Homestretch

I apologize for it taking so long for me to blog after my return from Jersey. So here it is. Had the best time with the Jerseyans. Can't thank Charlie and Rachel enough for letting me invade their home and their weekend. Little man Charlie is so much fun, hard to keep pace with his energy at times, but great. Friday's travel was a bit imperfect and I didn't arrive in Metuchen until almost 10pm. When we got home I presented Master Charles with the famed penguin, which he quickly decided was not a penguin. He wasn't very interested, but it was past his bedtime. Saturday we went to Gymboree, my first experience, and here is where that energy I couldn't keep up with showed itself. That afternoon, Charlie decided that he liked the penguin and began to run around the house with it. Here's a picture of him holding the penguin while watching "Happy Feet" (hence the intense distraction).

He's too cute. So anyway, the penguin ended up being a hit, so now I can stop talking about it. Sunday, we drove out to Philly after church to pick up Aunt Ellen and go to the Franklin Institute. Charlie seemed to love it, lots of buttons to push to make things light up and bells ringing and things of that nature. We went through the Astronaut, Electricity, Giant Heart, Train museum, and Airplane museum exhibits. Charlie got to "drive" the train, which did move by the way, at a speedy 3/4 mph. Lightning fast! Here's me and him in front of the giant-walk-thru heart.

So on Monday we walked to downtown Metuchen, which is really cute by the way, and watched the parade. Charlie wore his "my uncle is a Marine" t-shirt and the Marines who were at the the parade loved it. We managed to get a pic with one of the nice Marines so that we could send a picture to Uncle Tom before he left for Australia. We also managed to teach Charlie how to say "Semper Fi" which was cute and made some of the Marines smile a bit. I think we decided that Charlie won't be going to the fireworks this year - the color guard shot off their guns right in front of us and it kinda freaked him out, but maybe from the safety Aunt Ellen's apartment. After the parade, we spent most of the day outside playing on the "playground." Rachel's family came over for dinner, which meant that Charlie had someone to run around with in the form of cousin Brandon. We managed to play one game of bocce, Ellie and I beat Charlie and Rachel. We started a second game, but it got called on account of dessert.

So that was my wonderful trip to Jersey. Can't wait for my vacation, which is actually in less that a month so I can see them all again at Krista's wedding. Which brings me to work. Last night was physical night - nightmare, but went smoothly enough. Need to figure out a way to not have a bumrush at the beginning and nothing at the end. So now I have today and tomorrow to clean and organize the training room, round up all my coolers and kits, finalize my order of supplies for next year, and sort through and organize the physicals from last night. Busy. Monday starts my boring summer life. I may complain throughout the school year about crazy hours and last minute changes to my schedule, but I really do love what I do. And when summer rolls around and I'm stuck inside a building for 8+/- hours a day, I get bored, especially when they tell me that half of my time will be devoted to clerical work. Last time I checked, I'm not a secretary. But what can I do? My only comfort is that I get my vacation time this year, and that I have less than two months before I'm back at school getting ready for double sessions.

P.S. To all the naysayers who saw my "On-your-toes" sock this weekend and thought it would not fit my foot - it does! Pictures to come.

Aaaaarrrgggghhhh!

Alright, I have to admit something. I've had it pretty easy. I mean I picked up knitting quickly enough, had a nice ribbed scarf in a couple days, maybe a week. Didn't really have a problem with any of the other patterns I've done. Until this point the hardest thing I've done is fit the sleeves into the body of the Samus sweater - but that's technically not knitting, it's sewing/piecing. For the most part, the only reason I rip something out is because I don't like it, not because it's wrong, or I can't do it properly... Until last night. Last night taught me that maybe I have become a little bit obsessive and a tad bit scary. I attempted to start the "On-your-Toes socks" from the new issue of Interweave Knits. Aaarrrgghhh! The cast on of 8 - that's right I said EIGHT - stitches took more than an hour. The description in the magazine was horrible and then I kept losing a stitch somehow or other. Very frustrating. And Could I just put it down and look for another, easier, understandable pattern? Oh no, not me, not psycho obsessed perfectionist me. I had to get it right. So, I ended up staying up way too late, knitting this stupid sock. Should have been packing, could have been tidying my room, could have been sleeping so that I had the energy for my weekend with my gorgeous nephew. But no, I was knitting this:

The photos are not so good, I can't get the focus right for some reason, just one more thing not going right at the moment. So, began working on said nemesis sock somewhere around 9ish, and went to bed at 1 and that's all I've freaking got to show for it. Grrr. It's easy until I get to the heel at least, maybe I won't get to that this weekend. The plane ride isn't that long.

So very excited about my trip. Not just to see nephew and brother and sister-in-law, I get to ride the train!!!! Sorry, most people will think this a bit absurd, that I'm so excited about taking the train for the 15 min ride from the airport to Metuchen, but due to the fact that I absolutely love "The Amazing Race" and someday aspire to be on it, this is great. Anyway, must go, must pack and take things over to Ellie's and get to the bank, and go to work (groan) to set out ice and water for the track team to take with them later. Have a good Memorial Day weekend blogland!

