Debating

So, at the Wicked Faire I had one set of gloves sell. There was apparently some interest in custom colors.

My debate? Should I open a Etsy shop and try to sell some of my stuff? So the deal is you pay 20 cents for every uploaded picture (item for sale). Then when you complete a sale you pay a 3.5% fee to Etsy. So, that's not hugely expensive, but I'm not sure if selling nothing will affect my self-esteem.

I'm all good doing customs and there are definitely a few things in my knitting future that are quirky and I would love to show off. I'm just not sure if I should do. The only thing to lose is a few bucks (I plan on setting a limit of how much I am willing to lose on the shop before closing it).

Thoughts?

This could be a worry for nothing and I'm over reacting as I'm sure this shouldn't be a big deal. My stuff can be seen in various albums on Picasa (name Smilingkid). Or if you have a Ravelry account (which every knitter/crocheter should!) I'm SmilingSheep on there.

Colorful Weekend

This past weekend I attended (my first time) the Wicked Faire. Two friends and I decided to road trip to NJ leaving Friday night after work and coming back late Saturday night. It was weird and fabulous!

In addition to attending some of my stuff was added to the Greenwood Creations table for sale. Though, I have no idea what the outcome was, I'm waiting for Ms. Greenwood to get back to me (hopefully that will be soon). She mentioned potential commissions, which would be awesome. The not knowing is making me a little neurotic, though even if nothing sold, I'd be ok with that.

Anywho, there are some fabulous pictures! I also took a video of the Wicked Faire Fashion show. All very interesting. If you want to see, you have to drop me an e-mail, as some of the content may not be appropriate for younger folks (or the more sensitive group).

Here's some of the head gear I purchased! It also gives me a good use for some of the creepy disembodied heads I have.


On a whim, I also decided to get a henna tattoo, I think it turned out fabulously.


Knowing a lot of people would be dressed up, I searched through my closet for something to wear. I found some random things that would work, and they did!


Of course there were other knitters there. I definitely saw one, someone knitting a 147' scarf. No idea why she would take on the endeavor, but I have pictures!


Finally, some of my finished objects that I did for the Faire. I was working on them anyway, but they seemed to work. I know where everything is going if I didn't sell anything. These include 3 pairs of Punky Corset Gloves, a Flying Spaghetti Monster and another Womb. I also complete Neckings. Check out the links if you want to see pictures of them.

This may just be why some people call me weird...

You may be thinking "Is that....is that really a knit version of a uterus, hanging on a yarn swift, in front of a Christmas tree, almost halfway through January?!?!"

Yes, yes it is. I call "her" Womb-y.

This little bit of knitting was inspired by a friend and anyone who has a love hate relationship with their reproductive systems. The pattern cracked me up from the first time I saw it. The fallopian tubes are posable. Unfortunately, implementing the ability to pose them was surprisingly difficult.

The pattern calls for pipe cleaners to be inserted from the bottom of the completed fallopian tube to the "ovaries" (the little curly bits). I tried for days to get wire up into the tube, then pipe cleaner. I tried all sorts of ways. It felt like I was performing a Fallopian Tube Recanalization, a procedure that attempts to evaluate and open the fallopian tubes. The wire and pipe cleaners bent trying to get past whatever was blocking the tubes. Finally, I resorted to tying a thin string around a the loop at the top of the wire and then tying that to a tapestry needle and threading the tapestry up through the tube. After it was all the way in the tube, I yanked and, brute force, pulled the wire through the obstruction. It's not perfect, but it's in there!

Notes for next time include, definitely using pipe cleaners, they seem less poke-y and slightly safer than regular 20 gauge wire. Also, I'm going to take the time to knit around the pipe cleaner (similar to what is done in the Flying Spaghetti Monster pattern) so that I don't have to worry about trying to shove the stupid thing in later.

"Did she say next time?!"

