You Are Invited To Advanced Ball Screws 201

I know you are thinking “Damn, how to I get invited to such a cool event?” Well, all you need to do is start buying bearings and you get your name on all the hottest event lists!
Seriously, I opened up my work e-mail today and I saw this and thought the firewall had broken and I was getting pornographic material delivered to me. But no, just some engineering class regarding ball screws. Sigh.

I was going to post earlier this week, but I have not been felling up to it. On Saturday DH and I went out to Shepherd’s Harvest and I actually took photos! I know, I remembered my camera AND I remember to take pictures. So here is a brief look at the day.

We saw a lady spinning directly from an angora rabbit. She is there every year. The rabbit is molting so it is not in any pain.


Here are some of the other rabbits we saw. They are just so cute and fluffy.


Shepherd’s Harvest takes place at the Washington County Fairgrounds, but most of the vendors are indoors, although the doors at both ends of the buildings are usually open. It was quite chilly this year, so even inside it was cool. Here is a shot inside one the buildings. So many vendors, so little time…



Here is a shot outside. Please note the kettle corn vendor on the left side of the picture. They make the kettle corn right there and it is delicious.


There was a yurt on site this year. Someone actually makes them and you could buy one. It was warmer in the yurt than it was in the metal buildings. Even though there is a big hole in the top of it. I sort of wonder how they keep the rain and the snow out of it.



Here is a shot of lunch. Mmmmm lamb brat!


Here are a couple of alpacas that had just been shorn.


And last but not least, here are some pictures of a sheep having her nails clipped and one being sheared and some sheep in a pen waiting to be sheared or just done.


I did buy some stuff on Saturday, but I do not have any photos of it yet. The one thing I will mention though is Briar Rose Fibers. Her yarn is just drop dead gorgeous, of course most of it is merino so it is verboten to me, but I did find some BFL I could buy. I will definitely post a picture of it. She also had knit the Icarus Shawl in a sport / DK weight fiber and bigger needles and it was beautiful. I think I might try doing that as well because even though I like the look of Icarus, it always seemed beyond my capability. I am not sure why. I think it is because the model in Interweave is so skinny, I could not image the shawl actually on my sizable frame.

Excuse Me Ma’am, Your Geekiness Is Showing

I suspect that many of the people who read this blog have come to realize that I have a deep vein of geekiness in my soul. I do try to hide it, but I am not always successful. Yesterday, I was working on planning this weekend and one of the big things we were going to do was go to see “Star Trek”. I had figured we could go today (Friday) and it would kick off the big weekend (Shepherd’s Harvest and Mother’s Day respectively). Well, as I was looking up the times at the movie theater, I discovered that “Star Trek” was playing at Southdale AMC at 7:00 that day (Thursday). Now, I know how the movie releases work well enough to know that a Friday release is not played until Friday, generally with a geeky movie, you can get a show at 12:01, but at 7:00 on Thursday. No way! So I actually went to the official AMC website because I sort of thought maybe Yahoo had a glitch in it. But no, it was truly playing at 7:00. I called the DH and said let’s go tonight. I was willing to miss Supernatural with The Girl so I could be one of the first to see “Star Trek”. Is that not about the geekiest thing you have ever heard? I have actually been really looking forward to the movie for a long time. I love JJ Abrams and I sort of figured he would have to work pretty hard to mess it up.
DH finally agreed and he met me at the theater at 5:00. We bought tickets and looked at the line that was waiting to be let in the theater. There were only 4 people in it at 5:15. DH did not want to stand in the line, he wanted to go eat. Now, I was not very hungry at that point and the truth be told, I did not want to spoil my chance at eating popcorn. I have a great affection for movie popcorn and I am willing to give up actual nutrition in order to partake in its wonderful goodness. So we compromised, we went and bought books and then went and stood in line. We got our place in line about 5:30 and there were about 9 people in the line in front of us. We stood in line for an hour. We chatted with some strange man who was behind us. It was okay, because I took it as an opportunity to practice my small talking skills. Mainly he talked, so it was not too difficult. We got released from the line and headed into the theater. I got us some good seats and DH bought popcorn and diet coke. I know, we were living it up… caffeinated pop on a work night!
There was a LOT of commercials, more than usual, which always irritates me. I know that it is how they keep ticket prices down etc, but you know what, they will play the same stupid commercial a couple of times in like 5 minutes and I do not see the point of it. Anyway, I was very excited when the movie finally started.

I am going to say this right now. I LOVED this movie. It was funny and smart and jam-packed with action. The actors they got to play all of the characters were spot on. I adored Karl Urban’s portrayal of “Bones” McCoy, I think he was my favorite character, but everyone was very good. I think that anyone would enjoy this movie. A great deal of Star Trek knowledge is not necessary as it really is an introduction to the whole kit and caboodle. Although I will let you know that Romulans and Vulcans share a common ancestry. It is something implied in the movie, but more in passing and it just helps to know that fact. I know that fact because my head is full of geeky goodness.
Not only was the movie incredibly entertaining, there were actual knits in it as well, which made me very happy. Uhura has a very nice red sweater in the bar scene and Scotty is wearing several lovely knits when he is introduced (although, I will say the hat he has on is just bizarre). Also, there is a sweater Spock is wearing in one scene that I am pretty sure I could knit, and as I think on it, I think I have yarn that would work for it. I would also like to point out that even though the Starfleet uniforms are not knitted garments, you could actually knit one as they looked like seed stitch raglan sweaters.
I would say that “Star Trek” is a perfect summer movie: fun and exciting. I have to recommend you run out and see it. I am giving it 4 knitting needles out of 4.

I am actually going to go see it again because it was so good. And just an aside, The Boyfriend would look just like the main Romulan Nero if he shaved his head and slapped some tattoos on it. The Girl denies it, but it is true.

Leader? We Don’t Need No Stinking Leader!

Today’s post is going to be just about Lost. I was very upset with the last episode (Follow the Leader). Mainly because there is a path the show seems to be going down which with I totally disagree. Namely, down the path of The Stand. I think I mentioned this in my last post as well, and it really seems to be even more so after this episode with Jack playing the role of the Trashman. If the writers nuke the island next week, I will be very disappointed.
I guess we will find out next week.
Jack is being a complete idiot. I do not know how he could look Kate in the face and say that the last three years have had more bad than good. Hello, McFly! She was headed to jail on flight 815; her life was a LOT better because of the crash. Actually, looking at the people who crashed, there were quite a few whose life is better because of the crash.
Sun and Jin – were headed for divorce court, instead they realized how much they loved each other and had a baby.
Sawyer – found Juliet and discovered how good life could be once you settled down with someone you love.
Charlie – got off the smack and died a hero’s death.
Locke – got out of the wheelchair and discovered a purpose to his life.
Rose and Bernard – Rose was cured and they are together.
Hurley – reunited with his father.
Jack just can not see past the fact that he became a drunk. Well, I hate to say this, but Jack was not actually all that stable to begin with and I think he was on the road to alcoholism any way.
All I know is that when Kate is the voice of reason the situation is BAD.

Who is Jacob? This has been an ongoing question. My husband came up with a great thought: perhaps Jacob is being held hostage through some dark magic. Perhaps, the reason that Richard never ages is that he did some ritualistic magic in order to stay that way. I really like this theory. Several seasons ago there was that scene where Locke saw a rocking chair in the cabin and hears “Jacob” say Help Me. Could killing Jacob release him? Or was it actually The Island asking for help? All I know is that Locke is determined to kill him. However, Richard and Ben seem to want to share a secret about Jacob before they went to see him. Perhaps, Jacob does not actually exist?

Sawyer and Juliet: I love them together and I think that Kate needs to stay out of the way. Just a thought, Juliet is a trained Other, you don’t think she would put a cap in Kate’s ass? Really, Kate is going to die and Juliet will just be like “I don’t know what happened”. Of course, I would not mind if Kate died since I have never been a big fan and her character has really went down hill this season. Of course, maybe that was the plan all along. Maybe Kate dies in the series finale.

When Eloise (last posting I called her Eleanor sorry about that) told Charles she was going off to get Jughead, he was talking to her and he put his hand on her stomach. Is Eloise pregnant? Could she be pregnant with Daniel? I was thinking that, but then someone on Ravelry pointed out he would have been 18 in 1996 when he was a professor at Oxford. Now they did say he was the youngest person to earn a Ph. D from Oxford during the last episode, but he did not seem that young. So maybe it is not Daniel, but perhaps Penny? Who knows? Maybe Charles just likes to touch woman’s stomachs.

