Friday, November 27, 2009

Terrible week

Thank goodness this week is over. What a horrendous week its' been.

First, I had eye surgery on monday afternoon to remove a cyst from my upper eyelid. It was about half a cm big and hard like a pebble. Talk about excruciating pain... OMG! He stuck a needle in my eyelid, and it felt like my eye was going to explode. I even told him that! He said it wasn't, it was just freezing... then he proceeded to torture me with an eye clamp... it felt like a cold metal clamp sinking it's claws into my eye... I'm telling him... 'it hurts' and he's telling me 'yes, this is the only part you will feel' ... WTF!!!! what was that freakin needle for?? Why am i not frozen.

Anyway, I lay there for 10-15 minutes with my hands clamped so tightly against the pain of the clamp that they ached for 12 hours afterwards, while he flipped my upper eyelid and cut the cyst out.

So, when all was done, I called hubby and he came and got me. I was completely off balance due to bandages on the right eye. Holy crap... I never realized that you really do need both eyes for balance!

Anyway, came home and was in so much pain I took 3 extra strength tylenols and went to sleep for an hour. Hubby brought dinner home and we ate. Then I went to bed.

When I got up, I undressed the bandages from my eye. What a bloody mess. There were 6 layers of packing gauze and they were filled to the brim with blood. And my eye was still bleeding, seeping from each corner... uggg...

Anyway, I had taken the tuesday off to recouperate, and I stayed on the couch all day watching a LOTR marathon and dozing...

Back to work on wednesday. Still bleeding, and headachy, and in alot of pain.

Thursday morning my hubby calls me at work and tells me he thinks his Father is having a stroke. I tell him to call our family doctor and tell him the symptoms, and he is then told to bring 'nonno' to emergency.

Well, he was just brought to a room this evening! 30 hours in a bed in the emergency ward after suffering a stroke - his left side is paralyzed! His speech is impaired! He's scared and the hospital takes 30 hours to get him a bed...

Anyway.... going to visit him tomorrow with the kids. I pray he gets well soon.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Skull duggery

My daughter is home today from school as she has a fever of 101.7 - Hubby called me a little while ago and told me that she is also throwing up now. Poor baby. I wish I was home with her to make sure she is comfortable, even though I know hubby will take good care of her. She will miss her City Hall excursion this afternoon… and her take on that – ‘oh well, it’s only city hall’ ! hehee… out of the mouths of babes!


Monday I went to see an eye specialist regarding a Chalzion on my upper eyelid. It's a rock hard lump that is about 4-6mm. It hasto be surgically removed. So, my surgery is slated for November 23. The following day I have a check up scheduled for 8:00 am to confirm all went well. And, since eye lumps are no longer covered under OHIP, this is going to cost me over $200. Pisser.


Knitting has been going slowly, as I have startitus again, and am working on a couple scarves for my kids. I finished M's neckwarmer in time for her birthday! A's is halfway finished (bow knot neckwarmer), and I’ve just started a scarf for my son, S. It’s black and red with a skull on one end of the scarf, and crossbones on the other end. It’s coming along nicely… it’s just something that I really need to pay attention to, as it's double knitted!!! I’m also working on The Gardener socks. I started a pair (2AAT), and wasn’t sure about the pooling, so restarted them in a different colorway. Then once I got to the same length as the ‘pooling’ ones, decided to just do both pairs. So…. 4AAT. It’s interesting to say the least.

Oh, and I’ve put the Amarine coat into hibernation. I haven’t worked on it in awhile, and don’t plan on it over the next couple months, so I decided to stop pretending that I was working on it. I think my upset with this one comes from the errors in the pattern. Thankfully the designer is a great lady and willing to help, so I'm hoping to pick it back up soon. Sometimes, the magazines make terrible changes to patterns.

Well, enough for now. Gotta go. Have a great day!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving, belated.

I’m tired. It’s been a long week and a longer weekend that just passed.