Oh yes, there will be another womb-y made. Count on it! Though, I hope to have the tree down before that one is finished, but I'm not making any promises.

Turtle Turtle!

Let me introduce you to......Sheldon!



Awwwwwwwwww, he's so cute!

This little guy made his way to LeeAnn for her baby shower. He was finished just in time. I'll definitely be making more of these. I want to try out the outfits. If you don't want to look at the pattern, Sheldon's shell can be removed for washing.

Love knitting eye candy!

The Rest of 2009

So, here's a snapshot of the rest of 2009. It includes projects I've been working, random stuff from around the house, trips and Holidays. Warning, this is going to be long!

I'll start with the people part and leave knitting for last. Well, ok, maybe not people, but check out this bug! It's a stick bug!


I took a wonderful trip to Long Beach, CA for the SWE '09 National Convention to do a little recruiting. I was fortunate enough to be able to meet up with my great friend Kimberly. The recruiter I went with was awesome and we all had a good time. Here's the view from my hotel room!



In November, I went to Los Angeles for a conference. My first time in LA! The coolest part was the hotel we stayed at, it was where they filmed part of True Lies. The elevator to my room was one of the two used! Great movie! Here's two videos from the hotel.



I also happened to see the building that was blown up in Independence Day AND on the way back from the conference I saw a movie being filmed (looked like a winter scene, which is strange in LA). Ah, Hollywood!

Thanksgiving was with the hubby's family. Lots of eating and family and laughs. The video doesn't show any Thanksgiving food, but was quite funny to watch!



Along came December! It was definitely a busy month. I took a trip to Washington state. The town we stayed in had a Christmas show every night until Christmas! It was awesome!



THEN MD had a very impressive snow storm. I think we got somewhere near 2 ft! It was beautiful, except for the shoveling (though, the hubby did that). Needless to say we carpooled to work until we left for Christmas. The hubby's Mustang is in the background of the left picture, under the snow.



The day after the storm we held a Secret Santa Fancy Dress Dinner. It was a very good time. I don't have many pictures, but the rest are on Facebook from others that attended. My gift was two sets of really nice stitch markers from Michelle.



Christmas was good, we got to see both families. Though our plan for leaving was derailed when we had to wait for the last few gifts to arrive. So a day late we headed out. The in-laws house was chaos with all the people and the niece and nephew. I don't believe I have ever seen so many presents. The kids got so many! I have a really great video of the mother-in-law opening her gift, but it's too big to upload. I'll put it up as soon as I can.

In the meantime, check out the eye candy that is the quilt my mother-in-law made me. I picked the fabric with the cats on it (the colors drew me) and she did the rest! She did an amazing job!




We then traveled over to my parent's house. We had our wonderful traditional dinner of pernil and rice and beans. It was awesome as always! Here's how pretty it is.



And this is one of the things I love to see at Christmas. My Dad getting ready to carve.



There's not a lot of pictures, but there's a nice one of the pork and other stuff here. Meanwhile, here's the kids, hubby and my sister



And the one picture from 2010! Emmy being lazy and sleeping in the Sun on New Year's Day.




Now for the Knitting Pr0n! I randomly decided that knitting things to sell at the Wicked Faire. A friend (Greenwood Creations) has a booth and was just looking for random people to sell stuff. So I decided to give it a go. Though if nothing sells, someone's getting something for a gift. :o)

I saw the pattern for this neck scarf thingie (pattern is called Fourteen) and liked it. It's really easy to make, so I made a bunch. Here they are! There's one that is black and white yarn which I used for the 5-hour hat (in the second picture below). I just didn't get a picture of it.




This one is for Amanda, the yarn is totally her!



And this one is for me!



Then I saw this very cool pattern for the Punk Rock Corset Gloves. Loved it! I know exactly where these will go if they don't sell. I will make myself a pair later after I'm done knitting for others.



My favorite project by far is the Flying Spaghetti Monster! He is just so cool. Here's the page for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster if you want to learn more.