Radzinsky needs to be taken out and shot. What a freaking creep! And Phil needs to go with him. Really when he hit Juliet, that was totally uncalled for. Of course, I actually think Juliet is more dangerous than Sawyer, but the DI doesn’t know that. Really what kind of place are they running?

I loved Hurley getting interrogated by Dr. Chang. This scene just goes to show how important it is to know your history. There was no Korean war?! Of course the best part was that Hurley had said he was worried that someone would ask him who the president was when he arrived in 1977 and everyone just laughed. I guess he was right to worry. 1977 = Jimmy Carter.

Please note where Jughead was buried: under Dharmaville / New Otherton. Now if you recall from a previous post I theorized that the reason there was infertility in New Otherton was because the bomb was leaking radiation and caused it. I think this episode supports that theory even further. Hooray for me!

One final observation:
My husband and I were discussing Ben one day and we decided he is very much like Richard the third. However, in this episode, he reminded me of Iago from Othello. He was just really toady in this episode. Perhaps he is a combination of Richard III and Iago, charming and deceitful and very dangerous.

Hearts of Darkness

Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant.
Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness”

Okay, I have not been knitting with any black wool, but I was listening to a pod cast of “Heart of Darkness” and I loved the imagery of the knitter in the recruitment office sending sailors to their doom.
I have quite a bit of knitting news today…
1st – I escaped the clutches of my in-laws long enough to go over to the MN Knitter’s Guild Yarnover on 4/18. There were many fabulous vendors, including Black Water Abbey. I have been lusting over their yarn on line for sometime and not been brave enough to buy any without seeing it in person to make sure I would like it. I have to say. It is awesome and the colors are as beautiful in person as they are on-line. If you have been thinking about buying some, I would not hesitate. I bought a couple of patterns (one for a vest and one for a trio of aran hats), enough yarn to knit the vest for me and a couple of hats.
Everything I bought can be seen here:
I bought some stuff from others as well. I bought a skein of Stella from Alpacas of the Ark. I try to buy something from them whenever I can because the yarn is so lovely and the owner I so nice. I bought a kit to make a sock monkey hat for The Baby. And some other yarn that was just a good deal. Plus, my DH was with and we bought him some roving and mohair locks for him to spin. Here are the results:

Pretty cool, huh?

2nd - Last Saturday, DH and I went out and about looking for trouble. Okay, we were really looking for a locket for The Girl for Mother’s Day, but we ended up at The Yarnery who happened to be having a sale… you know how it goes…
Here is what I bought at The Yarnery.

I purchased no black wool, but I did get navy wool and black alpaca. So, it is close. We also stop down at Zandy’s in the morning and I saw the pattern I am going to make for my mom. I have been looking for cardigan to make for her for Christmas, something stylish, but not too over the top. Zandy’s had a shop sample of Mr. Greenjeans and I just fell in love with it. I think it will be perfect. When I looked it up on Knitty, I realized that I had looked at it, but I did not like it the first time I saw it. I think the yarn sort of obscured the beauty of the pattern. So I am going to go back down there to buy yarn since the gal was so helpful when I asked for information about the pattern.

3rd – UPDATE -- I have been plugging away at my Daily Sweater. No photo, I am making progress. However, it is going really slowly. I have been managing to knit 1 – 2 rounds a day. At this rate I will have it done in 5 years! I just have not had much time to focus on knitting outside of my bus time and I have missed my morning bus several times this week.
I also have cast on the back of my Foxy Vest. I have 8 rows done. I am concerned that I have these two huge projects that I am focusing on and I will never finish either one. This is bad just because I sort of feel like what’s the point if nothing will come of it. I decided this morning that I need to finish some small project so that I know I can accomplish something. I have a hat that I am almost done with; I just need to find my dpns so I can finish it up. I am going to look for them and try to finish that up this weekend so that I feel like I am capable of finishing projects.

Lastly in the knitting new category, I found something I have been searching for. DH and I went to the thrift store the other day and I found some Muench Touch Me there. I bought a few balls and a bunch of old pattern booklets. I was quite pleased with myself. However, the next day at work I kept thinking, I should have bought enough of the Touch Me so I could knit that beret in “Folk Hats”. So when my husband picked me up at the bus stop, I asked if we could stop at the thrift store and I could see if the yarn was still there. He said it was fine and he would wait in the car. SO in I went. The yarn was still there and picked it up and thought, Hey maybe I will glance at the book section and see if there are any knitting books that were dropped off at the same time as this yarn and the knitting booklets I bought yesterday. And look what I found:

Yes, you see that right, not one but TWO Alice Starmore books. I have wanted to get my hands on the Fair Isle knitting book for some time and I nearly jumped up and down right there in the thrift store when I saw it. I also picked up the British Knits book because it had some interesting items in it. How much do you think I paid for these 3 books? $4.37! You read that right, four dollars and 37 cents for all 3 combined! YEAH!! I could hardly contain myself as I paid for my booty. It was the highlight of my week. I know; I do not have a very exciting life. I am the 1st to admit it.

Dark Lost Hearts
Okay, I have to discuss this week’s “Lost” episode (The Variable). I could not believe that anyone could send their child off knowing that the child would die. Not just die, but that the parent would be the one to kill the child. I could not do it. I realize that it might mess up the time space continuum or whatever, but I could not do it. Poor Daniel, to be cursed with such a mother. It was nice to get confirmation that Daniel was indeed the product of the Others. There has been some discussion that perhaps Daniel and Penny were twins. I think this is a possibility. The only problem I have it with this is that Ben told Widmore that he had to leave The Island because he had a child with someone from off of The Island. Eleanor was originally an Other; surely she would be okay to have children with even if she was off of The Island.

Can the Losties destroy the Swan and there by prevent them coming to The Island in the first place? I don’t think they will succeed. And even if they did, blowing up a hydrogen bomb would more than likely kill most of the people on The Island. What would happen to the world (okay Desmond) if Penny did not exist? What if Miles and Charlotte did not leave The Island? It would be CHAOS. The other concern I have with the hydrogen bomb is that I heard a rumor that the series might end like “The Stand”. I hope not, because I HATED the ending of that book. In fact, when I finished it, I threw it across the room I was so mad! It was total cop out and I did not spend all these years devoted to Lost to be totally ripped off.

Will Desmond go back to The Island? It seems like there is more that needs to be done with Desmond and Penny, but maybe I am wrong. Maybe this will be the last we see of them. They seem like they are happy enough… which on Lost is a huge warning flag. Happiness? Not allowed!

How Sharper Than a Serpents Tooth It Is
To Have a Thankless Child – King Lear
So on Sunday night, okay really Monday morning at 1:00 am The Girl hollered up the stairs to see if I would come and take care of The Baby for a while. As I came down the stairs I could hear her yelling at The Boyfriend. I took The Baby and sat down with her and I could hear The Boyfriend storming out of the house. Now, it was rainy out and he doesn’t have a car, so I do not know where he was going, but I figure there was something going on that I really did not want to be a part of. The Baby was very fussy and I was working on getting her settled down. She would stop for a few minutes and then start up crying again. Even singing the theme song to Gilligan’s Island did not help. Okay, I do not know very many songs, but I do know all the words to several TV shows, she is going have to take what she gets!
Anyway, finally The Girl came out and said that The Boyfriend had made some crack about how we (my husband and I) never help with The Baby and that if they lived at his mom’s house she would help out all of the time. The Girl told him that she had been up all of Saturday night with The Baby and his mom had woken up and helped with The Baby. In fact, she had not gotten up until 9:30 in the morning. And that had apparently caused him to storm out of the house. Now most mornings, I have been getting up between 4 -5 in the morning to take care of The Baby. I usually take care of her a couple of hours in the evening. DH takes care of her most of the morning. Plus, did I mention, I am paying all of the bills, the mortgage, the grocery, the doctor and hospital bills. Also, his family would not even speak to him because he took up with The Girl until The Baby was born. I personally was furious, but I held my tongue because The Girl had defended us and she was upset. Anyway, The Girl decided The Baby needed to be fed and brought her into her room. At that point, I very calmly explained that most people who have babies do not get any help from anyone. They stay up all night with their baby and then get up and go to a job. The Girl said she had told him that and she knew that. I am still irritated about the whole thing, but I think The Boyfriend might have been told off more later, as he has been very civil all week. It just bugs me because the truth is that I did not have to let him live in my house and feed him and be nice to him. I did it because I am so damn nice! Okay, really I did it because I want to make The Girl happy. It is all I have ever wanted.

