Score

So through my lovely friend Jilian I was able to score this Mod Green Pod fabric (the one to the left) for, get this, 3 dollars a yard. Corey, ideas? It's upholstery weight. Isn't it pretty?

A few things I forgot.

Let me just say that reading over yesterday's post I kind of feel like I sound a little conceited. If you didn't get this feeling then disregard this part. I was trying to convey how floored I was at what a good knitter people seemed to think I am as I am just learning what I can really do. I am humbled and it gives me a warm feeling inside to know that people like the knitting I am doing.

Okay with that said there are a few things that I forgot to talk about yesterday. This past weekend happened so fast I know I am forgetting to detail a lot of fun and interesting interactions that I had. There are a few that I do remember and here they are. With complete remiss I left out Morgaine. Morgaine owns Carolina Homespun  which is another really fantastic yarn/fiber store as she sells all things weaving, spinning, and knitting. She is one of the sweetest, most patient and kind people you will ever meet. She helped me learn how to spin on my final night there before dinner and she was very patient with my extremely rudimentary ability to spin. I may one day pick up spinning but right now it's not going to be a focus of mine. One of Tina and Stephanie's ulterior motives of this weekend was to at least have us all learn to spin. We didn't have to become spinners but learning the ability helps in the long run with knitting. You learn how fiber works when you learn how to spin and therefore it helps you choose better yarn. I am no longer afraid of silk.

Below are pictures of the yarns I dyed.
The first one is sock yarn. This is how most of ours in my class looked. I think we were so excited to finally lay our hands on the dye that we all went crazy.

This second one is called Geisha in Blue Moon Fiber Arts lineup. I was thinking of dragonflies and I love how it turned out. I diluted the black to gray and combined green and turquoise and diluted that, it's one of my favorites that I dyed.

My third one is called Icelandic in BMFA's lineup. I was thinking of the royal blue cardigan (you're lucky you got it back) that Corey has and I wanted to replicate the color. But I thought it was a little boring so I added some purple and magenta. It's okay but I think it's going to knit up lovely.

My fourth one has no picture. I was looking to add it and it just wasn't there. I don't really like it that much. Do you think my unintentional omission of the picture is my subconscious telling me that I don't like it? I will however describe it. It is a light violet purple and black mixture. I was trying to get pastel purple (I really don't like pastels) and Tina wanted us all to choose a color or hue that we didn't like and try and work on it. Well long story short my purple wasn't pastel so I mentally got stuck and added the black. I'm sure I'll find someone who will like it.

My fifth was silk. Silk is one of the warmest, and most durable fibers out there. For some reason the picture makes the yellow look really bright but it's actually really washed out. I think the floor picked up and made it more yellow. I used green in the center and then I was unsure what to do so I added a diluted brown and undiluted yellow. I didn't really like the yellow so I pushed to brown to cover it. After I dyed this skein I didn't really like it but after they rinsed it and I got it back I'm really in love with it. I just don't think the picture does it justice. It reminds me of a lakeside.

The last one I don't really care for based on that it's novelty yarn. It's eyelash and it looks a lot like the first one. I think I was running out of steam and original ideas.

The Best Weekend Ever

So this past weekend was amazing fun. The Inn at Port Ludlow is so small that the only people there that were non-knitters were hotel staff and people that came in to eat at the restaurant. Never have I been in a place with so many knitters, it was awesome. I have a couple of friends that knit as I haven't been able to convert the rest even with my best intentions. Okay, so I don't try that hard. Although I have been able to convert Lori and that's been really cool to see her fall as in love with knitting as I am. :) But I digress. It was cool to see all the different styles of knitting, spinning, and see what people had brought to wear that they had knit. It's probably the only time in my life that if someone was wearing knitwear you could assume they made and not be presumptive in asking them if they had. Stephanie and Tina were awesome. They are some of the nicest people in the world and both an amazing amount of fun. I found out that Tina is also left handed which I thought was really cool and there were actually quite a few left handed people there, more that I thought there would be. I ended up in group 2 which I think was the best way to work the weekend. This resulted in me being able to dye the first day with Tina (and 20 other knitters, I don't want to make it sound as though it was just Tina and I) and she let us dye 6 skeins of her yarn of all different kinds. Group 1 got gypped when it came to dyeing because it was the last day of the retreat and due to time constraints they were only able to dye 5 skeins. Also whereas we had the first three hours of class to talk about color and dyeing group 1 had to just jump right in.
My second day was with Stephanie who taught us the history of knitting and lever knitting which I really want to figure out and do well at as it's more accessible to left handers. It's going to make me faster I just need to keep practicing it. :) I was the first one to ask Stephanie about Joe's gansey to which she replied "Stop it, that's not nice" which was really funny. One other person asked later as they weren't in the room when I brought it up (in my defense Stephaine brought up gansey's first). I was able to hold and look at her Bohus sweater, wedding shawl and one other shawl I don't remember the name of. She does really incredible work and it was really nice to be able to see in person the stuff she knits on her blog.
I took my first sock along which I am (completely by coincidence) knitting with Tina's yarn and with Stephanie's pattern (really, I started before I even knew they were doing this weekend). I showed it to Tina first in the evening after the first day of class. I figured my sock was okay, I mean it's my first sock how good can it be? I was floored when I first moved Tina with how the color pattern was moving across the sock because apparently how it's moving doesn't look like it comes from the same ball of yarn (I made Tina speechless!). She called Deborah over who works at Tina's company Blue Moon Fiber Arts and she was floored too. Then I told her that it was my first sock, and she was amazed and didn't quite believe me. We had show and tell the last night which I was unable to stay for and Tina said I should show it then and that it was a really well knit sock. Stephen Houghton who was there helping Tina and Stephanie (Tina called him over too) told me he was jealous of my sock (very cool as he is a very accomplished knitter). I was bowled over (and very flattered) by their estimations of my sock. I thought it was okay and they thought it was amazing (apparently sometimes I dumb down to myself how good something is, also if I have nothing to really compare it to I have a harder time knowing the value). I was excited to show it to Stephanie the next day even before all this happened as I kind of consider her the queen of first socks. So the next day I was stupid happy to show it to her. I asked her over to where I was the next day during a break and I was so excited the whole interaction was kind of a blur. I think she said something to the effect of "oh yeah, all first socks look like that" (sarcastically :) ) but I'm not really sure as I was still nervous of what she would think and I had my adrenaline going. All I for sure remember is asking her over to where I was, some kind of conversation happening and then we were both laughing really hard. No matter what it was it was awesome. It makes me want to do more of these types of conferences in the future but I think it will be a little ways out before I'm able to do another one. Everyone was lovely and very nice. I was finally able to turn my first heel on my sock with the help of another knitter by the name of Melinda as the directions were confusing me. I wish all my weekends were like this last one and it makes me realize I should join my local S&B. Knitters are a lot of fun. :)

