Friday FINALLY.

The other night I had one of those hormone fueled pregnancy dreams. I dreamt I was cheating on DH. With Jessica Simpson. (Can we just take a minute and say EUW?) I told him about it this morning. He thought for a minute and then said in all seriousness, "I think I would let that one slide."
Men.
(I mean, it would be understandable if it were Angelina or Kate Winslet.)

I have finished the Neverending Socks of Unending Infinity. Yes, it's true! I will never bore you with them again. (Unless you're Lene, and then they're your problem lovely socks!) I hope like crazy they fit you, because I might have to throw myself on a pile of dull DPNs if they don't. However, I managed to get them on my own pregnancy-puffy hooves, so maybe I'm collecting DPNs for nothing...



Mmmm, cankles.



Yarn: Classic Elite Alpaca Sox, Terra Cotta (whoever named that was high, or had never seen terra cotta)
Pattern: Waterfall Lace (I think) from Sensational Knitted Socks in the 6 stitch section. Magic Cast-On (18 st), short row heel, stretchy bindoff a là Evelyn Clark and the Swallowtail Shawl.
Started: a ridiculously long time ago (Feb 20, 2008)
Finished: joyously, last night (August 29, 2008)

I am no Cookie.

But they are done, and when they are in the mail (and can we take a minute to lavish love on the USPS buy-your-postage-online website? LURVE.) ON TO LINDEN!

And maybe some Monkeys.

Ugh Sunday.

So, thanks for all the input last time. I do plan to buy the Beaverslide. I have the color all picked out and everything, and now it's just a matter of finishing up the Lene socks so I can allow myself to order the yarn. (The new yarn and Linden are my reward for finishing these long-overdue socks. Orders will be placed when they are in the mail to their new home.)
I love posting about stuff like this on the blog. Almost always, I think I have it all straightened out in my head, but your comments and the ensuing conversation help me see things that I hadn't noticed before. (In the money case, I have come to the conclusion that I will spend money like water on fleeting things, but if I actually BUY something with it, I will know where my money goes and it will be much easier to live in denial about my spending habits. Hey, you don't come here for maturity or grown-up behaviors, let's be honest.)
Further along the lines of spending money we don't have, we went to California on Friday. We left at lunchtime, drove over and stayed the night, and came home yesterday. 14 hours on the road for 16 hours in the state, including about an hour at the beach. (The kidlet LOVED it and was soaked in a matter of minutes.)



The purpose of the trip was house-hunting. We are in the running for two houses in Escondido, and we wanted a walk-through and to see the neighborhood to make sure we weren't making a mistake. I hadn't been planning to take Friday off, but house worries kept me awake all Thursday night, and I was pretty well useless Friday morning anyway. Happily, we liked them both, and DH got a chance to test out his new commute (without much traffic, but at least he knows where he's going). Then it was back in the car and back to the heat. I'd been calling Tucson Satan's Armpit, but I have since decided I was wrong about that - that's Yuma, for sure. Ick. We managed to get home at a fairly reasonable time last night, but today, I still feel like this:



I have managed to do a little laundry, and I might do a little knitting, but other than that, it's nap time.

Love and Hate

And it's not even Cookie's fault! But I do love my Cookie.
Okay, icky friendy stuff aside.
I love The Loopy Ewe. Can I just tell you? I ordered my bag (which I also love) on Friday morning. The darlings packed it all up and shipped it the same day (after writing a personal welcome to the Loopy Groupies on the invoice) and it was waiting for me on Monday when I got home from work. LOVE the service. Also, love the perks. This was my sixth order, so in with my bag and my lone ball of Trekking, there was another tote, a pattern in a nice sleeve, a skein of my favorite sock yarn (CTH) in my favorite colors, a keychain and a little bag of mints. Now people, I am a bargain shopper when it comes to yarn (see below for more on this) and they aren't marking up all their stuff more than any other shop I see. I think they just like to make customers happy.