Hmmm…. Why does grandma sing me a song about a talking horse?

What Lies In The Shadow Of The Statue?

Chaos
The Girl and The Boyfriend got mad at my husband last week and spent Wednesday through Sunday at his mom’s house. They have taken up spending a lot of time over there, which is odd because before The Baby was born The Girl acted like The Boyfriend’s family was pure evil. I think they were just being pissy and I think they are over it, but it is hard to tell. They are going over to there this weekend as well because it is The Boyfriend’s birthday on Sunday. I am sure they will be causing trouble and I worry about The Baby, but I am not sure what I can do about it. The Girl admitted she had been giving The Baby formula while over there. She said it was because The Baby wouldn’t eat, but I worry it is because she was drinking or doing drugs. I kept these thoughts to myself because I have no current proof, just past behavior and I keep hoping that she really will grow up. I will say this about them being out of the house, as much as I missed The Girl and The Baby, it was nice to be just my husband and me again. Not that we did anything exciting, but we could go where we wanted, when we wanted. I miss that. I did get some new shoes. They are a pair of grey felt Haflinger clogs. They are awesome. I had a pair a LONG time ago that I had bought on a sale and I loved them. When I received my bonus at work (several months ago) I decided I would buy myself another pair and I finally got around to doing it this weekend. Here is what they look like.
I also bought myself a really fancy pair of slippers. They are Acorns and were originally marked at $34 and I got them for $17. They are fantastic. I wear only slippers when I am at home, so having a good pair is important. These have a rubber sole and lots of cushioning. I am pretty sure they are the nicest slippers I have ever owned, I could be in trouble…

And Taxes
I did my taxes over the weekend. Normally, my sister the CPA does my taxes, but since I have been disowned from my family because of The Girl, I had to do them myself. I don’t have complicated taxes, but it still took several hours. I am quite disorganized when it comes right down to it. I did them online at TaxACT and it went pretty well and it was cheaper than my sister. I still hate screwing around with them. It seems like there should be a better way.
I will be getting money back… about enough to pay my property taxes for the year. Sigh. Taxes. Bah!


And Darkness
My MIL & FIL arrive this afternoon. I really am not looking forward to the visit. They are just a lot of work to deal with. You have to be careful what you tell them and how you tell them so they do not completely freak out. It just is exhausting. I have not started my vest yet. However, I did wash, block and measure my swatch, which is an accomplishment since it is more than I normally do. I got stitch gauge, but not row gauge. I do not think it will be too big a deal since normally things are way too long for me anyway. I am short and fat and apparently heavy set people are supposed to be tall. I used my Knit Gauge app on my I-touch to figure out the gauge. It is totally sweet! If, like the current pattern I am working on, you have a repeated design, you can measure one repeat and put in how many stitches there are in that repeat and viola, it figures out your gauge. It is too cool. I love my I-touch.
Anyways, in-laws… We don’t have much planned for while they are here. We are going to the opera on Saturday. We will be seeing the Barber of Seville. We still need to make dinner reservations or something before hand, but I think it should be a good time.
I am taking Friday off of work. Maybe we will all go to the zoo. Well not all of us, because The Girl has a doctor’s appt in the afternoon, but maybe we can take The Baby with us. We will have to see.
The weather is supposed to be perfect all week, okay, there might be showers on Saturday, but that is not a big deal.
DH has not told his parents that he has class on Wednesday so I am not sure what will be expected of us that night. DH has been taking spinning classes. They are going quite well as far as I can tell. I am so proud of him and I will post some pictures as soon as I take some.
Hopefully, The Girl will not be too cranky and the In-laws will not be too judgmental about The Boyfriend.
Uff Da, I think it is going to be a long week.

And Death
Well, what can I say about last week’s episode of Lost? I loved it. Of course, I love Ben and a whole hour of him is more than I could ask for. It is good to see that Ben really is better than Widmore (as I suspected). I do realize that is like saying it is better to get bit by a great white vs. a tiger shark, but I do not care. Ben does not kill Penny because he does not want Charlie to not have a mom. He doesn’t want Alex to not have a mom, okay, technically she did not really have a mom around, but Ben did not kill her so she could have one eventually. Surely that counts for something? I do not think Ben expected to see Locke when he woke up and I do believe that he was telling Sun the truth, dead is dead. Perhaps Locke is something else? Old Smokey perhaps? Time will tell.
The Temple and Egypt: I have been thinking about all of the Egyptian stuff in the show. I was thinking that if this was once an island that followed Egyptian religions and then moved, perhaps the culture was isolated and then corrupted or evolved into something else. That could explain why the hieroglyphs are so primitive looking and why the statue (who I believe is Anubis) has shorter ears than he does traditionally. I would like to go back to my idea of the Island being Atlantis. If the Island is moving around, who is to say that it did not start around Egypt and move up by Greece and to the South Atlantic and then to the South Pacific.
Why did Ben shoot Cesar? During the 2nd viewing of the show, it occurred to me Cesar was shot because he had the shot gun. Here is my thought process. If the office was Ben’s, that means that the shot gun was Ben’s. So when he sees Cesar has the gun, he has to assume Cesar has been digging around in his office. Ben has to assume Cesar could have seen something which would raise suspicions, maybe not right away, but eventually and Ben can not wait for eventually. So he shoots him. I was really stunned by Locke’s lassie faire attitude. Really, Locke normally gets more worked up about things.
I am really looking forward to this week’s episode. I love Miles as well. It should be interesting.

What Do I Call This?

No clever title today. I have not been feeling well for several days. I have been dizzy and my left hand has been tingly. I do feel a little better today, but I feel worse as the day progresses. I am not sure what is wrong with me. I looked up my symptoms on WebMD yesterday, but to no avail. It could be anything from vertigo, a stroke or MS. I actually think I might have a pinched nerve in my neck or shoulder. It seems to get worse when I stand up and walk around.

Actual Knitting PHOTOS!!
I know. It is very exciting.
Here is a picture of my Daily Sweater.


The actual color is a little darker than this photo, but this was the best I could do. I think it is going to take a long time to finish. It is not hard or anything, but just tedious. Just knitting around and around and around… I think that if I were to knit the pattern again, I would add some details to punch it up. However, I do like the knitting from the top down. I like the idea that when I am done, I will not have to sew pieces together, which is a major hurdle for me. I have tried this on and it does fit over my breasts, so I am happy. I think this will be a very comfortable sweater just for hanging out in, if I ever finish it.

Here is the beginning of the Fox Island vest swatch.
I have finished the swatch now; I just need to block it out. I like how the colors look. I think it is going to be really lovely once the vest is finished. I need to get the vest cast on before next Tuesday when the In-Laws show up so I have to block the swatch ASAP.

I knit up a little baby hat, but it came out extremely small, even after I blocked it out. I think I will try to knit the same pattern up with bigger needles and yarn. It called out worsted weight with size 8 needles, which is what I used. It has a herringbone stitch around the bottom part and I knit it way too tight. I think that was the main problem because the lacy part was okay.
I do not have a picture of it because, well it was a failure and I do not want to show it off. Okay, it is not a total failure, if I come across a fairy that is headed out to the Renaissance festival, this would be perfect for her to wear.

Some thoughts on last week’s episode of LOST (What’s Happened, Happened):
I still do not like Kate; I do not think I ever will. I actually think it has less to do with the character of Kate and more to do with the acting. I really do not understand why going back to the island to find Claire is nobler than anyone else’s reason for going back. I mean really, they have been gone 3 years and it just occurred to her that Claire might want to be with her son. I was right that Aaron is with his grandma, although I was wrong how he got there. Of course, I personally think he should have been with her to begin with. I have to assume that Mrs. Littleton will be staying in L.A. with Aaron since I am not sure how she would get him out of the country. Maybe SuperKate had fake documentation made up for Goober just in case they had to hit the road.
I had to disagree with Cassidy’s evaluation that Sawyer broke Kate’s heart. Maybe I missed something, but I seem to recall that Sawyer asked Kate to stay with him in New Otherton and Kate declined and went running back to Jack. Kate chose Jack. Why would Sawyer stay with her? Plus, I do not think Sawyer really wanted to go back to the real world. He had nothing there. Honestly, I do not know that I would leave the Island.
I thought the scenes with Roger and Kate were just creepy. He was really flirty with her. Of course, it would be ironic if they took up with each other since Kate killed her abusive “father” only to take up with someone who is abusive to his child.
Jack – what can I say? He is just a total ass. He is a doctor, how can he refuse to treat a kid? I think this bothered me more than anything I have seen on Lost in a long time. He is a doctor; don’t they take an oath not to let people die? Of course, by not saving Ben, it leads to him becoming evil Ben. Way to go Jack! Now, some people have been blaming Kate for this, but to me, this blame lays solely with Jack. If he had helped, Ben would not have wanted to ever join the Others since he thought Sayid was an Other and who is going to join up with a group that shot them. Of course, I think that someone else would have joined the Others and lead the destruction of the Dharma Initiative. But it would not have been Ben and that is all I care about. I love Ben. I hope he doesn’t die tonight. Being judged by the Island does not seem like a good a thing.