Finished at last

Ding dong the penguin's done! Pictures of the oh-so-cute penguin will be forthcoming next week. The pics will be so so so much cuter if they include my gorgeous nephew. Not to mention, Jerseyites read the blog and then the surprise would be spoiled. Anyway, I finished my interpretation of the "Pasha" pattern from Knitty yesterday while sitting out at the mock baseball game. Seriously, it wasn't a real game, it was the guys versus the coaches/alumni and they goofed off the whole time (I feel the need to clarify, due to the fact that a certain person, who shall remain nameless, reads this blog and will give me a hard time for knitting while at work). Today is a "real" game even if the season is over, has been over for almost a week, and half of the seniors haven't been showing up. Oh well, can't complain too much, it's the only thing going on today. LAX plays in Toledo and track is at someplace for districts or regionals (can't remember which one). Sadly, I'm going to start a new pair of socks. I swore when I finished the last pair that they would be the last pair for a while. But my order still has not arrived and I need something to do on the plane to and from Jersey this weekend. Yay Jersey trip! Can't even tell you how excited I am to go and see all my favorite Jerseyites. I'm hoping that the weather stays nice for the weekend so that we can play outside on the new and amazing jungle gym. Will have scads of photos to post next week I'm sure.

Busy Bee

I know it's been awhile, apologies. I'm turning out to be more like my sister. But she's part of the reason there haven't been any updates in the last few days. Ellie came home on Wednesday, so we had a big picnic here on Saturday - an indoor picnic due to rain, but what can you do. So there were lots of preparations to do and what not. Yesterday, as we all recovered, entailed going to her condo to return a few things. Going there also meant a stop at Lowe's where we looked for paint samples. My parents are redoing the upstairs bathroom, and I get to choose what color blue goes on the walls. And every time my sister comes home she threatens to take down wall paper or paint some other room, so other choices were picked up. Then we had to attach a piece of lattice to her gutter so that her clematis could climb, and then repot a rose bush that she ordered thinking that she was moving home in April. And then we went to Shrek 3. Which, by the way, was not as good as the previous two. Cute, but not great.

Last night I decided that I should attempt to destash. My stash has grown since my days of afghans. So I have a heck of a lot of yucky acrylic yarn that I'm not going to use any time soon. So, my plan is to donate the bulk of my stash to a nursing home if they'd like it, and if not, then goodwill it is. I received a request this weekend from my sister-in-law, Peggy, that I make her some socks for when she's in the hospital in October. Pinks and purples were requested since she's hoping she'll have a girl. So with socks, the Peapod sweater (if the yarn ever arrives), and two baby blankets to make, I should be pretty busy with the knitting this summer.

Speaking of my sister-in-law, Peggy was introduced to my manic ways on Saturday, when we started Elliott's scrapbook. Here's what we did while he napped.

Finished Project!!!!!!!

YAY!!!! I finished a knitting project tonight. My Broadripple socks from Knitty, done in Opal's Rainforest yarn, the parrot colorway. First attempt at photoing a project while modeling, so sorry if the pic isn't so good. But here they are.

Another Hump Day

Another Wednesday. My cold is slowly but surely improving, still have a wicked cough, but that's about it. Picked Ellie up from the airport at 8 this morning. We're already talking about Beef O'Brady's for dinner - yay! Today is the last home baseball game, well, the last scheduled one anyway. They have a playoff game tomorrow and if they win they play again on Friday, and if they win that the coach would like some more games to be scheduled for next week so that they can "stay sharp". We'll see, I'm not so sure too many teams will be willing to play since most of their seasons are already over. But you never know.

I'm trying to plan out some pages for Elliott's book, but it's not going as well as I planned, I'm not sure why. Maybe I just need to sit down and not have any distractions (i.e. the Indians game or Gilmore Girls). I'm planning on finally finishing the penguin tonight - I've been procrastinating about the feet and eyes for the last week and a half, and since my trip to Jersey is fast approaching, I really just need to do it. I'm still waiting on my yarn order so that I can start the sweater for B, and getting a little antsy. Been reading too many knitting blogs and seeing the multitudes of projects that all these other people have going, have to admit that I'm very jealous. Some day I'll have some pictures of finished projects to put up.

No News

It's been a rough couple of days. No blogging due to illness. I'm still not 100% but getting closer to it. Most of my voice has come back finally. Kind of a boring weekend. LAX game on Saturday - it was so cold and windy, and I may have felt it more than others due to my cold, but whatever, it was chilly. And we lost, both games, to out biggest rival. Not so good. So I took a nap when I got home, and then I cleaned my room. Told you it was boring. Yesterday was a little more lively. Paul, Peggy and Elliott came over for Mother's Day. Tried to not get too close to my nephew so that he wouldn't catch my cold, but I think he's already a bit under the weather. He was kinda cranky and had a bit of a temperature, but it could just be that more teeth are coming in. He already has 6! And then mom and me installed my new ceiling fan - woo hoo! I mostly finished the Broadripple sock pattern from Knitty. I'd started the second sock like a month ago and didn't get around to finishing it til now. That's the trouble with socks, you're all excited to do the first and get it finished, and then you're bored with it by the second one. Anyway, that's all from my world.

