I'm starting a tank top KNIT ALONG!

I don't exactly know HOW to start a knit-along, but I want to try! Nyxxie and I are game, any other takers out there??? We're going to make the Lion Brand Incredible Ribbon Top (CUTE and easy tank top) and are going to slug through together. I'll check some forums and see what it takes to start a little KNIT ALONG where we can post progress, cuss, show pics and eventually all be hot, sexy mamma's in our new knitted tanks! Here's the pic:

New felted bag on its way

Major accomplishment of last night:
YEAH for me! I felt like such the experienced knitter chick last night. I sat down at about 8:30pm after both kiddos fell asleep, watched a little sex in the city, started another felted party bag with a few variations/experiment by me and got the entire body knitted! Tonight I hope to get the icord straps done and MAYBE even sew it together ready for felting. If not, I hope to crank out a few more and do some serious felting this weekend!! It took much less Noro Kureyon than last time, so I either screwed up last time or this time, we'll have to see how it turns out to be sure. BUT I loved it. I'll post pics this weekend. I couldn't believe the sense of accomplishment I felt before heading off to bed. Wish life were that simple sometimes...

OK, so now G.W. is so sure of himself that he's healing children??? Check it out:



Doesn't he look like one of those old faith healers...."send your money to me and feel my healing touch...." I don't know, it just looked a little off. Poor Kerry, those electoral vote tally maps don't look too encouraging. I sure hope whoever's running in 2008 has a little more personality than these 2.

I've got my free patterns page started, click KNITTING VIRGIN FREE PATTERNS to check them out. I wanna make them ALL. These don't even BEGIN to list all the goodies on my to-do list as a lot of my faves are on the Knitty website too! I had this cool artsy-fartsy button all ready to go, but saved it too small and screwed it up, so some hopefully cool upgrades to the old blog should also be up and running soon. Check out the list of blogrolled blogs I've got for some other good reads!

Major accomplishment of the day:
NOT eating any of the damn doughnuts in the break-room. They were calling my name....Christine, eat us, eat us ALL..... and I said NO! (yes I talk to food) Then they said, just lick off all the sugary glaze.....and I can't trust myself to walk in the room....
MUST fit into jeans again...MUST not get chunkier....I have to admit last time there was one of those awesome cake doughnuts with the sugar coating...and though I didn't eat the doughnut, I did lick off all the sugar.... part of why I'm doing the dreaded "duck walk" each am to get my pants to relax enough to be worn in public.

Fashionista

Yup, I'm officially stylin' today. Apparently the 2 months' vacation I took from eating sensibly and jogging 3 miles a day have taken their toll. I went from energetic & trim to chubby overnight. Must've been all those chocolate zingers...That or the closet ghosts in my house have conspired to shrink ALL my clothes so they are uncomfortable and look crappy on me. I do actually think I have closet ghosts. Someone or thing keeps leaving my sliding closet doors and the coat closet sliding doors open about an inch when I swear I've closed them. It could be my kids, but I prefer to think of it as proof that there's something shrinking my clothes.

I've now eaten sensibly (aka BORING) since Sunday and still feel like crap. I want INSTANT GRATIFICATION HERE. Why does it take 6 months to lose 12 pounds and 2 months to gain them back??? My other complaint is I KNOW I lost some of that poundage from my sad barely-A-cup chest and NONE of it came back there. Nope, my butt & thighs are getting pretty greedy.

SO, wearing a white stretchy shirt that just isn't quite stretchy enough today. Not quite a fashion faux paux on its own, but add the spaghetti stain from lunch (one sad little dot standing out in orange) to the diet coke splash across the lower right front side and I'm WORKING this thing baby.

Cripes. I need to put on an ankle bracelet and feather my hair and get a really bitchy look on my face to complete my transformation into Miss Hateful. SPEAKING of which, I KNOW it's a small office here in the dungeon, but HOW many freaking times do I need to run into her today??? I've had more than my quota of dirty looks, hateful sighs and having to walk past her to make up for the peaceful days off I had when I was home with my son. I bet she could make the devil himself shudder with one of her looks. I still smile wide each time as that seems to piss her off the most.

I'm going to walk for a mile tonight on the treadmill of hell and then reward myself with starting a new knitting project. Can't decide what to start. I think I'll start another little felted purse for an Xmas present.



I am working on adding a link to a bunch of free projects I want to start on, hope to have it up and running in a couple of days.

Knitty's Fall Surprise -- Breast Cancer Projects

The Knitty Fall Surprise is in. Click below to go to a special printable issue in pdf Adobe format with some new breast cancer awareness and other projects as well as a good cancer survivor story. They give good advice for fibers to use to make the finished projects as soft and comforting as possible as well as stylish and fun.

Knitty's Fall Surprise

After you click to download, make sure to give it some extra time. (Mine looked like blank pages for a few minutes before the entire thing was downloaded.)

Also, if you're a knitter, you NEED to check out Knitty's site. They publish a web newsletter full of GREAT articles, actually helpful tips and FABULOSO patterns FREE FREE FREE!