Also, I LOVE my new bag! This thing really has enough room for the better part of a sweater, plus all the stuff I usually try to stuff in my purse. It's going to make a fantastic diaper bag, and it's so soft I can't stop petting it. (Plus it's all cruelty-free and stuff, not like I really care about that when it comes to soft leather, but still) I am a fan. Even the DH complimented it.



Now for the hate part. I hate my attitude about myself and money. (Not my attitude problem. I am PERFECTLY fine with that.) Ages ago I got myself into some heavy debt, and got into the habit of not buying ANYTHING useful for myself unless it was completely unavoidable. I wore the same clothes for YEARS, I used my chipped dishes and grocery-store-cooking-aisle flatware, I saved my cups from Taco Bell. Somewhere along the line, laziness trumped frugality, so I bought junk food and ate out a lot, while still denying myself the ability to buy anything useful. Even after the debt was gone, or mostly. Enter DH, who is a spendthrift extraordinaire. The man can find more reasons to spend money than a knitter standing next to a bin of half-off Sea Silk. I have curbed his spending somewhat, but also managed to ingrain further that I Should Not Spend Money on big stuff. I will piss away a little here (Target) and a little there (Costco) and still eat out, but I AGONIZE over spending money on, say, a diaper/knitting bag, or maternity clothes. (People, I am 22 weeks pregnant and still squeezing into my pre-preggo clothes. Hooray for low rise.) I have been thinking about yarn for Linden for, well, since the day that pattern became available. I asked my dear Joan, who has exquisite taste in yarn even though she voluntarily knits with Noro, and she suggested Beaverslide. I have heard fantastic things about Beaverslide, and every blogger I read who's knit with it loves it heartily. Margene, the aforementioned Joan, Jared, Cara, all raved about it. I've wanted to try it and here's the perfect chance, it's from Montana, and I have been waffling for WEEKS. Because it's expensive. It's not too expensive to afford, it's still less than a comparable coat at the store, and it gets rave reviews. But I have to argue with myself to say I deserve it. WTF is that, people? I think nothing about dropping $50 on a meal out, I buy lipsticks when I'm depressed and could easily spend the cost of that yarn at the salon getting a cut and some shampoo. SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME why I will spend chunks of cash on fleeting things like food and haircuts, why I will piss away $20 here and $15 there on trifles and nothing, and can't bring myself to spend $30 on a pair of pants or buy the Good Yarn that would be perfect for the sweater I actually DREAM about? What the hell is my problem?
And also, shopping for real estate bites ass. Especially when you aren't even in the same freaking state as the shopping. And the husband, who does most of the communication with the realtor, does not entirely listen to the wife. I need to punch something.

Apparently random is all I got.

As I am primarily a lazy human being and I can't be bothered to think of anything coherent.
The Bug is potty training. He was doing okay with #1, though #2 required vigilance and the ability to recognize impending doom. Suddenly, none of it was good (at home - at school he's fine) unless he's entirely pants-free. Apparently, crapping on Thomas the Train is okay, but crapping on the carpet is not. They're going to LOVE him at school tomorrow.
I am making progress on The Socks That Ate My Summer.



I don't know if I'm worried about packing, or if I'm nesting already, but the last couple of weekends have found me cleaning out and ruthlessly purging stuff from closets. Last weekend it was the coat closet, from whence I removed probably 15 coats and sweaters, a broken toy from 7 years ago that we never got around to exchanging, about 40 gift bags and 2 or 3 pounds of dog hair. This weekend it was the armoire and my bathroom. The armoire is an entertainment style one, so instead of having nice useful shelves it had space for a giant TV, and it had become a catch-all. I cleaned it out, folded up some stuff and stored it nicely in there, purged a whole bunch of makeup that had been hiding under all the junk, and collected another bag for Goodwill. The DH is not truly as impressed as he should be.

In an effort to tidy up, and also, to keep the DH and the Bug from ripping my needles out of my knitting again, I put my SIPs (that's Socks In Progress) in the cool black and white box from Sephora.