Plastic Nuts Become Hot Topic

I received an e-mail “newsletter” at work and this was the lead story. One day you go to work and you realize that you are expected to get excited about plastic nuts. Oh the Humanities!! Why didn’t I study harder in school? Or at least get a useful degree so I could have gotten a cool job. I bet assassins never get e-mail “newsletters”; much less ones that expect them to get excited about plastic nuts.

Knitting Nuts Become Hot Topic
I have started working on a swatch for the Fox Island Vest. I received this kit from my in-laws for my birthday. I have to have it going when they show up in a couple of weeks. My MIL made it clear that she wanted to see me working on it when she arrived. I don’t think I could have it finished, but I can have it started. I will let you know how it goes. I had to write out the chart because… well I really do not like charts. However, it is not too complicated so it didn’t take very long.
I am still working on my Daily sweater as well. I really like how it looks. I think it is going to be great when I get it done.

Lost Nuts Become Hot Topic
I was so upset after Lost on Wednesday night I could not even talk about it. How could Sayid shoot poor little Ben? He was just a little kid. I feel so bad for poor little Ben. His dad is a complete ass and who wouldn’t hate living on an island that appears to have no way off of it. Of course, I suppose Sayid did not hear Faraday’s speech about how you can not change the past so he does not realize that shooting Ben will not make things better for him. My husband is thinking it might be an alternative universe. I know that I have heard some theories that Ben remembers being shot by Sayid and that is why he had him kill all those people. Okay, I would not put it past Ben to hide his knowledge of people, but I do sort of like the alternative universe idea. The station where Sun and Frank are at in the beginning did not seem right. There was just something off. The Others seemed to take down most of the Dharma signs and stuff and take them over. What if where there are is now the world created because Sayid shot Ben? Maybe the Losties have to go and fix the mess he made.
I liked the episode up until the end. I thought it was interesting to see how Sawyer was trying to hold together his present world and his past world. I actually thought Juliet was really nice to Kate. Nicer than I would have been, but I to tend to have jealous streak. Jack was a dork as usual. God, I have developed a great hatred of the man. I never really like Kate, but I did used to like Jack.

Tiny Rant
The Baby was in the hospital this week. She went in for a regular exam, she had a rash on her bottom and the doctor decided it might be herpes. Now the fact that The Girl had been tested for herpes during her pregnancy and it had been negative did not seem to matter. They sent her to the hospital and proceeded to assume that The Baby had herpes. They took blood and spinal fluid and generally made everyone’s life miserable. One of the doctors accused The Boyfriend of molesting her. This really bothers me because if they really thought that they should call the authorities, not accuse him of it. So after two days it was determined she did not have herpes. Of course, they did not know what she had, but it seemed to be diaper rash. They sent The Baby to the hospital for diaper rash. I wonder if they did this because The Girl is a teenager and therefore must have herpes. I wonder if she had been a 40 year old in a suit if she would have been treated this way. The whole incident really bothered me.

I Lied

Namaste. Today’s blog is going to be about “Lost”. I have not lied about anything; I just loved it when Sun told Frank she “lied” after whacking Ben on the head. Which I totally called, when Sun and Ben were walking through the jungle, I said “Sun is going to kick Ben’s ass”. And I was right! Yeah.
Anyway, on to the theories:
Who decided Jack would be a Workman? Here is what I think is going on: there were 2 people who dropped out (per Amy) so those records were changed to cover Jack and Hurley and there were assessment tests already done. But what about poor old Kate, Juliet had to make something up quick to cover her. I like how she put Kate in the motor pool with her, better to keep an eye on her my pretty. I hope Juliet lets Kate know that Sawyer is hers and Kate had better stay away. I really like Juliet and Sawyer together. They seem so happy.
I find it interesting that Sawyer referred to the Dharma Initiative as his “people”. It is like he has finally found where he belongs and then a bunch Losties show up to mess it up. Sigh.
What is going to happen to Sayid? Will he try to kill Ben? I think he will, but I think this would be a very bad plan. If there was no Ben, what kind of world would that be? Chaos! Of course, I like Ben. Speaking of Ben, one of the fine folks on Ravelry suggested that the whole “it doesn’t have mustard” was a code word. I like this idea. Ben must have been recruited by The Others by this point and maybe that was the code he was supposed to use if one of them were captured. Maybe they were supposed to respond a certain way and then … well I don’t know what Ben would do then, but I am sure it would be something like help them escape or something. However, Sayid is not an Other, so what will become of him? If he did escape, he would be hunted down by the Others for pretending to be one. They seem pretty sensitive about such things.
What has happened to those who are missing? Rose and Bernard: they are either dead or have been recruited by The Others. I can not image them surviving in the jungle. I hope they are with The Others, because I really like Rose and Bernard, I think they are so cute together. Daniel Faraday: I think his train slipped completely off the track and he is in some Dharma institution, maybe that place that Karl was being held by Ben in order to “fix” him. Vincent: He seems to be able to wander around the Island with no trouble. I am sure he is okay!
Sun & Frank: Did that recruitment center look off to anyone else? Even if it has been 3 years, The Others always seemed to keep up appearances. The window being boarded up and the signs hanging sideways and stuff just seemed weird. Maybe the Losties have messed up the past and now it needs to be fixed by Sun & Frank.
The statue: I think it is Anubis. I know the ears are not quite long enough, but the back looks very much like Anubis. Plus, he is the god that protects the dead and leads them to the underworld. There seems to be a lot of death on the Island, he would be a very busy fellow on The Island.
Namaste: before Lost, I had never heard the greeting before, now I seem to hear it all the time. When did this become popular? How did I miss it?

Don’t Go Potty in My Hat

On Tuesday afternoon, I became a grandma. She was born at 2:21 CST. She was 7 lbs 1 oz and absolutely perfect. The Girl’s water broke at 12:30 Monday afternoon. I left work and hauled her to the hospital. She was in labor for 25 hours and had only dilated to 3 cm. The nurse said they would probably have to take the baby via C-section, but the doctor was on his way to evaluate her. The doctor was supposed to show up in about 30 minutes. Within 20 minutes she was in complete agony and said it felt like here butt was about to explode. She thought she had to go potty, but in reality she had just dilated all the way to 10 cm and the baby was coming the regular way. The nurse had never seen anything like it. However, The Girl only had hard labor for about 45 minutes. After the baby came out, The Girl just kept looking at her saying “That’s my baby!”. It was really nice. I was very proud of her. I took the whole week off and spent a lot of time at the hospital. Everyone is home now. The Baby is very sleepy still, but she is lovely.

Here is a couple of pictures:
Here are her feet.


This is her in her outfit I knit for her to come home in. Isn’t she just the cutest thing?

About the title… on Monday night, we were at the hospital and they were going to do a drug test on The Girl. The nurse had put a plastic container in the toilet for her to urinate into. The Boyfriend had to go to the bathroom and The Girl told him the he had to use the bathroom in the hall because the nurse had but a “hat” in the toilet. She told him “Don’t go potty in my hat”. I just thought it was hilarious.

I really do not know what else to say right now. I am just so happy that The Baby is here and she is healthy.