My weekend/my stash

Weekend update:

Rain Rain go away.... rain postponed the big outdoor Halloween festival to Sunday Afternoon, so the kids & I had a "basement campout." This consists of unfolding the couch, putting their indoor sleeping bags (blues clues & some princess or other) out with favorite animals all sitting along the edges of pillows. Lights go off, big camping flashlight/lantern goes on with an orange cloth over the top. Each little munchkin is given a bendy straw and a cup of mini marshmallows to stap with the straws (sticks) to roast over our campfire. We sing songs and sit on logs (upside down buckets) around the fire and finish the night by watching scooby doo movies while laying on sleeping bags. OK, so scooby doo videos don't go with outdoor camping, but THIS is my house baby. :) Got kiddos set, my cousin (supersitter) came over and mommacita went out to play some cards...

Went to Station Casino, and sat down at a rather quiet, mild table and was called over to Shaw's table (some nice asian guy who's become my little poker buddy and looks out for me and hardly ever takes my money) and we took over this table. He left early and I stayed until 2:30am and OWNED the table. It's a good thing I'm not in line to be a dictator, or I'd become the great ice-queen-bitch of the world. mwaa haa haaa...I was very polite, I took everyone's money with a smile, but it was amazing...everyone looked to me for the bets and raises and just assumed I'd win hands....POWER. I actually left with money (something I need to do more often) and ended up with $312 profit on the night even after paying for a full tank of gas.... woo hoo. When I grow up, I wanna play POKER...that one's probably not going over well with Grandpa Joe, so I'll go with the graduate degree, real job thing. LEARNED--> most poker players do NOT knit, so therefore, do NOT understand that a stash refers to YARN....when someone asked what I was going to do with all his money, I said "enhance my stash". I had to explain that I was not, in fact, a major drug dealer, just a yarn addict.

Sat. I admit I spent a few $$ on adding to the stash... I got more Noro yarns to make some felted party purses with a few modifications of my own for my sisters in laws and an aunt. Instead of doing the smart thing and going with boring yarn and making my own stripes of colors, I went for the GOOD stuff baby. So much for saving for my future and that of my children's. I didn't spend all the money, just a little more than I would have had I not cleaned up the night before.

Sat. night I realized I'm truly an OLD WOMAN now. I gave up free dinner, drinks, dancing and unbelievable sex with a young friend/flirty guy (10 yrs younger) one of those strange "fwp" (friends with priviledges) to hang out with Mark & Russell and eat & chat & look at pictures & catch up and go home early to knit....OMG where's the dance party chic??? Has she died??? she's still breathing, just buried deep. I actually didn't want to have to shave my legs and wanted to cuddle up on the couch with their little doggies on my lap and be mellow.

Sunday I organized my yarns into this old canvas sweater hanging shelves thing and realized I have entirely too much crap to have only been knitting for a few months. Also had too much fun and will take a pic as I'm very proud of my work. DORK I know it, but I love it.

LAST workplace update/bitch of the day (ok the last bitch I'll type anyway) is that we're all decorated for fall....I brought in an orange pumpkin full of mini Hersheys, and now the ladies bathroom (that we KNOW hasn't been cleaned in over 12 weeks) now is fall-colored as well. There is a lovely yellow/green stain on the floor all around the toilet...the old stains in the middle of the floor have now turned dark burgandy and when I couldn't take it any more and thought maybe I'd just lysol everything and at least use the toilet brush to swish it around, it had a FREAKING SPIDER WEB connecting it to the WALL. THEN I saw the brush itself, that used to be white, is now a mixture of dark orange shades. Forget driving along the east coast or to the ozark hills for the foliage, go visit the dungeon's LADIES ROOM. Someone PLEASE tell Miss Hateful to CLEAN THE DAMN PLACE! I'm going to have to start going to Mr. Goodcents to go potty in a public restroom vs the one here.

Back to Dungeonland

"I asked her why she never told us about the Ten Commandments & she said she wasn't ever that good with numbers so she loved everything as best she could & I remember thinking who needs all those rules anyway with a mother like her around."
--www.storypeople.com

My goal in life is to raise my children to be good and kind and fun and a bit irreverent and I just loved this storypeople story.

If you get a tight enough perm, she told me, it's almost as good as a face lift. But she had worked around a lot of toxic chemicals in the 60's, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt.
--www.storypeople.com

OK, I just liked that one!

SO, the dungeon goes on....

First of all, happy A, you look like a GODDESS! LOVING the hair!!!!!!! You are so dang stylish!

2ndly--the bosses can't understand why everyone's not all excited about dressing up on Friday and have low morale......this said 10 minutes after I heard staff talking about who was next to be fired.....hmmmmm can't figure this one out. My morale is actually at an all-time high...as now I just watch the chaos like I've got a front-row seat at a really bad reality show.

3rdly (is that really a word?) I actually brought up the fact that I'm a TAD BIT behind on my multiple duties and bossman just said, "really? you've got to get it done." I explained I could EITHER do this or that or that or that and he just smiled. I'm just an audience member who's now playing the part of the resident mental-patient here.

It's getting so crazy even my compadre's poker face flinched a little in disbelief and I about snorted with held-in laughter during a serious meeting. My stomach was making horrible noises due to holding in emotions...it's a dangerous thing. I was either going to cough, laugh out loud or get really gassy. I think there's now different levels of the dungeon similar to Dante's levels of hell in The Inferno. We've made it down to about level 5 and I'm hoping the end's in sight.

OK, this day is apparently NEVER going to end. 4 1/2 hours left.

