Hi, it's HOT

Send ice. And also vodka.
The air conditioner in the car seems to be slowly coming to life. I have tried not to run it at all, and if it were just hot I probably wouldn't, but it is so humid that it is difficult to breathe. Until today the air conditioner didn't so much "condition" the air as "move it around in a not very cooling way until I gave up and opened the windows." Today there was actually a difference in temperature.
I graduate in two years. Assuming I will then be making enough money to cover the house payment and the crushing student loan debt with enough left over for food and yarn I am selling the SUV and buying the "greenest" car I can find.

I am excited for the knitting meeting tonight. I haven't been knitting much at all. Harry Potter sort of took over the last few days and I read constantly. And by constantly I mean I read books 5 and 6 in four days. Yup. Constantly.

I am almost done with my first sockapalooza sock - I have a little over two weeks before I have to mail them. New Harry Potter book not withstanding, I should have plenty of time to finish. And then I will get on with the monkey socks. AND despite my firm understanding that I have no money (none, not even a little bit) I ordered one of these Monkey Sock Bags because they are so freaking cute and they are only $12 and I had to have one. Don't judge me. Go look at them and then tell me you don't want one.

60 days until the Harlot visits. But who's counting?

Harlot Dreams...

The Best Bookstore in the World has arranged for a visit from The Yarn Harlot in September. (And the date has managed to not clash with Bean's birthday, Kerri's wedding or the bachelorette slumber party). I am beside myself with glee.
I am also full to the brim with fantasies about how I will meet Her and we will instantly be best friends and then we will have dinner and then we will knit.
Sigh.
Last night I had a dream about Her.
Seriously.
It was really funny, Gwen was there and Lia and Jackie and The Fabulous Bookstore Women and, of course, Shelly... lots of real people. And in the dream I hugged Her and she sort of patted my shoulder and said, "Oh look at that yarn over there!" And hurried away. At some point in the dream Gwen asked me to walk her dog... don't know what that's about, and there was shopping and then we all went to The Anchor for dinner... because, of course, they have a smoke-free room and vegetarian options on the menu and a wide selection of beer on tap.

Of course, I also had a dream that I was a police investigator and accidentally shot someone.

Anyway...

In other news:

I had a really good weekend - I made bread and Kerri and I almost made cheese on Saturday. Sunday I had lunch with a good friend and then we shopped for fabric and used books. I also got a nice, long nap on Sunday and also went to a movie. I feel really refreshed and ready to have a good week!

I think I got the job I interviewed for last week... I got an email today asking if I could come in from 8-4 some day this week. I haven't actually been offered the job, but 8 hours is a long time for just another interview, right? So Thursday I'm going back in!


I would love to post pictures of my knitting but I can't. I'm working on my sockapalooza socks and can't show pictures until Alli gets them. I will give two hints: "Chapman Springs", and "Because they're stranded." I can't wait to send this package!!


I have also been reading... I promised Andie I wouldn't see the new Harry Potter movie without her (she's out of town until Wednesday) so I'm reading book 5 again. I'll probably re-read book 6 also so that I'm ready on Friday at midnight! The Best Bookstore in the World is having a Harry Potter Party from 9 to midnight. I guess every bookstore in the world is doing that... but this one is special. So here's the plan for Friday: See the movie and then race over to the bookstore for the party. Good times.

Things at home have been relatively peaceful... we've been talking (as opposed to "discussing") and we actually went out to a movie last night. Together.

Encouraging.

Gritting and Knitting

I got to work this morning in the middle of the Bush conference. Ugh. Just his voice makes me grit my teeth. Is it 2008 yet???

Last night I got all of my Mystery Stole supplies together... I bought a crochet hook and beads a few days ago, and even though I bought the smallest hook they had (at Wal Mart) it still would not go through the beads. So I looked online and found that I needed a size 13 hook... or much larger beads (mine are 6/0). Please don't confuse me with someone who knows what the hell she's talking about. I got all of this online and had to write it down to remember. I went to Hobby Lobby with my little list and found a size 14 hook... impossibly small. What the hell do you use that thing for - you know, except for beading lace-weight yarn?
Moving on. So I got home and wound my yarn and set my directions up and got everything ready... and then I sucked. I re-started 4 times and then I gave up. I finally got the hang of placing the beads (the third time) and then I realized that I was supposed to be purling the wrong side and I was knitting... I decided it was not the day for lace knitting and put it all away and went to bed.

Today I have brought dpn's and sock yarn to work... I'm going to work on my sockapalooza socks!! I kept finding new patterns and new yarns and I have decided that I'm making it all way too complicated. I am going back to my sock-making roots and I'm going to knit one of the first socks I ever made in some of my favorite yarn. I can't get more specific than that because we have become good friends and have dropped the "secret" pretense and I know she reads my blog. (Hi Alli!) I have also found some really great goodies to include with her socks. You all know that I totally suck at holding on to gifts... as soon as I get the socks done I'm going to want to put them in the mail... I only have a few weeks to go. I can be strong.

I think.

Well, it's time to knit some socks.

Hi.

It's been a few days... the internets have died at home.
You might expect that I would have finished my Monkey socks, or even started my mystery stole. You'd be very disappointed.

Everything I've knitted in the last week has ended up in the frog pond. I can't seem to find that perfect yarn/pattern combination. I even started my sockapalooza socks (for the eleventy-billionth time) and the pooling bothered me so I frogged them last night. I've gotten to know my sock pal and she's so cool that I want her socks to be perfect. I also have not finished my socks for Katie-the-intern. I'm sort of in a knitting funk. I knit a few rows and then... bleh. Is it lack of energy? Is it depression? Am I suffering from some kind of brain damage??? Could I be turning into a (gasp) muggle? (Say it isn't so!)