Obsoletism

A few updates:
My computer's hard drive was toast as I suspected but this turned into really good news. Well, if you over look the fact that I no longer have my hard drive. I smartly bought AppleCare when I bought my computer (but stupidly forgot) so I was given a new hard drive (given, can you believe it?!?!) and whereas my old one was 80GB my new one is 160GB(it's the smallest they have). They also offered to completely reface the inside of my computer (new keyboard and mouse tracker thingy, which also fixes the outside edges that have been breaking off for a while now and new bezel which is what surrounds the screen) for FREE. I was literally speechless and thinking "what's the catch", I mean I basically got a brand new computer (if only they replaced my disc drive) for NOTHING. This is shocking like polar bear swimming. I urge anyone that buys a Mac to get AppleCare. You may not ever use it but if you ever need to you're really going to wish you had. It's a good thing that I have an external drive because I can pull everything over as of 2 months ago. Some stuff I'll have to start all over but most of it is like it never happened. Awesome.
Also I am finally at my knitting retreat, pictures will be posted and blogging will happen but I have to live it first. :)

What I really want to talk about is Obsoletism. I was listening to public radio today and they talked to Anna Jane Grossman who wrote an encyclopedia on it. They then talked to different people about what they missed that was obsolete. One of the most thought provoking was when a guy said that he made the motion to his son to roll down the window (like you used to have to do manually) and thought "he probably has no idea what I mean". I think it's an interesting new way to look at the world. Instead of bigger, better, faster, more it's smaller, simpler, and slower. I think often times we forget to look at what we leave behind in our rush to reach what's in our future of newness. I often think about what did Pioneer's think about when they had free time, as I'm sure it was a completely different mode of thinking. But I do know that we have a much simpler life where we have freed up enormous amounts of time to do things like blog.

Let's just take computers for example (they are kind of on my mind). I mean I remember when 1GB was unfathomable. Where people either didn't think about it or though "1GB, what would one possibly need that for?" Whereas they now make computers that have 1TB or even 2TB of storage space on them. When I bought my computer I thought 80GB would be plenty and now that's obsolete. I'm sure that even if I looked for one it would be hard, and people would think I was nuts. I also miss having opportunities to use/hone my imagination. It seems as though now so many times things are just cookie cuttered out. I remember always being told to entertain myself and not with a television. I remember helping pass that on to my little brother and sister when we would play hours of dress up, put on plays with playbills, and create imaginary places. I remember the first Atari, Nintendo, and Sega. I am interested to see how this generation of children that have grown up with them will be connected to the world of imagination and thinking outside the box.

I like knitting because it harkens back to a simpler time and while knitting is not obsolete it is definitely creative. It leaves you time to think and create and the general process hasn't changed a lot even though a lot of the fundamentals (what knitting needles and yarns are made out of) have. Okay off to knit and enjoy my weekend.

This may be the end of it...

I just want to start off by saying I love my Mac. I have never been happier with any computer purchase in my life than when I got my Macbook in 2006. For the most part it's never died, glitched, stayed frozen or given me the gray screen of death.That is until last night. My Mac totally froze on me and wouldn't unfreeze so I had to do a hard reboot. This has happened to me only once or twice in the entire three years I've had it but I'm not even sure of that. Last night when I powered it back up it made that trademark sound but I could tell something was wrong. Because a gray screen came up instead of the regular blue one and the picture initially looked like this:

It stayed like that for at least 10 minutes so, right or wrong I did a second hard reboot. This time it also made the trademark sound but then you could hear the hard drive click three times and then go practically silent. Still same gray screen and instead of the apple there is now a blinking folder with a question mark on the front of it. (I was unable to find a picture of this) That's all I get and then after it does this for a little bit it powers itself down. Oh, I am so screwed. So while I was freaking out last night I called my local Apple store to see what they had to say over the phone. The guy I talked to did not make it sound promising and he in fact even sounded a little sad that he had to tell me it was bad news. This only makes me conclude that my Mac is toast. I don't think anyone ever sounds sad unless it's really bad news. Irregardless I am taking it in today to get it diagnosed and keeping my fingers crossed. This is the last thing I need right now and at the worst I hope they can pull some files off of it for me. I do have to say that I back up my computer so all is not lost, although it's been two months since I backed it up last.
This is what it looks like now:

Wish me luck.