It was my daughter's 19th birthday last week. She was going to come over on Thursday (the day before her birthday), but blew us off at the last possible moment (an hour before she was to arrive for dinner) and told me she would come on Saturday instead. Fine...

Then the next morning (her actual birthday), she sent me a text message saying she wanted to come for dinner that night instead. Considering that I had planned on making her a cake for when she came over on Saturday, and would not have time to do it when I came home after work, I called hubby and asked him to go to the grocery store and get a cake. He also offered to cook a nice pasta dinner for her… So, I’m walking home at 4:30 when I get a text message from my dear daughter, stating that she made other plans and would see us on Saturday after all. WTF!!??!!

We texted back and forth a bit but ended it by my telling her to have a wonderful time out with her friends, have a great birthday, and I’ll see you for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday and NOT Saturday because I was not cooking on Saturday, especially after having prepared two dinners already that she blew off.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

So, Sunday arrives. I got up before 9:00 to set up my 17 lb turkey. I’m cleaning the house, making a beautiful dinner, putting the finishing touches on the beautiful neckwarmer I knitted for her, re-wrapped her gift certificates in prettier tissue wrap, and made sure all was as it should be..

She arrives at 4:30 (I told her dinner would be served around 5), and then bitched and complained because she was a bit hungover, and dinner was running a bit later than I had told her. We ended up eating at 6, but she was grouchy and short with everyone. She sat on my knitting chair and surfed facebook for the hour long wait, instead of visiting with her brother and sister who hadn’t seen her in over a month.

Anyway, dinner was served… everything was fantastic - the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravey, stuffing, cranberries, roasted yams, brocolli, creamed corn, sauteed mushrooms, and hot from the oven dinner rolls. The wine was flowing and all seemed to be well.

As soon as I started clearing the plates away, she asked me if we could do the birthday cake because she had to leave to go meet a friend.

I told her she’d have to wait a few minutes, and got whiny, selfish daughter response back. Suffice it to say, we did cake within half an hour of eating, and then she left.

Happy Birthday my beautiful (if selfish) baby girl (who is no longer a child and should know better).

Oh, and the beautiful neckwarmer I took 3 weeks making her… she didn’t really like it. So I told her to leave it, as I didn’t want it sitting on the floor of her closet, but she told me she would give it a chance and test it out before she made any decisions about it. Gosh, sweetie, your all heart.

Friday, October 2, 2009

TGIF!

Been in the office for an hour and have only had one email to respond to…. None of my three managers are in, and I’m not sure if any of them are even coming in today…. One has an offsite meeting all day, and the other two had a golf day planned although they had cancelled it on Wednesday due to the weather forecast (but they had the option to rebook with no penalty) so I’m not sure if they ended up rebooking or not… all I know is nobody is here (that I work directly for) and I’ve got nothing to do as I’m very efficient and have everything done that I had to do.
So, what do you end up doing when there’s nothing to do? I can’t knit at my desk, or I would. I can only surf a bit, as there is a ‘policy’ in regards to unauthorized internet usage, and I’m not sure if the IT department monitors it (we’re a fairly small company). There’s not even anyone else here that I could do something for! Arggggg……..

So, I’m typing in Word. Fun wow! Hmmmmm… Let’s blog…

I’ve just finished working on a couple calimetry’s as holiday knitting. And just started a matching calimetry & neckwarmer set for my DDs birthday in a week. She is turning 19. And plans on spending the weekend getting bombed…. I’ve warned her to try to have a buddy with her who will not get bombed so she has someone to look after her, but she just scoffs at me. And I worry. What can you do though? She is an independent soul…. She works 6 days a week, lives on her own and is responsible for herself. I can just advise her and hope she plays safely…. and hope….. and hope….. and hope some more.

Back to knitting…. This weekend I plan on finishing my grapevine – all that’s left is seaming up the sleeves, sewing them in, and then picking up and knitting the 8 or 10 rows of the collar. Easy peesy…. So why isn’t it done yet??