Living on Arizona Time

I am in AZ for business. So I am blogging from my hotel room in Scottsdale. I will check out tomorrow. After I get done with my business, I will go down and visit my mom. She lives in between Phoenix and Tucson. I have not been down to see her in probably 3 or so years. I hate AZ. I hate the heat and the dust and the lack of humidity. I always feel like I have had all of the moisture sucked out of my body when I am down here. Anyway, the trip down here was awful. First, I was not thinking when I had my company book the flight and I left the Twin Cities Wednesday afternoon. I was not thinking about the fact that I might not make in to my hotel room in time for “Lost”. Once I realized it, I calculated it out and if everything went according to plan, I would get to my hotel just in time. So, do you think everything went according to plan? Of course not! The plane was delayed out of MSP. It was full and cramped and I could not find anything at the airport for dinner. I had sort of figured I would pick something up on the way to the hotel. Our plane was supposed to land at PHX at 6:50… actual time 7:30. I did not get to the car rental station until after 8. My company had rented a car for me from Hertz. When I got to the rental place, there was a huge line. I figured I would just do the self check in, but no, I was yelled at. There were no cars available and I would have to stand in the really long line. Yes they had no cars. How does a car rental place run out of cars? It took an hour, but I did finally get a car… a mustang. So anyway, I did not get to the hotel until almost 10:00. I did not find anything to eat, so dinner was popcorn and twizzler cherry bites and a granola bar.
Would you like to hear the really ironic part? I was watching the news and they said that they were going to be running “Lost” at 12:06 because the station had been running Wheel of Fortune instead of “Lost”. However, after a really long day, I just could not stay up to see it.

I should actually be trying to get some work done, but really I am very tired. I am down here to do supplier audits. Basically, we spend the day wandering around a factory asking questions about processes. It makes for a very long day and I have to do it again tomorrow.

I have no pictures because The Girl had the camera when I was getting ready to go. I will have pictures next time, because I received a fantastic shawl from my lovely husband for my birthday and I want to post it. He also went out and bought me an i-touch because we did not get to go out on my birthday because of the snow. We actually just ordered in pizza.
More later.

Today I am 40

It is finally my birthday. It has been sort of weird to turn 40. I am not really sad, because I always figure it is just a number and getting older is better than the alternative. However, I have been contemplative. I have been thinking about what I have accomplished in 40 years. It does not seem like much. I mean there are good things, like I have been married for almost 19 years, which is an accomplishment, but not really world shattering. Anyone can stay married if they choose wisely and work at it. I have all of the material things I could need, well, except an i-touch, but that is more of a want than a need. However, material goods have never really meant all that much to me. I want a place to live and food to eat. Okay, I also like books, TV and music, but those are pretty inexpensive if you do it right. I think my biggest want is yarn and knitting supplies, but I also have enough of those right now. I think I am rambling. Anyway, I have not really DONE anything. I do not know what I should have done either. My life seems so very ordinary, not that it is a bad thing. Some people have very extraordinary lives that suck. I have a fairly ordinary life that is okay. I guess some days I just wonder if this is all there is to life.
It is snowing out right now. It was supposed to start snowing at 9 am. But it did not get going until about noon. We were supposed to get 6-8”. We are all supposed to go out tonight for my birthday. If the weather is too bad, we will just stay home. My hubby has already bought me some cupcakes for my birthday, so I will be okay with staying home and hanging out.

I know I promised knitting pictures, but I can not find my camera. Instead, I give you wild turkeys w/ babies. I took this photo this summer in VT. Aren’t they cute?


And here is a picture of a boat in Bonaire; wouldn’t you like to be sitting there right now?

We're Not Going To Guam, Are We?

I know it has been a long time since I last blogged. Sorry about that, life has sort of gotten in the way. Not this week Tuesday, but the Tuesday before there was a layoff at work. It was brutal and nonsensical. There were only 2 people in my little area and one of them was laid off. Now I get to do two people’s jobs. The only statement my boss has made is to pretend they are on vacation. This week I had green belt (DMAIC / Lean) training and my boss had to cover for me. I do not think he was happy about, but you know what, neither am I. The gal who was laid off was one of the lower paid people in the group and she had tons of work to do. So this week I was in training from 8 – 4:45 every day and I came in early and stayed late to attempt to at least keep up with all the e-mails. The one day I spent 12 hours at work. It was a nightmare and I was so tired at the end of the day I could hardly function. I believe there will be some restructing, but I am not sure when that will take place. And considering how poorly the lay off went, I have little hope of it going well.

KNITTING
I have been working on the Daily Sweater from Mason Dixon’s Knitting Outside the Lines. When I started this sweater, I found the little boxes confusing but now I have it down and it is going along well. I had hoped to be done with the box section, but I did not get as much knitting done this week as I would have liked. I did have to order longer cables for my Knit Picks options because my longer ones are in other projects. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my options needles? They are really awesome!
I love how the material is turning out. It is soft and lovely. I think it is going to be a nice sweater. Since it is knit from the top down, I have tried it on. The collar seems just a little big, but not enough to bother me.
I knit a baby hat and was going to embroider on it, but it was harder then I thought it would be. I am thinking I need to use bigger wool or do an i-cord and stitch it on.
I need to put together the baby’s sweater and make a hat to go with it. I was also going to make some booties, but I don’t know if I will have time. The Girl had contractions this week, the doctor said it was not time yet. Also, I am working on a different pair of bootie. I am on the second one. I have finally finished turning the heel.

LOST
The title of this blog comes from this week’s episode. I just think it is funny. Plus I sort of feel off course this week.
I have been watching all of the episodes twice this year. I do not know if I have had any more insight because of it, but I have been enjoying them. I have to cover two episodes this blog episode.
The death of Charlotte only bothered me because I felt bad for Daniel. Personally, I did not like Charlotte, she was sort of creepy and irritating.
I hope Miles doesn’t die. I really like him. My husband thinks he will survive because he is the new Sawyer since Sawyer is so much nicer than he used to be. As a side note, I was watching an old episode a few weeks ago and Sawyer was down right mean. I had forgotten how hard he was in the beginning.
Danielle Rousseau and her crew: I am not sure what to say about this. Danielle obviously been through a lot and by the time the Losties met her, I think she was totally crazy. There seems to be a lot of discussion as to why she did not recognize Jin, but I think after killing your husband and having your child kidnapped and spending 16 hiding for Smoky and the Others, you would not remember what he looked like. You would just remember some Asian guy who “infected” your crew and disappeared. I am curious why she blamed the Others for infecting her crew and not the Smoke Monster since it was Smoky who lured them into the Temple.

So Jack, Hurley & Kate are in the past. I figured when Locke fixed the Donkey Wheel, they were in the past. How did they get hired by Dharma? Did they just show up and ask for a job? Maybe Dharma was trying to recruit “hostiles” to their side.
I do think that Ajira flight 316 did crash, but some people were sucked into the past, because that is where they needed to be. However, I think most of the people are in 2007, along with the crash wreckage. I think they are the ones who were shooting at the time traveling Losties in the outrigger. Perhaps there were people on Oceanic flight 815 that were sucked into the past and we just don’t know them.

Who told Hurley to get on flight 316? I think it was Charlie, hence the guitar. Everyone seems to represent some one else.
Jack & Kate = Jin & Sun
Sun = Rose
Sayid = Kate
Hurley = well, I think he represents everyone else

I do not think Kate is pregnant. I have read this theory else where and I do not believe it.

Where is Aaron? I think he was taken from Kate. I can not imagine her giving him up willing because she is her get out of jail free card. Who took him? Here is my crack pot theory:
Claire’s mom became suspicious and asked her lawyer (Dan Norton) why Jack would have followed him to her. Mr. Norton, being a lawyer and Ben’s lawyer to boot, would be clever and devious. He puts together the fact that Kate’s son is not hers and that Claire was pregnant on the plane. I do not think that Claire’s mom necessarily knows that Claire was pregnant since she was in a coma at the time, but others would have known. Her boyfriend, the lawyers who handled the adoption, Ben, etc. And who would have brought it up to someone coming out of a coma. Hey, welcome back to reality sorry your daughter and grandson died in a plane crash.
Anyway, I think Mr. Norton puts 2 & 2 together and tells Claire’s mom that Aaron is her grandson and she should have legal right to him. Which I am pretty sure she would since he would be a blood relative. Or he would become a ward of the state until custody was decided. I think the sheriff showed up and took Aaron and Kate did a runner.
Does Sun think she can get back home after getting Jin? Does she have a tracking device on her so Widmore could find her. I do not trust her and I think she would kill all of the others to save herself & Jin.

I find religion fascinating. I really enjoy the religious overtones in Lost. All of them, not just the Christian ones, but I am going to discuss the Christian ones, because it is the religion I know best.
-- For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
→ John Locke is obviously going to be resurrected after being sacrificed for the island.
→ Eternal life: Don’t the others seem to have this down? Richard has been on the island forever and has not aged. People on the island illness’s are healed.
→ Doubting Thomas – is this really Jack? It could be, but honestly, Jack seems more like Peter who denied Christ and then had to suffer the guilt. Hence the note from John “I wish you had believed me.”

