sew half of the shrug I started a while back. Maybe I'll finish this sock and do my go backs before casting on for another set. Bummer... that sweater is probably going to be too small for Anna by the time I finish it... hmm...maybe I'll have to start another one in 2T for her :-)

**Oh yes, the answer was tissues only after embarassing myself with the actual first thing that came out...