Sheldon the Turtle has been on the needles a long time. I finally decided to just keep going with it. I'm stuck on a section of having to do crochet (which I have no idea how to do). But I will get back to it soon, need to finish some of the stuff above first!



Talk about being on the needles a long time, the Central Park Hoodie has been also. These are the fronts (yes a terrible picture, but whatever). So I'm making progress!



Finally, the project I get the strangest looks for is the Womb. Everyone asks, why would you make one of those?! It cracks me up. I think it can help any woman who has days when she is pissed off at her reproductive system (ie major cramps, you can beat up the Womb, won't help stop them, but might make you feel a bit better) or when she is so happy she wants to hug it! This one is meant for a friend, but I think I'll make another for the Faire. I have to add wire to the fallopian tubes, to make them posable. By far, my favorite version is the Knitting Womb, check it out.



My next project is to catalog all the yarn I obtained. My stash is growing and never seems to get smaller. For 2010, I treated myself to the Rockin' Sock Club, I love the idea of random yarns and patterns. Though, really, my stash probably doesn't need much more enhancement. Looking forward to my first package!

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, healthy and happy New Year! Here's to 2010 being better than 2009.

I am working towards being a better blogger.

Holy Crap!

That was my reaction when I saw this guy:



How in the world did a pepper that size escape my notice! Well, he did. There was also a smaller one that I didn't notice until I started taking pictures.


I was really surprised that the pepper plants even produced fruit. The plants were very sickly in the beginning and lost a lot of their leaves and were very yellow. They started to get bigger, but the flowers kept falling off. They were just an experiment really.

Overall, I am happy with the deck garden. I think I could've bought better tomato plants and gotten a better yield, but for a first go round, not bad. I'm learning and will buy really nice plants next year and have more tomatoes.

Oh and here's a random picture of a butterfly that was hanging out under our deck.

Froggy Friend

So first, I'm going to apologize for the quality of the pictures. These were taken with my phone's camera. I ran all around trying to find the camera, only to find out that its battery was dead. Doh. So, this is what you get.

Last night, as I was getting ready for bed, minding my own business I looked up. What did I see on our bedroom window? A small frog!

See!




It surprised me so much to see a frog on our window, I just had to laugh. One does not expect a frog to show up on a 3rd floor window. We suspect he was hunting for bugs. He seemed to get all excited when a few landed on the window (attracted by the lights in our bedroom).

I do have to say, living next to a nature preserve, every once in a while things in nature surprise me. Growing up in the country, I encountered a lot of nature, but never a frog on a 3rd floor window.

Topsy Turvy Tomatoes!

Yes! We have tomatoes! The other day I discovered (quite by accident) that two tomatoes have begun their journey to my stomach. They are still green but will eventually be red and then eaten.

I'm ridiculously excited. It's the first time I've grown anything consumable. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what variety these are (I threw out all the little tabs, when I should've marked the plants). I suspect they are Juliet.

Gardening....and More Gardening

I am generally a very lazy person, getting things done around here is kind of an uphill battle. I'm a procrastinator on top of it all, so..."Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow."

However, this weekend, I was pretty darn productive. Our townhouse became gardening central. The hubby and I spent the weekend working on the tiny bed in front of our house and adding a little patch of bleeding hearts to the backyard. The front was the hardest.

First, we had to pull out two of the bushes that had been planted by the original building company. These were evergreens that grew kind of fingers. I have hated them since I moved in and finally (5 years later), they had to go. The plants fought back! I have the scratches to prove it, but finally they were out of there. I replaced them with a peony (white) and a green ice boxwood. They are the two plants to the right...


We mulched and edged with a basic black tube type edging. I think it looks very nice! After I planted the rose a few years go (there to the left) I found that the mulch kept washing away. The edging now prevents that! Very exciting.

