Didn’t you love Sesame Street.  I did.  I grew up watching it, and now every day Basil watches it.  Remember how each day was brought to you by a letter and a number.  Actually I think it was two letters.  Well today we are theming the post with the letter P.

A Day At Pickle Springs

Pickle Springs.  Pickle Springs is this amazing natural area in Missouri.  Its not a state park, but its preserved by the National Audobon Society and is a Federal Natural Area.  Its absolutely beautiful, and while the last time we visited had the place completely to ourselves, this time it was packed.  Of course it was a beautiful Friday in November, a perfect time for outdoor activities.  We met about dogs on our walk, but we didn’t have the boys with us.  Its a quite hilly and narrow walking path the edges on cliffs and well Abner just isn’t a very good leash walker and gets too excited.  If you are ever near Farmington, MO I’d suggest a brief hike in this beautiful area.

Really Big Pot of Chili

Pot of Chili.  Yesterday afternoon we made a humungous pot of chili.  We use our largest le creuset and fill it to the brim, then we roast it in the oven for hours at 300 degrees.  That way nothing burns to the bottom and its absolutely fabulous.  I’ve placed a bottle of Samuel Adams beer by the pot to show you just how large it actually is.

Pictures.  Today’s post is picture heavy because I love pictures.  The problem is WordPress and I aren’t getting along with pictures.  I have to type the whole post and then place the pictures and sometimes it ends up looking funky.

Physical Therapy.  I went to my first physical therapy appointment last Friday.  I’m hopeful that we may actually have a start to healing now.  She’s having me do several strength building excercises and identified that my left hip is week and that may have caused an injury to the IT band.  So I have a two more appointments this week and on Friday I’ll evaluate if I give it another week, etc. 

Potential Project Choices.  I’m anxiously looking ahead to when the bomber jacket is done and I can work on something else.  I’m having second sweateritis.  Since I’ve already knit the exact same thing once, knitting it again is kinda getting boring.  But I’m bound and determined not to knit on anything else until the jacket is complete.  I divided for the back and sides last night.  At least I know exactly how many rows I have to complete and all the ins and outs.  I just have to stick with it, and since its a bulky knit, it should go fairly quickly. But it hasn’t helped my looking and pondering what I’m going to do next.  I feel the need to clean house a bit.  Give up on some of the projects I have looming in the wings and finish up some others.  I’m really in the mood to knit some lace, so I’ve been looking at lace patterns and but in my queue about 40 on Ravelry.  But I may take the opportunity to knit on the Forest Path Stole.  I sometimes find it a bit fidgely though.  So we’ll see.  I’m not going to worry about what I knit and when.  I also want to work on my afghan for my living room and I should work on the afghan for my sister.  But should isn’t working for me right now, so I’ll knit what I want when I want and be glad for any time I have to knit with a forthcoming crazy work schedule.  I’ve pretty much decided to frog the in-law bedspread.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  I may just pick out an afghan to make them or something.  Not sure, need to think about it.  And eventually soon I want to cast on for my  mother’s tablecloth.  I really wish someone would pay me to knit 40 hours a week instead of work, but of course let me keep all the projects I knit upon.

Problems.  Today is going to be, oh wait this week, is goign to be a week of problems at work.  I have this horrendous negative feeling about the week ahead.  But I will trudge through and try not to let it get the better of me.  I’m hopeful that I may be able to take Thursday off work, but even if I can’t, I’ll focus on something happier and get through it.  At least I have a job that 90% of the time I really do like.  And even more importantly in this economic times, I’m just employed.  This is a good thing. 

Possibilities.  There are so many! 

Pets.  When all else fails I just cuddle up and enjoy spending time with all the kids.  Pets really make a house a home in my opinion.

Val Love's Bomber Jacket

No matter what with me, health issues are never easy.  Ovarian cysts, two years to diagnose.  Leg is killing me.  Go to doctor (finally after 6 months), he thinks its a stress fracture on my femur, orders MRI.  MRI doesn’t show a stress fracture but he’s not convinced he sees something on bone that he thinks may indicate it.  So no explanation for pain, but he is sending me to a physical therapist.  And in the meantime he’s going to speak with the radiologist.  Maybe its because I wait so long to go to the doctor that my pain seems irrelevant.  Maybe its because I just don’t know how to communicate well.  Maybe its just because I really in life have not had that many occassions to visit the doctor, so I’m just ill equipped to handle the situations.  Maybe, maybe, maybe, I don’t know, but at least maybe the physical therapist can help me figure out how to exercise so as to not hurt myself any more. 

