What can brown do for me???

Ok I should probably start out by saying that obviously I am in a very serious, committed and loving relationship and I would never in a million years even THINK about doing anything stupid to jeopardize that. Now that that is out of the way, I will proceed with my blog about....

MY COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE CRUSH ON THE UPS GUY.

Yeah.

I'm not sure what it is exactly, because this guy, though not ugly by any means, certainly isn't your conventional "hunk".

(wait a minute did I seriously just use the word hunk to describe a man. Ok it's official, I'm Old)

Anyhoo, I think it might be the uniform. Head to toe brown, short pants. Or the fact that he can carry like 10 boxes at once and not even need me to get the door for him (so strong!!). Or maybe because he comes in with a slight sheen of sweat on him, smelling like a man baby. A man.

And maybe I'm crazy, or clinging to my lost twenties (miss you!), but I swear he flirts with me. And I get all giggly and stupid. Sigh.....

Anyway, I won't name names because I'm sure he's so cool that he's decided to somehow find out my last name and then just by chance search the Internets to try and find my blog about knitting and dogs and chicken salad, and then reads it religiously so he would know I'm talking about him. But if you're curious, his name is the same as one of my ex boyfriends, and it rhymes with Matt.

Oops.

Nice to meet you!

Miss Madeleine Marie

Welcome!!

I mean, don't you just want to squeeze her??

She is too cute for words.

<------------- Haley is in there!!!

She's coming next!!!

Blain refuses to hold newborn babies.

Weirdo.

In other news: my mom is in the Lone Star state (has been, actually, since Tuesday) and we go pick her up tomorrow for a week long visit with Nuggsamillion.

Oh yeah. And it's my birthday. My, eh-hem, 30th birthday. No big deal. No big plans. Just chillin' with my peeps. Pics to come.

On and off the needles

Before I even begin the main part of this blog, I just want to give a shout out and congratulations to my friends Sara & Eric and their new daughter, Madeleine Marie who graced us with her presence yesterday afternoon! She was 5 days early (induced) and a big girl! 9 lbs 2 oz. I am so happy for both of them and their baby girl and I can't wait to meet her tonight!! (pictures to follow, of course). AND I finished the blanket this past weekend, yay, which brings me to my next subject....

I was a knitting fool this past weekend. I finished the following: 1 sock, 1 baby blanket (finished the second panel and then sewed the pieces together), 1 felted bracelet bag, 1 lil' critter hat, and then started on another felted bracelet bag that I have since finished. On top of all that knitting, I completely cleaned the house from top to bottom, helped Blain finish the floors, did 10 loads of laundry and worked in the yard. Oh, and finished painting the hall. Yeah. I swear I did it all without the help of illegal stimulants. Then I made dinner on Sunday and knit some more!

Here are some visual aids.

Lil' critter hat. For Ellie Sivier. My (other) friend Sarah's newest.

Gus models the lil' critter hat. Look at the way he casually and yet fiercly does not look at the camera.

Felted Bracelet Bag numero uno. (pattern courtesy Crazy Aunt Purl)

Numero dos.

Sock for Wonder. One down. One to go.

And just because I never get tired of how cute this kid is, Sydney. :)

I did not get a picture of the completed blanket for Miss Maddie, but I hope to get one of her with the blanket. Perhaps even tonight.

A Plea for Understanding

I didn't upload my pictures last night. Sue me. Seasonal allergies are kicking my ass, and I was tired. I did frog my purse that I was making, though. And then my yarns got all tangled, and I got really frustrated and almost starting crying (over yarn. seriously) and Blain had to come untangle my yarn (don't even try to read into that, you sick bastids) so that I wouldn't fly off the handle. Good times.

Anyhoo, this little blog here is about something that has been plaguing me for some time. This little "problem" isn't keeping me up at night or anything. I mean, it's still business as usual over here. But every time I see this person, or hear his songs on the radio, I just stop and think about it for a good 5-10 minutes. And then I get confused. So now, I'm asking you, bloggy friends, to help me with my question......





















What the hell is the deal with Kanye West?

????????????????????????????????????????

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No seriously. What is the DEAL? With KANYE? WEST?

Time to objectivise. I realize that I am Old. And also, Uncool. But I find that even with those two handicaps, I usually still have a general understanding of what the kids are listening to, liking, doing, etc. I mean, I listen to pop radio. I get the whole Hannah Montana thing. But I must have missed the boat on Kanye West. Someone please explain it to me.

Monday Monday

I have lots to write about, because it was a very productive weekend at our house. But I didn't upload any of the pictures I took, and without them, the blog doesn't work. It doesn't work, I say. So instead, I shall wish you all a Happy Monday and leave you with this. Just because.

Love you, Neil. Love you lots.

I have seen the light

I almost died last night. For reals, y'all. I saw the baby Jesus come to take me home. Sort of. I mean, it could have happened.

Last night was a perfectly lovely evening to begin with. My belly was full of Mexican food, and I was left to my own devices for watching the results show of American Idol (more on that later) and then perhaps a bit of reading, or knitting. I really need to get off my lazy ass and finish that baby blanket for Sara, since that baby is a-coming next week if not sooner. But anyway....last night. So I watch Idol, enjoying some friendly back and forth banter, via Text Message, with some of my Idol cohorts (you know who you are), and when it's over, the local news starts.

Top story on the news is the weather. The clouds had been black all day, on and off rain, big red radar blobs on the TV. News anchors warning us how to take cover. A tormado was coming.