My description makes this process sound easy. But it was not! The bushes did not want to come out. In addition, there is a huge amount of clay in the soil and digging the holes was lots of work. Not only that as we ran into the root system of the previous plantings, we had to cut them back. I was beat and done for the day.

So Sunday I worked on the bleeding heart and the potted plant. The day before the hubby dug a hole for the bleeding heart, which then filled with water because of the rain. I'm a bit worried about the bleeding hearts placement and if it will lose all its dirt. It's looking ok for now, but we'll have to see.

We struggled a lot with the edging. It doesn't look fabulous, but it does it's job and still looks kind of nice.


Since we're talking about gardening, two weekends ago, I spent time planting a deck garden. I've recently been very susceptible to TV programming and purchased two of the topsy turvy tomato trees, which finally arrived. I went out and purchased a bunch of tomato plants and some herbs to plant. Everyone is looking fairly healthy (except for the pepper plant, which I have no idea what's going on).


There's one more tomato tree, you can see all of the pictures here if you care. Meanwhile, here is a gratuitous picture of the dog enjoying the sunshine with my plants.

Birthday Surprise

Picture this...

Scene: Morning of the wife's 30th birthday. The hubby and wife are outside getting ready to leave for work. He leans down and kisses her, starts to straighten then he stops. He gets a weird look on his face...

Husband: "You have a grey hair."

Wife: (very seriously) "Are you f@*%ing with me?"

Husband: (starts laughing) "I'm totally serious."

Wife: (slightly panicked) "I don't believe you, pull it out"

Husband then pulls out the offending hair and hands it to the wife. She looks stunned. The husband starts to laugh.

Husband: "I think it's funny that today of all days you have a grey hair."

Wife: (looks at the husband with tears in her eyes) "I can't believe I have a grey hair!"

Husband: "I guess it would've been better to not tell you and let you find it yourself."

End Scene

What a great birthday surprise...

Yeah, I've never been one who cared about how many birthdays I've had. There must have been a nice convergence of events for me to react quite the way I did. At least everyone I mentioned it to, found it funny and I did too, but not until the weekend...

Last Weekend

Last weekend, I went up to my parent's place for a visit. I always love going up there, Emmy gets to run around and play with the Bens (yes, there are two). It turns out that all of the Lilacs were in full bloom. Lilacs are my favorite flowering shrub/tree. They smell awesome and have great color. I decided to wander around and take pictures.

Unfortunately, the lighting caused the colors of the lilacs and some others to be completely wrong in the photos. I wasn't sure how to fix it, but here are some of my favorites.

Wild Strawberry blossoms, I used to eat the strawberries when I was a kid!


A bleeding heart, another favorite. So much so I bought one to plant here.


This is a great example of the color issues with the lilacs. This one was actually a dark purple, so it's weird to see the color the camera came out of.


These are just cute.


The rest of the pictures are here if you are curious. These are all outdoor pictures, but I always think it's really pretty up there. If weren't for all the bugs (I'm such a city girl these days) it would be even better.

Cruisin'

This post may actually be shorter than I originally thought. It's two weeks past the cruise and the memories fade fast. The full set of my pictures are here, other pictures are here and here.

Recently, a group of friends (Greg, Jessie, Sandie, Drew, Forrest and Amanda), the husband and I took a cruise to Bermuda. We sailed out of New York on the Norwegian Dawn, of Norwegian Cruise Lines. As with all vacations there was, the good, the bad and the ugly, but mostly good!

Departure Day

The group split up before the arrival time, have were already in NY visiting friends and the other half drove up Sunday morning. From all the NY horror storries, we were worried about traffic problems and the weather took that day to nice and gross (rainy, rainy, foggy). We padded out our drive time, to ensure we arrived by the boarding start time of 12.

