My Definition of a Good Day...

Is getting to stay in the training room on a 90 degree day due to lack of outside activity. And yarn presents in the mail. And feeling like I have accomplished something. And not going to the hospital to see a loved one.

So today was all of that, which means, that by my definition, it was a good day.

A good day because my dad came home from the hospital. He had a few issues on Monday that put him there, and much to his dismay they didn't let him leave until today. He's doing better, but we're going to have to keep an eye on him from now on.

Most of my athletic teams were away today, and as of right now, we don't have a football game scheduled for this week (big broo-ha-ha, let me tell you!) so the team watched film. So I got to take care of some non-fall sport athletes and make heel and lace pads (very exciting stuff). Didn't get around to sorting my paperwork. For some reason, alphabetizing 350+ physicals and other assorted medical forms does not appeal to me. Wish I had a little secretary fairy to come and do it for me.

Went to Knitting on the Square to get some white Encore for the edging of Baby Sarah's blanket. Not that I'm anywhere near to being done with it to start the edging, but that's besides the point. Got some wool wash too - for the very smelly Samus sweater that I finished in January and still haven't had on for more than a minute. Yes that's right, disbelieving family members, I am going to wash the sweater, and then... I will wear it! Kate, the shop owner, was very forthcoming with tips and new methods today. I'm very excited to try her way of knitting and purling on something other than the Peapod. But more on that later.

So, after I got home from a reasonable good day, I pull in the driveway to find a nice, long box leaning up against the door. What could it be? Yay! It's my swift, ball winder and pretty new yarn from WEBS!!! Made a good day better. So I immediately (immediately after eating dinner and talking to Jersey brother on the phone) set it up and started winding. Wound all my sock yarn - which means that the lonely Jaywalker will soon be lonely no more, which includes the very pretty Lorna's Laces that I got to make socks for my mom (Tahoe colorway, if anyone is interested).

See the pretty yarn balls I made?

And then, I petted my new Valley Yarns "Berkshire", which is a heavy worsted, wool/alpaca blend in then Colonial Blue colorway. So pretty. Can't wait to start the Notre Dame sweater.

And then I knit a bit. And in that bit, I managed to finish the back of the Peapod!!!! Pictures tomorrow maybe, I'd already taken a bunch and put them on the computer and didn't feel like doing it again.

Nothing Much

Not much to report. Yesterday was way too hot and muggy to do much of anything productive. First freshman football game - and luckily, no one passed out with a heat illness. Predictions are that it'll be just as hot and humid tomorrow for the first varsity game, with a chance of thunderstorms. I'm soooo looking forward to it.

My biggest excitement this week - I got to shower here at home!!!!! For the first time in a month! That, and I ordered my 2-a-days bonus yesterday. A swift and ball winder (very excited about that) and the yarn needed to make the Notre Dame du Grace sweater (from Interweave Knits Summer '07).

We'll see if I can get it done before all the coldness of NE Ohio disappears - oh wait, I have like 7 months before I can even start thinking about having nice weather around here for next year. No problem.

It's like Magic

Magically, my camera now works. Mom came home from CA and played with it - with no success at first - then took out the batteries and popped them back in, and magically it works again. Go figure. The little door thingy to get the batteries in and out is cracked - don't know if that had anything to do with the crankiness of the camera, but it's cracked. Still want to get a new camera of course. Once you start thinking about new, upgraded things, you can't help but want them. Anyway. Major progress on Peapod. Have begun the armhole shaping! Very excited. I really thought that getting the back done with its miles of stockinette boring-ness, would take for-ever. But it didn't. And that makes me happy. So here's a photo, next to one of the front pieces for comparison purposes (Miss Madeleine did not want to be left out of the photos, and since I don't have much time this morning due to blogger's inability to load earlier, she'll just have to stay in the photos).

I cast on for Baby Sarah's blanket this weekend. It does go really fast, but there's no way I'll have it done with 8 hours of work. Silly Encore pattern writers. So far I really like the way it's turning out. No pictures because my brother reads this blog occasionally and gift knitting should be somewhat of a surprise, and seeing as he knows I'm making it, the only surprise is in what it looks like. I've done a few more inches on Baby Mason's blanket as well. Also no pictures for the same reason. Well, that's it for now. Need to go to Ellie's before I go to work.

The End is Near...

So near I can almost taste it. Ew, the end of 2-a-days does not taste good. It tastes of rotting pads, sweat, and mildewy gloves. Seriously bad. Everyone always asks me how I can stand to deal with the feet for my job, I don't have an issue with the feet. But the gloves... Yuck. I mean, if one of the guys hurts his thumb or hand or whatever and I have to palpate after they've taken it out of the glove, my hands and fingers reek of the gloves for at least 3 hand washings. It's so gross. But anyway, today is the last day of doubles!!! They scrimmage tomorrow night, under the lights (insert ooh's and aah's), and start school on Monday! So glad that it's almost over.

