Countdown to Vacation

Is down to ~7 hours. ETD is 4:30. Yay! Yippee! So much to do before then. Yikes. Just did online check-in and printed my boarding pass, so 1 thing done.

Anyway, Pymatuming party was great yesterday. The weather was perfect and the campsite itself is in a great spot. Mostly shaded so I didn't really have to worry too much about the sunburn that could have happened. Easy E made out like a bandit. Definitely don't need to get him anything for Christmas this year - just a donation to his college fund. He seemed to have a blast, as evidence here:

Needless to say, someone woke up from his nap with a bit of a tummy ache. But he was mostly all smiles and laughs. He's starting to walk on his own! Didn't get to see more than a few steps, but the dirt and gravel at the camp site aren't really conducive to a 1 year old's walking patterns. I still can't believe that he's a whole year already.

Really, must get going now, too much to do in a small window of time.

I Make No Promises...

I can make no promises tonight that any of this will make sense, or be spelled right or anything like that. Felt the need to blog in order to give myself an excuse to get out of the craft room for a few minutes. Benn scrapping the last few hours and desperately needed a break, so here I am in blogland. Progress report: 4 more of the 12x12" pages are done, and two others are mostly done (just waiting picture placement once a couple more are printed and mounted tomorrow morning). I have to finish at least two more tonight in order not to be working down to the wire in the morning. It'll probably end that way anyway, but I'm trying.

Why isn't the book done you ask? Haven't I had a few months to get it done? Shouldn't I have been diligent this week and gotten more done before? Hmm... it's not done yet because I haven't particularly been inspired this week, don't know why, just haven't been. I know that I should have worked more on it over the last two months, but hindsight it 20/20, and I happen to be very myopic when looking anywhere but hind. And besides, anyone who knows me knows that I work best, even with the creative-type stuff, when under pressure. Tonight, I feel some pressure.

The basement waterproofers are finally done. Which means that Miss Maddie can finally start to de-spaz. Just for Ellie - "Spazzy cat, spazzy cat, what are they feeding you?" This also means the the washer and dryer are once again usable. So I've been doing laundry tonight as well. Almost done in fact. I haven't packed a thing and I"m less than 48 hours from the official start of my vacation. Once again, pressure.

No real knitting news to report. Cast on for Peggy's socks. I ended up going with just a basic stockinette sock, any pattern would've gotten lost with the hand-paintedness of the yarn. Love the yarn though. It's Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sock in Iris Garden, I have a feeling they're going to be gorgeous. Pictured eventually of course. I also stopped out at my aunt's library to check out they're selection of knitting books. Got a few in hopes of finding some baby blanket patterns, and found an excellent pattern that I'm going to make for Jersey niece. Possibly for Baby Perry too, if we find out it's a girl next week.

So I think that's enough procrastination. Back to the craft room and then bed. Goodnight.

FRUSTRATION!

Cannot even begin to convey the amout of frustration that I have felt in the past three days. So, I post the pretty pic of Peapod and am quite pleased with how well it's coming along, and then Friday what happens? I end up screwing it up, not once, not twice, but three times. Yes, three times I had to rip out several rows and redo them, and the last time I ripped, I redid exactly what I had ripped. AAAGGGGHHHH!!! So I had to put it down. And walk away. And go to sleep. And not touch it until Saturday evening. When I corrected everything finally, but then somehow managed to be off by one stitch - but I was unwilling to go back and figure out how I had screwed up. So there is a mistake in the sweater - had to end up with at least one. So annoyed though. Don't know what my problem was.

And now I need to not knit for the week so that I can finish Easy E's scrapbook in time for the big bash on Saturday. Hopefully, it gets a little cooler so that I can actually stand to be in the craft room in order to scrap. That is the reason I am blogging and not scrapping tonight. Did make a few pretty little stitch markers though. The ones I've been using from the craft store stretch out the space between the stitches and I don't appreciate the way that looks.

Busy week - have to get lots done for the book, do all my laundry, pack, find an outfit for the wedding, go to the bash, and I'm sure soo much more. Why is going on vacation so stressful?

Yay FO!!

I have finally finished the "On Your Toes" socks from the most recent issue of Interweave Knits. Yippee, a finished object at last, it feels like it's been forever since I finished anything - although I know that it's been less than a month since C4's penguin was finished. Anyway, here's a lovely photo:I know that they look awfully long and skinny- but they fit perfectly. Those who know me will note that they are in school colors - new pair of game-day socks. Hence the reason I purchased the yarn in the first place. I still have to do a bit of finishing - there are holes on the heel due to the short-row heel turning method, not too big a fan of that I have to admit - but the yarn came with matching reinforcing thread - the coolest thing. Couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the center pull to work when I first tried - then figured out that the spool of thread was stuck inside.

