I Just Can't Get Excited About This Anymore.

As the title says, I just am not too enthusiastic about blogging any more. I don't seem to have as much free time and when I do, I don't want to blog - I want to knit. I haven't actually finished anything, I have just been starting new projects and then getting bored. What is my problem??? I am feeling much better - I have lost 15lbs and it is a week before my goal of losing by Thanksgiving. I always get over-excited about any progress and then cut back really drastically and end up over-eating again. Almost did that yesterday, but I stopped myself and ate like I was supposed to today. Making progress - I am getting optimistic. But I am not getting excited about blogging!!!!

Some Thoughts

Obviously not deep thoughts cause I am evidently incapable of deep thoughts any more. Today is Tuesday, Oct 2, 2007 - I'm sure all of you know. I thought I knew that too - but explain why I went and interrupted one of the other teachers during his class and asked him if he was sure he was supposed to be in school that day, as he had asked for it off. He had asked off for 10/3 and 10/4. I even put it on my office calendar and checked my book of day off requests. Duh! My senior moments are getting way too frequent. Last week, wearing two different shoes and this week, I made it obvious I don't know what day it is.

I just finished reading Crazy Aunt Purl'snew book, Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair. It was more poignant than funny. Her blog is usually more light-hearted, but maybe that is because I really didn't start reading her regularly until after her divorce. I haven't been through a divorce, but my eldest daughter went through one and I think Crazy Aunt Purl is pretty on target. My daughter is happily remarried now, but I wish this would have come out when she was going through all of her unhappiness. I enjoyed the book but it made me a little sad too. I do admire Aunt Purl for becoming her own woman.

I have decided to diet and lose maybe 50 pounds. I really need to lose more but baby steps. My goal is to lose 20 pounds by Christmas. This is only my billionth diet ever, but this time I am announcing it to everyone - or to the few who read this blog. I know everything I should do - I even know my triggers for overeating. I am an emotional eater and when I feel badly - either physically or emotionally - I eat. When I am not eating, I spend money. Do you think I am trying to fill up a hole inside me? I do. I'm not sure what the hole is though. But I know it's there and I keep trying to fill it. So I decided, along with my new resolve, to post about it along with posting about my knitting. Some day, I promise, I will post about my knitting.

I Needed a Change.

I felt like my blog was bogged down - it wasn't me that was bogged down. No No No, it was the blog. That is my story and I am sticking to it. So much has happened in Sept and I decided I needed a change. I've lost the links - they really needed updated - and the list of my completed work. I also lost everything else on my sidebar, but I think that is ok. I really need a change. I like the blue and now I have no obligations to complete lists or update links.

I went back to school and I am enjoying it. The kids are pretty ok - for criminals and they seem to respond positively to me, although I think I really need to tone the sarcasm down. I don't think it is sarcasm, I think it is just my particular sense of humor, but I guess not everyone agrees with me. We went to Ocean City, MD for a week mid Sept and had a nice time. Not the best time I have ever had in OC, but still all in all, a nice time. It was too chilly to sit on the beach the first of the week, but we took those days and went to all the places we normally don't go to because of how crowded everything is in July and August. It was great - no waiting lines and the shops were not busy at all. Then it started warming up and my husband came down with pneumonia. Two trips to the Berlin ER rounded out our week. We did get to sit on the beach for a few hours the last two days and that was really all I needed.

My second day back at school, I wore two different shoes. I have been wearing Crocs - I love them, they are so comfortable. Well, I wore one black one and one blue one. I didn't notice until I was walking in the gate. And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of my week. I forgot about a symposium that I was supposed to attend at Seven Springs. I remembered just in time, but I was so far behind in my school work that I almost considered not going. I decided to go last minute and I was glad I did. It concerns the funding we run school with. We would have still received the funding, but this is just more information about applying and spending it.

Meanwhile my husband is still sick. Not sick in bed, just no energy and a little weak. He actually stayed home from work for 3 days - after going in on Tuesday and finding out he had no strength. If he would have been one of my kids, he would have been home all week. Can anyone make their husbands listen to them? I sure can't.

And then I got into Ravelry. I am happy about that, but I haven't really had the time to do anything with Ravelry. I can't even imagine how anyone can enter their stash into the database. I think I am going to have trouble entering my WIPs. And speaking of WIPs, I must have 20 on the needles. My goal is to photograph each project and get it entered in Ravelry and recorded on my blog. Wish me luck!