Overall, I am happy with this season. Although, I like mysteries better than answers, so I actually an not very excited about all the answers being given. But I do realize it has to be done to satisfy the masses.

MOVIE REVIEWS
It is again Oscar weekend, which means that we spent yesterday watching all 5 movies that were nominated for Best Picture this year. This year I decided to make notes after each movie so I would be able to get all of my thoughts down. Well, except for the last one, because it was midnight and I wanted to go home!
Before I get to the reviews, I would like to have a little rant. I know that is probably shocking to my regular readers that I would have something to rant about…
Here is a helpful hint: if you are going to spend 14 hours in a movie theater with 299 other people, please leave your baby at home. That is were they belong, not crying during an R rated movie. Babies crying during a movie piss me off anyway, but to have to listen to them through several movies is just WRONG!

I will review them in the order I saw them. Just like last year.

“Milk” - This was the only movie we had seen before. So I have actually already reviewed it. However, it is worth repeating what a great movie this is. It is based on the life of Harvey Milk, the 1st openly gay man elected to a major political office. It is brilliantly acted, Josh Brolin is amazing as Dan White. Plus, I forgot how beautifully Gus Van Sant directs. If you have not seen this movie yet, what are you waiting for? It is moving and inspiring. Go see it.

“The Reader” – this is an excellent movie. This movie is about a 15 year old German boy in the early 1950s who takes up with an older woman (she is in her 30s). It does not last of course, but 10 years later he is in law school and discover a terrible secret about her. Kate Winslet play the older woman, she is supposed to be matronly, but well, let’s face it, she is Kate Winslet and she is still really beautiful. There is a LOT of nakedness in this movie both male and female. If you are offended by the human body, do NOT go to see it. However, the human body does not bother me and it all seemed to fit with the story. The boy (David Kross) is a very good actor. It would have been nice to see him nominated for an Oscar. Ralph Fiennes is in the movie as well. Whenever I see him in anything, I always think of that scene in “Red Dragon” when he puts in the fake teeth. I don’t know why, I have seen him in several other movies..
Anyway, there are a lot of really great knits in the movie, both hand and machine knits. And there is a scene with a woman knitting with dpns. She appears to be making a baby hat.
I am giving this movie 3 ½ knitting needles out of 4. It is excellent.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” – OMG this movie was way too long. It should have been severely edited. How the hell did this piece of crap get nominated for best picture? It started out okay, sort of quirky and funny, plus there were some nice hand knits and old lady knitting on the porch. However, it soon devolved into nothing by melodramic clap trap. It had no point and Daisy (the love of Benjamin’s life) was an ass. “The Dark Knight” or “Iron Man” should have been nominated instead. Hell, “Tropic Thunder” was funny and better acted than this movie. If this wins best picture, the damn Oscars are fixed. It had better not win!!
In case you do not know the story: a guy is born old and gets younger. He meets all sorts of odd people, falls in love with some dancer, eventually marries her, has a kid leaves them and dies. Only it takes 3 freaking hours to go through. It was painful. I will give the movie 1 knitting needle out of 4 for the nice hand knits. The acting and the story line were awful.

“Slumdog Millionaire” - this is a very pleasant movie. It is about a young man from the slums of Mumbai India who goes on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and wins a bunch of money. It goes through his life in flashbacks. It had a lot of hope and a good love story, but not sappy. The movie moved at a good pace which was refreshing after BB. The music was good and the guy (Dev Patel) who played our hero Jamal is really cute. It was a cute movie and enjoyable. Best movie of the year? Well, no, but at least I can see why it is nominated. Although, I think some of the actors should have been nominated as well. In particular, Madhur Mitta who played the older brother Salim. He was really good. I am giving this movie 3 out of 4 knitting needles.

“Frost / Nixon” – this is a fantastic movie. It is about talk show host David Frost’s interviews with Richard Nixon. It was excellently acted. Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, was amazing. He definitely should win an Oscar for the performance. Kevin Bacon was also fantastic. I loved this movie. I think it was the best one we saw. I loved how it was edited, I loved the costumes, I loved the actors and it was funny. Now, I will admit that I do have a degree in history, so that appealed to me and I have a strange obsession with Richard Nixon. So please take that into consideration. However, I am going to give it 4 knitting needles out of 4. I can not say how much I truly enjoyed this movie from the very beginning to the very end.

Here is my ranking of the movies I saw:
Frost / Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Benjamin Button


Sorry for the excessively long blog, but you know, lots has been going on. I will try to blog sooner and with a few pictures.
See you then.

Can You Keep A Secret?

Shhhhh… I have a secret. I really have no idea what I am doing most of the time. Yet, people think I know exactly what I am doing. It terrifies me, especially when it comes to work. Sure, I have been doing this job for a while and I have experienced a lot, but that hardly makes me an expert. At least I do not feel like an expert. I know that I talk big sometimes and maybe that is all it takes, but I feel like I am in over my head most of the time. Plus, I have been put in charge of stuff, well a team. And I am very uncomfortable with it. I do not like to be in charge of stuff.
Has anyone ever said something to you that implied they could not do what you are doing because they are not capable? This has happened to me and I always tell them they could do it. Not because I think they are capable, rather because I do not think myself all that extraordinary and I figure if I can do it, anyone can. This happens a lot with knitting. I have had people who are perfectly good knitters say they could not do something like lace or stranded knitting or something that I am working on at the time. I have been knitting for like 3 years. I have learned some things just because no one told me it was supposed to be hard. I just figured if there were instructions, I could learn it.
Anyway, I have been feeling down and work has been stressful. That is probably were all this is coming from. Please just ignore it, except for the part about being able to do something new and exciting. No one is any smarter or more capable than you, they are just pretending, like me. If I can do it… anyone can.

LOST
I promised Lost theories last blog and I will not break my promise, even if you secretly had hoped I would! I will be covering the last two episodes.
1) I believe that Ellie on the island is Charlotte’s mother. I know there are some who are thinking it is Daniel’s mother; however, I do not think that because why would he say “you remind me of someone I used to know”. That is just an odd statement. Plus, if it was his mother, you would think he would know what she looked like when she was young.
2) Daniel’s mother was a member of Dharma. Daniel states that he knows that he has been studying the island and Dharma his whole life. Obviously, someone would have had to teach him about Dharma.
3) The Others bury Jughead and that is what leads to the infertility on the island. Having nuclear waste leaking into your environment is never good for anyone.
4) I think it is obvious that Ben and Widmore fought for control of the island before the purge and Ben won. Perhaps Widmore took Annie away from Ben… Maybe she is Penny’s mom??
5) The Ajira bottle comes from a plane that crashes on the island in the future. I think that the Losties become Others by the end (once they know how really cool the island is) and then another plane crashes. This is how I see the series ending, that we have just been watching a small piece of the islands natural progress.
6) Not a theory, just a statement… I am really disappointed that Jin is still alive. Not because I was wrong, because I am wrong a lot, but rather because it does not make sense that he was in the radius of the island’s pull, but the freighter itself was not and the helicopter was not. It just is not logical and I hate that. Lost normally is not conventional, but it does have a logic to it.
7) Okay, HUGE crackpot theory: I think the island is the lost “City” of Atlantis. Think about it… there is a temple, there are the remains of a huge statue, they speak Latin and the island has been around for a long time. And Atlantis is really not a city, but an island that sunk into the sea in one day. Or perhaps it was moved to a different part of the world!
I know that Atlantis is a Greek myth, so logically, they should speak ancient Greek, but maybe the Romans got there before the island “sunk”. It is possible. Richard could be Atlantean, just like Aquaman.

That is all I have right now. I really did not like last night’s episode (The Little Prince) all that much. I thought it was trite and really the action could have happened at much quicker pace.

Of Post-its and Problems

The other morning a gal on the bus gave me a couple of packs of post-its. It was odd. At first, I was suspicious because one time a guy had tried to sell me socks and a TV Guide on the bus. She said her grandmother had given her a bunch and told her to give them away if she could not use them. So she gave me some. They are now sitting in my bag. I do like to use post-its when I knit; for marking my current line and keeping a repeat tally. It was really nice of her to give them to me, but now I feel guilty because I haven’t done anything for anyone else this week. You know, to pay it forward, it is a lot of pressure.