The drive up was surprisingly painless! There was very little traffic and fairly sane drivers on the road. Our boat happened to be one pier over from the Intrepid Museum, so we got to snap a few cool pictures of the airplanes and such. Boarding was actually even less painful than the drive! We walked into the pier area, left our luggage, and waited in line for someone to give us our key cards and make sure we didn't have H1N1 FLU (aka Swine Flu). They then gave us a group boarding number and once our number was called we walked on to the ship!

Luckily, just as we came on, one of the waitstaff was returning with more glasses of champagne. The only free alcohol on the trip, your darn right I drank the whole thing (and I don't like champagne). The other half of our group had not arrived with us, so we looked from the boat to the pier and what do we see through the windows? The rest of the group! They were in line to check in, which made everyone less stressed since we were all there.

After a while we went up on board and waited in the rain and crappy weather until we passed The Statue of Liberty. This is the first time I've been that close.


Cruise Proper

After getting out of NY the days at sea are a little bit of a blur. There were bad comedians, movies on bad screens, good games of Fluxx, exercising, drinking, eating and lots and lots of going up and downstairs or elevators.

The water in the middle of the ocean is pretty cool. It's a really deep blue, with light blue spots indicating shallower water. At one point I recall the Captain saying the depth was 13, 648 feet (give or take due to my memory). However, the sees were very rough. If anyone was going to get sea sick, that was the time. You'd be walking along the right side of the hallway and the next thing you know you're on the left side because of a swell. Our room was on Deck 5 and the waves were splashing our windows and I heard rumor of waves up to Deck 12 in the front of the boat.

The best part of the days at sea were the drinking days! Specifically, we did a Mojito Tasting, a Sangria and Tapas tasting and Margarita Madness. The mojito business was very interesting, we learned how to make different types of mojitos and a little bit of the history of them and the ingredients. I'm still a fan of the original. The sangria was awesome, I prefered their white, though in general I prefer read. We got to taste olives (yuck), champiñones (mushrooms with garlic) and tortilla (a Spanish omelet, kind of like a frittata). Margarita Madness was just fun.

The worst part was the disappointing food. I had expectations of good food, because what else do you do on a ship? Eat? The second disappointing thing was the service. It was difficult to communicate as very few spoke English with any proficiency. You could visibly see servers getting annoyed when you asked questions or make requests.

Land Legs

The time in port was pretty cool. First day we went on an Aquarium, Caves and Highlight tour. Due to time constraints we didn't get to spend much time at the sites. Though our bus driver did spend copious amounts of time describing Bermudian burial methods, which I could've done without. I probably wouldn't do this type of excursion again.

The other excursions were Kayaking and Snorkeling, both of which I thought were awesome. The tour group Fantasea Bermuda ran both tours and they were pretty darn fun. Kayaking we took a boat out to a beach where we picked up the kayaks, and happened to see an Upside Down Jellyfish. We paddled around to another beach where we hung out for a bit. It was very tiring, but good! The boat trip back was awesome. They pulled up to another one of their tour boats and the newbie jumped across to the other boat, as a joke. We pulled away and left him! It was funny.

The next day we found out that the Catamaran for the snorkeling trip was the one they left the newbie on. It was a good time snorkeling around the chilly waters. I saw a box fish, which was very cool. A few other fish were in the mix and lots of coral and sea slugs. That boat ride was awesome too, if a little chilly on the way back.

Every where I went in Bermuda, it felt like we were on a boat that was moving. I guess that is what they call land sickness (I also dealt with it for about a week after we got home!). We randomly found this restaurant that looked like a total dive. We were all tired and hungry (and cranky). So we just went in, with low expectations. It was actually pretty good!

The best time was had at the Frog and Onion Pub in King's Wharf (Heritage Wharf). Good food, good atmosphere, good drinks and good friends.

Home Again

Once we landed in NY again, the group split. We took a leisurely ride back home and tried to relax before going to work on Monday.

Impressions

My overall impression is that we would probably try another cruise, but NOT Norweigan Cruiselines. I also think it's not the vacation choice the hubby and I would do with just the two of us. Friend cruises are definitely a good time, as long as everyone has the right amount of down time.

