Seriously, 7 months already.

Wow, I totally let this thing just sit here for 7 months without a peep. I suck at blogging! So much as happened and I haven't blogged it; it's like my life has just been a dull blob of nothingness. Let's get caught up!

June: Bonnaroo. I realized I'm not a hippie and I'm too old to pretend to be one. I may give it another go if Phish headline (the best would be Rusted Root and Phish together, but I'll take what I can get) BUT this year I'm so going VIP. It was $850 by the time we bought 2 tickets and an RV pass and a VIP ticket is 2 tickets and an RV pass for like $900 so I'm doing it -- I'm old enough to VIP it. Just let me say if you do ever decide to Bonnarroo you NEED a shower! The dirt and dust is insane nad 4 days of heat is too much to go without! They sell showers $7 a piece; I'll let you use ours for $10 -- I know it costs more but I'm clean and the shower is clean and it costs $50 to empty the water tank.

July: Nada. Nothing really happened; saw some local shows but nothing too insane.

August: A concert in Louisville; My Morning Jacket to be precise. IT was their "homecoming" show and wow. It. Rocked. By far the best show I've ever seen them put on and I worked the Rock for Riley. It was amazing (inspite of the stupid kids next to us)

September: Even worse than July.

October: Um, yeah, I got nothing. Well, I did get my space back from a house guest. That was nice, but other than that...

November: I turned the big 3-1. Had a wonderful party/bonfire in 60F weather (I know!) It was fantastic.

December: VEGAS. My first trip to Vegas, I'm already planning my return! It was great, I lost money, I won money, and I gained like 5 pounds from the buffets! It was great. Christmas was good, I decided that it's going to be HARD staying with Mr. Jesi! As much as I love him, his family is another thing -- most all of them. I guess I can always volunteer to work that day, or open my mouth enough that I don't get invited back (Mr. Jesi's vote of the 2 so he can skip too) Next year I think we'll visit my family. I need a break!

That's it. I've knitted a few things, check them out:
Hopefully I can add a few more to that list soon as I've signed up for ISE7 and have started a few sweaters and a hat (ohh) and I need to finish those damn socks! I've learned toe up socks! Now if I could just learn to sit down and knit I'd be golden!

Swaps

So I'm in 2 scarf exchanges now. I need to mail one off this week and the other is awhile away. I'm not sure how long I have to mail it off, but it's at least a month (I think).

I did the Opera Scarf in Henry's Attic Silk. All natural, no dye. It's really lovely, it's long the way I like them and it's oh so soft and smooshy. I'm glad I'm not a decorative scarf girl or my pal would not be getting this at all. I tried to do a light, lacy pattern with real lace weight yarn and tiny needles but it didn't work out. The yarn is beautiful and a wonderful price too, but lace and I were not friends that day so my swapee will also be getting that yarn because I hate it.

I'm working on the Argosy Scarf as well. I'm using Frog Tree Alpaca in a brown that is really pretty. I had another score with this yarn! My mom bought it and realized she doesn't like it at all. It sheds, but then again it is alpaca. I didn't really like the color when I snagged it, but now to see it in the scarf it's gorgeous. Again, it's a good thing that it's getting hot here or else I'd keep this one too! It needs to be blocked to get the full effect of the lace squares, but it's moving along nicely (I cast on Saturday night and didn't knit at all on it yesterday). The only problem I've had with this scarf is the needle choice. I went cheap and bought a bunch of circs from Ebay and well, you get what you pay for. It took a lot of wax paper to get the yarn to slide and sometimes it still sticks. I'm not sure where I heard that trick, but I do love the person that told me!

One more swap I'm doing is the Mystery Swap. I really like this swap! You get to put a package together for someone based on a few questions. It's not a secret swap so who you have is who has you and you email back and forth to get to know each other well enough to put a nice pack together. Last time I had a lovely swapner and this time I think I do as well. I am having good swap karma (knock on wood!) and I'm loving putting together a knit package with no knitting!! YAY! It amazes me that what I can find here for so cheap and under nose really is hard to come by in other countries. Who'd have thought that Kool-Aid is a hard to find item? It's like 8 for a $1 here when it's not on sale and an even better price in the summer. Plus, it's fun to buy things out of my comfort zone -- and a lot easier knowing that I'm sending it off. Who knows, maybe one day I'll knit something for myself in earth tones.

Score!