Amanda and I went YARN SHOPPING today at lunch! She was laughing at me because I'm a total dork!!! It was like taking a pregnant mommy-to-be to find her first baby book.....OK, I AM a dork, but it was SO much fun....can't wait to spread this disease of knitting addiction!!!! She's taking a little class at the LYS, so once she gets the basic knit stitch shown the right way, I'll be there for any "oopsies" and to help her buy MORE MORE MORE yarn and get crazy like me. :)

Since I don't have ANYTHING going on in my life lately I decided to do this!


Yup, I'm going to write a novel in one month. I thought it sounded SO freaking cool. Content doesn't matter, the whole point is you get something written between Midnight Nov. 1st and Midnight Nov. 30th. There's a whole little project going that does this each Nov. and it's called NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month. It's a kick. Maybe that will help me get these LONG-ASS entries shortened up here on the ol' blog if I get to write 50,000 words in a month????

Friday Friday Friday woo hoo

Story People story for today:

This is a poison soup to kill all the bad witches, she said. How can you tell the difference? I asked. O, good witches are very polite & say no thank you. Bad witches just die.

I'm in a Halloweeney mood today...taking the kids to the Leawood Park's Halloween bash from 6:30-8pm. They get to go trick-or-treating and jump in giant bouncy pumpkin things and go on a hayride on a bunch of smelly wet hay in the dark and eat cotton candy until they feel like barfing. MAN it's good to be a kid. Trick-or-Treating and IT'S NOT EVEN HALLOWEEN YET!!!

Gotta admit, I used my new felted purse last night and it was still damp! I couldn't even wait...AND I could have sold a TON of them if I were better prepared!! My son's teacher conferences were set up with a bunch of moms selling their home-business/craft/jewelry/crap and I had all these moms saying "WHERE did you get the FABULOUS purse?" Maybe next year...Xmas presents, here we come!!! I feel like felting something RIGHT NOW!

only 6 more hours till freedom....big bosses keep adding more responsibility and "you're so smart why don't you just do this...because we can't afford to pay the cheapest company we found $12,000 for it, YOU can do it..." Yup, gotta love this job.
I'm now a webmaster, an entire billing department, an analyst, database administrator and an administrative assistant (doing 1/2 the job of one of the fired ones from last week)...YUP, I'm now about 6 people and I don't even have a split personality yet...AND I get paid ENTRY level bottom-dweller-wages...A teacher working 9 months out of the year with all major vacations off and SICK LEAVE gets paid the same amount I make working every freaking day of the year except Christmas day....A webmaster that can't even fix her blog's html...should be an adventure.........yeah right....

Understand why the new LIFE PLANS are being worked on frantically???

OK, I'm stealing again!

OK, this one's AMAZING...StoryPeople I'm stealing the idea from Stephanie and it makes you feel all warm & fuzzy & "yeah, that says it exactly" when you roam around and read these little phrases and 3-sentence stories...I LOVE IT! Here's my new fave--> reminds me of that time of close-exhaustion after both kids are in bed snuggled up with their stuffed animals and mommo here has dropped on the couch for a quiet time...

There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise.

Cool, huh?

Welcome to our blogging world!

OK, I found some great blogs out there and this one's a chic from Tennessee WITHOUT ANY YARN STORES NEAR HER!!! Can you imagine??? Poor baby! I actually go in to pet the yarn when I'm too poor to buy any, but want inspiration! I'm adding her to my links but wanted to put in a note here for you guys to see also! She's trying the sexy tank I wanted to make also. IF IF IF we can ever find yarn that will actually WORK for the dang thing, we can start a knit-along (and if I can figure out how to do that also) to create all these sexy-mamacita tops and TAKE OVER THE WORLD...ok, just go out and look hot maybe. ANYWAY, welcome to my new friend Nyxxie!

Nyxxie's Blog

Feeling better able to deal with the world now, and only 35 more minutes down in the dungeon...Gotta go to Joey's teacher's conference and then when the kids go to bed, I'm going to KNIT KNIT KNIT and drink me a glass of wine and have some peace and quiet!

Bad hair, bad makeup, bad body

I'm feeling very fat and ugly today. Ick. bad hair, thought my extra make-up was in the car but IT WASN'T, wearing the "is she pregnant or is she just fat?" sweater because everything else required ironing or washing or was TOO FREAKING TIGHT....FYI--"she" hasn't had sex for over 6 months, so it must be fat fat fat...I'm guessing the Good Lord above isn't going to mistake me for a mother-madonna-type so no worries of immaculate conception here.

At least I've got a cute purse! I'm the Fat Felting Queen of the World!



I realized the other night while eating my (swear to God) dinner of chocolate frosted zingers and peanut m&m's with diet coke (dinner ala Quick Trip) that MAYBE I'd better get back to eating healthier & exercising again to get rid of the stupid 12 pounds I gained in a LOT shorter time than it took me to recently LOSE the same dang pounds. Gonna start a boring blog documenting my new diet & exercise plan--> THE PANERA EATING PLAN...basically, I'm going to try to eat foods that are still recognizable as food elements. breads, soups, meat, veggies, fruit and cut down on zingers, oreos, and the like. Last winter I lost a ton just eating Panera's chicken chili soup (and extra bread). I've got NO willpower, so maybe if this works it could catch on...I know I'm not a big person and I hate when skinny little people whine about being fat, it's not that, I'm just getting chubby and can't wear my DAMN clothes any more and am TIRED of it!