And Hubby’s cowboy socks…. I ended up not liking how the ribbing fit his ankle/calf… isn’t ribbing supposed to be elastic? Well, suffice it to say, I wasn’t happy with how loose it seemed, so I’m going to ladder down a couple of the rib rows and purl 2 together (in the purl ribbing sections), and then I’ll rework only one of the purl stitchs coming back up…. Not sure if that will help or if it’ll just be saggy, but I have to finish these for hubby soon before he thinks I don’t love him as I’m doing other things instead of his things… and this is only the 2nd project I’ve ever done for him in all the time we’ve been together (I knitted him a ‘curious George monkey when we first started dating…. But lost interest in knitting for a few years after that, and then was unable to knit due to injury to my hand) Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that I should finish his socks…

Guess what? It’s 10 o’clock. Time for my break. Bye!

Friday, September 25, 2009

New Fridge

Yep, one year after getting a new fridge, I had to get another fridge.

Thank goodness that I called the Brick to complain about my 'freezer' fridge when I did, cause the fridge was completely shot! The first we noticed was that all our fruits & vegetables were frozen solid. Have you ever tried to eat a frozen pear? Not a good idea.

But the beers! OMG, were they ever cold and slushy.... it would have been fantastic if we only needed to keep beer cold, but alas, I do need food to survive in this life... thus I called for service.

I ended up getting 5 different technicians over the span of a month. Each one promised me that they had fixed the problem, so hubby went shopping to replace the frozen food each time, but to no avail... within hours the new fruits & vegetables would be solidly frozen as well....

can you imagine a fridge so cold that your salad dressing on the door is frozen solid? that a 2L carton of OJ freezes in 2 hours? a 4L jug of milk froze in 5 hours!! my beringers wine was slushy in 3 hours! WINE!!!

and here's the best part..... over $600 worth of food in the garbage over the course of a month.... the warrantee company advised me to fill out a food loss claim, and then they reject it because I did not have an extended warranty with them!!! WTF did they advise me to fill out the fucken claim form then????/ a$$holes!

Can you tell I was pi$$ed about this entire fridge fiasco?

Well, thank goodness I caught it in time, as my warrantee expired on sept 17. Anyway, the Brick gave me the complete cost of the old fridge as a credit towards a new fridge. Nice of them, eh?

Oh yeah, the problem with the old one? Broken thermostat... it was working in hyperdrive... the fridge was actually colder than the freezer.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Sunday plans cancelled. :(

I had plans for the day, but they've had to be cancelled due to my youngest waking up not feeling well. First, she just complained of a headache. So, after a bowl of cereal, I gave her an advil. Then she went and barfed. And 20 minutes later barfed again.... so, after laying on the couch looking like crap, I called my friend and cancelled on her. I hate to do it, but there's nothing I can do.

Hubby has a friend coming over later to watch football, so I'm assuming we're going to be banished to the upstairs bedroom to watch Disney... hopefully baby girl can nap later and get herself better... She's in the bathroom again, I hope she's not barfing again.... poor baby.

I'm going to try to finish the sleeves on the grapevine today. Might as well, since I'm now stuck here with sick baby girl (who is 10 btw).

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

blah, blah, blah....

Well, almost one month into the new job and things are going really well, albeit a little boring at times. But, what can you do? Type in Microsoft Word to post to your blog, says I, so here it is...

Knitting wise, I’m almost ready to start working the heels on the 2AAT socks I’m doing for my husbands birthday. Which is very soon, I may add. Like in 16 days! Eeeks!