Don't you always hate it when you're sitting around your knitting buddies and you hear tale of a major score at a thrift shop? I've always heard friends talk of wonderful loot at stupid prices. Well... This Friday it finally happened to me! I talked Mr. Jesi into going into the store with me after dinner and as we walked in we were informed by the oh so friendly employee that we had 3 minutes until closing. Naturally, I ran off to the "craft aisle" to make sure nothing was there that I needed and look what I found!
6 skeins of Debbie Bliss cotton angora in a pretty pale yellow/green (all the same dye lot!) 2 skeins and a little left over ball of SWTC soy silk in a bright red with some black going through (again, same lot number) 3 balls of Sugar and Cream in a pale lime green color and another hank of some cotton yarn. And I got all of this for the low low price of only $8.29! Yup, $8.29. Super bonus!! That's probably like my year's worth of knitting luck all in one pile, but I'll take it!

I do have some knitting to show, but I have to take a picture and it's raining so I'll do it tomorrow. If I remember

Grammar Natzi

I try not correct other people's grammar (unless I know them well), I try to give the benefit of the doubt to misspellings on emails, signs, etc. Maybe English isn't their native language, and to be fair it is a hard language to learn. I always read my writing 2 or 3 times to check for grammar and slip ups that spell check doesn't catch. But my biggest pet peeve (hell who am I kidding, like I only have 1. HA!) is when people can't get it right between contractions and possessives. If you own it, it's your's, if you belong to someone then you're theirs. It's not that hard. So imagine my disgust (delight while showing it off and taking its picture) when I saw this, AT THE STORE NO LESS!!What the hell? How did this get past quality control, was there even a quality control inspection? Did they just say "Oh well, fuck it. No one will notice." How does this happen? Is this what happens when the President "leaves no child behind"? Instead of moving everyone up and improving everyone's skills we bring everyone down to the lowest's level? This is unacceptable. I know it's just a pillow, but it goes beyond that. How can we be a strong powerful nation producing world leaders who are going to make a differnce when we can't even get the pillow right?

I'm not worthy!

Oh wow! I just received my package today from the Mystery Swap and wow! I feel like I need to mail some more stuff to my swapper! This totally makes me want to do Round 3!!

I got Noro, Jo Sharp, Blue Sky Alpaca, and some Bilby yarn (from Australia) and a lot of it too! Plus I got needles --pink ones, some lotion (which I need badly since this weather has screwed up my cuticles) some patterns, chibi needles (which I love mainly because I love saying Chibi), a yarntainer, cute little stitch markers that look like peas, an awesome rock with lizards painted on it, and chocolate!

I think I'll start on some knitting right away!!


So, I've been MIA lately. No reason other than laziness. I have gotten some knitting done; a lot more frogging than I like to do but if you hate it, you hate it. I did finish this:

It has handles on it now and has been taken out for its first knit night. I do want to line it, but just can't find the perfect fabric to do so. One day.

I've started a sweater for Mr. Jesi (I'm living dangerously with that knitter's curse and all). I'm using Lion's Brand WoolEase and I'm impressed with it. I guess I'm only a yarn snob when it comes to projects for me. Go figure!

Other than that, life is chugging along. I quit the "I hate this job" job, I'm looking for another. God I hate looking for jobs, interviewing, waiting. YUCK! The crazy dogs are still crazy. The puppy is getting better, but she's still a 60pound puppy who thinks she's 10pounds. Lots of work! But she's cute so she's still around. See?


Ok, I won't be such a blog slug!

OH NO!!

The monkey fell off! The coolest key chain I've ever seen and the monkey fell off; what am I to do? Now I only have a boring stupid key chain with boring stupid keys and not a cool monkey key chain with cool monkey keys. I hate my key chain now. It's just not the same. How can I live without the cool monkey? I got this cool ass monkey key chain at the Broad Ripple Art Fair I'd hate to think that I have to wait until next June to get another one. Anyone know of a Sock Monkey Key Chain store on line? Al Gore, you invited the internet, where are you now?!?

In other news; I got my mystery swap pal and I've already been contacted by my swapper. WOW! This is going to be so much fun! FYI: I'm in need of a sock monkey key chain; hint hint. And a dog whisperer (if you happen to know one) However I think I may suck at this swap b/c I lost the "rules" and I'm not sure if I have to post to the blog or to Ravelry (I'm jesi btw) or if I just email my pal or what. Damn the rules!

I also have to mail away my ThinkPink Swap that' s due 1/10 (yeah I'm missing that deadline but I'm an organizer swapping with another organizer so it's ok right?) plus my hedgehog swap that's all about cake and I have to go buy for still but I have loads of time b/c it's not due until 1/15 (HA)! And I have to angel an ISE5 pal (once I mail it, I'll post the picture) -- just thank goodness it's done already, just lick and send. Is it just me or is going to the post office like the worst thing ever to do?

The first snow!

This is what greeted me as I walked outside the kitchen this morning. How pretty, the first snow of winter.

It was almost worth the extra 30mins it took me to get into work today -- almost.