Ignore the Cleaning Supplies - Guess you Can Tell what I did yesterday

Speaking of easy but not easy.  My bomber jacket.  Its coming along quite nicely.  In fact I’ve finished the outer shell and last night cast on for the inner lining.  It took about 1 week and 5 days to complete.  Pretty good timing, although the inner lining (which is exactly the same thing as the outer shell) will probably take a tad longer as I won’t have a long-weekend of a lot of knitting to aid in the process.  Here are my thoughts on the project so far:

• The pattern is nice because there are no seams in the end (well except for sewing the outer and inner lining together with an over stitch).  Everything is knit by picking up stitches, etc. 
• Need 5 billion stitch holders for project. Thankfully I had 4 billion available so I was able to make due.
• While I’m thrilled there’s no seams to sew in the end, the pattern itself has been a bit perplexing.  I had to rip out a few rows on one side of the jacket because I had read how to do the short rows wrong.  Its taken several reads of the pattern to actually grasp the concept and I’m usually pretty good at deciphering patterns.
• I love Cascade Eco Wool.  Knits up quickly, nice feel to knit with, although I’m not 100% sure I’d like in a sweater might be a tad itchy for direct skin contact.
• All in all I’m pleased with the project and am looking forward to the finished project.

In other news, well there isn’t any.  I find myself getting more and more boring the older I become.

Well actually we did go hiking on Friday, despite my gimpy leg, at Pickle Springs in Missouri.  I’ll post a picture or two next time I post.

Happy at Work in My Sweater - See the Arch Behind me!

My stitch gauge was spot on.  My row gauge was not.  So in the end, I shortened up the armholes to make the sweater not too long.  I like the result, but the armholes are  a little to short, but I can live with it.  All in all it was a great project. I had a lot of fun knitting it, it was fairly quick since there were no sleeves, and even though I had a few very hectic work weeks I finished it in just over a month.  I’m super pleased with the results, in fact I couldn’t stand the thought of washing and blocking it so I’m just wearing it today.

Nick gave me the best compliment, he said, “it doesn’t look like it was hand-knit.”  Of course then he went on to say my next knit should look hand-knit and a tad wonky. 

Stats: Knit Picks Corrie Fair Isle Vest – knit Size 42 Tall.  Knit on size 5 needles to get my stitch gauge, which of course though made my row gauge to tall.  Started October 10 finished November 14.  Cost $18.99.  Machine Steeked, double reinforced. 

I actually double reinforced it, I wasn’t taking any chances that the stitching would come undone.  I got out my sewing machine and my LaBatt’s Blue and went to work.  Why oh why didn’t I do that with Ringbloomst. 

The First Cut

 But since I’ve lost so much weight

What Abner and Django Did All Last Week When I Wasn't Home

 this year and have my sewing machine out, I’m going to try and preserve Ringbloomst.  I’m going to steek the death out of it, reduce its size, and resew on the sleeves. And who knows maybe I will salvage it after all.  That is next weekend’s project of choice.

Next on the list, because of my insane work schedule, Nick allowed me to purchase myself a treat. (We have a deal right now that anything over $20 we have to ask the other party to purchase).  Anyway, I ordered on Thursday from the Yarn Barn a bomber jacket kit designed by Val Love.  You actually knit two coats, and sew it together.  I need a new winter coat, and what better idea then make my own.  So I’m patiently waiting for it to arrive, and until it does I will work on one of my afghans I’m knitting. 