The promised picture of Peapod - haven't done any work on it since my last post, but had had had to finish the socks. And I haven't done too much knitting of late. But I think it's coming along nicely. The picture isn't so great - but it's getting dark here right now so the light was necessary - the yarn is actually seafoam - which by the way is so perfect for Bridget, seeing as my bridesmaid gown for her wedding was seafoam colored.

Another week in the clinic down - not too bad. At least I'm kept busy most of the time with scheduling and paperwork and some other busy work - like today I got to clean the hot pack machine. So it's all working out and I only have next week to work before vacation. And then I know that July will fly by and I'll be back in the training room in no time, complaining about messy athletes.

Insignificant Updates

I need to take some new pictures. The "Peapod" is coming along quite well, 3 pattern repeats already, close to armhole shaping - yay. Have I mentioned how much I love, love, love the Rowan CashCotton I'm doing Peapod in? I looove it! Still slogging along on the second "On your Toes" sock, if I could just sit down and devote like an hour or two I'd crank it out and it'd be done, but I always end up only doing 1 or 2 rows before getting interrupted and never get back to it. But I'm not allowing myself to start Peggy's socks until I'm finished. Not even allowing myself to decide on what pattern to use for Peggy's socks until the "Toes" are done. So hopefully by the end of the week, I'll have a finished pair of socks to model and a whole right front of Peapod to display.

In the meantime, I'm still working on the scrapbook for Big E, his birthday is next Saturday, so I really need to get moving. Luckily, Peggy is coming out to help and eat some Pizza Hut (because her meanie husband won't let her order it ever due to his personal dislike) on Saturday. I've realized just how close that is, which means that my vacation is super close too!! Booked my flights the other night, PIT to PHI, which means I get to visit Elizabeth - BFF who decided to move to Pittsburgh and still hasn't found a Steeler player to introduce to me. She's had a whole month already! Very excited about my Pitt/Philly/NJ/MD/Philly/Pitt two week vacation. Don't know exactly when or if I'll make it out to NJ, but am hopeful. Should probably work out some of the details pretty darn soon.

Week of Boredom

My days of boredom have commenced. I think I can count on two hands how many patients I've seen this week. Which means that I've spent lots of time behind the desk answering phone calls and watching traffic out the window. Oh well, what are you gonna do? Big birthday shout out to Mom - yesterday was her big day - no numbers of course. My mother always taught me that ladies don't reveal their age. Ellie managed to pull of her surprise visit on Wednesday. Mom didn't appreciate the fact that we both lied straight up to her, but it was a surprise, couldn't help it. Spent about 3 hours trying to get the web cam that Big brother got Mom, and then the next hour trying to get it to work properly with the web cam in Jersey. It did eventually work and C4 was able to sing Happy Birthday to Grandma - yay! Got a few scrapbook pages done the other night, need to do some more today, but it's like a billion degrees up in the craft room at the moment, so I think I'll just wait until the front moves through and it cools off some. Riverfest in Cuyahoga Falls tomorrow - yay first Irish fest of the season! Haven't been to see and music in a long time - the one night this spring doesn't count because we got seated in the "Tiki Bar" and they were playing different music - irritating to hear "Margaritaville" when you're trying to listen to "Molly Malone". Haven't gotten much knitting done these last few days, must get going, lots of projects to be completed by October. Bye from Boredomville!

It's a Girl!! And a....!

So Friday was the big ultrasound day. Both of my sisters-in-law has the ultrasound to determine boy or girl. Baby Jersey is officially a girl - yay I get a niece! Yay PINK! And Baby Perry is... we don't know yet. The stubborn child was sleeping on it's stomach, curled into a ball and would not for any reason move into a position that would work for the technician. So maybe in 3 weeks we'll know if it's pink or blue for Baby Perry.

Mostly finished at the school, will probably have to go back this Friday after the clinic because my AD wasn't around Thursday or Friday and I left him a bunch of stuff. Worked a Duathalon yesterday morning. For those of you wondering what exactly a duathalon is, it's a race that you run, bike, and run again. I guess it can't be a biathalon because that involves shooting. I don't know. It was boring. I handed out water. That's it. Like I said, boring. The one upside - it was right down the road from the big scrapbook supply store at Cord Camera - fun fun.