It holds two SIPs comfortably, plus some notions and a few extra things. I am thrilled to find a use for the box, partly because it keeps my knitting mostly safe, and partly because DH has stopped threatening to throw the box away. (I am genetically incapable of disposing of boxes.) I say "mostly safe" because



the Bug likes boxes as much as I do.

Reading up on fleece, I came across the opinion that a dirty fleece attracts bugs more readily than a clean one. The general consensus was that fleeces should be stored relatively clean, in cotton rather than plastic, in a light location if possible. This is bad news for the dirty fleece in the closet in the plastic bag, so I planned to wash it this weekend. Then I read that dirty fleece has a slim chance of being contaminated with toxoplasmosis, which is Not Good for pregnant chicks. Fortunately, I read that a stay in a standard domestic freezer will kill off the little buggers. And so...



Five pounds of corriedale are currently sharing space with the chocolate and the chicken. I expect to wash it in smallish batches in the next several days.

GAWD I miss coffee.

The Bug thinks his fighter jets make good phones. He had a whole conversation with Daddy about Thomas the Tank Engine with those things pressed to his ears.



I'm super proud of the kid, though - he came in the other day while I was watching Star Wars (ANH) and he was enthralled. The next morning when he woke up, before he even opened his eyes, he said, "I wanna watch space ships." A chip off the ol' nerdy block. I love it.

I ordered my new diaper bag from The Loopy Ewe the other day. I was all excited about having a unique bag until Notorious Norma mentioned that all the cool kids going to Rhinebeck had one. Oh well, if I can't be unique, at least I got in on the Hot New Thing while it was still Hot and New. Anyway, that purchase made me an official Loopy Groupie (which I am thrilled about, for some reason) and got me to a $25 credit. I have quite a bit of sock yarn and want to knit what I have, so I'm thinking lace. Maybe lace for Christmas presents. What is your favorite laceweight (that TLE carries)?

Randomness abounds

Some more environmental Bush crap to keep an eye on. (It's like he's ACTIVELY trying to be the most detrimental president our baby country has ever seen.)

Flying turd.


The good thing about ridiculous heat is that yarn dries in about 12 seconds when hung outside.



Handpaint. Going for southwestern, ended up with Clown College. (It's much brighter in person.) Still, will make fun socks.



Dip Dye. I'm pretty happy with this one, even though there isn't as much difference between "medium" and "light" as I'd like.

If you can't tell, I was going for my own version of Duets yarn. Not to sell, of course - it was her brilliant idea - but just for my own use. I suppose it's one of the dangers of handmade. Those crafters among us think, man, I could totally make that! (Recently after a skein of Wollemeise went for $90+ on eBay, someone on Ravelry asked a general question regarding the upper limit you'd pay for yarn. Apparently, I will spend $25 on a skein, but not $28.)

Of course, with me, it can never be easy.



There is a fine line between tying the skein too tight and too loosely.

Hooray - an article pointing out that thin and fit/healthy are not necessarily the same thing!

Debit cards don't like the dryer.



I love that the Bug's hair is long enough to play with in the tub.



I also love that when he looks into that mirror, he says, "SO handsome." Heh.

Till my dyeing day.

Warning: cranky whining and moaning ahead. Skip this post if you don't wanna read it.

What does one do when it's &)%#*(&@)()%^& hot and one's ankles are &*)#&(@)(*$& swollen?
One attempts to do a quick dye job for some instant gratification. Alas, the best laid plans, and all that...



After two days of untangling (that pile up there was only half the original skein) I finally got two roughly equal balls. (Not bad, given that I broke the yarn once at random and was only two grams off.) Anyway, I skeined up one of the balls...



...and decided to attempt something I saw Jen do once, a million years ago. Only in this case, I wasn't using RIT, or taupe, or salt, I was using Wilton's and vinegar. I left it a little too long before I dumped the second part in, so the third part will be almost white, but hey, that's why they call it an experiment (and also why I do't cook).



For the rest of the day, I am going to indulge my cranky-ass self by sitting around complaining about the heat.