I HAVE FELTED....and I'm HOOKED

OMG I finally FINALLY sewed my little party-purse's handles and bottom and ends and all that and ran it through the old washer a few times and I FREAKING LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! Here's before & after. I'm also working on a better link to show my projects while "on the needle" and through completion, so be patient and it should hopefully get better!

before & after:


I can't wait to get started on the boogey bag or sophie or something else FELTED!!!

Also got my act together and finished another red/orange fluffy scarf and am starting 2 more like my first scarf, but in other color schemes for the xmas parties. Here's the first 2:


Got the "easy" NOTICE THE QUOTES "easy" tank front done up to the point where I get to start decreasing but the pattern has NO directions for exactly how to do that, so I'm thinking I'll head to Knit Wits and see if one of the customers can show me how to proceed so I don't end up frogging any more of this thing:


And, this is quite possibly the strangest mix of yarns I ever saw in a $50 ball. It knitted up a strange thin scarf that actually looks kind of cool with a simple scoop-neck black top wrapped around the neck about 2-3 times:


For those of you following the work drama, it's stranger than ever, but I can't quite elaborate here yet. Just know that most of the day I had this look on my face like a fish out of water with my eyeballs bulging out and my mouth gaping open (really quite attractive if I do say so myself).

Why am I having so much fun?

OK, I guess I woke up on the obnoxious side of the bed today, as I'm just having a ball in this strange little land that is our workplace. Boss impressions are bad bad bad. Don't do them if you still want a job. Gotta remember that.

I think we need to have a reality show here. OMG we've got the villans, the crazies, the personality clashes, the tiny bits of hope being stomped to pieces, we've got it ALL baby. I already feel like I'm on survivor...no civilization, normal rules no longer apply, it's every woman for herself....we've got all the "alliances" the network show has, but the people voted out from here don't get to go on the Good Morning America show, they get to go to the unemployment office...

I don't know, it's such a silly day. There's no reason, but I can't stop cracking up. It's like I'm 13 yrs old at a slumber party at 4am and someone could say "dog" and I'd laugh until I snorted. Maybe the almighty Panera-bread-bakers put a little extra some-some in my french baguettes today. I know they have to know me as that obnoxious woman who ALWAYS asks for the extra bread (hey, it's free, it's good, and I'm a piggie).

A, I feel for you sista, hang in there with all the funk...maybe this will help on your fun adventure this afternoon...Seriously, you are an amazing woman and I'm glad you've become a part of my life.


OK, my boss just came in and I think he called me a mushroom and laughed. I have a light burnt out above the desk (God forbid we spend money on an electrician--so we'll be "customizing" the wiring down here--how have we not burnt to a crisp yet?), so I'm going for a lounge effect with my sinatra & harry connick music and trying to not notice the 45 files of PAPER PAPER PAPER on my desk....if I stacked them up high enough, maybe no one would notice if I were still here?

I just stole 2 pens from the girl's desk who was so unceremoniously booted out of here last Friday. How much of a vulture does that make me? What is the appropriate mourning period before you can start scavenging for better office products from those voted off the island (ok dungeon)?

Midnight blogging

OK, it's midnight. I haven't knit a thing. I haven't gotten any homework done on my last class. I HAVE had too much fun reading reading reading all these blogs. Working on my blogroll, but it's pretty boring. I'm setting some new goals:

#1 --> Knit an actual sweater or tank top and WEAR it, being the ultimate sexy chic in knits (or at least feel that way)

#2 --> Get into grad school, get out of the dungeon

#3 --> Work on the blog format, get more attitude and less fluff

#4 --> Write an entry that doesn't take 15 minutes to read

#5 --> Battle the urge to eat EVERYTHING in this house

#6 --> Felt the damn party purse I knit, just have to sew the straps and wash wash wash it

Things I've learned in the Dungeon

SO, another week starts down here. This week I have no more "sick little boy" excuses, got to be here all week long. It's a good thing that Joey's feeling better, but I am still glad that if he had to get sick, it happened at the biggest stress-week we had lately so I got out of the line of fire for now.

Well, by observing the strange little environment down here I learned a thing or two...

#1--> If your bosses are suddenly concerned for you working too hard and find "help" and you get to train them to "ease your load" start looking for a job FAST. There's no such thing as free help in the dungeon, you're just training the poor chick getting stuck with your duties before they escort you out the door.

#2--> Don't bring more personal items down to the dungeon than you can comfortably carry in one trip. Watching a poor guy carrying about an apartment's worth of furniture, star wars dolls (or are they "action figures" once you're a grown man?) and other stuff up & down the stairs while we're all working is not a good thing. (I got pissy a couple of weeks ago and took every personal thing out of here so none of the bad kharma would touch my pictures of kids or other personal doo=hickey's I'd amassed down here so I'm good to go at a moment's notice).

#3--> The ones who wouldn't mind being laid off and get unemployment (I even volunteered) are the ones the dungeon-masters will hold onto until the bitter end. The ones who desperately need the job are those that are booted out the door.

#4--> Companies with less than 50 employess are not eligible for Family Medical Leave Act or any of the other government regulations that make sure employees are treated fairly and legally. It just doesn't matter.

#5--> It is JUST A JOB. It cannot define who you are. I do my job, I leave and go home. Once I reach sunlight again, I leave the crap behind me (or is it below me?) and get on with my life. It's just sad to see those who this place has broken...