Surely this will pass and I'll pick up my needles and click along happily and that clicking will be the metronome by which I will set the pace of my life.
Or something.
Right??

In other news, remember how I went to the doctor's office and I got on the scale and my weight had soared above that number? I am finally below that number again. Not by much, but less is less, ya know? I have not been eating as sensibly as I had planned, but I am making small, consistent changes. I must say that I have been craving something from Hostess recently. Anything - Twinkies, Sno-Balls, Cupcakes, Lemon Pies. I go to my Quik Trip and I walk all the way around to the other side of the store so I don't have to walk by them on the way to the fountain drinks. I know that I can have them, and when it feels less like a compulsion I might actually do that, but for now I'll wait this craving out.

The husband has been acting more like a husband lately... we even had a family Scrabble night last night. I totally kicked both their asses. And he's going to come swimming with us tonight. (We'll see if that one actually happens). Now all he has to do is add a job to the mix and we might be able to save ourselves a marriage!
(Note: I just called him and he's still in bed. It's 1:45. Maybe I have set my hopes too high once again).
Sigh.

In OTHER other news, my tomato plant as produced a baby tomato. It's green and perfect. There are also pinkie-sized green peppers and more basil than you can shake a stick at. I'm excited. We got a lot of rain recently so I was glad they were in pots so I could move them onto dry land. And by "a lot of rain" I mean so much rain that my friend Chris had a zucchini plant that died. A zucchini plant. Died. I was under the impression that you couldn't kill those. We'll see if she has ghostly apparitions of veg toward the end of July.

WHYWHYWHY?

Why do I do these things?? Only a few rows into Monkey and I have joined Mystery Stole 3.
It sounded fun.
And The Yarn Harlot is doing it.
And so is my sock pal.
And also about 5,000 other people.

I do love my monkey - I'll post pictures as soon as there is enough of it to photograph... I've been occupied lately and not knitting. Which certainly explains why I have given myself a new project to start. Jeez.

In other news - the book club meeting for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is tomorrow and it has inspired a lot of us to "think globally, eat locally" as it were. A co-worker found a food coop that I'm thinking about joining and several of us are now planting our own food sources. The owner of the bookstore asked if I had made any cheese yet... she said she was going to surprise me with fresh cheese tomorrow but there are too many other things she has to get done before tomorrow.

I will be making some cheese. And also bread. I used to love to make bread... I'm not sure why I stopped.

I also got a few calls about applications I submitted. (Yes, I also think it is interesting that I put a few resumes on a few websites on SUNDAY and have already had some response).
I have an interview on Monday to be a part time case manager... I don't have the degree yet, but I do have a degree and my experience at Hospice behind me, so I'm hoping it all goes well. It's an evening/weekend thing and it's about 20 hours a week. Perfect enough, right?
Except that it's an offender assessment program.
I learned a lot about myself and about myself as a social worker at Hospice. I do have the "social worker" switch in my head. The one that provides the ability to look past whatever is surrounding the person in front of you and find the person part. To deal with that. It worked for the sickness and yuck of dealing with dying patients in nursing homes, I wonder if it translates to offenders?

We'll see. So I'll knit and I'll work two jobs and I'll see what happens next.

Don't look now...

there's a Monkey on your back... Watch out, baby who's back? Don't look now there's a monkey on ya!

(Anyone remember that song? Seriously, if you sing it to me I will buy you a margarita. Or margarita-colored yarn. Or something).

Pardon me while I get my 80's jam on. I may have to look for that album on iTunes. There is something really wrong with that as I actually owned that on a record. Yup, I said record. They were these large, round black things that old people got music from.

Anyhow... it's time to give in to the Monkey side. I have not tried Monkey socks yet, but one of my friends emailed me today that she is knitting them from Panda Cotton. And y'all know how I feel about Panda Cotton. And then I got a message that another friend of mine started a Monkey-A-Long. Damn it. I guess it's time to Monkey.

Why can't you do it? Why can't you set your monkey free?

Always giving into it -Do you love your monkey or do you love me?

Why can't you do it? Why do I have to share my baby with a monkey?

Pass the eyeliner (green) and the Bonnie Bell Lipsmackers (watermelon please) I'm off to the mall.

(I meant it about the singing. I will totally buy you a margarita if you know that song and sing it the next time I see you!!)

Sleeping Sickness?

I couldn't get to sleep at all Wednesday night... then Thursday I fell asleep before 7:30 and didn't wake up until about 4 in the morning. At 4 I got up and had a bowl of cereal and then went back to sleep. At 11 I got up and went to work but I was dizzy and rather shaky. I haven't done much beyond that since I got home on Friday. I haven't knit anything, haven't read anything, haven't even really watched TV. It's been on, obviously. It's ME for crying out loud. But I haven't been able to stay awake long enough to watch a whole movie. My head aches and I have difficulty focusing - eyesight and thoughts.
Are there tsetse flies in Kansas??
I suspect not. I suspect that I have some kind of virus.

I hope I feel better tomorrow, as I have decided to stop bitching about the fact that the husband hasn't found/won't find a job and find my own. I mentioned this last night and he said, "You can't work two jobs."
"Can."
"No you can't!"
"Were you paying attention at all last year?"
"That's crazy!"
"Agreed."
Agreed. It is crazy that I have to find another job.

But it was so blindingly obvious when I thought about it. I can't force him to get a job and I can't go get one for him so I'll just have to get one for myself.

"Welcome to Starbucks! Can I take your order?"