And my Le Lapin Noir is almost at the argyle part. Can’t wait…. Only 2 more inches of ribbing to do (I'm on the decreasing portion) and then it should start getting fun… but I guess it was my fault that it’s taking so long… I did decide to work the rib in the round for the Front and the Back all at once…. That’s 160 for the Front and 144 for the Back in k1, p1 ribbing….. egads… that’s a hell of a lot of ribbing! Also, I’m going to do the argyle in heathered gray… it’s a green/gray… very nice… I hope the white doesn’t stand out to much… hmmm, I’ll just have to play it by ear and see how that goes. I'm trying to put the argyle chart into Excel, but it's kind of a weird chart... so I might just improvise it (a bit)

What else am I working on?? Oh yeah, the grapevine… cardigan… yeah, that…
Well, umm… I’ve joined the shoulder seams and it’s now a vest… just waiting for me to finish the sleeve caps and attach them… really, I’ve only got 2-4” on each sleeve to go, so I’m not sure why I don’t just do it already! Then I have to pick up for the neck and I’m finished with a FO to my name instead of something I’ve been working on for a year and a half… OMG, I said it… 1 ½ years!!! Poor grapevine. I’ll finish you, I promise… Just not today (or tomorrow either)

Oh, did I mention that I seriously want to cast on and try 2AAT fingerless gloves… but I’ve only done toe up socks in the 2AAT method, and I can’t figure out how to start the gloves… They’ll be cuff down so I really just have to get off my ass and find a 2AAT cuff down magic loop pattern and follow the instructions changing the st count to match my gloves, right? Yeah, next week.

Can you believe the summer is over? It was never bloody well here, if you ask me.. our weather has been cold and windy and rainy and tornadoes and monsoon raining storms and cold and windy…. And the temperatures are horrid…. And now it’s September and although Autumn doesn’t officially start until the 21st, it seems that we never had a summer.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Sopranos

lol - just started watching season 1 of the Sopranos again.... what a show! I love it!

Friday, July 31, 2009

employed again...

Well, I should be getting the offer by tomorrow to start on the 10th. Again, it's a 1 year contract... and again it's with the same company that I just worked with... (the company that cancelled my previous 1 year contract because a full time salaried employee was returning from maternity leave and there was no place for her... so they gave her my position.... )

Anyway.... they really did like me.... because they called me and told me that they would really appreciate it if I would come and work with them again....

the only drawback... no benefits....

but, it's work.... and I'm happy

:)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Life

Lots of projects getting done.... baby gifts including a hat, bib and booty set, an optical illusion blanket, a dress and a little blankey buddy for a friend who is due in september.... my KAL sweater finally done.... socks for Annaliese's birthday...

time being spent with the kids this summer has been nice... they are in tae kwon doe training and have their first testing on friday to go from white to yellow belt... and guess what I just learned? that testing has a fee, above and beyond the fee that was paid for getting them in class... yep... and the worst part, was that it was never mentioned prior to receiving the testing forms... and they test every 3 months... I'm really not happy about this extra expense, but what can you do?? it will make the cost of their class double over the course of a year... unbelievable!

and I've been (finally) working on my grapevine cardigan... having a few issues with the pattern instructions... but the members of ravelry are super fantastic in helping out with any issues other members have... and I'm hoping to finish this soon. :)

My 6th year anniversary is this weekend... planning on going to the mandarin for dinner with the family and then.... :)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Brambly Hedge babies are here!!!

As you know, Poppy & Dusty got together a little while ago, and have been very happy together, snuggling, falling in love, hiding in a corner and gossiping and learning all about each other. :)

Well, it's finally happened! The babies have started to arrive. The first on the scene was Buttercup...
Brambly Hedge - Buttercup

Then came Rose...
Brambly Hedge - Rose

and finally the little one, Pipkin arrived...
Brambly Hedge - Pipkin

....I must say that they picked a great time to arrive as well... right on my daughter's 10th birthday...

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Civil Servants on Strike in Toronto

12 days with ....
no garbage pickup...
no civic centers...
no recreation - pools, community centers, etc...
some libraries closed...
no permits - building, parking, nothing...
no city hall - weddings, etc...

Happy Summer Vacation, kids. Not only can't you go swimming, you can't play in the parks either because they are ALL full of garbage.

Nice.... and why? The major holdout is because they want their 18 sick days a year converted to cash if not used..... above and beyond their vacation days, 18 sick days!!!!

F*CK them.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Home Improvements

Unemployeed and hanging around the house, so I've been doing a few improvements (again).

