January 31, 2008

41derful!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUBBY!

P1310003 P1310004 P1310007 P1310005 P1310006  He's having a very low-key birthday this year.  He got an email coupon for a free birthday hamburger at Red Robin, so we're going there for dinner tonight.  Afterwards, the Things are going to bed a few minutes early so we can watch the 2-hour "Lost" premiere at 8:00 to celebrate Hubby's lost youth (har, har).  Now, to figure out what kind of birthday cake to make.

Oh, and Hubby's birthday gift cards?  He's going to use them to get paint for making his shotgun all camo and cool (and rust-proof), plus...a barrel snake.  Uh, yeah.  Lots of good jokes to come from that one, I'm sure (and I started with the most predictable one last night)....
Posted by erica at 08:50:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

January 30, 2008

Chugga, Chugga

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The green baby blanket is also chugging along, but it's not worth taking a picture of at this point b/c the progress isn't very noticeable.
Posted by erica at 18:09:31 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Is it me?

Is it me, or is there a pattern developing here?  Of what do I speak?  Behold the Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 issues of IK:

interweave-knits-fall-2007-shelved-a KNSP08

Eunny, what gives with the cardigans with belly openings?  They'd make great maternity sweaters, designed to fall gracefully around the growing belly, but what about for non-preggos?  Those of us with any sort of belly would look silly in these, as that gap would really draw attention to the belly rolls.  I'm especially surprised at the fall one (on the L, for those who are not IK junkies), as the designer, Norah Gaughan, is a big girl herself.  (Then again, I knit plenty of stuff that I wouldn't personally wear myself, so I guess that doesn't really matter.)  I realize that it's practically sacreligious to say something negative about The Tilted Duster, but I just can't see any normal woman with a belly looking good in it.

Is it me? 
Posted by erica at 17:31:03 | Permanent Link | Comments (3) |

January 29, 2008

teens
Posted by erica at 15:05:12 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

1:48 a.m.

[poke, poke, poke]

Hunh?  What is it, Kiddo?

[mumble, mumble]

What?

I peed in my pants. [bark, bark]

OK, go in the bathroom.  I'll meet you there.


Well, I think the barking cough was probably the reason she peed on herself.  I know *I* certainly pee on myself when I cough.  So, the kid spent the rest of the night on the futon in clean jammies and is home today.  She doesn't feel bad, but I'm pumping her full of vitamin C, decongestant, and cough medicine.  Tomorrow is one of those no-student teacher training days, so she'll have another day to get better before going back on Thursday.

So much for today's plans.  I'm off to go wash more pee-pee laundry (which is MUCH better than puke-filled laundry, let me tell ya!).

Posted by erica at 08:51:41 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

January 27, 2008

Which Kind are YOU?

Your Score: the Prankster

(47% dark, 30% spontaneous, 21% vulgar)

your humor style:
CLEAN | COMPLEX | LIGHT


Your humor has an intellectual, even conceptual slant to it. You're not pretentious, but you're not into what some would call 'low humor' either. You'll laugh at a good dirty joke, but you definitely prefer something clever to something moist.

You probably like well-thought-out pranks and/or spoofs and it's highly likely you've tried one of these things yourself. In a lot of ways, yours is the most entertaining type of humor because it's smart without being mean-spirited.

PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Conan O'Brian - Ashton Kutcher



The 3-Variable Funny Test!
- it rules -

If you're interested, try my best friend's best test: The Genghis Khan Genetic Fitness Masterpiece

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(jason_bateman)
Posted by erica at 21:38:55 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

January 26, 2008

Chugga, Chugga!

As Sharon would say, I've been chugging along.  See?