I'm In!!!

I made it. Frecklegirl invited me into Ravelry! I knew it was close, but I was still surprised. Now to figure it out and get involved.
Loveya

I'm Back -- I Think!

My enthusiasm for knitting is finally all of the way back. Now I just need to blog more. I have so many OTNs, I am afraid to count. And I just finished ordering more yarn to start an afghan. I am nuts. All the malaise seems to have passed and all I want to do is read patterns, search online for yarn and new ideas and knit. I'm waiting for Ravelry to invite me - only 1200 in front of me in line. Wonder why you have to be invited - wonder why it isn't a site that you can just join??? I guess this way generates more people wanting to get in. Sort of like waiting in line at those clubs who only let in a select few. Does that mean I have low self-esteem cause I want to be invited in?

I am still working on my MS3. It took me forever to find beads that I liked. I followed the instructions and bought 8mm beads but they looked too big and clumsy on the shawl. Then I tried to find smaller beads but their holes weren't big enough. Finally I went to an actual bead store and found what I needed and actually liked. Was working really well on it until last night when I made a mistake and now I am tinking back. I am determined to finish this though - even though I am sure I will be the last one done.

On the way home from the bead store, I flipped a guy off who didn't use his turn signal and swore at me. I think he probably read my lips also as I flipped him off. He had such a funny expression on his face when I flipped him off - I don't think he thought a gray-haired old lady would do such a thing. I have news for him - I don't think he's the last.

I am going to organize all my finished projects and take pictures of them and then post. And it hasn't been all dishcloths, either. For a while, that seemed to be all I was making. Now, I need to control myself. I just ordered Cascade Ecological Yarn from Webs to make an afghan similar to this one. I thought that was beautiful and I find the traditional afghan patterns a little boring. You use a lace doily pattern not changing anything except the yarn and needles. It grows to afghan size just because of gauge. I absolutely could have found yarn in my stash for this, but . . .

Enough for today - I have bills to pay and pictures to take. Loveya.

Pity Party

Welcome to my pity party. I have been hindered by tendonitis for 3 weeks now. I can't pull weeds in my garden and thanks to the tropical weather we have been having here in southwestern PA, some of the weeds are 10 feet tall. I can't shuck corn and it's corn season. I haven't been able to work on the stained glass projects I had planned. I have been off for 2 weeks and this weekend we are going to Virginia Beach - my husband runs in the half-marathon - and so I haven't gotten anything done that I planned on doing. I have been sitting at the computer so much, my butt hurts.

A few comments on that, someone sent a post to almost every knitting group I am on, telling how her mother has only a few weeks to live and that she just found out that her best friend died a week before the terrible news about her mother. OK, I am ready to offer sympathy to anyone. I wasn't close to my mother and I know how her death bothered me, but she lost me when she said her best friend died the week before and she didn't know. Wouldn't your best friend's death be something you would know on the day it happened? I don't know how the friend died but wouldn't she at least have been invited to the funeral? First, I question why she would post about all of those personal and should be private pains in the first place. I'm thinking other people are wondering too - she's not getting many sympathy posts, if that is what she is looking for. At least not public ones, she may be getting private emails. Someone on one list did suggest that her post was not knitting related and was going to leave the group because she wanted knitted related posts only - someone who thinks like me maybe?

I must be cranky, but somehow posting about such personal things is not appropriate for knitting lists. I'm sure there are groups that actually encourage those postings and respond to you. I almost expected a plea for money somehow to enter the picture. Can you tell I am annoyed by that posting? Or is it just my tendonitis?

After all that nasty bitching, I have been knitting, reading and catching up on netflix movies. Netflix makes a bundle on us - it takes us forever to watch movies sometimes. We just watched Babel. It was a pretty good movie, but I had to do mindless knitting so I could follow it. Movies shot out of sequence puzzle me. I understand the movie, but I am puzzled about why the director does that. I don't really think it adds to the story. The reading catch up has been great. And I just got Joyce Carol Oates' new one, The Gravedigger's Daughter yesterday from Amazon. I haven't started it yet, but I am really looking forward to it. Oates is really one of my favorites.

I keep buying the same books over and over, which is really a waste of money. We just bought a book for my grandson that I think we bought before. I don't know why I keep doing that - I have a bunch of knitting books and magazines on eBay just for that reason. I don't know if I am losing my mind or if I just spend too much money on books I evidently don't look at enough to know when I see them at the store that I already have the book.