Our stairs (we have 2 staircases coming up to our main level, and one going up to the 3rd floor) are in atrocious shape... they are scuffed and scruffy and after getting our floors done last year, they look even worse, so I went and primed and painted the lower ones coming up to our main living area! And I must say that they look pretty darn good now! (Next set due for painting tomorrow)

Next, I'm going to tackle the kitchen floor. I started it last year - primed the old crappy linolium tiles and then started painting the floor with black floor paint... but the paint was too shiny, and holds dirt and footprints like mad, so I only did along one wall (under the appliances) and never finished. So, next week I'm going to re-prime it, and then paint it with the same paint that I just did the stairs with.

I also have to paint the front inner door, and one piece of drywall that we put up in our 'mudroom' area of the entranceway.

I must say, my place looks fantastic compared with 2 years ago!
The BEFORE image:
before

and the AFTERimage:
after

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

12

My son turned 12 this past weekend... First thing saturday morning, we popped his birth video in (no actual birth shots! just the minute after) and were amazed (even though we watch every year) at the changes in everyone in the video.

First of all, hubby looks all of 18 years old!!!! Even though he was 26, and my oldest was 6.5 when S was borne, and is absolutely hilarious! I wish I had this same tape for each of my girls.... it's such a great thing... :)

At one point, I was sitting back on a big comfy one seater chair, nursing S when my oldest came over and asked if she could sit too. So, I made room and she ended up falling asleep on me too .... so I'm sitting holding my newborne and stroking the hair off my oldest's forehead... the funny part is that I was sitting with my leg up over the arm of the chair, and somehow it ended up against the back of the chair when M climbed up... so all you see is my foot sticking up out of nowhere... me smoothing my daughters hair back while she's sleeping, and a wrapped bundle in my other arm.....

:)

Anyway, S had a great day. He went out and saw Wolverine at the theatre with his best buddy, and my mom and oldest daughter came over for dinner and cake. :)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

I'm Sick....

blah.... how can anyone admit that they have a cold when there is a pandemic going on? uggg.... but, I have a sore throat, and I feel blah... nothing else, just feel run down and my throat hurts.... hubby refuses to kiss me because he doesn't want to be sick... :) but he's the one who got me sick, imho... as just before the A1N1 came out (formerly known as Swine flu - and how the hell does that work, renaming a virus in the middle of a pandemic??) he had a very bad sinus infection... snotty, stuffy, sore throat and overall didn't feel well. Well, I'm not that bad, but I'm staying at home, knitting, sleeping, watching tv and movies, and sleeping... oh, did I already say that?

For the next week or so, I want to concentrate on two of the sweaters I've been working on... my Grapevine Cardigan, and my Cable Luxe tunic. Oh, and I just have to put 3 babies together.... :)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

School - accepted.

My son has been accepted at the alternative school near me. What a huge weight that was, worrying about where he was going to go... worrying about this when I have enough on my plate to worry about. Anyway.... he's got a school to go to, and I'm quite happy about it. He went on a 'student shadowing', and said it looked interesting, and that everyone seemed nice, and that it was much more 'hands on' and the students were treated with alot more one-on-one. They have a swimming program also, so he's quite happy about that as well. :)

Sunday, April 19, 2009

School problems

My son is in a Junior school. This means that it only goes up to grade six. We've applied him to the nearest neighbourhood school, but recently found out that he is number 18 on the waiting list. We are literally 3 houses away from the cut off making that school his home school. Our 'home' school is 18 blocks away! This one is 5.

So, this weekend I had my son working on 2 projects so that we could apply to an 'alternate' school in my area. Why an 'alternate' school? Because the only schools in my 'neighbourhood' are horrendous! One is 1 block away from a mental institution, and the other closest one is in an area that is in the news on a monthly basis due to gang violence, shootings and drugs. Don't get me wrong, I do realize that our world is a dangerous place to be, but that doesn't mean I want my children to be put in harm's way. He's only 11 years old. I don't even go to these neighbourhoods! And I'm supposed to send my son to them on a daily basis? Also, since neither are his neighbourhoods, he hasn't grown up around the problems that are part of those neighbourhoods.