Doing

I've been listening to a lot of NPR lately. I've been in the car a lot lately in the evenings and I even have Isaac hooked on NPR now. Normally I just like to listen (if I remember) on Sunday mornings (in the car, it's the only place I listen to the radio) to Garrison Keillor, Car Talk, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and This American Life. I am still trying to figure out how BBC news is live at 7-8pm. I mean really? That's like 3-4am. Really? I think this is crazy. Those poor people, just to do the news.

All this listening is a result of helping Isaac with his business which (since I have a day job) is in the evenings. Does anyone else have a favorite NPR show?

Yes, Maybe, No, Maybe, Yes?

Who wants a saga? I don't, I just want a place to live. So two Thursday's ago I found the cutest place to live as evinced below. This was two days after we were asked politely (very politely and with much sorrow) to move. The one draw back is that it's in Everett. I forwarded it to Isaac and started obsessing right away while intermittently bringing myself back to reality. I know all houses that are advertised are made to look much better than they are, that's the nature of advertising. Isaac and I went to look at some places that night and then I drove up to just drive by it and see if it was as good as it was advertised. When I was on my way up one of the owners called back and I asked her if there was any way that she would be able to show it to me that night as I was driving up. She said she was able to show it to me and it was just as good as the ad. I was really excited to show Isaac and I was hoping that there wasn't someone else interested before us. We set it up for Isaac to see it on Saturday and he fell as in love with it as I did. We talked to the owners about renting it and the lease to own option. They assured us it wasn't a big deal either way. We took an application and I sent it to them on Monday. We were the first people to do so and we have great credit so it's a no-brainer right? We even slept on it and still thought it was a good idea.

This is where it starts to get funky. Last Thursday the other owner called to check up and let me know that there was someone else interested in the least to own option. He seemed to act as though at that point that we only wanted to rent so I reminded him that we were interested in the lease to own option. He also told me that I would have an answer by Saturday. I was patient enough to wait until 3:30p.m. (I know!) until I thought "what gives" and took the bait and called. I talked to the other owner and she had no idea that I was supposed to get a decision on Saturday (WHAT!?!) but she would have her husband call me back with the specifics on lease to own. Also they had just received the paperwork from the other person on Saturday and weren't able to check it out until Monday when the offices were open. Why then was he telling me we would have a decision on Saturday?!?! At this point we are being pushed into lease to own and even though we were the first ones to fill out paperwork and be prompt about it I felt as though we were being brushed off. I was really ticked at this point on Saturday and I basically wanted to pull out.

So while I'm venting to my mother in law Isaac has to "go get something from the car" and proceeds to call the husband. (Oh yeah Isaac wanted me to solely deal with this. I didn't think it was a bright idea.) He finds out that they want an outrageous amount of money down up front and other wacky stuff. Basically at that point we're back at square one. Isaac told him no way on the money (we might as well buy the house at that point and we're not in a position to do so right now because of student loans) but we could possibly pay more on the monthly rent. The guy says that at this point he's going to call a leasing agent/Realtor to find out what he should do. I run to the store to buy groceries for the week and Isaac gets a call back after the guy talked to a leasing agent/Realtor and he now has a much saner proposition. We rent it for two years at the originally advertised monthly rent and then when two years are up we get first rights. At this point we are willing to do this option. I believe that they are good people but have no idea what they are doing and so they are screwing it up horribly. We set up a meeting with them for Thursday to look over the papers they are drawing up and most likely signing them. Wish us luck.

Oh, yeah should I be worried that I saw that they are still advertising it?

Counting Blessings

So last night Isaac and I were asked in a very nice way to find a new home and we have 30 days to do so. We didn't out stay our welcome or do anything to cause this. Our cousins' who's property we live on have other relatives in more desperate need than us. So while I am stressed to the max, trying not to cry and freak out I am counting my blessings to stay sane. We will make this work and find a way to support ourselves, that's just our personalities.One reason why this stresses me out is that our rent money currently goes to student loans we can't ask for a lower interest rate, can't consolidate or do anything else with and we have at least 4 more years to go if not more. Okay, here are my blessings.

I could have lost Isaac this year but luckily he survived his wreck with barely a scratch.
Isaac has expanded his side business and that will help us pay for a place once we find one.
Isaac and I have really good jobs.
We have our health and each other.
We can do this. I have to tell myself this a lot now and I will probably cry at least 12 times today but we will survive and find a new place to live and a way to pay for it.

Swamped

My house is a pit. I don't think it's going to get better by the way. I haven't had a lot of time to clean it lately and when I'm at work that's all I want to do lately. I know lame right? I just want to go home and clean my house. The sad part is that a lot of it is Isaac's stuff. Some days I just want to haul it all off to the garbage or give it away but I am good and I don't. I know that it's probably much better than I am making you all imagine it is. Sometimes (all the time) I wish I lived with a(nother) neat freak. I am working at accepting what I cannot change, it's a everyday process.

Anyways, I am addicted to knitting my first sock. I think this is because I want to finish it and see if/how badly I screwed it up. I'm also really enthralled with the colorway. It's called Treehugger and there is this muddy brown section that slowly wends itself back and forth over the sock and I'm interested to see where it goes next. It obviously reminds me a tree root and it's rather ingenious as to how it's moving back and forth. I've tried it on so far and it fits (so far) which I hear is half the battle. I also went shopping last night for an outfit to wear this week to an event that my work is holding. I didn't find anything suitable (the one dress I wanted they didn't have in my size and they couldn't get to it to me in time) but Anthropologie is having an amazing sale on dresses. With the prices the way they were I seriously thought that I was in Target for a moment but the decor set me right. I was able to get two lovely lovely dresses but sadly neither of them will work for my event this week. After a couple more hours of shopping I still didn't turn anything up and I'm tired of shopping now (mainly because my original dress idea was perfect) so I have put together an outfit in my current wardrobe that I think will work.