A little bit o' politics

I stole this from Stephanie. You've GOT to go and see her post on the crazy soap lady a few days back. I almost wet myself laughing so hard...Click on her name & go back to Tues, Oct. 12 for the funniest story...

I went knit shopping oh oh oh oh oh

SO, first of all, Joey update...> The medicine I was stomping around the house about and all that seems to be actually working. YEAH! He still tires very easily, but ate a ton today, played a ton and was pretty much a regular, obnoxious boy again, which is always a good sign of health! He still isn't quite over his infections, but it's a step in the right direction.

LONG-ASS couple of weeks! SO, to reward myself (and it's payday on Monday also) I went shopping! I thought I would be smart and NOT go into the LYS to save my $$, and found a few deals elsewhere too!

First, a couple of weeks ago I bought 3 balls of Gedifra Costa Rica. I made a scarf out of this to donate to the school auction for my daughter. It looks strange, but works up as THE most softest scarf you've ever touched. It's going to be an Xmas present but I might have to make one for me too!


Went to Michael's craft store for some black plastic canvas (working on little candy-corn tiny baskets for Halloween parties) and found this Lion Brand Incredible ribbon yarn. I remembered a cute free pattern for a ribbon tank top, but they only had 2 balls of the City Lights color here, so I figured I could make a long thin accent scarf out of it....(I know, scarves, scarves, scarves, but I've got to make about a dozen before Xmas!)


Then I took a bunch of paperbacks to the Half Price Books store to sell, and made enough to get Beth, Joey and momma-cita each a book...but since momma-cita was the one with the $$, I got 2 books and the kiddo's each got one. Joey picked out a box of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coloring books and Beth got a cool kit with a book & supplies for making friendship bracelets. I might just have to make some for myself! Here's my goodies:


Camp-out update...> We had SO much freaking fun at the Brownie/5th grade scout campout. I can't even begin other than to say that one of the other moms and I realized we not only went to daycamp at Timberlake, camped with our troops at Prairie Schooner (where we camped last night) but also went every summer to Oakledge at about the same time for our 2 week camps! ALL these memories came out as we talked and laughed and had a BLAST!

Best part of the night wasn't when the girls were learning songs around the campfire, hiking in the dark with flashlights, bonding with the moms, no no no. Best part was when one of the moms (my old gs pal) got up and threatened the girls that the next one to make a sound was going to sleep outside by herself in the dirt...and it worked! I know, that sounds so terrible now, but when you're tired & grumpy and they won't quit screaming/saying "shut up I want to go to sleep...she's touching me..." and on and on, and then there's complete silence, it's a good thing.

Between that and one of the poor moms is absolutely terrified of spiders....and out of ALL of the sleeping bags, the big hairy spooky tarrantula-looking wolf spider jumps down onto HER bag right before she climbed in...I didn't think we'd ever get her to sleep. Part-way through the night I turned over and my hair brushed against my arm and I jumped, saw a dark spot on my bag and yelled and smacked it, then realized oops, that was part of the bag, I don't think she slept the rest of the night. I told her "false alarm" I always yell in my sleep, but she wasn't buying it. I actually slept like a baby, toasty with my warm bag pulled up to my ears.

FYI, I don't think the 5th grade leaders will be inviting us along any time in the future. The two main leaders were like green versions of Hitler with boobs. They were not pleased that we were still packing everything up at 8am and the girls were just outdoors playing follow-the-leader and not performing organized skits and official girl scout songs. I swear these women were entirely too precise with their girls marching and singing in perfect little lines coming over the hill. I guess when we shrugged and said "so?" it was not the proper response. Ah well, we'll survive. Our 2nd grade little rich mommas were tougher than I gave them credit for and we had a blast even without Hitlerette 1 and 2 instructing us in the almighty Girl Scout Law.

The Bitch is Back, Baby!

SO, here's me! I'm back. Down in the dungeon, feeling sassy, rarin' to go. NOT looking forward to freezing my lilly-white BUTT off tonight with the brownie scout troop, but ah well. Those little 7yr olds will either decide the outdoors is entirely too cold and will never want to camp again, or they will be strong little ladies that can triumph over any obstacle....yeah, we'll probably never camp again.

Joey update, the kid's feeling better, not much in the way of ideas on treating the current infection other than a weaker antibiotic that may or may not work. We'll give it a try for 3 weeks then go in for more testing and see. He's back at his little pre-school today and was quite the king of the ball...imagine a child of mine loving attention.....how would that work? He's feeling better and that's what counts I guess.

OK--I missed a lot of the debate last night, but read the transcripts and heard all the tidbits in the am shows, but the world needs THESE political debates below...... make sure your voume is up and click away. I would suggest you NOT click the "share with friends" link as it opens up pop-up hell. Copy & paste from the webpage once you open the songs....Click the links for a little toe-tappin, political singin from those that would rule our country...

Political Bohemian Rhapsody

The Presidential Horror Show

Have I really not posted since last week?

WOW, well, lets see...my son's sinus surgery went well, but there were a few icky things that came of it. For newer readers, my son Joey (shown below with his uncle Mike) has cystic fibrosis (CF) and has been a very healthy little guy for his first 4 1/2 years. Basically, it's a genetic disease that affects his lungs & digestion as well as his sinuses. It pretty much sucks. We raise $$ each year in the big CF walk in May and I'll have a link to donate to "TEAM JOEY" added later to the site. In my links is the official CF site with more info. They are close at finding not quite a cure, but some good meds to help these people live normal, healthy lives long into their adult-hood.