Anyway, please cross your fingers that he gets into this alternative school. Because if he doesn't, I dont' know what we're going to do.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

blurb

I'm depressed. So, I've been sitting here in my favorite chair in my livingroom. Knitting, reading and watching tv. I did go out to the library yesterday as some of my knitting books came in (all Debbie Bliss), but otherwise, I don't feel like doing anything.

My 11 yr old son is away this week on a school related excursion. So it's just my youngest daughter and hubby here at home. Daughter and I have been reading the Brambly Hedge books as I'm knitting her one of the families from the story and thought she should have some of the background on them. Which reminds me, I really should finish Dusty Dogwood up. He's about 95% complete. I just need to put him together.

I've also picked up my Cable Luxe again. I ripped back to the pick up row on the body and figured out how to pick up enough sts (by picking one up in each space, as well as in every 2nd row space as required - so picking up over 2 rows, instead of just over the first row). It's coming along nicely.

Plus I've started some baby stuff for a friend of mine who is expecting in August. I bought some Bernat Handicrafter cotton, and am working on a bib in 'KeyLimePie', plus I'll do some booties and scratch mitts. I've also picked out an outfit to knit, just looking for the yarn now. :)

I've also been working on a sweater coat. It has some of the most beautiful cables at the back! But it will probably not be done until the fall, it's such a big project.

Also, I've got the cabled purse that I started a couple months ago.... I have to work on that again....

Well, I've got the time now...

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Two Weeks Notice

I'm working on a one year contract, assisting 2 Vice Presidents in a very large company, taking over for a Maternity leave. I started in October, so I'm 6 months into it.

There is another lady who was hired as well to cover a Maternity leave last April. She could not pull her weight looking after the 3 Reps she was hired for, and so they had to hire again to cover one of the Reps. Anyway, everyone of the other assistants in the office was happy that her year long contract was supposed to be up this month when the fulltimer comes back, as she's quite difficult to get along with.

But, guess what? My boss called me in on Monday to advise me that they were going to cut my contract short! He told me it had nothing to do with me, that they were very happy with my work and everything, but that once the maternity leave returns, there will be too many girls and not enough work. So, I'm done.

Unbelievable, I'm so pissed. Why are they keeping the other contract who has problems with all the girls?? It's because she is a kiss-ass to two of the Reps and for some reason they are completely blind to her antics.

Uggg...

Friday, March 27, 2009

The Big Read meme

This meme is originally from the Big Read. Apparently they reckon most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Change the color of those you intend to read. (I'm putting a ** because I don't know how to change the color - and I'm also going to ** those I saw as a movie)
3) Italicise the books you LOVE.
4) Post your list so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.



1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. ** Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell**
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens S
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy S
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. ** Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll **
30. ** The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame **
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy S
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. ** The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown **
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. ** The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood **
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. ** Atonement - Ian McEwan **
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert S
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov S
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville S
71. ** Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens **
72. ** Dracula - Bram Stoker **
73. ** The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett **
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce S
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. ** A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens **
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert S
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So there you go - more than you ever wanted to know about my reading habits. If you like the look of it - consider yourself tagged!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Lifestyle Change needed, badly

I’ve decided to lose 25 pounds by the summertime – the end of June to be exact.

I think I can do this, but only if I stop drinking which I’ve been doing a lot of lately. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t drink to get drunk, but I do have a beer or two after work, then I’ll have a drink of Amaretto (or two) in the evening after dinner while knitting or watching tv or whatever.

Ah, amaretto…. How I love thee…. such a beautiful amber color, sitting in my little wine glass… swirling around before I take a sip...a nice warm fire going down my throat, to warm my belly. Ah.

25 pounds… such a small number, yet so big in the context of weight. I’m not obese, but I’m no spring chicken anymore either and I should get started on getting healthier again.