And speaking of eBay - mostly selling my excess stash yarn has been a positive experience. EXCEPT, I had one seller who threatened and insulted me to provide positive feedback for her/him. I usually wait until I receive feedback from the buyer to give feedback - so I know everything is ok with the sale or I wait until enough time has passed and I haven't heard about any problems. Well, this one wanted feedback immediately and threatened not to buy any more of my yarn if I didn't respond. I told her I was waiting to hear if there were any problems - she threatened before she could have received the yarn - and then she insinuated that something must be wrong with my yarn and she would never buy from me ever. I didn't respond to that email and just re-listed my yarns when they didn't sell the first time. I gave her feedback along with everyone else who had more than enough time to get the yarn and seemed satisfied with it. I was tempted to give her neutral feedback - she paid quickly but threatened me - but I didn't. She got positive feedback. THEN she thanks me and bids on all the yarn I re-listed???? I just want this to be over - I made more money than I expected but it took a lot of my time. I hope she buys everything and I will send it to her and be done.

Someday maybe the mood will strike me to actually post about knitting.

New Resolve!

It has been more than a month since I felt like I wanted to write on this blog. I guess I just haven't been in the mood. I think summer is my best of times and worst of times. I love the weather and I am always outside in the garden, or on the deck, or on my bike, or walking. And it is when I get to spend a week or two with most if not all of my kids. And precisely because I know it is what I wish I could do all of the time, and can't, it is the worst time.

Since I last wrote, I have finished summer school and my project went over well. I gave the students their first job. They were transferring the library card catalog into the computer. Yea!! They did a reasonably good job considering some of them are illiterate. I issued paychecks - and learned a lot about running a small business - and they were allowed to "spend" their earnings. It worked out well.

My garden this year is really doing well. This was the first year I didn't cry when I came back from vacation - the neighbor kid took really good care of it. Last night I made spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes and peppers that I grew. No sauce is ever better. And nothing is better than picking cherry and grape tomatoes that are warm from the sun, and popping them in your mouth.

I went for a week with the grandson in NC. That was wonderful. He is such a cutie. I think I got on his mother's nerves, and I am working on not being an annoying, know-it-all grandmother, but I guess I have a ways to go. She is really tense. I don't think the move is turning out to be such a good move for her. I think she just needs to give it time, but right now she is lonely. After that, we went to the Outer Banks, Hatterus Village, to be exact and spent a wonderful week with all of the kids, their spouses and my husband. It was great. The house was great- it had a pool and I don't think I left it except to pick up food. Everybody seems happy and healthy and the grandson basked in all of the attention and adoration. He started calling me Grammy.

I have been knitting steadily. I joined the MSP3 group and started a shawl. This was to be knitted with beads. Once I started I didn't like the beads, so I found others and frogged what I had and then started with the new ones. They didn't fit. so I frogged again and then started with maybe only a third of the beads that the pattern called for. Liked this much better, but only had the laptop and couldn't follow the directions on the laptop for the life of me. So I put it down and started to crochet a sweater. I haven't done a lot of crocheting in a while, so I thought this would be a challenge and fun. I gave myself tendonitis . I can hardly move my right arm. It is getting better, but it still aches a lot. We had a 12 hour car ride on the way home and I crocheted until it got too dark to see. I think I should have expected tendonitis. Duh!!!

I made jam. Peach, Blueberry, Blackberry and Strawberry. I made freezer jam which is really easy. Just mix sugar, pectin and put in the freezer. Best of all, it takes like fresh fruit when you eat it. I made more than 24 1/2 pint jelly jars of each flavor. My husband is freaked about what we will do with all of the jam. I figured Christmas gifts - jar of jam tucked in a basket with a knitted dishcloth.

After vacation I cleaned out my yarn stash deciding to sell what I knew I would never use on ebay. I have become a yarn snob - no more acrylic for me. Some of the yarn had to be 35+ years old. Unbelievably, it is selling on Ebay. I have made almost $200 and I am not done yet. I am still in the middle of this, so I am curious if this will turn out to be a positive experience.

That's it, that's the highlights of what I have been doing in the last month. Oh, I also started some stained glass projects I will write about sometime. I have 2 weeks off before school starts and we are going to Virginia Beach for Labor Day - my husband runs the 1/2 marathon, I sit on the beach and drink tea. I have a lot I want cram in these 2 weeks and updating my blog was #1.