Joey was a trooper and went under at Children's Mercy in KC (we are SO lucky to have them right here!) with the best ENT surgeon who is also a mom and has the best kid-side manner as well as being good at her stuff. He had more polyps and infection than they thought, and more tissue & gunk was removed than originally planned. He recovered fine, stayed one night and went home Sat. The people at work (I know I bitch about most of them, but this was pretty sweet) sent a big-ass cookie bouquet and he was all excited. I was proud of myself for not eating his cookies, as I've apparently dealt with the stress that is my life by EATING everything in site until I almost barf and knitting. (often at the same time)

The only prob is the stuff they removed cultured 3 infections. One is not a big deal, the 2nd one is a mildly bad thing that should also respond well to antibiotic treatment, but the 3rd is a bad sucker. Not the really bad cf one, but it's one level down from this thing that hits CF kids and does bad things to their lungs and is very antibiotic-resistant. The good surgeon was on vacation after the procedure, so I've gotten to deal with the one who talks down to mothers, thinks we have no business asking questions or, heaven forbid, questioning their prescribing a weaker antibiotic that my son has already built an immunity to and that since he's been on it since JUNE and we had to have the surgery to get rid of the infection as well as other stuff, MAYBE that wasn't the right plan??? (I was VERY diplomatic when discussing things, really). Let's just say I didn't have a very good time the last few nights while listening to my little guy struggle to breathe without coughing up a lung.

SO, I sat and cried a bit when I should have been sleeping, OK, salt has to be cleansing for the face and all those zits that are now here as my body's craving for chocolate has reached an all-time half-bag-of-oreos-at-a-sitting level has brought out!!! I started reading all the knitting blogs that I follow as well as a few friends' as well. I didn't feel like typing myself, but I had a good time, had a few chuckles and ended up going to bed without eating any candy. OK, there's none actually left in the house, but I wasn't craving it either. :)

SO, long story (do I tell any others, sorry!) ending here. My son's better, we're working with someone in his CF clinic and the GOOD surgeon tomorrow to find a good system of meds to get rid of the bad stuff before it gets to the scary level and he's already feeling better and running around like a regular obnoxious boy again (just can't breathe well or sleep good at night yet)! I'm all inspired and had FUN reading my little blog friends, catching up on what's happening and what great things people are making and I knit the crap out of the "easy tank" and a new scarf to boot. I'm ready to start shaping my first armhole and I'm too excited. I've really GOT to get a life! I'll add pics soon.

This may sound tacky, but if your son has to be sick with a cruddy thing, how great is it that it happens at the same time as the big bosses are in town and things are at an all-time stressful level in the dungeon??? bwaa haa haa....evil, I know, but MAN he couldn't have picked a better time. I really REALLY may have more time on my hands soon, but at least I got out of a lot of not-fun meetings and today my little half-day (while Joey went to work with Grandpa in the am) happened to be the day the not-so-happy-person didn't make it in to the office.....JACKPOT! Don't worry, Miss Hateful was in rare form and stomped around the door to my office and complained about things that were my fault just out of my direct area, but you know, I just smiled and smiled......OH, and the icky, nasty floors in the bathroom and kitchen still have the same stains PLUS more.....wonder if we'll benefit from any more emails from Miss H?

I swear I'm going to stop typing now, thanks for all the happy thoughts everyone sent!

My daughter's first over-night camp-out is this Thursday night and it's supposed to be in the 30's!!!! Of course I used to be little miss girl scout, princess of all the outdoors, but now I'm an old, cold lady who's going to freeze her BUTT off and pee in a frozen outhouse in the dark.....THEN get up and go to work in the cold dungeon...

MUST STOP TYPING................................

A few pics Completed poncho & more goodies

Here's the poncho modeled by my daughter, the lovely Elizabeth, 7 1/2 yrs old. I did NOT take the picture, so I take no blame in cutting off the top of her head here!


This is my son Joey with his uncle Mike (my baby bro). Joey about died that they were wearing similar shirts, too cute!


Elizabeth in cheer gear for her first venture in cheerleading:


And I swear, you always need a dose of big hair.....the glory days....when I could wear a mini and dance all night! BF Jildo in the pink and I'm in the blue & white stripes. We might come back home about 4am stinking, falling down drunk looking like heck, but by goodness, that hair was STILL big!

SCORE!! Free Gift Time!

"A change in the weather is enough to renew the world and ourselves."
--Marcel Proust

It's such a pretty fall day outside, slightly rainy and cool and would be SO great for laying on the couch under a quilt reading or knitting by the fire or doing just about anything other than working your life away in the dungeon with the crazies...

