It's Not (All) My Fault

New sock yarn from The Loopy Ewe! The bottom skein is a Duet, which is a skein of yarn for the main body of the sock plus a smaller solid color skein for the toes and heels. Way kewl. And the shipping from there was lightning fast, so my desire for new stash was quickly satisfied.

From there, my tale of woe begins. Enter my two friends Jill and Andy, who lead little ol' naive me, innocent as a lamb, to the slaughter (Richard tagged along as pack mule because we promised him lunch). First we go to the needlepoint store in Buckhead. I was successfully resisting the urge to purchase when I hear Andy say "Sheep!". She has found the Sheep of the Month. July and August, plus all the fibers to do them, have to come home with me immediately. I was powerless. After all, it was sheep, right?? I mean, look at them!!!!

The store is In Stitches, and I have to say I'm very impressed with Laura, the owner, and her knowledge and suggestions as far as a stitch guide for how to gussy up the sheepies. I'm anxious to get started on them, particularly August, because it's going to be way cute. And yes, arrangements have been made to get the rest of the sheepies to my house.... (**sigh**) At least if I went down, I dragged Jill with me, because she's in the process of purchasing a snowman canvas and fibers, and Laura's doing a stitch guide for her. :) It's her first needlepoint project, so I'm anxious to see how she likes it.

From there... to the knitting store, which turns out to be the one that has a branch in Highlands, NC that Heather found. Again, I didn't intend to buy anything, but there it was: the highly coveted Opal sock yarn that I hadn't been able to purchase....
And as you can see, there was this dandy little Lantern Moon sock-project-sized holder that also jumped up onto the counter with the Opal. Jill got some sock yarn too.... just not quite as much. Andy exercised remarkable self control during the entire shopping trip. As we all know, I have no self control. I was led into temptation and quickly succumbed.

After a lunch at a restaurant near downtown Atlanta, we went our separate ways. I've been led astray. Note that it's not difficult to lead me there, as I didn't put up too much of a fight. Thank goodness for a bit of disposable income.

Say, did anyone else notice that Silkweaver has grab bags on sale???? ;)

Earnest Looking Black Dogs and Other Thoughts

Just got home from spending a couple of days at my mom's house. Didn't bother to take a computer because I'd have to deal with (gasp!) dial-up... how positively primitive... and none of her neighbors so far are technically savvy enough to have a wireless network I can poach from. So I feel like I've been blind... having to rely on actual TV news for my NASCAR fix (dreadful -- although they appear to have been up to the minute on Paris Hilton's whereabouts). So I'm happy to be back home with my little laptop, checking e-mail, blogs, and websites. After all, Drema at Needlecraft Corner might add something that I desperately need and I wouldn't know it! (Even tho she does have my back on the sheep patterns... working on one now that I'll share when it's looking a little more like a sheep and not a blob.)

So to the left there you see two very large black dogs. Magic, the very earnest looking poodle is to the left. Cassie, the not so earnest looking but very sweet giant schnauzer is on the right. The non-canine in the center is my sister-in-law, Sandi. She's kneeling; the dogs are sitting. The dogs are very large.







To the right for your viewing pleasure is Magic, Cassie, and Richard all laying on the floor. Note that I didn't capture Richard's best side. Did I mention that the dogs were very large? 100+ pounds apiece? We refer to dogs that size as "ponies" in our house, since Oscar is sure that he's a "big dog".
This, of course, is Oscar, His Royal Lowness, the original "big dog", all 12.5 pounds of dachshund fury, doing what big dogs do best.... toasting his tummy on the heating vent in the wintertime.

Managed to get a wee bit of stitching and knitting done during the trip up to my mom's. I was there because she had to have an endoscopy done, and I ended up staying an extra day because she doesn't react well to anesthesia. I'm happy to report that the test went well and they didn't find anything seriously wrong, so she's chugging along pretty well for a fiesty 78 year old. I wouldn't have her any other way. :)

Specifically for The Magic That Is Heather....

Yes, I've bought this much sock yarn in the past two weeks. Did I mention that I've been under a wee bit of stress?? Well, ok, the orange skein and one light blue skein came from another binge when The Whole Nine Yarns was having a sale (ask Teresa about the amazing talking skein of sock yarn), but otherwise, that's pretty much it.

And the sad part is, I'm not through... Went on a bit of a binge at The Loopy Ewe a couple of nights ago that should be coming in soon. I'm not affiliated, but geez, Sheri's got some very kewl sock yarn there!!! Plus the Stitchkeepers are just magic for double points.