Yesterday we gave up our dog. The conflicts between him and The Girl were getting totally out of control, so he had to go. I would’ve liked to keep him, but I really can not kick a pregnant teenager out of the house. And I know that someone could provide my boy with a good home. He is such a friendly, happy dog. We brought him to a shelter that does no have a time limit on how long they hold the animals, so hopefully he will be okay. He is at the MN Valley Humane Society, so if you live in the Twin Cities and are looking for a dog, please go check him out.
In reality, my husband brought him because I knew that I could not do it. I feel so terrible that I would ever get rid of an animal for which I am responsible. I have never done such a thing before and I hope I never have to again.

Overall, it has been a very sad month for me. I hope February is better.

Do you watch “Fringe”? In this week’s episode (12: No Brainer), Astrid is wearing the cutest sweater. I would love to get a photo of it so I could examine the design.

I have "Lost" theories, but I do not have time to discuss them right now and I want to re-watch the episode to reaffirm them. So I will let you know later what I come up with.

Another birthday…still not mine

Today The Girl turns 17. She wanted a Gamecube for her birthday so we bought one at the pawn shop. This is old gaming technology, but she loves the game Animal Crossing so that is what she wanted. The Girl drives me mad. I suppose it doesn’t matter. I do not even remember what I wanted for my 17th birthday, nor do I remember what gift I received from my parents. I do remember that I bought myself a Canon T-50 camera for my 17th birthday. I received my 1st tax refund the same week as my birthday and it seemed appropriate to buy myself a gift. I still have that camera. It has always worked well. Any WAY, we are all going out to Red Lobster tonight for her birthday dinner. This is her choice, I actually find the Red Lobster to be fairly bland. It is one of those places where when you order your food, it sounds really tasty but when it comes it is just boring.

I am sorry for my lack of blogging as of late. I do not have a good excuse; I have just been feeling blah. There has been fighting at home, which never helps. And work has been, well work. Yesterday I took the day off. It was nice. I had hoped to just spend the day with my hubby, but The Girl did not go to school because she had a meeting at her new school. Oh, I bet I did not tell you about the new school. This is one not far from where we live and is for pregnant teens and teen mothers. She is very excited about the prospect of a new school. This makes it high school number 4 and she is only a junior. Well, I think technically she is still a sophomore, but they think she will be able to graduate on time if she does summer classes.
Anyway, since The Girl was home, I did not have much time with my husband. We did go to the thrift store and bought a new office chair to replace the one with the broken seat we had been using. I also bought a ball of Hempathy for about $3, not bad huh?

Last night I cast on for The Daily Sweater from “Mason Dixon’s Knitting Outside the Lines". It is a really good book and I have already knit the kitchen towel out of it. I am not using Calmer for my sweater, rather Ella Rae Silkience in a cranberry/wine color. It is very nice. I knit a gauge swatch and got gauge on the 1st go through. Now this really does not mean very much, because I am not very good at measuring gauge. I never have been, but since this is done from the top down, I will try it on as I go and adjust if needed.

The big event yesterday though was “Lost”. It is back!! Hooray!! Spoilers ahead!!
So the Losties have become unstuck in time, just like Billy Pilgrim. This is never good. Jack has Sayid. I do not know if this is bad or not. I think the Oceanic 6 are going to have to go back to the island to fix what has happened. The “cops” have Hurley. I do not think the men who picked up Hurley were really police officers since one of them is Abbadon (the guy who recruited the Freighter people). I am pretty sure Hurley is going to be in custody of Widmore. Which I do not think is good either. Of course, that is because I like Ben and I think Charles Widmore is a jerk. I could be wrong. It does happen on occasion. I still believe Jin is dead. There is nothing that has occurred to make me think otherwise. We will see. I think Sun is on a revenge mission to destroy the other Oceanic 6 for leaving Jin behind. I did not believe her when she says she doesn’t blame Kate. Just the way she said the thing about Kate going back for Jin and not getting him. She totally was blaming Kate. I think she has become like her father, ruthless. I do not understand why she would blame Ben for Jin’s death. I can see Widmore, because it was his people who were responsible for the freighter being there and being full of C4. I can see Jack and Kate since they did not wait for Jin. Unless she some how found out Ben killed Kimmy, which is what set off the explosion. But who would tell her that, Ben wouldn’t. Did Locke tell her when he saw her? That doesn’t really make sense since I am pretty sure that he wouldn’t say anything that would interfere with his mission to get everyone back. Gosh, I love “Lost”!

Reflections on a New Year

This is the time of year that we traditionally examine the past year and look forward to the new one. So I have been thinking about life in general. To sum up last year, it sort of sucked. My teenager caused various kinds of trouble. She got pregnant. She got arrested. And her boyfriend moved in with us. So really not great a reflection on me as far as my parenting skills go for 2008. Not that I really think I have ever had great parenting skills. My maternal instincts have never been great. I am pretty sure it is because I have a mind that is far too logical. This is something I made my self into on purpose. It was my way of dealing with my depression when I was in high school. I figured if there were no emotions I could not feel bad. This, of course, is bloody nonsense. If you suffer from depression, please get help. Find a therapist who teaches skills based therapy. It saved my life and I should have done it before I did so much damage to myself. Anyway, I digress.
I worked a lot in 2008. Well, no more than I do any other year, but it seemed like I spent a lot of time at work. Of course, this is probably caused by the fact I hate my job. Okay, that is not quite true. I do not mind my job, I am just sick of sitting in an office day after day.
What good things happened in 2008?
We went on a nice road trip. The only down note on the trip was The Girl’s morning sickness…
I learned how to knit two handed. So I can now do Fair Isle, which is really cool.
The Vikings made it to the playoffs.
I managed to disengage myself from my family without even trying. This is both good and bad as I do feel sorry for The Girl because I had been tolerating my family all this time mostly for her sake. She is not perfect, but she is still my siblings’ niece, you would think that would count for something.

Okay, I really can not think of a lot of great things that happened in 2008. I made it through, that is always good, and so I suppose I should be grateful.

Does 2009 look any better? Not really, I am going to turn 40 and become a grandmother. The Girl is going to make me get rid of my crazy dog so I will no longer have someone to breathe on my toes at night to keep them warm. I know that The Girl will not be able to behave herself once the baby comes and we will be right back where we were a year ago, only with an innocent life at stake to boot. Maybe I am wrong; maybe it will be a great year. Who knows?

RESOLUTIONS
I do have a couple of resolutions. Nothing fancy as I really am not very good at resolutions.
1. I intend to go through my WIPs on a regular basis and decide if I am going to finish the project or just rip it out. If I decide to finish, I will try to get them ordered so I can get some of them done.
2. I am going to learn how to steek. Since I learned how to do Fair Isle, I have been wanting to learn how to steek as well. I have just been too scared to do it. So that is my BIG knitting resolution. I like the idea of learning something new every year.
3. I am going to make stuff for my granddaughter. This is not a hard resolution, since I have already started. However, I firmly believe that you should have some goals that are easy to achieve so you do not feel like a failure.
4. I want to start a new banking account for the Alpaca fund.


That is really all I have. Nothing too big, like I said, but I should be able to achieve most of them.

Happy New Year

Christmas came and went without much incident. I did not finish my husband’s present on time. I had to spend Christmas Eve day and evening wrapping presents, so no knitting occurred. And then I spent the rest of my Christmas break finishing up the convertible fingerless mitts for my co-worker. She was very please to have a complete pair. I did not get a picture before I gave them away because I did not have my camera around.
I did get some pictures on Christmas Day.
Here is our tree. Isn’t it lovely?


Here is our troublesome dog that we are going to have get rid He was helping me open presents.

I hope your Christmas was as good as mine.

MOVIE REVIEW
Over the Christmas break we went to see “Milk”. We were going to see “Frost / Nixon”, but it was sold out. In fact, there were people trying to sneak in and one of the ushers had to go and kick people out. Anyway, we had wanted to see “Milk” as well, so it worked out okay. I have to highly recommend “Milk”, it is a wonderful film. The acting is divine and the story line is very moving. Josh Brolin is brilliant as Dan White. It is the story of Harvey Milk, the 1st openly gay man to be elected to a major office in the USA. There were no hand knits, but since the movie takes place in San Francisco, that is not really surprising. Regardless, I am going to give it 3 ½ knitting needles out of 4. I recommend you see this film. It will make you think and that is never a bad thing.