Pretty Sure this Picture is about 6 or 7 Years Old

My niece turns 18 in a week.  We don’t celebrate birthdays, but I figure now is the time to let her know the crimes she should commit before next week so that she can be tried as a juvenile.  Now let me give you a little background on my niece, she, much to my chagrin, is a girly-girl.  Although I do think she has a tad tom-boy thrown in like her Aunt.  But as a little girl, she was so girly even before she could walk, that as she crawled she carried a purse.  She kept her pacifiers in it, and she’d stop crawling occassionally, open her purse and swap out her pacifier.  She has a couple of blogs, but I’ll share the one she shares with her mom and I.  http://noswatches.blogspot.com/ She’s working right now on a sweater for her senior pictures.  I say she’s a girly girl as she’s always accessorized, etc.  I on the other hand, rarely wear jewelry, often don’t wear matching clothes, and would rather not think about how I look….but then I’m also not nearly 18.

So Crimes she should commit in the next week so she can still be tried as a juvenile:

• Find a beautiful cashmere sweater at a store, then proceed to unravel it to “reclaim” the yarn, and cast on for a sweater.  She should probably bring a bean-bag chair for comfort to the store as it could take a while, when they protest she can start a rant on being green and reclaiming yarn;
• Seek out anyone wearing tube socks and spray paint their ankles (as tube socks are just cruel);
• Tip a cow – after all she does live in Iowa;
• Take in more than 3 things in a dressing room;
• Go to a restaurant with a basket of food, head into the kitchen and make herself lunch.
• Write her name with a rock on the side of her parent’s car (oh wait her brother already did that when he was 3 and learned to write his name);
• Go to the library and dog-ear all the books;
• Get an ear-piercing kit and pierce all the female dog ears in the town insisting that that way no one will be confused and call a girl dog him.

Any you would like to suggest?

At Least Abner is Getting Some Rest

No knitting news to report, haven’t worked on my vest since Sunday. I’m hoping though this weekend I may be able to finish up the knitting.  And then next weekend do the steeking.  But there will be no knitting till probably Friday at the earliest, so my dreams of steeking this weekend are shot.  I will be so glad when this brief is done!  Boxers are so much more fun.   hee hee.  At least I haven’t lost my sense of humor, although it may have gotten wierder in my lack of sleep/relaxation time.

Another Corner of My Desk

Someone commented about how organized my desk was, well I must confess its not really.  I have a very large desk, and a very large portion of it is a complete disaster.  Here’s another shot of a corner of my desk.  I love my little drawers, I fill them with all sorts of things, spoons, splenda, salt, swiss army knife, markers, popcorn, rubber bands, band-aids, ‘lil guppy tool, and all sorts of other things.  It also makes a nice stand as you see fo rmy fan, my tea maker.  And of course then there’s another shot of the big red wax ball.  I can’t help it, it makes me laugh.

• Piano Teacher
• Office Cleaner and helped with some secretarial things at a cell phone sales company and plastics manufacturer (yes it was a combined office) on in 1990 which were those HUGE cell phones or bags.
• Subway Sandwich Maker for a grand 6 weeks.
• Sold Drugs and Drove a Vette……okay I worked at a pharmacy and drove a Chevette.
• Secretary for Parks and Recreation Dept of Independence, IA – the only secretarial job I’ve ever had that involved rollerskating.  We were also a rec center, fitness center, raquetball, and we had rollerskating and pizza party Fridays.  Also had lock-ins I would occassionally supervise.
• Newspaper Girl Friday…I did everything from man the front desk, help with circulation, prepare ads, and even got to work in the darkroom developing pictures.
• Hotel Clerk
• Conference Coordinator for an International Economic Organization (went to Montreal for a conference – it was fun)
• Customer Service Operator
• Receptionist at a Copier Sales and Service Company in Cedar Rapids, IA, it was a temp job, but then they found out I was moving to Peoria, so they transferred me to Peoria, IL office and made me the Office Manager….which now means at my current job whenever the copiers go down they come to me first to fix them.  But I don’t mind, I like fixing things.
• Sales Support for a Technology Company – meaning I prepared presentations, etc. for the Salesman and Vice-President I was assigned to.
• Insurance Company Secretary.
• School Photographer
• Secretary at a Secretarial Company in which we worked for a lot of different Sole Practioner Attorneys and other individuals who didn’t need full-time secretaries.
• Secretary/Office Manager for Family Attorney
• And that brings me to where I’m at now.

Wow, that is a lot of jobs.  But I was never fired, I always moved on myself – well with the exception of the Insurance Company, they came in one day and closed our entire office down.  I also moved a lot from the time I was 20-25.  My last two jobs have consumed 8 years of my life and will probably consume the grand majority of the rest of it. Its fun looking back on what we’ve done.