Birthday Party

Wednesday was my brother Paul's 24th birthday - he had to work so we had a little party last night. Our neighbor Margie shares the same birthday so we invited her over to share the pizza and cake. My nephew Elliott is getting so big. He's using a little walker to get around now, it's crazy.

He's very much a ham, but doesn't smile until after the picture has been taken. He takes his cue to smile from the flash. It's so funny.

Mmmm, birthday cake!

So that was my big excitement for the week. Baseball has it's first playoff game tonight. Lacrosse plays at home tomorrow. Mother's Day is Sunday and the Perry Algier's are coming out for another visit. Bringing the picture cd so that we can get started on E's scrapbook. Haven't done too much knitting lately, almost finished the penguin for Charlie - have to make eyes and the feet and then attach and Mumble will be ready for the trip to Jersey. I found a pattern to make for Bridget's birthday - I like it better than the one I had already started for her, so I need to order some yarn so I can get started. Speaking of Bridget -here's the latest pic of Kaylee - she's so cute!

Updates

So now that I have recovered from the big weekend, I can write about it. The baseball team won on Friday night - over an undefeated team, which made it all the better. It was so cool to be at the Jake, inside the Jake. Saw some very cool things that I didn't necessarily get photos of. Like the Escalade golf cart - totally wanted to steal it and drive it back to school so I could have it - didn't think that they would appreciate it. Supposedly it belongs to C.C. - I've never seen anyone on it, so if anyone has, let me know. But here are some of the pics - I took alot so I will not be putting all of them up.

This sign just made me smile.

This is one of the four batting cages under the stands behind home plate.

All the guys.

The view from the visitors bullpen. After they had turned off all the lights to kick both the team and all the parents out of the park, they just wouldn't leave!

So that was the big trip. The party on Saturday went well, my horse did not fare so well though. I didn't bother to look to see where he came in at the end. All I know is that he broke out of the gate, v-e-r-y slowly, and I knew that he wasn't going to win. Oh well, I can't always get it right. I don't think anyone at the party picked Street Sense. And so that was my big weekend. Couple of huge weekends coming up - Ellie comes home next week, and then off to Jersey for Memorial Day. Yay!

Big Weekend

Big weekend, starting tonight. Baseball is playing at Jacob's Field tonight. Guess who's going? Guess who's sitting in the dugout? Woohoo. Very excited. Just have to pretend that it's the Indians. Will take lots of pictures so that everyone can enjoy my view.

Tomorrow is party day!! No, not for Cinco de Mayo. It's the first Saturday of May, which as we all know means that it's Derby Day! Yay! This also means Derby Pie - one of the best desserts in the world. Right now, I'm going with Circular Quay to win - haven't seen any of the backstories though, so it could change. I'm a sucker for a good back story. Anyway, bunches of folks coming over for the festivities. Mint juleps and burgoo (sp?). Although I think I may make my drink into a mojito instead of the julep. I prefer the mojito and it is Cinco de Mayo after all. Gotta have a little Mexican-type something for the day.

Saw my handsome little nephew Elliott today. He and Paul were at my neighbor's to cut her grass, so I got to pop over for a brief visit before work. I can't believe how big little guy is getting. He's crawling all over the place and getting more teeth. They grow up sooo fast. But I can't complain too much, he's getting to the fun stages. Infancy isn't as much fun to me as that mobile-toddler stage is. Anyway, he's so cute and so big and just so huggable.

Hump Day

So it's another Wednesday in the life. Busy day today at work. Baseball, JV softball, tennis and track were all at home. Eww, track meet. I hate track meets. Especially during the week, they take forever. It's one thing when you know that you're going to have to forfeit an entire Saturday to a big track meet, it's something else when it's the middle of the week and you're sitting around for 20+ minutes waiting for them to finish running the 2 mile race. Thank goodness the boys and girls run together on that one. My track team is especially annoying. They seem to think that the training room is their personal team room. Whirlpool time is social time. Last week, they had a paper towel fight. Paper towels everywhere, I had to listen to the ice rink maintenance guys complain to me the next day that they had to clean up a huge mess. And then I found that they had somehow managed to get paper towels jammed up into the sucking mechanism of the whirlpool. I don't actually know the technical term for the part I'm talking about, so sorry. A $5000 whirlpool, and they manage to clog it with paper towels. I was less than amused. And when I complained to the coaches, they smiled and tried to laugh it off. Not happy. They have no control over their own team.

Oh well, I could go on for hours about the track team. They are an athletic trainer's natural enemy. In other news, I'm very excited because on Friday evening the baseball team is playing at Jacob's Field. Guess who's going to be in the dugout??!! My brother will be so jealous when I show his all the pictures I'm going to be taking. I will step on the grass of Jacob's Field before the night is over. Woohoo.

That's about all I have to report. Need to do some knitting, haven't picked up the needles in almost a week. Very bad. Very excited about the new knitting book I bought yesterday with my crazy good coupon at Barnes and Noble. Can't wait to make some felted slippers. :)