Running Attempt Number X

Since I completed the Marine Corp Marathon (going on 4 years ago now), I've had many and repeated failed attempts to pick up a running program again. I've started and stopped more times than I want to count. My goal now is to start running, regularly, and not stop. I want to pick up a running regiment that includes 3 days of running a week, and stick with it.

I really enjoy running, despite all those times I've stopped. I just have an inertia problem (the resting bit, not the motion part).

This weekend I heard two people discussing the Couch Potato to 5k program. I've been reading Binkle's blog for a bit, she has a lot of good information on running, and she had used the program successfully. The discussion was between her and another friend who had started it. I thought, "What a good time to be a sheep."

Today I started that program. It's been a long time since I ran (though recently I have somewhat regularly been using our stationary bike), so it was uncomfortable. Not enough to make me want to quit though.

My absolute favorite distance, among those I've run, is 10-milers. I believe they are the perfect distance for an event. During my training for the marathon, I did the Army 10-miler (that year it turned out to be the 11-miler, but that's besides the point) and felt fantastic. I would be ecstatic to get back to that point.

Some day I may strive for another marathon, but I can't think that way now. Baby steps first, then we'll see what happens.

This morning I sit on the deck with a bowl of oatmeal with strawberries. There's a ton of pollen on the table, but don't worry I cleaned the half that I'm eating from. Pollen is sticky stuff, I think that I can only get part of the mess off. This state has a terrible pollen problem, when your car goes from black to yellow, you know anyone will have allergies.

Monkey Off My Back

So being the slowest knitter EVER! Most projects take me a long time. I have a few projects on the needles and I knit on them intermittently. Most of my knitting is for me, as there's not a ton of people who request things.

So, it is with great pleasure that I announce the completion of The Monkey Socks! *applause applause applause*



Ok, maybe not as exciting for you as they are for me. According to the previous year's resolution, I started these puppies in April (yes, that's April 2008). The date I recorded completion, 3/31/2009. See, I told you I was slow.

These were for my mom, I say were for a very specific needles. I followed the pattern and did the exact number of repeats between sock one and two (I know, I counted a ton of times). I triumphantly held up the finished socks! Only to find out one was BIGGER than the other. Holy crap, who knew?! I had read about this mysterious gauge problem before, but thought that it could never happen to me. Boy was I wrong.

So, one sock bigger, might not have been so bad except that both socks were way too big for my mom! She has smaller feet than mine. Bonus though, the small one fit me great, the big one, was, well, big.

This has prompted me to learn how to knit two socks at once, toe-up. This may help improve my sock knitting. Though, I guess, not having a year in between start and finish might do the trick also....

In other news....

Last night, while running errands, I dropped into the local Dressbarn (saying that is weird because where I grew up, the only things local were cows). I pop in there once in a while, because they have my size and slightly dressier stuff. Usually I find, maybe one thing. This time, they had a ton of stuff! I ended up buying a bunch of tops. Some of these will translate to the cruise, all of them will translate to work!

These are a step up from my button down collar shirts. Don't get me wrong I like those too, but these are great.

And We're....Done!

I have had a week that felt like it lasted a month. I don't really know why, it was pretty good and kind of fun. I've just been walking around looking at things here like it's been a really long time. Kind of weird.

Onto my week! Sunday, I left and headed to San Jose, CA. The whole week before this trip I kept humming, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" by Dion Warwick. It was actually kind of cold the first day. Unfortunately, my mom got a little lost trying to find the hotel.



Monday thru Thursday I attended the Embedded Systems Conference. This conference was really interesting! Yeah, yeah, I'm a manager now, but I remember some of my EE background. I can do technical. I'm in a dilemma at the moment. Not sure where to go with my job. Technical, stay in managerial? I don't know. That's probably a blog for another time. Though if anyone wants to tell me what to do next. I might just try that. I learned lots at the conference and think I'd recommend it to others.