Crazy Pie

I want to make this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And... this:

Like the title says I think I'm eating crazy pie because these all will take me forever and I don't know how to do half of it. Did I mention I want to make socks?

Christmas moved and no one told me.

So yesterday I was reading Yarn Harlot (aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee). I am currently reading her archives because I always need something to do in the evenings and I alternate between games and reading people's blogs. I however, am also reading her current blog entries when she posts. Well yesterday I was  covering the front desk's lunch break like I always do (it's a small private company and it's totally okay that I do this) and I checked her blog to see if she'd posted. She had and this is what she had posted. I have been wanting to take classes and I had especially been wanting to take a class by Stephanie. So when she posted that she and Tina Newton (of Blue Moon Fiber Arts!!) were going to hold a weekend of teaching classes I was extremely excited. I was even more excited that it was being held a stone's throw from where I currently live. They were only offering 40 spots and I knew that if I wanted to take these classes that I would have to act quickly. I was lucky that I read Stephanie's post soon after she posted it but I knew that they would be inundated with requests to attend. I thought I would take a shot at it and see what would happen. The front desk computer is a dinosaur and yesterday it was EXTREMELY slow. I was practically crawling out of my skin (the thing took about 3 minutes for me to open my e-mail) when I was finally able to shoot off an e-mail. I was so nervous and excited at the chance that I completely forgot to give them my name, address and phone number, like they had asked. I remembered an hour later and sent another one with all the info in the e-mail. I waited on pins and needles all day yesterday checking my e-mail and phone but nothing. I didn't get anything and by this morning I didn't think that I was in because they had posted around noon yesterday and I was sure that they had e-mailed everyone yesterday. So this morning when I got an e-mail from TIna Newton(!) saying oh so nonchalantly that if I still wanted a spot it was mine. I was silently pleased (I started jumping up and down and squealing in my office, hey it was early and I was the only one there) and went on with my day. Tina obviously hadn't seen my second e-mail as she asked me to e-mail her back with the information I had (stupidly) forgotten the day before or I could call her. I could call Tina Newton!?!  So I called her on my break and gave her my info. By this point the stupidity of my first e-mail was funny. Tina thought so too and we laughed about it (total out of body experience).  I am still beside myself with happiness, when I got the reply e-mail first thing this morning (you  remember I acted calmly and rationally right?) I literally felt like it was Christmas morning and I was a little child again. It was fantastic.

Now on to the rational part. I know that it's expensive but I'm taking it as my Birthday/Christmas present. I realized that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's the first one they are doing and it hasn't been established that they will do more (I strongly suspect they will). I know all the types of stitching required I just need to brush up on my abbreviations and how to do them all (I do know some). I also get to learn how to dye yarn and I get to dye my own and take it home. Seriously. Christmas.

Evening Driving

So lately (well the past five weeks) I've had a lot of solo time. Now I'm all for having time to oneself, I really enjoy it actually but the past few weeks it's been a little much. Isaac has been working until 6pm at his teaching job and then having to go work on his honey business that he runs independently. He has an seperate space to do this in that isn't at our house. I am very proud of him and that he has been able to be so successful at it and that he has the dedication and perseverance to build it to where it is today. It however, also means that he isn't getting home until midnight. This is compounded by the fact that he sells honey at farmers markets on the weekends (both days). So while working out, knitting, watching tv and cooking/baking is a lot of fun, I'm going stir crazy. This means I travel on the weekends, whether it's day trips or visiting family and friends. But I've also taken to driving in the evening. We don't live very far from the countryside and it's really pretty during dusk. There's a loop (well triangle) that I drive a lot from Redmond to Carnation to Fall City and back to Redmond. I haven't driven out there much this year but it's a place I love to go and it takes up about an hour of my evening and makes me feel like I'm doing something. I do have a couple friends that I can hang out in the evenings with and I do but I still have plenty of evenings left over, so this has been my solution. Luckily Isaac only has one more week of working until 6 and then he's back to getting off at 1pm which means he's home when I get home from the gym. Below are some pictures of places I drive by in the evenings. Enjoy.

I knit.