"Tormado" is what I used to call a tornado when I was little. I also used to say "anTANuh" for antenna. Sometimes I still do.

So yeah, the weather was bad. BAD. But I dig a thunderstorm, and it makes me want to curl up and read even more than usual. And I'm reading a vampire book, so I figure a good t-storm is prime condition for a little blood sucking action. It was going to be ON at my house.

I get up and am going to start doing a little picking up, putting away dishes, etc. La la la. La.

*tap. Tap.*

*tap-tap.*

*taptaptaptaptap*

*TAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAP*

*TAP TAP TAP TAP*

*BOOM*

*TAP TAP BOOM*
*TAP BOOM*

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Well you get it. Or maybe not. The taps are the hail and the booms are the thunder. There was lightening too, but there isn't a good descriptive word for that. Probably because it doesn't make sound.

So I'm all "Hmm, what's that noise?" And I look outside and it's a crazified, full on hail storm. I text my mom, "Hey mom," I say, "It's hailing like crazy here."

I guess there wasn't enough urgency in my writing because she writes back "Hail, hail, the gang's all here."

Hilarious mom. I might die and you're making jokes. Awesome. So I say to myself, I say, "I'm going to prove to her that I am in dire peril. I will take a picture of this Monster Hail."

<-------------- Monster Hail

"That'll show her", I thought defiantly. And then I ran and hid under the covers of my bed and cowered like a baby.

Thank you to all of my friends who sent me TMs to make sure I was ok. All both of you really helped me through the hard times. To make a long story longer, Blain eventually came home to find me hidden under a pile of blankets and clutching to my cell phone. The Monster Hail eventually died down, no tormadoes were reported to have touched down in our area, and the Great Storm of 2008 just reduced to a heavy rain, which the flowers in my garden needed anyway, since I'm so darn lazy. So it all worked out in the end and everyone was happy. Except this poor bastard.

Ouch.

(this picture wasn't actually taken by me, or even anywhere near where I live. I have to give credit to my friend Marlene for it.)

In other news, even though I feel that American Idol is a total Sham. And also, a Ripoff. I would still like to plug my fave.

Go David Cook!!

Oh yeah, and what was that whole Fantasia thing about? I am still confused about that. So much so that I don't even have anything witty to write about it. That was ridiffiluss.

Don't let me be lonely tonight

I started this blog last night, when I was listening to my James Taylor (love you JT!!) CD, hence the title of the blog. This is a whole bunch of random randomness stuffed into a blog because I don't have any one Big Thing to blog about, so suck it up and read.

(I'd like to give fair warning here that I'm going on very little sleep for the past 3-4 days...I worked all weekend and haven't quite caught up on the zzz's) (and also, this blog is going to be extra super photo heavy) (and also, I like to use parentheses) (is that how you spell parentheses?)

So anyway, it's been a Big Few Days in our house. And I'm pretty sure that once I detail to you what constitutes the making of Big Days, you will realized just how "exciting" my life really is. You may even be jealous and wonder if you can ever hope to be as cool as me. I get that a lot.

Exciting Thing #1 -May is Sam's birthday month. We aren't sure of the exact date, but we think it's towards the end of May. Anyway, on Saturday, she got a new toy from PetSmart, and she was very excited. As demostrated here.

She can hardly contain herself. Innit she cute?

Big Happening #2 - some of you may be aware that in days recent, I've had a most strong, peculiar and ridiculously unending craving for chicken salad. (I told you this was exciting stuff). Chicken salad has been on my mind. Well, I searched for recipes last night and finally broke down and made some.

Looks good, huh? I haven't tried it yet, but I know you're all anxious to hear if it's any good, so I will let you know ASAP.

Most Exciting Things #3& #4 are related and both involve one of my new favorite thing on the planet.....................YARN.

THIS is my new sock yarn, fresh out of the bag, ordered from http://www.knitpicks.com/ and delivered to my door. It made my day yesterday. Now, why would I need more sock yarn, you ask? Here's why kids.

Those are my socks. Finished. All that working this weekend was not for not. I finished my socks AND I will get a Big Fat Paycheck. Look at my feet, they are happy. Look at my legs, they are ashy. I should have lubed them up before I took the shot, but hey, I was excited.

And finally, I leave you with this. I've known for quite some time that I have a Vera Bradley addiction problem. After having received a new catalogue, in which she introduces me to a new pattern (Seaside) for limited edition summer only (!!!) I have been fighting the urge to run out and buy one. Not that I've had the time. Do I really neeeeed this purse?

The jury is still out.

(sad thing is that's not even the entire collection of VBs)

I'm a knut for knitting

I crack myself up sometimes. I mean who comes up with titles like that? Wow, I'm a real cut up. Wakka wakka.

So I finished my sock 3 whole days ago and haven't even been on to post a picture. Let me remedy that.

















My sock!! And my gigantic stump-leg!!!

It's only the one right now, but I'm pretty darn proud of myself. Sock #2 is sort of in the works, and I say sort of because for whatever reason I'm finding it harder to get started on this one. I've started 3 or 4 times and then had to frog my work (for you non knitters, that means rip it and start over) because of stupid little mistakes. I've made one sock and all of the sudden, I'm a sock perfectionist.

Anyway, I found a local knitting group that meets on Thursday nights at the bookstore, so I'm going to that tonight and really looking forward to it. I just know that I am going to meet a bunch of really cool, awesome knitter people who are just like me and we are going to be instant friends and sit and knit and laugh and talk and just be really aweosme together. I can feel it in my bones.