Things overheard this morning from fellow dungeon-mates...
"It's keeping me sane..." --from one of the craziest
"la la la la-la la la......" THE FREAKING LIMBO SONG being sung over & over by our chatty one...HOW does HappyChic stay so happy up there??? I'm afraid I'd result to slamming a printer on her head after the 3rd verse of limbo limbo la la's
"how many martini's did I have last night?" --on the phone from a cutie who apparently has a much more exciting life than I do
"but the gun wasn't loaded ALL the time" --not even going to explain that one

THE TRUE SCORE--> Any other Lancome shoppers out there need to get themselves to the Jones Store as the free gift is going on NOW. The bag is about butt ugly, but it's filled with the BEST stuff this time!! I went in on Sunday for the Elizabeth Arden free bag (a CUTE pink leather-look handbag with wrist bracelet-holder thing full of crappy makeup) and needed foundation. The little barbie doll behind the Lancome counter (but a nice doll--I HATE snotty little barbie doll girls) told me to take some samples of the foundation, pay for the full sized then, and I could pick it up starting Oct. 6th and then get the free gift. BUT she gave me the foundation as well as the samples. I didn't think anything of it, put it in the bag with the EA goodies and went home. Stopped by the Jones Store last night, picked up my bag o' necessaries and when I got in the car, realized whoever packed the bag gave me ANOTHER foundation! woo hoo! $38.71 of covering my 35 yr old 5-zit covered face for FREE! I know, I know a "GOOD" person would have gone in. BUT I'm not so good. hee hee hee. I do actually tell people about mistakes at banks (I was a teller too long and they make your life HELL for $.50 let alone $38.71) or somewhere that someone would get in trouble for the error, but I'm LOVING my extra goody today!!

Another Knitting Quiz & a school on fire

Is this a bad omen of the big bosses coming to town next week or what? My horoscope today talked about how I should believe my intuition when I think I may have worn out my welcome? I may have a whole lot more time on my hands soon. That wouldn't be entirely bad either.

So first of all, here's the quiz:

What kind of yarn are you?

The first time I took the quiz I turned out as Novelty Eyelash and the 2nd time I was Mohair. Kind of fun. I think the shallow part of the description fits, but as it says, I don't really care. :) I'm also warm & fuzzy with Mohair's descript, so maybe I'm a warm & fuzzy shallow bitch.


You are Novelty Eyelash. You are very of the moment, hip, and happening. You are often seen wrapped around someone's neck. Some see you as too flashy and ultimately shallow, but you are having too much fun to notice.

OK, does this picture creep anyone else out? I can understand the idea of it, as most people sleep better with someone to cuddle with, but Shit the Bed! I'd freak out if I woke up in the middle of the night with someone's hand next to my head. I guess they're all the rage in Asia. CREEPY.


I'm packing for my son's trip to the hospital (he's having his sinuses worked on and they're trying to patch up some of the spots that are giving him nosebleeds too) and I'm taking the easy tank and a new skinnier version of my friend Jildo's scarf along. I started it with only 15 stitches and it's just the plain old garter stitch, which works out so pretty & bumpy & funky on those Schaeffer yarns! I think I'll make it long long long & skinny so I can wrap it around my neck a few times. In the burgandy hand-died mix, should be cute! I also am packing micro-wave popcorn, granola bars & diet cokes for momma to munch on while the little guy is resting.

Joey's pre-school's roof caught fire yesterday. Yesterday was such a freaky day I don't want to go into too many details about work. Let's just say it was the kind of day that when I received the call that "there's no danger to the kids, but the school may or may not be on fire" it didn't even phase me. I thought "ok then, lets go". Turned out part of the roof caught fire, but workers on the new extension being built saw it and called it in before it caused too much damage or even set off the fire alarms in the school. The munchkins were all out on the playground until their folks could pick them up. The kids were having a blast watching all the firemen and trucks. I think I saw the hubby of one of the ladies that quit here for a better job, but all those damn men look alike with their big heavy coats & boots & muscles & short hair cuts, yummy! I waved at them all just to be safe. :) I am pretty sure I saw him as one of the fire-fighter-women I recognized from his dept. when she gave my daughter's preschool a tour of their station.

Quiz of the day

All right, that's pretty optimistic, but after seeing this one on a bunch of blogs, (sorry I can't credit where I saw them as I wasn't paying attention), I think we need some quizzes!!!

What Kind of Knitting Needles Are You?

I'm retro pink aluminum:
You are pink aluminum. Retro, straightforward and fun, you love classic things. If they're 99 cents at Goodwill all the better! You are moved by striking colors and tasty morsels, and you like a stitch-n-bitch session in the sun. Just remember, while you're being kitschy cool, don't get too cold. Ice cubes are best kept in your cocktails, baby!

Beautiful weekend!

OK, I'm all "shiny, happy people" feeling today. Back at work, no Miss H. :) It's made a huge difference in the general attitude of the entire place. It's amazing how infectious evil attitudes can be. By general consensus, work has gone back to "The Dungeon" as "The Underworld" sounds too much like a bad mythological story.

Did nothing, went nowhere this weekend AGAIN except for kid stuff, knitting and cleaning. Woo Hoo the life I live, man the excitement is barely containable. Actually, I really enjoyed the break, which is scary.

I knitted my heart out, started a thinner scarf out of the same Schaeffer yarn I made Jildo's scarf for myself, got 9" done on the easy tank (done in green heathery yarn) and couldn't bring myself to frog any of the sexy tank start. I just keep trying to convince myself it will work, but I think I'm going to have to face reality and start over. It is just such small stitches on thin needles and had so much time invested.