After the conference mom and I went to Carmel/Monterey area. The drive down was nice, we saw a lot of Artichokes and Strawberry fields. A lot of agriculture in that part of CA. It was really pretty there. We drove the 17-mile drive and saw seals and birds and ocean and really expensive houses and all sorts of nice things. This is one of my favorite pictures.



We then decided to take a "quick jaunt" up to the Redwood Forest area. Unfortunately, I misread the GPS and it took over an hour to get up there. It was impressively uphill and very windy roads. Always good when it takes over 30 min to go 10 miles. We finally arrived at the Big Basin Redwoods State Park and asked where we could find the big ones. Unfortunately, the forest was closed (yeah, I didn't know that was possible). I assume there was a lot of rain or something and they were cleaning the trails. Though I did get to see this example of a large Redwood.



Check out when this started...



and ended....



After that, we were beat! We drove back to the hotel and slept. The next day we took the train to San Francisco. It was sunny and warm and I got a nice sunburn. I went to San Francisco back in college and it has changed a lot. I was surprised at how different it was from my memory. Though, it was still nice. The cab ride back to the train station took us through the hilly areas and such. I guess we got our $12 worth!

I just love the arrow!



Sunday was a relaxing day, we hung around San Jose and went to The Tech. This museum was a museum about technology. It had lots of cool experiments. I was even able to experience a simulated earthquake. First, it was a 6 something that occurred in California and then an 8.3, I think that was in Japan. My facts could be wrong.... Definitely they would've thrown me off my feet!

Anywho, please take a look at the pictures to see what we did! They are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/smilingkid/California#

More than I can chew?

So, maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew. I stopped by the library to pick up some books I had on hold. Perhaps there are too many...

The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Velocity - Dean Koontz
Eat This Not That - David Zinczenko
I Can Make You Thin - Paul McKenna

In addition, I have already checked out...

Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Knitting Noro - Jane Ellison

PLUS the number of knitting projects I have on the needles and trying to get the socks done for my mom.

What do you think? Too much?

What to do when you lock yourself out of the house...

Step 1: Stare in the window at the keys sitting on the bench.

Step 2: Wonder how the f*$% you were stupid enough to lock yourself out.

Step 3: Attempt break into your house using a credit card.

Step 4: Swear a lot because you've now ruined two cards and the door still isn't open.

Step 5: Curse the fact that you recently changed the door knob to one that is apparently much more secure than previously.

Step 6: Pull some random wire out of your purse and attempt to pick the lock, even though you have no idea how.

Step 7: Call the hubby to come and let you in and proceed to get laughed at.

Step 8: Curse at the fact that you haven't yet given out the new keys to friends who would not laugh at you for locking yourself out.

Step 9: Sit down on the housing for the hose and turn the heel of your current sock project.

Step 10: Freeze your ass off.

Step 11: Greet the husband, who again laughs at you, but lets you in the house.

Step 12: Finish turning the heel and head off to work, with keys in hand this time!

Tickle Me Sheep

A friend of mine sent me this video called Extreme Sheep LED Art. Go on, watch it, you know you can't resist. Absolutely, hysterical....

Maybe I'm just a little crazy.

Can it Be?

Can it be that I have.....dare I say it....motivation?! Due to the "Bittersweet Cruise of 2009" I am attempting to exercise frequently (get up my stamina) and eat somewhat healthy. It's impossible that I could lose large quantities by the time the cruise rolls around, but I can at least get a start. I'm hoping this start is a way to keep going.

This morning I woke, and after not exercising yesterday, I thought maybe I'd take a walk at lunch. However, knowing myself, I didn't really think that would happen. I debated in my head about what to do and then I felt guilty. I finally got myself to decide and I rode the bike! I overcame inertia. It's an every day battle, I won this one. Working towards the war...