So what kind of jobs have you had?

Don't Worry the Cars Not Moving

Today is a fun day, its still a crazy busy day at work but I’m actually wearing a sweater I never thought I’d wear again.  In fact it was in a pile to mail to my niece as I couldn’t stand the thought of throwing it out since its one of my hand-knits.  But I grabbed it out of frustration this morning and low and behold it fits!  Sorry Sarah, I’m keeping this one afterall.

Basil and His Green Ball

I also woke up to an awful ringing in my ears.  Nick too.  Of course its just Basil obsessed with his green ball which has two metal bells in it.  Isn’t he adorable! 

As I was getting ready this morning, I made a mental list of all the things I must fix knitting wise.

1. My hooded sweater – the hood is falling off.
2. My green and black gloves, I have a stictch that is running.  I should do that soon.
3. My second sweater ever knit has a huge stain on it.  Its cream.  I think I’m going to dye it a drak purple and see if that works since I don’t have the heart to throw out a hand-knit.

As steeking time is approaching soon on my vest, I also hope this weekend, in the few precious moments I’m not at work, to pull my sewing machine out and set it up somewhere so that I’ll be able to steek my vest.  I also have a slight notion while I have it out to try and fix Ringbloomst with it. 

Yesterday, Wendy posted a picture of her desk at work.  And it made me think, why not.  Its where I spend what seems to be 90% of my life.  Why not share with all of you, how I entertain myself at work, when I’d rather be at home knitting. 

Corner of my Desk

Let me explain what you are seeing….

• My screen which I love as its huge, on the right of my screen a post-it to remind me to do something, and on the bottom left-hand corner an inspirational quote to motivate me to continue on weight loss.
• You’ll see my two huge cup of pens, including a sonic scredriver pen, several chicken pens, I even have a man weight-lifting pen, on a spool pen.  I really like funky pens.
• My bottle of Gloves in a Bottle.
• My green travel coffee mug.
• My wireless keyboard and mouse – in my book an essential.
• A picture of me thin, accompanied by my in-laws and my husband.  You can’t see in this picture but I have a picture of my sister and brother on the other wall.
• My funky parrot Tervis Tumbler.
• My black sharpie – a must have.
• And to the lower lef-thand corner of my screen you’ll see what looks like a red ball.  Its a huge ball of wax.  Here I’ll show you a close up of it.

Babybel Ball of Wax 4" Circumfrence

• Ball of Wax 4″ in CircumfranceYou may wonder why I have a huge ball of wax.  Well see everyday since I started trying to get healthy I’ve eaten a Babybel Light piece of cheese.  And you know how they each come individually wrapped in wax.  Well, I start gathering the wax together, soon it became a ball the size of a golf ball, then it grew and grew.  And now for entertainment I’m seeing how large I can make my grand ball of Babybel wax.

This week I have been able to steal a few moments away from work at lunch to knit.  We have an abandoned office, well an office no longer in use, that you now have to walk through a filing room to get to, so a group of us have taken it over for lunches.

 Those moments will be far and few between the next few weeks, but I hope this weekend I can make some good progress on the vest so I can at least finish it by the end of November.

As many of you know I work in a law office.  I’m a “fake” paralegal.  Fake because I was hired as a legal secretary and then was promoted internally to being a paralegal, but I do not have a degree.  I’m just decent at what I do.  A large portion of my job is coordinating people and briefing.  I basically manage the cases I’m assigned, make sure we follow the FEderal Rules and the Local Rules of each court, and make sure the work gets done and that we don’t miss any deadlines, as well as some more complex actual law type stuff. 

Right now we are in a major briefing crunch and trial prep crunch.  We have 3 appellate briefs due in the next 4 weeks.  We are also prepping for what at this time is to be a 4-week trial.  But the main focus is the briefs.  On one of the briefs I am coordinating between three attorneys.  Three attorneys that really don’t get along with one another.  Its kind of like corralling kindergartners on the playground.  Trying desperately for each one to be forgiving of the other’s weaknesses and faults and just get the job done.  The hard part is that this is when I need knitting the most, and this is when I have the last amount of time for knitting.