So the next time anyone's husband/mother/family complains about them having too much stash, I'm a living example you can point to.... and they'll realize you're not all that bad after all. :)

The best of intentions.....

I'm really not sure where the past couple of weeks went, but it's been an appallingly long time since I've blogged. My apologies to you who actually check this on a regular basis, as I know I check some of your blogs and go "Geez... she hasn't posted anything new yet??? What's up with that???"

We had preparations for the trip to see Richard's sisters in VA, then the actual trip. I'll try to get some pictures uploaded at some point, but we spent the night in Charlotte on the way up and got to make a pilgrimage to Lowe's Motor Speedway while we were there. Way Kewl!!!! The Richard Petty Driving Experience was there, so there were actual cars on the track. They were very loud. HRL was not amused. I can't imagine how loud 43 of them would be at one time, but I imagine hearing protection would definitely be needed.

(As an aside, Richard encountered an actual cop arresting an actual hooker at the hotel we were staying in near the Charlotte airport. Never saw that happen before....)

From there we visited Hendrick Motorsports, future home of our fave Dale Jr. While widely viewed as "the dark side of the Force" by many in Junior Nation, I was thrilled at the announcement that he's going to join the team next year. Hendrick has without question the best equipment in NASCAR, and besides, every race Junior wins still keeps Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, his new teammates, out of Victory Lane. :) Hendrick has a nice museum, including 4 Daytona 500 winning cars all lined up in a row, and a car that went through "the big one" in Talladega that was smushed into a smallish ball of sheetmetal, but the roll cage was intact and the driver walked away. Amazing. We scored some actual race-used lugnuts from Casey Mears' Cup car (he's the #25 National Guard car), but we haven't decided how to display them yet. (Yes, we amuse quite easily.)

From there it was off to Roanoke for the visit with Richard's sisters. Sandi has two rather large dogs: Cassie, a 100 lb giant schnauzer, and Magic, a 105 lb "standard" poodle (the "standard" part is up for interpretation). That's a lot of dog. Magic has, without a doubt, the most earnest looking face I've ever seen on a dog. And the face was easy to see considering he came up to my waist. He looked like "Hello, are you all right? Can I get anything for you? Really, are you ok? You can tell me if you're not."

Until I get the pictures uploaded you'll just have to imagine the earnest looking black dog. Needless to say, with the two very large dogs, Oscar spent a lot of time either airborne being carried or in our laps. We were trying to avoid the Dreaded Butt Sniff dog greeting, since Oscar doesn't realize he's a dog and he gets mightily offended if another dog treats him like one. For the most part we were successful.

In other news, Lynne's house closed today. There have been some, ahem, "issues" with the estate, most of which exploded while I was in VA. I think they're temporarily under control, and the lawyer and I are working on a plan to get this whole thing closed down. If you can, please say a little prayer for us over the next couple of weeks that we can convince her mom to cooperate.....

I did console myself by buying a hideous amount of sock yarn. :)

Stuff that makes you think

Most of you reading this blog know that I lost my friend Lynne last year and that I've been struggling through the process of being executor of her estate.

Today, her house sold. I'm happy, but I've gotta admit to some mixed feelings. Yeah, I want this whole process to be finished and done with, but on the other hand, while it's going on, it's like a little part of her is still around. And I know I'm going to have to take her mother to the closing (even though she really doesn't have anything to do with it, she'll want to go), and that's going to be hard on her.

On the plus side, the man who is buying it is going to remodel it and re-sell it... probably to some nice family who can make some happy memories there. Or, at least, that's what I hope.

I guess the bottom line of all this rambling is: appreciate each day, and appreciate each other. Sometimes we need a reminder of that. Today was mine.

Ok... So I went to my friend Heather's site , and she had taken this kewl test, so I had to go there too.....

"Your Score: Rosalind Russell
You scored 28% grit, 42% wit, 28% flair, and 19% class!

You are one wise-cracking lady, always quick with a clever remark and easily able to keep up with the quips and puns that come along with the nutty situations you find yourself in. You're usually able to talk your way out of any jam, and even if you can't, you at least make it more interesting with your biting wit. You can match the smartest guy around line for line, and you've got an open mind that allows you to get what you want, even if you don't recognize it at first. Your leading men include Cary Grant and Clark Gable, men who can keep up with you."

If you want to take it too, go here. I'd be interested in hearing what your results are!