Watching tv Sat night as When Harry Met Sally came on. Damn Meg Ryan, last weekend I watched You've Got Mail and ended up all melancholy and weepy. I cried my damn eyes out at the end of this one too. I'm basically happy with my life until those DAMN movies come on. Why don't I meet an extremely wealthy, sensitive, sexy, funny man who looks like a movie star walking down the street?? Yeah right. I'd get tired of him in a couple of months anyway. Changed channels to HGTV, saw some organizational show, got motivated and redid my piles of crap in one closet and a dresser. Felt much better about the world. NO more Sat. night Meg Ryan movies. I was smart enough not to watch Cast Away the other night, I cried for hours after that one when I saw it. Heck, I cry at oreo commercials, so that's not that big of a deal.

My kids now officially have better social lives than I do. This weekend was birthday party central. MAN you can only take so much of being in those kid-heaven-parent-hell kind of places! Kaleidoscope at Crown Center was pretty cool, the kids had a blast and it wasn't too stressfull until we all walked across to the food court for bday cake...the kids just took off running and turned a corner and were GONE. Thank God my munchkins stopped at the end of the hall and didn't follow the rest of the little 5yr old psychos. Two of the moms didn't even look for their kids once we all got caught up and got the little monsters back going the right direction. I said, "um, I don't see your son..." and she was like "oh, he'll figure it out, we shop down here all the time." Another mom looked at me with the OMG expression, I took her son with my kids and she went and found the little guy, who was taking apart the train in the expensive train store (not the toy store) that you weren't supposed to touch. He was on a whole other level of the mall. Cripes. Good guardian angels or something.

Afternoon at Bump City, a LOUD hyped-up version of a gymnastic place with cool stuff and the kids had a blast. Sunday we went to Jeepers which I believe is Chuck-E-Cheese on Crack. They have the obnoxious loud games, tickets you have to carry around, stupid prizes your kids will sell your soul for AND indoor roller-coasters, bumper cars, train, and other rides as well as really really bad pizza. We survived pretty well on not too much out-of-pocket extra $$ and Joey & I each hit a ticket jackpot and we got 3 big ol' inflated toys, scooby doo, wolverine and a dolphin. We looked like we were stumbling home from the fair...lugging all this crap home. They had a blast, and I survived, so that's what matters.

The Underworld

I no longer spend 41 hours of my week in the dungeon. Nope, now I spend that eternity (I swear it feels like 82 hours) in the UNDERWORLD..............The Dungeon just didn't do it justice. That could be a dank, dark, smelly place. THIS is a dank, dark, smelly place that is also a strange little alternate universe and the crazies are fighting out who's in charge. I think it's Dante's 14th level of hell and the scary thing is we drive here of our own free will and climb the stairs down to our personal torture chamber, knowing that scary, strange things will happen and people will send emails about ladies behaving when we are on "our cycles." You know, it's bad enough we can't get our paychecks until the DAY AFTER we are supposed to. We get paid the day AFTER the 15th and the day AFTER the 1st. They couldn't even hand out the paychecks at the end of the day on the real payday. nope. SO at least we get them when we get in to the office at 8:15am. NOT TODAY. The controller is out fishing, and we're waiting for the boss-man to come and hand out our sad little reward for surviving another 2 weeks. What, do we have to beg for the little $$ we get now????? OK, I know I'm too pissy about little details, but this is getting ridiculous. It's the point of the matter. I'm going in in half an hour and suggesting that he give us our MONEY please. I hate it when boss-man give out the paychecks becuase he stands there until you say "thank you sir, may I have another" just like in a monty python movie or bad fraternity prank where you keep getting paddled on the ass with a big ol' board but can't stop asking for more or being polite or they beat the crap out of you.....AAARRRGGHH

I'm REALLY REALLY PISSY today (no, really). I think it's spending that half hour in Miss Hateful's chair yesterday. The evil kharma soaked through my jeans and infected my butt. Stay out of my way and don't piss me off. THEN she came in to make up the time she lost yesterday, so I got to start my day off right with her stomping into my office and sharing her special rude manner demanding some detail or other. I nicely explained her boss asked me to start on the work she left behind and she said "FINE" and stormed out, slamming her hand on my door with a BANG. Yup, just how a bride-to-be should be acting the day before her special day. Share the love. I wanna be home with my kids and my knitting and thinking happy thoughts.

I'm going to have to become a web comic artist. Of course, I can't draw, is that a problem? Seriously, I believe if I could illustrate some of the craziness it would help vent through my system. Maybe I'd better wait until I'm not financially dependent on surviving in the Underworld.

I just know I'm going to get myself fired. The big bosses are coming to town in a week, so I might have a LOT more time on my hands. I could do unemployment. Do you still get unemployment if you get fired for blogging???

Stranded Republican Video

Just one more political entry here...

Here's a link to a pretty cute video ad for the Stranded Republican. I got a kick out of it.

http://www.moveonpac.org/10weeks/?id=3910-3956209-znD4cLIZk.0dZs4lFCfo5g

Amanda and I had a little political discussion on Iraq, Korea, Africa and other such topics this am. Very cool, yet slightly odd since we normally discuss very important items such as shoes, shoes, shoes, men, clubs, friends and the like. See what watching a political debate can do to you??? I'm so excited for Amanda as it's her first presidential election! She was in Europe for the first election when she came of age so this is the big one!

And did anyone else notice that both wives were wearing the same freaking outfit???? I think their collars were different, but other than that they looked like little bobbsy-twins! Doesn't someone call to verify that???? Although Mrs. Bush's hair did look much better.