So, I’ve started on healthier living for the past couple weeks, while cutting my Amaretto intake down. From 2 drinks down to one and a half, down to one, down to my bottle is finished and I’m not going to buy another until I lose 25 pounds. (Well, maybe a small bottle to treat myself at the 10 pound lost mark – I’ve got to give myself something to look forward to don’t I?)

I’ve started to walk to and from work on a daily basis. It’s 45 minutes each way. Plus, I take the stairs whenever possible (and have 3 sets of them in my home so it seems that I’m always going up and down them). I’ve been eating smaller portions at mealtimes, and I’ve been eating healthier foods as well. I’ve cut out the junk food from my diet, not that it was ever a problem for me. I’ve also cut my caffeine intake down to one coffee in the morning (instead of 2 morning coffees, and then one in the early afternoon). I’ve started drinking peppermint tea with a little splash of honey to take my coffee craving away (does it work? Some days it does, some days I really want that second coffee but stay away from it – it’s not the coffee so much as the 2 sugars and ¼ cup of half and half I put into it.

I’ll still have the occasional ‘lite’ beer or glass of white zinfandel, and as long as I’m eating healthier and exercising, I should be able to meet my goal.

Today I also signed up on a ‘food diary’ site. OMG, it takes longer to find the bloody stuff your eating in their database than it takes to eat it!  But, I want to get an idea of the calories in and burned and this seems to be a good way to do that. Wish me luck.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Brambly Hedge characters

My youngest daughter asked me to knit her the Mother mouse from Brambly Hedge. The mouses' name is Poppy Eyebright and I started her on Feb 14th...

Poppy Eyebright - front

Even though it wasn't requested, I am now working on her Husband, Dusty.

I've already knitted all the pieces for their 3 children, but am going to wait until 'daddy' is finished before putting life to the babies. :)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Happy March 1st

It's March already and what have I been doing with my life lately?
(besides for working full-time, raising kids, keeping hubby happy, making a home?)

Nothing. I've just been living day to day. I get up in the morning, go to work, come home, make dinner, chat / spend time with family, relax, tidy up, do some knitting, watch tv, go to bed.

Weekends have been nice. Stay at home and relax, clean, laundry, cook, knit, .... just everyday life.

But that's the way it is, right? We just live our lives, and take it as it comes...

Friday, February 20, 2009

I'm back.

I can't believe it's the end of February, and I haven't visited here in ages! Shame... shame.

Well, what have I been doing lately? I've been working, and homemaking, and cooking, and cleaning, and knitting. Especially knitting. :)

I've especially become an avid KIPer... I knit on the streetcar on my way to work. I knit in the foodcourt during my 30 minute lunch. I knit on the streetcar on the way home from work.

I've got projects up the wazoo.... hehehe
(which reminds me to update my sidebar)

For Christmas, I knitted each of my children an Alan Dart Yuletide Gnome. They were an instant hit! I also knit up fingerless mitts for each of my girls, and a couple tudora neckwarmers for my sisters.

I've got 2 sweaters on the go for myself right now (yes, I'm still working on my Grapevine) and the other one is a Knit-a-long from Lion Brand. I also started a sweater jacket, but it's on hold until I get pattern corrections from the designer. I'm also working on a cabled purse for myself, and I taught myself to cable without a cable needle! Visited YouTube quite a bit for that, watched a few different methods and choose the one that worked for me.

And then I told Annaliese to choose something ("anything at all", I told her) from my pattern books for her birthday. This way I would have lots of time to complete it. She choose Alan Darts' 'Poppy' Eyebright and her babies from the Brambly Hedge collection. I must admit that she has become the KIP work as the pattern (althought there are numerous pieces) is mostly knit/purl/increases/decreases. Perfect for KIP.

Melissa moved into her own little rented room and I gave her an open invitation to come by for dinner after work. She's taken me up on it and comes by 2 or 3 times a week - which I'm very happy about. She'll usually decide after I've told her the menu, though! :)

Well, that's enought for this first post back. I'll be back more often, I promise.