I remember the first time that my grandma introduced me to knitting. I'm pretty sure I was around 8 or so and I even remember the house they were living in. I don't remember if I asked her or she asked me if I wanted to learn or if I was just being obnoxious and she wanted some way to occupy me (probably the last one). She sat me down in her chair and gave me a piece that she was working on (I think it was a scarf) and showed me the knit stitch. I remember how amazing it was that I was able to take that ball of pastel pink yarn and transform it into something. The funniest part is that apparently I taught myself the purl stitch (there are only two stitches in knitting and purl is the other one) because when my grandma came back I still remember her exclamation of "Oh, I see you learned how to purl." At the time all these words didn't mean anything because I still didn't really know what I was doing, I just remember how amazing it made me feel. I however, did not pick it up right away again. I mean when you're eight years old it's kinda hard to have enough money for needles and yarn when no one else in your immediate family knits and your grandma lives about 1,500 miles away.
I picked up knitting again after college. I was living in Eugene and I worked next door to a yarn shop. I remember passing by and always being enchanted. I remembered the knit and purl stitches well enough but I didn't know how to cast on. So I went in one day, bought some yarn and needles and had one of them teach me. I remember meeting resistence because I was left handed. They were nice enough about helping me but it was like I was a foreign animal and being left handed was all it took to stump them. So then I made scarfs because I was basically shown I was unteachable due to being left handed. During this time I moved up to Seattle and I had many more yarn shops to choose from but I didn't really try to learn how to knit from anyone else. I was still gun shy from being treated like I was unable to be taught to knit. So I kept buying yarn and books and making scarfs. Okay, you can only take making so many scarfs until you just want to shoot yourself out of boredom. I still loved knitting so I tried to teach myself from the books I had bought. This was super frustrating because it didn't work. I didn't have enough know how and was nervous to ask, so I stopped. I stopped buying yarn and knitting needles. I stopped entirely.
Then through the magic that Facebook is Jilian found me. We became friends in high school and as life goes we lost touch. Jilian is a rather accomplished knitter (thank you partially to her mom Karen) who had been around knitting most of her life if not all of her life. Jilian made me feel like I could knit. That somehow being left handed didn't make me some sort of enigma and completely unteachable. She did it with such a grace and sweetness that I was immediately comfortable. She taught me other cast-ons, what a gauge swatch is and why it's SO important (even though it's a pain in the you know what), and she piled me with resources and patterns. It also helps that there are now so many tutorials online (one example) that show you what to do if you get stuck. But best of all she got me started again. Thank you Jili, your friendship and (knitting) guidance means so much to me. I'm very grateful that we became friends again.
I have recently learned how to knit in the round, use double pointed needles, ribbing and I am going to try cabling soon. I don't feel like there is anything I will not able to learn with knitting. I'm just going to do it my own left handed way. :) I also have to say that Isaac has been very sweet about it. He's always been so supportive and willing to do what he can (if anything) to help me (aka. go yarn shopping). He asks me about projects I'm working on and gets excited about the progress I'm making. Now if I could just get him into yarn shops, well actual knitting would help too.
Perhaps the funniest thing that Jilian has intruduced me to (well, knitting related) is the Yarn Harlot. She's so frickin' hilarious and an amazingly fast knitter. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go add to my stash.

Finally.

This explains how I work to all the people that think I "know" computers. I guess I do but I'm willing to work for the answer. I took this from Burton who took it from xkcd.

Bigamist

So apparently I got married this weekend. I know what you're thinking but I am the victim here. In fact this is still so shocking to me I can barely believe it. I woke up to the proof of it Sunday morning, pictured below.




As you can see it's on my right hand. I just keep telling Isaac that his grandmother gave me a piece of her costume jewelry and laughing nervously. My new husband who I call Hank (apparently his full name is Hankadalberto) thought it would be respectful to Isaac (as if) if he put it on my right hand so he wouldn't have to take off my current wedding ring. His mother Linda (pictured below) I know is the culprit. Just look at her laughing it up knowing that her whole plan was coming together.



Susie (my first mother in law) told me later that she heard Linda mumbling to herself saying things like "my little Addy (yes that's apparently what she calls him) and Sari" and "a match made in heaven". Susie thought it was strange but not totally abnormal for Linda. I'm surprised I even made in on Linda's radar. After all I'm not Italian and their family is like 100% Italian. Also Linda's mother called me an imbecile, so I'm a little afraid to spend time with her. But apparently Italian mamas get what they want and Linda was hellbent on having me for her son. I'm expecting my full immersion course with Linda's mom (I jut hope her opinion improves of me) soon. I don't really know what I'll tell Isaac since I know I'll be locked away in a condo in Portland until I can at least fake being 100% Italian. So soon I'll be speaking like I'm from the mother country or the Bronx, I'm not sure yet. I will also (according to Linda) be able to make, gnocchi, ravioli, tortellini, and pasta sauce with my eyes closed. I just hope Linda's mom doesn't try to knead my belly.

I still don't know how I'm going to become accustomed to my new double life. I guess I'll be living the Italian life with Hank when I'm not living the American life with Isaac. The details are sketchy. The last I knew I was at Isaacs grandma's 75th birthday party and then next thing I knew I was waking up with that rock on my finger. I knew something was up when Linda kept handing me drink after drink swearing it was water. She's also making up this fantastical story of how I offered to be her daughter in law. Or really, to listen to her I was begging, in front of Isaac no less! I just know she had it in her head that somehow once I became her daughter in law we could have slumber parties where we iron our hair. I really have to introduce that girl to a straight iron. Hello, 21st century?

Not to mention I haven't even met Hank! I only know his first name, the last one is a little fuzzy. I mean how much can I really remember when Linda gave me enough sedative for a Kodiak? I've received one e-mail from him (apparently he's shy, I knew Linda was behind it) where he talked about how he really wished he would have been named Giacomo (I mean really, Hankadalberto?) but it's a little late now. That's how I found out that I'm going to be holed up in Lindas mom's condo. He said he was really sorry but he thought I was cute and that he thought that he would to quote him "grow on me". Hmmm, I don't know if that really sounds very promising.

So I'm in a pickle, but I know I'll find a way out some how. Just look at poor little Susie (pictured below with Linda) she didn't even know it was coming.