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To the untrained eye, this might not look like I've made much progress, but thanks to a well-placed and well-deserved kick in the butt, I actually have.  The blanket is at the point where it takes a lot of stitches and, therefore, a lot of yarn to get around it just one time.  To illustrate:  each of those sections (except the current one) uses the exact same amount of yarn.  Yupp.  As it goes out from the center, the rounds are longer, so the yarn lasts for fewer rounds.  I'm on the fourth ball of yarn.  The fifth ball is for the edging.  Woot!  I will be so glad to get this monkey off my back.  [Note to self:  Don't do two fingering-weight baby blankets back to back again; you'll get burnt out, and the second blanket will suffer.]


P1260004 Wool Noggin for T2's friend Annette.  The first one I made her was too small for her.  This kid must have a really big head for a seven-year-old b/c that hat fit T2 fine.  This one, as you can see, is too big for T2, so it should fit Annette just fine.  Good thing I had more yarn, eh?



P1260001a Another replacement hat.  The one Robin bought for Ron for Christmas turned out to be child-sized.  Not quite sure how I thought it was adult-sized.  Weird.  Anyhow, this one fits him just fine.  Robin wanted to pay me for it, but I told her not to since the other one didn't fit.  Hubby said it was more manly for it to have just one wider stripe instead of three narrower ones, so I went with that.  Now Ian & Ron can wear their semi-matching hats and have warm heads when they move to Denver next month.


P1260002a Annnnd Robin's birthday hat.  Last time I was at her house, I asked her if she likes her hats to be short and beanie-like or if she wanted to be able to fold it up, etc.  She obliged and showed me her favorite hat.  Yupp, she likes the long, fold-em-up type.  So, nine inches of 2x2 ribbing, then 2 1/2 inches of decreases, et voila!  One hat to keep her head and ears warm in Denver.

FYI, I HATE this yarn.  The colors are great, and the finished item is really soft, etc., but the yarn broke like CRAZY while I was knitting it (got really good at the spit-splice), AND when I washed it, it lost a LOT of dye in the water, despite a very generous amount of white vinegar in the water.  As Robin herself would say, Feh.
Posted by erica at 21:08:29 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

The Fireplace - BEFORE

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OK, this is our "before" picture of how our fireplace looks now.  Hubby discovered this week that there's a program going on now where the air quality management people, the retailers, and the manufacturers are banding together right now to offer a $750 rebate to people who install gas inserts in their existing fireplaces.  This makes it far more affordable than it's ever been, so we're going for it.  B/c they put a pipe up the chimney, we won't have to get our chimney fixed.  We'll need to get a gas line put in to the fireplace, but it should be well worth it.  The brand of insert we're looking at is the same one MarkyMark &
Bobcat have, which has a blower on it to project the heat out into the house.  Hubby thinks we might even be able to get rid of the wall heater.  I'm not so sure about that, but I do believe it will help to heat the house, and I know it will be REALLY cool to have a fireplace instead of a board there, even if it is a fake one....
Posted by erica at 19:58:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Whuzzup???

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As you can see, the Things had fun playing with the sunglasses Hubby got from the eye surgeon.
Posted by erica at 19:52:33 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

January 23, 2008

12:53 a.m.

[nudge, nudge]  Somebody just threw up...


Poor Thing One; she was NOT a happy puppy.  I tell ya, I am *SO* glad the Things are old enough to know when they're about to throw up and to have the sense to get out of bed and head for the bathroom (even if they don't always make it there).  Much better than the days when they would just turn their head to the side and puke in bed and all over their stuffed animals, etc., etc.  She kept apologizing for getting puke on the floor, and I kept telling her not to worry about it, that it wasn't a big deal, that it was just part of being a parent, and I didn't mind (yet another benefit of wood floors instead of carpeting!).

Lucky for me, Hubby's smart and suggested we set her up on the futon in the living room.  Uh, yeah.  If she had thrown up again later, it would have been MUCH better for her to be in the living room rather than having to climb down from her loft bed.  Yeah.  As it turns out, she didn't, and she seems to be fine so far today, but time will tell. 
Posted by erica at 08:40:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |
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