Plus then I’m fielding questions from other attorneys on the other briefing being done. 

Attorney “Where is the record on appeal?”

Me “Well since its all electronic filing, its basically the docket sheet.”

“ No its not, its the record.  See here’s this number. ”

“Yes, that is the docket number of the pleading in the District Court, which is from the docket sheet.”

 ”Well that is stupid, no one knows what that means.” 

“Um, I knew what it was.”

No matter how we look at it, or how it seems, every day has the exact number of seconds, minutes, and hours as the next.  So why does it seem as some days pass quickly and others drag by and seem to take a much larger number of seconds to be done?  The days this past week seemed to go on forever.  Most likely though it was because I couldn’t wait for lunch to come so I could knit on the vest and the afternoons were trying as I couldn’t wait to go home and knit again.  I haven’t been this excited about a project in quite a while. 

I object that I have to work when there is knitting to be done.  And not just any knitting fair isle knitting, which in my book is one of the best kinds of knitting.  According to the Black’s Law Dictionary, Employee Oppression includes making one work when there is knitting to be done.  Maybe I’ll see about filing a lawsuit with the EEOC.  I’m sure I’d win, I have the best argument in the world.  

Corrie Fair Isle Vest - Knit Picks

As I’m getting closer to the decrease portion of the body, my mind is beginning to wander and think about what to do the row after the decreases, how do you keep it in pattern.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I’m checking Ravelry for people who’ve knit it and also checking Knit Picks and see if they have any tutorials on it.  I’m also considering skipping the decreases, but I’m also making the largest size in Tall, so I’m a tad worried about running out of yarn!

In other legal news, I’m working up a draft Settlement Agreement between myself and Elizabeth.  I am confident in time, through the mediation process, we will come to an agreement we both can live with.  But until all the details are worked out, and due to the confidentiality agreement we entered into, that is about all I can say. 

Finally if you remember I shared a picture a few days ago of Abner and snow.  You will note his obvious high tolerance for the white stuff.  Here is a picture I uncovered of Django in the snow.

Not so Tolerant

He is obviously not so tolerant of the great white stuff.   This was the first winter we had him home, two years ago now.  I can’t believe he’s been in our lives that long, and yet it also doesn’t seem possible that he ever wasn’t there.  He looks so small and tiny, and quite unhappy.

Elizabeth has officially been put on timeout.  I finished the first sleeve, and then she went back into her backpack where she will stay until I decide whether or not I want to forge forth and attempt to fix the whole way to wide neckline issue. I think I will forge forth, but I need to let her age a bit.  I have found recently that many things are making me annoyed, irritated, moody.  So this weekend I took a complete haitus from the computer.  It was a good decision.  In fact, I think I may do that every weekend for a while.  I am forced to spend a lot of time in front of a computer during the week, but the weekends I need to breathe.

While Elizabeth is on haitus, I started the Knit Picks Corrie Fair Isle Vest.  I bought the kit a couple of months back and think now I might actually be able to fit into the largest size, so I started knitting it on SAturday, after I finished Elizabeth’s sleeve.  I’ll try and have a picture later this week.  Its going rather well.  This week I’m not going to walk at lunch, but instead spend my lunch hour dedicated to knitting.  I’m doing this for several reasons, 1) its rather dreary weather predicted this week, 2) between my morning aerobics and luncht-time walk I think I’m pushing my thigh muscle too hard and its aching nearly all the time. So I’m hoping a full 24 hours between work-outs will give it the needed time to recoop; 3) the lady I walk with at lunch is really driving me insane and since I have guilt issues it was easier to just say I’m not walking all this week in order to have a break; 4) I just don’t want to walk, and I really want to knit!

I need to deal with my way to easy guilt issues.  I shouldnt’ need a reason to knit at lunch.  Besides I’ve lost 43 pounds now, I need to start transitioning into a pace I can keep up for the long haul so I can still enjoy my life and not just focus on weight loss.

these two agree

Speaking of favorite projects, which we weren’t, but I was a few posts back, this was one of my all-time favorite projects.  Its a sweater I made for NIck and I love this outdoorsy L.L. Beanish type photo.

Aren’t my boys handsome.