Good, good, good

So this past weekend I finally got to see Mary. One of my best friends, it just sucks that we normally live so far apart. However the upside to it is that's how I got to see Paris with Mary as my travel buddy. But I digress. She currently lives in Eugene because her husband Matt is in the Air Force and he is has been stationed in South Vietnam for the past year. He gets home on Sept. 1st Horray! Coincidentally that's Isaac's birthday. So when Matt gets home they are moving to their new base in Santa Barbara, CA. Leaving us both with the only way to see each other is by flying. So Mary drove up from Eugene and I drove down from Seattle and we met at Cannon Beach. That's 3 1/2 hrs one way for each of us. (Apparently we both really wanted to see each other) It was great to see her boys Taylor and Aidan and even though they didn't remember me they were very sweet and warmed up immediately. They held my hand walking, Aidan let me assist him to the bathroom so Mary could eat her lunch and they even asked me to chase them around on the beach squealing the whole time. It was amazing fun. Below are a few pics from that day. Mary was unlucky that she had to make the drive back that night, I was super lucky in that I was able to crash at Isaacs grandmas' which is only an hour and a half away from Cannon Beach. I'm so glad we both drove as we probably get to see each other about once every two years.

Missing

So yesterday was my mom's birthday. I didn't do anything even though I remembered. I (a while ago) decided to not speak to her again until (if ever) she gets herself sorted out to have normal and healthy relationships with those around her. While part of me feels incredibly guilty the other part of me knows this is how is has to be. I am tired of feeling guilty and like I am a bad person due to whatever it is that she says about me behind my back because I do not conduct myself in a way that she finds appropriate or complimentary to her.

My major grappling point is that she's my mother. So the part that feels guilty is trying to tell the other half to grin and bear it. To still love her in her sickness and to continue to reach out to her. To be the better person. My issue with this is that it is chosen behavior. She sees nothing wrong with how she is and therefore no reason to do anything about it. Any attempts I've made to even broach the subject ends in an all out attack by her on me. Another part is that it doesn't do any good. She's going to twist the situation around any way she can until she is the winning party. I have struggled for so many years with this and it's totally futile.

It's beyond frustrating how she can switch to different facets of her personality. Unless you are a part of her immediate family you don't ever get to see all the facts and compare them. So her public face is awesome. If I knew her public face I'm sure I would want to be her friend. I can't tell you how many people have told me how lucky I am to have her as a mom. At those precise moments with ever fiber of my being I want to turn to them and make the offer for them to take her off my hands. But I don't. It doesn't make sense to them and it would reinforce what an ungrateful child I am.

Ever since I have come to this decision to not participate I have had a strange feeling come over me. It's like I'm orphaned and while it makes me sad and angry I know I can't do anything about it. I am also so very grateful for all the women I have in my life that are mother figures to me. It's just not the same. Part of me feels really bad for saying that because these are really great women.

Part of me is totally over it because I can't continue a losing battle and I can't continue to let her degrade me in a totally passive way. (I think that's why it was so confusing as a child, she had my older sisters and I say the mean stuff to each other for her) And the other part I think just needs time. I've done plenty of growing up on my own in the past couple of years and I'm still working on it. I think the guilty part just needs help on days like today.

I would also like to say that I know how incredibly lucky I am. No one's life is fair. I totally get that and I know I'm not the exception to the rule. I also know that plenty of people have and have had it way worse than I do. I count my blessings, and I am grateful for them.

Conversations with Isaac Part II

I: Your car won't start. How do you start your car?
S: You turn the key. (confused because all cars start the same) Are you sure the battery isn't dead? You probably should call AAA.
I:You're a lot of help. (sarcastically)

In the moment it wasn't very funny (for either of us) but looking back it totally makes me crack up every time I think about it. I love it, how do you start your car. Classic.

I like his sense of humor.

William Fitzsimmons is amazing. Go listen.

Sheesh. I'm so driven by music it's sad.

Disappointment

So still no A/C unit. Hrm. Isaac forwarded me this email he got from Amazon this morning. I guess we'll just have to make a plan to go to Lowes/Home Depot next spring. At least we ended up 5 dollars richer! I love how they also include the link to follow them on twitter. That's hilarious.

Hi,
First allow me to thank you for the order you placed with Amazon.com. I apologize for the inconvenience, however your order has not shipped because we have discovered that refurbished models were shipped to us by mistake. Since our warehouse manager found the items to be in less than the perfect, new condition they should have been, we refuse to sell them. We have returned the units as we cannot in good conscience sell anything that does not meet described expectations. I assure you that we did everything possible to try and obtain more within a reasonable time frame, but we are unable to acquire more units at this time.

As compensation for this unfortunate error, we would like issue a $5 Amazon gift card for you to enjoy, and use at any Amazon store. We are serious about our customer service, and we appreciate your understanding in this matter. We hope you will consider us again in the future.

Please watch for an email from Amazon containing a gift code to enter at checkout. Please note that your card has not been billed, and we have no choice but to cancel the order at this time.

We deeply apologize for the error, and assure you we have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again. We appreciate your understanding.


follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/EtronicsDeals

Thank you
Sincerely,
Ashley

Astronaut Food

So I've fallen in love with Trader Joe's freeze dried fruit. I was looking for an alternative to fresh fruit because lately I've gotten a lot that is over ripe. So I'd toss the over ripe fruit and have nothing to replace it. That meant fewer calories for me and therefore I was hungrier by the end of the day.
I remember the freeze dried ice cream and such from when I was a kid. It was always so fun to eat it because it was something out of the ordinary. I think that's part of my affinity for it. I also watched a show on the Food Network lately that showed how freeze dried food was made. It helped me understand that there was nothing fake about the food that was freeze dried and made me more willing to eat more of it. I'm still supporting my local farmers markets but now I always have a guarantee of fruit every day no matter what.
It's really cool though because Trader Joe's doesn't just do blueberries, bananas and strawberries. They also do mangoes, rambutan, and mangosteens. I'm excited to try the mangosteens as they are supposed to be citrusy and peachy all at the same time.