Old Year – Out Like A Lion…
New Year’s Eve day started out so good. The Girl had a doctor’s appt so we had an opportunity to talk to The Boyfriend alone. We explained that we did not want The Girl to run off and live on a military base with him and he seemed to agree. She had told us of this plan on Christmas Eve. Now we just need to convince her. I worry about the baby because she really does not have a handle on her rage, which we got to see when we arrived home. My husband had accidentally left our troublesome dog out of his crate and he got into The Girl’s bedroom and ate her food and candy. She flew completely off of the handle and was mean and yelling at us and the dog all night. She finally went to a friend’s house. So we are stuck having to get rid of our dog and nobody seems to want him. He really is a good dog; he just needs to live with someone who is not going to yell at him over everything he does. I have thought of just moving out on my own with him, but it seems sort of extreme and I could not afford to pay for 2 places to live.
She seemed to be fine yesterday. I really hate the mood swings. When will they stop? Maybe they won’t, that is my fear, that she will always be so out of control.

On happy news, I finished my husband’s gift. It was a pair of socks! He loves them and they fit him perfectly. Yeah!!!

Why has there been no blogging?

Don’t you hate it when you read a blog on occasion and then the person doesn’t blog for like a month? Me too. Sorry for the lack of witty blog posts for the last few weeks, things have been absolutely crazy.
Most of my time has been devoted to work. Last week I was in training and I was expected to do my regular job on top of that. It was complete chaos. Things have been so bad that I do not even have my Christmas shopping done. I have never had presents left to buy and/or make this late in the season.
I am not done with my husband’s present, although I am almost through, so I am confident that he will have it under the tree come Christmas Day.
I made a felt hat for one of my co-workers and it was not completely dry by this morning so I had to give it to her damp. She was happy to get it as she had liked one that someone else in our department had bought. My one co-worker put in a special order for fingerless gloves. Easy peasy you say because there are about 10 million patterns out there for fingerless gloves! Well, yes and no. She wanted gloves that she could convert from long fingers to short. I had to come up with a new design to handle it. So I only made one because as I was coming to the end of the 1st one, I realized I had no hand measurements and was not sure what I had designed was what she wanted. I finished the one and gave it to her and told her I would make another one if this one worked. It was a good thing I did it this way because she has longer fingers than I thought and I am going to have to rip back a couple of the fingers and knit them longer. Otherwise, they are what she wanted. Hooray! So over the weekend, I am going to make the other glove. I made a hat for another co-worker who does not celebrate Christmas (she was raised a Jehovah’s Witness) and she almost cried just getting a gift because she had not expected it. She did like the hat, so all around, it was successful. I did not take pictures of any of these items because I can not find the camera and well, I just did not have the time.
I was going to make a hat for The Boyfriend, but I have not had any extra time and I do not think I will get it done at this point. It makes me sad, because I did have a great idea for a hat for him. Oh well, if he is still around next year, I will make it then.
It has been cold and snowy here. Which is fine by me really, although there have been a couple of days when the cold has made it unpleasant to walk from the bus stop. It was well below zero several days last week and the one day the wind-chill was -25 F. This is a tad bit chilly to walk in and I have to take my glasses off because they fog up from by breathing into my scarf. Overall though, it is not bad if I have my long johns on.
I am going to be off of work for until next Monday. I will try to blog over the weekend and I will try to get some photos up.

Chaos to Spare

Are you looking for some chaos? I have extra to go around. Things have been just crazy. Ahh where to begin?

Work has been just awful. One problem after another, which means I have been spending extra time there, which has been very stressful. Have I mentioned I am sick of work?? I am sick of engineers. I am sick of buying parts. I am sick of dealing with problem parts.

I had a dentist appt last Wednesday and I have a cavity. On the plus side, the dental hygienist said I did a great job of brushing. She did not even ask if I flossed! Which is always good, because I do not floss, I just brush really well. The Girl had an appt at the same time. She did not tell the DDS she was pregnant and he took an x-ray. He thought it should be okay, but that they normally do not like to take x-rays on pregnant women. I had to explain to The Girl that doctors and dentists and such need to know if you are pregnant so they do not do any damage to the baby.

Thanksgiving did go well. My hubby did a fabulous job of the meal. He gets better and better every Thanksgiving. This year we had turkey breast for The Girl, shrimp and venison steak. It was awesome.

I went out shopping on Black Friday. I was disappointed in the sales. I really did not find very much. It was so crowded in some stores, I did not even bother and the lines in some stores were crazy. So much so, it was not worth my time to stand in them. I think they had less people running the registers. Anyway, I still have a bunch of stuff to buy.

And to knit. It is already December. I can not believe it. I have been knitting, mind you, but there is still plenty left.
Here is some photo prove!

Here is the hat I made for my co-workers grandson


Here is my progress on L’illo.


Here is the hat I made for my co-worker in exchange for the venison steaks we enjoyed on Thanksgiving.


Here is the 6-hour throw I made for my in-laws. It is being held down by our troublemaking dog (more on that later).


Here is a hat I made out of Noro. I think it is lovely. It is darker in real life.


Here is the Opera Stole I have been talking about. I am using this picture because it shows the color off well. However, you can not see the sparkles very well.


So I have been working. I have also been working on my hubby’s present, but he reads the blog so no photos of that!
I also knit a hat for Save the Children over the weekend. I just did not get a photo of it taken. If you have some spare time, maybe you too can knit a little hat. They do not take much time and it can do so much good.
I have much left to do… we will see if it gets done.

On Saturday I went to the movies by myself. I saw “Let the right one in (Lat den ratte komma in)”. It is a Swedish movie. It was haunting and beautiful. If it is playing in your area, it will probably be at your local art house. It is about a 12 year old boy who lives with his mom and is bullied at school. He gets a new neighbor who is not exactly a girl, she is a vampire. I think it takes place in the 1980’s. I am not 100% sure, but there are some clues like the Rubik’s cube and the record player. I am sure there are others, but I did not live in Sweden during the ‘80s so I probably missed them. There are a lot of beautiful knits and one scene with actual knitting! It is a lovely movie. There is blood and such because it is a horror film, but all of the scenic loveliness of Sweden and hand knits makes up of any horror. I am giving it 3 ½ knitting needles out of 4.

Since it is the holiday season, I find myself in kitchen stores. I always like to buy something for the kitchen for my husband. I do not cook. I occasionally bake, but mostly, I just eat what my husband makes. So I find kitchen store fascinating. It is like an anthropological study. I always see something that I did not know existed and do not always know why it is needed in the world. For instance, I was in a store over the weekend and I saw an egg cuber. It allows you to make your hard boiled eggs into cubes. I don’t mean chop into cubes, rather make the whole egg square. Why is this needed? I would I want a square egg rather than an oval one? I stood staring at the box for a long time until I realized people wanted to get by me. But still it puzzles me. Sometimes, I see things and my first reaction is “Cool! I should buy that!” At the same store I saw a 24” balloon whisk. It was as long as my arm and I just thought it was awesome. I have no idea what any one would use it for, but it was big and therefore cool. If I lived on my own, no doubt I would have stuff like this all over my kitchen walls just for decoration. I really do have some sort of problem!

I have a friend who is going to give me her crib. Her girl has moved up to a big girl bed. So we have to get the nursery cleaned out by Thursday. My husband and The Boyfriend have been working on it all week. I also hope to get the walls ready to paint so we can get the taken care this weekend. It has thrown the whole house into chaos because everything that was in there has been displaced. We have no room for our Christmas decorations. Normally, we have our tree up by now.

On Monday, the troublesome dog (see photo earlier in posting) got into The Girl’s room and ate her Chips Ahoy cookies and her cat’s food. The Girl pitched an absolute fit and demanded that the dog go. Yesterday she refused to go to school unless we called the pound and got rid of him. We refused because he is part of the family and truthfully as much trouble as he is, I really do like him. I explained to her that it is just not that easy.
Instead, my hubby put a lock on the outside of her door. And he made The Boyfriend help him empty the nursery. She was calm by the time I got home. So I guess everything is okay for the moment.

Last night I hurt my foot. I don’t know how. I stepped and suddenly pain went shooting through my heel. I have been limping around ever since. I am fine so long as I do not move. My co-worker who sits in the next cubicle thinks it Plantar fasciitis. Then she implied it was because I was fat. Isn’t life grand? For the record, I do not think this is what the problem is. This is the 1st pain I have had in my foot and it is very painful.

Hopefully the rest of week will be less exciting.