For those of you who think I'm a wuss for whining about 84 degrees in the house, keep in my that I showed you my thermostat. The thing that is supposed to regulate the A/C. The thing that is NOT set to EVER reach 84 degrees. There is something wrong with the &%)(#@*(&@)(%&*#$()@) thing and I must turn it off periodically to get it to work again. (The DH thinks the compressor is icing over since it's been so humid here, and we have to turn it off to let the ice melt before it will work again.) During the week this is not a problem - I set it way high while we're gone and when we come back the cool comes on and all is well. When I'm supposed to be sitting with my feet up to reduce the swelling, and "laying down" makes me sweat, we have a problem. What, you mean that isn't the best time to have a large pot full of boiling water in the kitchen? Huh, that's an interesting point of view.
Anyway, in between bouts of whining about the heat, I've been working on the Lene sock. Did you know, if you Keep Your Shit Tight™ and your husband or child pulls the needle out of your stitches, the stitches pop out of the wraps and you have to rip the whole heel? Yeah, I serve as a warning of what not to do. Anyway, I have moved past the heel and have at most four pattern repeats before I can slap some ribbing on the sucker and call 'er done. I can't wait - Twist Collective has gotten me all in the mood for fall (I dunno why, since we have nearly three months of summer left in this horrid place) and I'm not allowing myself to buy yarn or pattern until I finish and mail those socks!

I tried to get a picture of the dog sleeping with her tongue sticking out, but when I got out the camera she woke up. I got the next best thing.

How do you make a blonde dizzy?

Stick her in a round room and tell her to quickly find the penny in the corner!

Or, go here. The blonde is already dizzy, but there's yarn!

Yup, tomorrow, 08/08/08, and 8:08am La's etsy store opens with her fiberific tribute to inspiring blondes.



Go forth! Buy! Knit! Just keep your hands offa mine.

Wow.

The responses to last post were very interesting and intelligent. I believe that was my favorite post ever and it really made me think. (Mostly I hate that, but in this case it was a good thing.)
The most interesting thing, I thought, was that those who favored genetics actually proved my point (in my thinking). Sarkasmo indicated that she'd lost weight, but at her current activity level she doesn't lose more. BigAlice mentioned that it took an extraordinary level of effort to lose weight, and that her brother did it once but didn't maintain it. To my way of thinking, both of those comments indicated that they COULD lose weight. Their genetic makeup may have made it more difficult than it would have been for someone else, but they did it. Sarkasmo lost to a point and has maintained from there, and BigAlice made the decision that the level of effort necessary to achieve further weight loss was not fitting in with what she wanted out of life. Both ladies (and one brother) lost weight - they just didn't lose weight down to Hollywood standards. For which I am profoundly grateful, cuz, YUCK.
Anyway.
I have no knitting, I have no pictures. It's been hot, dry and yucky. The rain is supposed to come back tomorrow YAYIT'SABOUTDAMNTIME but it's still gross outside. The DH is off again to California to do a whirlwind real estate tour. I'd go with him, but I'd never leave the beach, so I'm holding down the fort here while he checks my list of homes against what he should know about me by now after eight freaking years knows about my tastes, likes and dislikes, and his own. It is my profound hope that he will find The One that is really great (unlike the previous three The Ones, all of which were purchased before we could make an offer) and I won't have to think about anything anymore. For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, what's new? we are planning to move to southern California at the beginning of the new year and leave Satan's armpit behind.
In other news, I have made another boy. DH is ecstatic, I'm pretty happy (because the boys will share a room and I'll get a craft room back) and I'd be completely over the moon if he hadn't blabbed the name we hadn't decided on completely yet to everyone, including the namesake of the name I hadn't settled on yet. (Sorry Uncle Jim Bob, we're naming him Billy Joe instead of Jim Bob like we said before.)
If you are inclined, send nice thoughts or prayers to my little bump. There's nothing wrong with him except that his mother is completely neurotic and stresses over all the things that could be wrong. Maybe you should send valium instead.