First one in a long time

I am turning
I am finding dappled sunlight breaking into my soul
Time is preciously intangible
And shifting away from me

I feel erratic in my visibility
And wonder how much of me is being seen
When I walk out of doors

The heat is radiating
My spiral is spinning
And I am finding pebbles in the sand

Nature breams my soul
And walks find my inner self
Uncorrupt
Unashamed, unabashed

The end of the road,
Where my cadence stops
Crashes me into the real world
And my soul redivided
Ideal and real
My profusion is becoming my own
Thanks to belief that has come from outside of myself
It has embedded and created its own off shoot in me
I am beginning too late

I am beginning none the less

Air Conditioning

Okay yes I know two posts in one day. I normally try to pace myself to one a day but this is BIG. We're getting a portable air conditioner! I know we'll only use it like three days a year and we'll hole up in our bedroom but seriously we need relief in our house. I'm not complaining! Where we live is gorgeous and we're very lucky but the place circulates air like a vault. I'm kinda dreading going home today as I know our living room will be in the 90's as it's supposed to be 98 today and our living room was 82 when I left this morning. It came down from 85 last night. Three flippin' degrees.
My only concern about the AC is that Isaac will try to talk me into running it year round. For example I see the conversation going like this in December:"come on baby, you can wear four sweaters and six pairs of socks to bed, you'll be fine". I mean the boy already wants a window open and AT LEAST one fan on even when it's snowing out. I limit him to the fan.
We were calling around last night, but we knew everyone would be sold out. Then I had the brilliant idea of why don't we order it online? Let's go through Amazon. So Isaac got on this morning and ordered it and paid for over night shipping so it will be here tomorrow! So exciting!

Conversations with Isaac

Last night:
Isaac: Hey the lamps in our room don't work.
Sari: Yes they do.
I: They're not coming on.
S: Did you flip the switch?
I: Yes.
S: Then you must have turned the lamps themselves off.
I: No I didn't.
S: Really? You always do. (Goes in flips the switch, lights don't come on. Turns the individual switches on on each lamp and flips the wall switch on. Both lamps turn on.)
I: Oh.

Burn

I am smart I am. ;) Monday night I was making dinner for myself. I was making egg salad so I was boiling eggs on the stove. When they were done cooking I grabbed a towel and took them off turned off the burner and poured the boiling water out in the sink. Well that's what I tried to do. When I turned to pour the water out there was a sheet pan flat on top of our pots and pans that were set by the sink to dry. I normally make the arc from the stove to the sink just fine as I don't normally get burned. Well Monday I hit the pan and boiling water went all over the back of my left hand, my inner wrist and lower arm. Not to mention my feet which were bare at the time. Luckily it didn't burn my feet it just hurt for a second but it burned my hand, wrist and arm. Not terribly badly as there is no blistering but badly enough that I have to take lukewarm showers and make sure that when ever water touches my left hand it's cool.
The thing that sucks is that it's my left hand. I mean come on I use my left hand constantly every day but you always burn your dominant hand for that reason, right? Oh well, what can I say I'm a klutz. :)

Fan-frickin-tabulous

Such a fun album! It just makes me happy and want to dance. Now who doesn't want to listen to an album like this?!?!

It's a love (tivo) hate (comcast) thing.

So last week we got our new Tivo HD3, awesome by the way. So I was setting it up and it said that I had to get a cable card. I was hoping it was something I could just run out to the store and buy. No such luck I had to contact Comcast because it had to work with their channel programming. So I called and they said they could ship me one or I could go pick one up at their service center near by. I was thinking "Cool. I can get this working today." So I went over to the service center and they had just given out their last multi stream CABLEcard, so I got two single stream CABLEcards. I was told this would be a very easy two minute process when I got home. I would just have to pop them in and call Comcast to send a signal to my Tivo. Easy as pie, sounds great. However, this was not the case. Long story short, two multi stream CABLEcards, a service call where the guy dismissed me once he heard it was a Tivo issue and 11 hours of being on the phone with Comcast customer service (love all those girls by the way)later, it finally started working, I was getting ready to go back to Comcast's box which I hate. When the guy came out he had to stay late which I could tell ticked him off but he also came with 45 minutes left in my 4 hour window. By the end I was so frustrated I asked him to just install a Comcast box. When he came back in the house he didn't have one with him so I asked him if he ran out. He replied "Yes and no." Apparently our account was over due at the beginning of the year by 60 days because they were applying our payment to a different account. We got that issue taken care of and our account was put back in good standing, I think he was just digging for something because he was ticked and didn't think it was a Comcast issue. So his ultimatum to me was that I pay him $100 on the spot or I wait a month. He then had the nerve to ask me if I wanted him to take the only multi stream data card that was still in my Tivo. I told he he wasn't going to leave me with nothing. Anyway next morning I got a call that they had resolved the issue and they had! So yippee I can watch tv again. Now if cat pain medication wasn't so damn expensive I would be very happy.

New Beginnings

So we got Isaac a new truck. Granted we weren't expecting a new car and all that comes with it so soon but it's worth it. The obvious is that Isaac needs something to drive but at least I won't worry about him while he's driving now. Okay well, relatively, if you know me you know you know I always worry. But he will now also have everything that he needs in a truck and he won't get stuck anymore, or deal with his back hurting because his shocks are going out. So yay new truck!