Can't say that my birthday was great - but I worked all day and didn't do anything afterwards, so considering that, it was good. Ellie came over with mini DQ ice cream cakes and a Hungry Howie's bacon cheddar cheeseburger pizza (so bad, but sooo good), and a promise of paying for my passport when I get around to applying for it as my present. Received a very cool digital photo frame that you can have a slideshow of your pictures on from Charlie, Rachel and Charlie 4, very excited to play with it this weekend. Charlie 4 called and sang "Happy Birthday" to me - so cute. Then he proceeded to talk very excitedly, but I'm not sure what about. He was very excited about the pre-schools he went to visit, and the fact that he went pee on the potty. So cute, breaks my heart that I don't get to see him more often. The Indians beat the Tigers - yay! Taped "So you think you can Dance?" and will watch that tonight before the finale. So all in all, not the worst birthday.

Knitting. Hmm, haven't gotten much done lately. Exhaustion has prevented most knitting capabilities. I've got about 8 inches of Mason's blanket done, and yesterday I got a few inches of the Peapod back done while at Knitting on the Square. Bought myself a birthday present while there, Interweave Press' Favorite Socks, I've been looking at it for a while, and it was on sale yesterday, and it was my birthday.... No socks until Peapod is done! Two of the ladies who were there knitting were working on baby blankets form the same book that Baby Sarah's blanket is from, and they both assured me that they work up very fast and are wonderful.

My camera is still broken. Geek Squad will look at it for $25 and then tell me what's wrong and how much it will cost - can we say rip off? Kodak.com says that the minimum it would cost to fix is $80 plus at least $50 to ship. Hmmmm, a new camera is looking better and better. Biggest paycheck of the year comes next week too.... We'll see.

Birthday Meme

So here's a meme for the day I was born:

3 Events:

• 1040: King Duncan I of Scotland is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival, Macbeth, who succeeds as king
• 1914: A male servant of Frank Lloyd Wright sets fire to the architect's Wisconsin home, Taliesin, murdering 7 people and burning the living quarters to the ground
• 1969: The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival opens

2 Births:

• 1769: Napoleon Bonaparte
• 1912: Julia Child

1 Holiday:

• VJ Day, although in my house it's more commonly acknowledged as the Feast of the Assumption

About to have a breakdown....

Okay, so.
Week has not been too terribly horrible (mugginess beyond all belief at practice, some very "soft" freshman football players, and general whininess of the whole team not withstanding). But... here's the bad news. My camera has decided all of a sudden that it doesn't want to work!!! I just took these two pictures:

See my lovely completed Jaywalker? Wonderful. I turn the camera off for two seconds before I realize that I would like to take a picture with the sock not on my foot. So I turn the camera back on... and the lens won't open and pop out like it should, and a little message appears on the tiny screen saying "Lens Error 25". Because that helps. So I turned it off again. And on again. And the message came up and nothing happened again. So I put it on the charger (where it's been since the last time I took a picture for this blog) and hit the upload button hoping that it would still work. And it did, as evidence by the above photos.

Okay, so I just tried it again, and now it turns itself off immediately after it turns on. This is soo not good. Granted, I don't use my camera all that much, except when my nephews and goddaughter are around, but that doesn't mean that I want to do without it. And it's not like it's that old either - it was a birthday present in '05. So that means that next week, it will be 2 years old. And it's a Kodak, so it's not a cheap dinky one either. And it has not been mistreated in any way, other than me occasionally letting the battery run out.

Very sad. Can't even post about happy knitting things.

HAPPY 21st TOMMY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMMY!!!!!

That's right, today was my little brother's big birthday! Sadly by the time I got around to writing this, it's no longer his birthday in Okinawa. Sorry about that Tommy. Goofy 14 hour time difference screws me up every time. But I think that since just about every one you know is on the East Coast of the States, that it's officially your birthday until 12:01 EST, but that's my opinion. Anyway, hope that you had a good day, and that you have a better weekend (don't get too crazy, mildly insane will suffice, I think). Can't wait to go out and get a pint when you come home.

Rainy Day Boredom

So it's raining. Amend that, it's thundering, which means that somewhere there is lightning. Which means that football cannot practice. Which means that I have spent the last hour getting caught up on my paperwork (surprisingly a whole bunch of injury reports for yesterday, surprising because we still haven't started hitting yet), and now I'm bored. Amazingly, there are no football players in my training room at the moment. So what else do I have to do but blog a little.

