Erica's Blog

So Friday night we went to a party @ Mark & Lynne's.  It was (most of) our house church group, plus one other family.  Take a look at this picture. 

Now, are you surprised when I tell you that it turned into a karaoke contest?  You ARE?  Look again....Hmmm...if you were surprised, then you must not know too many Filipinos.    Please -- I was one of four white people there (OK, the Things are 3/4 white, but for these purposes, that doesn't count).  Yeah, MUCH karaoke.  While we were there, it was an individual thing, but from what I hear, it turned into a couples' duet contest around 11:00.  Soooo glad we left when we did!

Thing One was the only one of us who sang.  Click here to watch her sing "Over the Rainbow".  She says she'll sing again next time if they get some Green Day or Simple Plan.

Last night, we were supposed to go to a party over in Piedmont to visit with some old friends of mine from college who are in town with their sons.  Unfortunately, I had a migraine and wouldn't have survived  the car ride w/o puking my guts out.  I was SO bummed; I hadn't seen Tom & Denise since Dave & Christine ("Davey" and "Ann" for the dinosaurs among us) got married, and I hadn't seen Griff & Josh since 1989.  Anyhow, they came to church in our neck of the woods this morning, so I got to see them a little, have them meet Andrew & the girls.  It was all too brief, but great to see them.  Of course, I happened not to have my camera with me this morning (pretty rare occurrence), so I couldn't get a picture w/them.  Here, though, is their Christmas card picture:

I first met Tom & Denise back in early 1983 when I was a freshman in college.  They were just shy of their first wedding anniversary and Denise's 23rd birthday shortly after that (don't ask me how I remember these details; it's some kind of a curse).  Now, Griff is 20 and living in the same dorm they lived in during college, and Josh is a senior in high school.  Wow.  There's a song that most of you don't know that says Old friends never die.  Well, ya know, with a little bit of work, that really can be true.  Here's to friends, both old and new!

Just a few highlights of our time @ Poppa & Nana's house.  The rest can be found here with the other Christmas pictures.

Hubby?  Or is that...the Unabomber?

 Right before they left for The Nutcracker.

The boring shots...

This feels a bit like cheating, but here goes the final ABCalong post:  Z is for Zibibbo!

Zib and Lucky in Taormina (STILL kicking myself that we didn't get a picture of the four of us together).

Zib in The Amazing Room of Yarn.

Zib & Lucky on our first day there, admiring some odd architecture.

Zib, teaching me to spin!

Hubby on our last night, posing with a glass of Zibibbo...

Ya'll know how much I love to jump on a bandwagon, so here goes.  This is the first line of the first post of each month this year.

JANUARY:  ...a.k.a. Christmas, Round Four since we had to cancel Christmas Eve dinner with these guys b/c Thing Two was sick.

I finished the knitting on Thing Two's School Spirit Sweater in the car today.  Woot!  Now, I just have a couple of ends to weave in, and I need to sew up the weird armpit holes.  But, you see, that's ALL the sewing this sweater requires -- just a weird hole in each armpit.  That, my loves, I can handle sans emotional breakdown.  Yippee!

Today's car knitting also featured several inches on my Morpheus Scarf.  I can't wait to be finished and get to drop stitches on purpose!  I figure it will be a good warm up for my slightly-smaller Clapotis ('member that Shepherd Worsted, ya'll?).

I completely avoided Thing One's Breeze.  I've realized that knitting so many inches of stockinette flat is going to drive me insane, so now I'm going to have to frog what I have so far (not much, believe me) and figure out how to do it in the round instead (shouldn't be too hard).

Finally, for your entertainment, I present this.

Well, even though we couldn't go stay up at Aunt Lila's, we went up to the snow for the day today.  I'll post pictures tomorrow, but it was a great day, even with the tears after the wind knocked Thing Two over and later when her feet started to thaw and were killing her.  Sledding, snow angels, snowball fights, snowman.  Oh, yeah!

We went to the snow park at Yuba Gap, and it was great -- only $9 for all of us for the day.  Well, plus the $18 two-person sled, but that will last a long time.  And the gas to get there.  And the laaaate lunch @ Subway afterwards.  But hey, it was worth it.  (Bye-bye, Christmas money!!)  Since the girls don't have to be back at school till the 8th, it would be great to go to Aunt Lila's next week for a couple of days (assuming they get some propane, of course), but I don't think Hubby could get the time off work right after having this week off for shut-down.  Oh, well...

Oh, and before we go to the snow again, we'll get the girls some snow boots and me some gloves (thanks for the loan, Auntie!).  And next time, we won't forget my jacket.  And Hubby won't wear a short-sleeved shirt.  Oy.

Since I'm not at home, I can't upload pictures, even if I take them.  Here, however, is the update:

• All that's left on Thing Two's sweater is the left sleeve and the contrast trim on the V-neck.
• I have about an inch and a half done on the front of Thing One's sweater.
• I've started my Morpheus Scarf w/the kit that Knitting Magic Girl gave me.
• I had planned to finish up Nana's wreath yesterday and leave it here, but when I pulled out the bag to work on it, I realized I'd left the necessary yarn @ home.  D'oh!

So, imagine this:  You're cruising along on the sleeve of a sweater.  You get down to the cuff, where you're supposed to switch to smaller needles and do 1.5" of ribbing.  You go to grab your dpns in the correct size and realize that you didn't remember to bring your bag of size 6 needles.  What do you do?  Well, if you're me, you grab your bamboo interchangeables (thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou, 'Nette!!!!), pull out the longest cable and the size 6 tips and teach yourself (some version of) Magic Loop.  Worked out pretty well, I think.  The sweater's coming out a little bit big for Thing Two, but that's OK.  Better too big than too small.  Besides, it's 100% cotton, so it will probably shrink a bit the first time I wash it.

Pictures when we're back home.

Well, we're probably not heading up to the snow today, after all.  Aunt Lila called this morning to say that they'd run out propane, and the propane company said they couldn't get any to them till Tuesday.  It's snowing up there, and they're having winter storm advisories, so driving would be a challenge.

Meanwhile, here at Poppa & Nana's house, we keep expecting to see a cow flying past the window, or at least a cranky old lady on a bicycle.  The wind is insane!  None of us grown-ups got good sleep last night b/c we kept waking up, hearing stuff crashing around, and worrying.  Poppa and Jenna were out in the yard doing some clean-up, but he decided to come in when a big branch fell and nearly hit him in the head.  Jenna enjoyed "helping" him -- each time he picked up a branch, she grabbed the other end and pulled.    So, if you think you see an old house flying past your window, it's probably us.  As long as the neighbors' cedars don't fall on Poppa & Nana's house, we should be fun.