Not Enough

I've been really stressed lately. I've just been feeling like there is just not enough money or time. I've been spending on necessary items, it's just been adding up lately. What with doctor's bills, Liam's vet bills, Isaac's accident, etc. I feel like I am constantly trying to squirrel away money and yet it's never enough. I cringe lately whenever I spend money. It's like there's a leak I can't find. Not to mention Liam is still peeing inappropriately. Granted it's just once a week, and it's always in the laundry bin but that also means I am going through a lot more laundry soap and I'm using more kinds at once. Part of my stress is that I found that he had peed this morning so I had to clean that up, and give him pain medicine which he despises. I don't really blame him it smells terrible to me so I can't imagine how he feels as I wrestle it into his mouth. So then I felt bad as I watched him foam at the mouth like he had rabies. Finn was also terribly picking on Luna this morning so that stressed me too. I ran late and forgot my coffee cup but at least I made it to work with a minute to spare. I helped Isaac at the Auburn Farmer's Market yesterday which was the only way I would have really seen him all weekend. It was nice but tiring as it's spending 6 hours focusing on the customer. It also helps shoot the whole weekend as he also works the Bellevue Farmer's Market on Saturday's. I am proud that he is successfully running his own business. And I have to say my amazing find for this weekend is size 15 circular needles with a 60 inch cord. I really thought I was going to have to buy them online and I went to my least favorite knitting store to get them and I surprisingly had a really good interaction this time.
Now it's just time to destress. :)

Crash

So on Friday morning Isaac was in a pretty bad car accident that totaled his truck. He was on his way to work and there was a truck in front of him that hadn't fully secured their load of sheet metal. The sheet metal slid off the truck toward Isaac. Isaac swerved so hard to get out of the way of the sheet metal (he still hit it) he rolled his truck across three lanes of traffic. Luckily it was still very early and no one else was hurt. Also very luckily Isaac was not hurt too badly. He has some scrapes on the top of his head some bad bruising and after he saw his doctor yesterday his sternum is most likely broken. Compared to what could have happened to him he was very lucky. Isaac was pretty sure he was going to die. The guy came back when he realized what happened and he told the cops that he hadn't secured his load properly and as far as I can tell was rather stand up about it. We are have a few issues with the insurance company but we are going to get them taken care of. So just to keep everyone updated.

One little, Two little, Three little kittens.

So I've been stressed lately. And spending a good amount of money, not on myself though. My kitten Liam (yes I know none of them are even close to being kittens) has been peeing every where. Well not every where just on clothing and blankets and then on Sunday night he went ALL OVER MY SIDE OF THE BED. Right before bed too mind you. Now Liam isn't normally like this, he's normally a total sweetheart. I already knew something was wrong so he went to the vet a week ago since I thought he had a UTI. Nope not that. He's apparently fat and has a higher level of protein in his kidney's. So I'm taking him in tomorrow to check his blood pressure because he could have high blood pressure, it's that or clean his teeth. I got some more pain medication from the vet because I can tell he's in pain and it's not just the peeing. He's not his usual mischievous and playful self. And when he's taking his pain medication he's back to himself and not peeing all over everything. So I've also been cleaning like a mad man and changing their food, litter, etc. All three are also on a diet although I'm still worried about Finn getting too thin. It's been very stressful and I hope the vet keeps giving me pain medication for Liam until we get this thing figured out. I really hate to see him in pain although I've become a pro at getting the smell of cat pee out of fabric. Wish me luck. :)

Addicted

So yesterday morning my mother in law told me that Isaac had gone over the minutes on their plan. Isaac has been on their phone plan for forever and lately we've been debating switching him over to my plan because he's using a lot more minutes with all the business he's doing. So yesterday it became imperative that we switch him over. Another issue was the phone that Isaac had gotten recently wasn't quite what he thought it would be and the reception wasn't so hot. I was up for a new phone and he wasn't so we were also debating me getting a new phone and me giving him my old/current phone which has great reception. If he got another new phone we would have had to pay full price which we weren't doing.
So... to make a long story short I got a new google g1 phone. It's amazing and I am totally hooked. It has GPS so I have no need for Isaac's Tom Tom anymore (another justification for price) and a ton of other really cool features. Such as locale. My phone will automatically set itself to different ring settings simply based on my GPS and where I am at without me having to manually do it every time. I am so excited over this phone. :) I think I'm in love. :)

Master Gardeners of Pierce County

So this weekend Isaac and I will be in Puyallup at the Master Gardeners Plant Sale both Saturday and Sunday. So if you need plants for your yard (they're even selling vegetables so you could start a garden) and you live close enough come on out. I'm so excited as I need plants for my desk but Isaac and I are also talking about starting a herb garden.

Updates

So it's been a while but I've been having a lot of fun despite my setbacks. I also pulled a muscle in my upper back yesterday so I'm still in pain but doing okay. At least it's not like the pain I was in before with my knees.
Isaac and I went and saw Wicked the Musical two weekends ago which was really cool. I also got to hang out with my friend Jilian. I really enjoy it when I get to see her so Saturday was a really great day. She's been helping me make fingerless gloves (of which I have made two pair so far). This past weekend I walked around Queen Anne with my friend Stephanie and we figured out the dances that they have in the pavement which was a lot of fun. We also window shopped which was great especially on a nice sunny day. And then on Sunday I Mel, Josh and Keller came over and we were going to go the zoo. Stupid us we chose a nice sunny day and there wasn't a parking spot in sight so we perused stores and had a great lunch before Keller crashed. All in all it was a really nice weekend.
Posted below are pictures of the gloves.