Not much to talk about. Made it to the festival Sunday night. Not too many people there because it rained. But Bridget, Chris and Kaylee came out. They had driven down to Dublin for the Irish Fest but it got shut down due to the rain down there so they come home early. Paul, Peggy and Elliott also came. I can't believe how big little man is getting! It's only been a few weeks since I've seen him, but he looks bigger and his face is starting to change. He's starting to lose that infant-ness of his face. Anyway, didn't win any money at the money jar - for the second year running. I'm starting to get a bit discouraged. But the ribs were really good, as always. And yay! Steelers beat the Saints in the first game of the year. Never mind if the starters only played one series, they still scored and the starters for the Saints didn't.

Finished the front of Peapod. Yippee! Cast on and started the ribbing for the back. Cast on for Mason's blanket on Sunday. I'd forgotten how fast worsted weight yarn on size 8 needles can go. It's been a long time since I've knit with anything bigger than size 2. But I'm really liking how it's coming out so far. Can't post any pics because my brother reads the blog and I like for gifts to be somewhat of a surprise. Plan on getting new yarn for Baby Jersey's blanket this week. (If a name has been chosen for Baby Jersey, could a Jerseyan please let me know, I feel bad continuing to just refer to her as Baby Jersey).

And here comes the weather warning... fun, flash flood warning. So maybe no practice at all today.....

It's too early..

Good Morning! And it definitely is morning. There's nothing better than an 8am football practice on a Saturday morning. No wait, it's better when you know it's going to get to 90 degrees on the field before 10am. Who doesn't love August in NE Ohio? We'll see how today goes, they get to add shoulder pads today. I have a feeling that I'll have at least one kid puking - as he's done both days already - hy should today be any different? Most of my order was delivered yesterday - yay!!!! Not too much of the stuff I was really hoping to get of course. All my tape came, which is great and all, but I've got plenty left over from last year. I need bandaids and blister pads. Hopefully the rest will come early in the week.

Made some headway with Peapod last night. Made it through the fourth repeat and half of the fifth. I forgot how fast it can go when you're decreasing and only working on half the number of stitches. I vow to finish the left front - evil evil evil left front - tonight. And move on to the easy peasy back section. Realized that I made an oops. Due to the lack of directions, and the fact that most of the time I'm an idiot (just ask my family they'll agree), the seven stitches that were supposed to be happily sitting on a stitch marker for almost the whole piece were actually knitted up as I went. I'm not really thinking that this is a huge deal. It was supposed to be knitted up after and then sewed to the edge, so I think I saved myself some sewing - which is good because it's definitely not one of my fortes. Those stitches are now happily sitting on the marker, due the decreases that had to take place. Maybe I'm just in denial, but I think it'll be okay. And if it's not, then this little cardigan is going to be burned in effigy. No wait, the yarn is way too nice to be burned. Maybe I'll burn the pages of the book that don't contain good directions. Yeah, that'll work.

Are You Ready for some Football?

And so it has begun...

That's right, today marked the official start of football season. And it couldn't have been more perfect. I mean, who doesn't want to go to football practice in 95 degree heat? With a relative humidity that put the heat index over 100? With little breeze and no clouds in the sky? Gotta love it. Other than the heat, it was fine. Only 1 puker. That's an improvement over last year's first practice. Silly children, eating oranges for breakfast and drinking any water. Remember to hydrate people!

Since the last time I blogged, the other part of my first Knitpicks order arrived. And I am sending all of the yarn back. The blue that appeared to be a royal-ish blue in the picture online, ended up being a dark periwinkle. Way to much purple for a baby BOY blanket. They didn't have another acceptable color in the kind of yarn that I wanted so it's all going back.

And I went to Knitting on the Square - cute little shop in downtown Chardon, and found some replacement yarn that will better match the new color scheme in the baby's room. Now I just have to start it. Also purchased on that trip, was a nice little book with "8 hour" baby blanket patterns. Several nice choices for Baby Jersey's blanket. I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to use the yarn I already have and not have to send it back too.

In other knitting news, I have finished the 3rd repeat in the Peapod (no pictures because it doesn't look all that different from the last time, just one more peapod up). And this is how far I've gotten with my Jaywalker.

I'm slowly getting there. I'm trying not to only do the sock. The socks don't have to be done by mid-September, aka 6 weeks!! So I've been forcing myself to work on the Peapod the last few nights. Although, it's slow going when "So You Think You Can Dance?" is on. It'll be much better tv knitting once I get this front piece done and move on to boring old stockinette stitch for the back.

Well, that's all for now. Pray that the little froshies listened to my lecture and I don't end up with any pukers tomorrow. I really don't deal well with the pukers.