Erica’s Blog

POLITICS:  Haven’t posted anything political in a while.  Hubby sent me the link to this video.  I love the “nyah, nyah, nyah, NYAH, nyah” guitar parts!

OVERHEARD RECENTLY (Thing Two):

I know, Mommy!  When we do the remodelling, we can make a knitting room for you!

I think those kids are marching [immigration protest] because they don’t want to go to school.

Mommy, do you wish it was break from everything so you could sleep in?

THING ONE:  Well, now she’s in speech therapy twice a week.  They’re working on her slight lisp and where to put her tongue.  Hmmmm…Sounds familiar, doesn’t it Nana?  When I was in middle school, I went to speech therapy briefly for “tongue thrust”.  They said I swallowed wrong, and the orthodontist was worried that it would wreck all the work that my braces did.  I didn’t go for long; I suspect Poppa & Nana didn’t think it was doing anything and didn’t want to continue to pay for it.  This is one advantage of having her in a public school — this is free. 

SOCIAL:  Had a great time having coffee with Lisa (formerly known as “Mrs. R”) this morning while Thing Two was in class.  We were both enjoying ourselves so much that we easily could have spent the whole morning.  Thing Two was the last kid waiting in class.  Oops!  Thanks, Lisa. We need to do this again really soon.

BIG NEWS:  Last but not least, the big news of the week is….NANA’S GOING TO RETIRE!  Yes, folks, she gave notice to her boss on Monday that she’s going to retire at the end of June.  Didja feel the earthquake?  This is really amazing.  I am so happy for her.  I’m sure Poppa won’t be too far behind…

WARNING:  Weird, insecure, introspective post ahead…. 

Maybe I’m the only one who thinks like this, but as I was coming home from Knit Night, I found myself thinking, Why do people seem to like me so much lately?  What’s the deal with that?  Now, please take this the right way, folks.  I’m not getting a big head and all full of myself.  On the contrary, I’m quite baffled by it.  Don’t get me wrong — I’m really excited about it; I just don’t understand it!

Remember those cool needles and the weird pink kitty Cee sent me?  (Yes, the cat feels really weird when it grows.  It doesn’t grow 600% like the package says, but it does grow a lot.)  Well, check this out:

 Isn’t that letter great?  From someone I’ve never even met, the friend of a friend whom I’ve never met in person.  (Actually, I tried to surprise Dani last Friday and call her on the phone, but they have an unlisted number.  Feh!)  The needles are one of the first sets she made, which is really special, and those stitch markers!  Considering I’ve lost ALL the ones Dani sent me (including the angel — waaaaaah), I’m really glad.  OK, I’d be glad anyway.  So, she sent this stuff just b/c she felt like it.

THEN, tonight at Knit Night, Jeannette gave me this spiffy knitting gadget:

She said she found it tucked away with the sewing stuff at Target, not with the craft stuff or the Rubbermaid & Tupperware stuff like you would expect.  Who knew?!  This will be a BIG help.  Very cool.  Why did she give it to me?  She said it was a thank-you for giving her a birthday present last week.  Well, gee, that’s whatcha do for your friends on their birthdays! (Note to self:  Find out when Wendy & Zib’s birthdays are.)  I certainly didn’t expect anything in return. 

Anyhow, back to what I was saying.  I was thinking about how this kind of stuff has been happening to me lately.  It’s really baffling.  I have another friend who’s told me a couple of times that she’s honored to know me.  Makes me want to say something along the lines of Are you sure?  I mean, this is just ME!  Me, Erica [insert common Mexican last name], formerly Erica [insert Polish last name]. So, am I complete psycho, or do other people think like this sometimes?  Eh, maybe it’s just that all this rain has waterlogged my brain. (PLEASE, God, let us have three or four dry days in a row so that all the dog poops in the back yard can dry out so we can clean them up.  I don’t even want to say how many weeks’ worth are out there, but we never have enough dry days to get rid of them.)

Back to knitting…I’m nearly done with Adri’s scarf at last.  I kind of messed up tonight (got cocky and took that as my take-along project to Knit Night), but I rescued it.  [NOTE to Adri:  Don't examine the pattern too closely, OK?!]  Jeannette brought Noodles and Dolci to Starbucks tonight in their special carrier (looks like a brocade duffle bag) and I tried the sweater on her afterwards.  Good thing I hadn’t “fixed” the armholes yet.  They actually need to be that big, so I’m going to redo the sleeves and make them wider to fit.  Wow, I could actually kill off a couple of WIPS this week!  Cool.  Then I can make something for Christine.  She says she’s accidentally a blonde now, so maybe I can use some of my pink Lamb’s Pride or that thin pink mystery yarn from Jeannette.  Then I can make Lu’s scarf for me out of the yarrrn from Zib, or maybe finally knit up that sari silk…