On Being Thankful

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US of A and I'm counting my blessings.

First, there's my husband.  I know, I give him an awful lot of grief most of the time.  Today however, he's winning the Best Husband Ever! award.  He's doing the Thanksgiving grocery shopping.  Of course, I will have to do some serious sucking up when he gets home but serious sucking up is still way better than standing in a mile long grocery line.  And we may end up having steak, beer and ice cream for our Thanksgiving meal, but again, that's still better than me having to stand in a mile long grocery store line.

Believe it or not, I'm thankful for Walmart gym socks.  They always come with a very sticky label/band thing around them.  I always complain about the band because when you rip it off, half the sock fiber sticks to it and after I've thrown it away, the dogs always get the label thingy back out of the trash.  They leave it on the floor and I step on it, normally in the middle of the night, and then I'm left with a sticky foot.  But it gave me an idea of how to label the socks & gloves in my Etsy shop.  I created my own label bands.  Mine are not sticky however.

I'm thankful that I found four hats that I'd knit, stuffed in a drawer and promptly forgot about.

I'm thankful that my husband and I both realized that we seem to be outgrowing our clothes at the same time.  It makes it so much easier to try to eat properly when he's trying to eat properly.  And, he's buying us an early Christmas gift - a treadmill.  Running on a treadmill is unbelievably boring, but considering how out of shape I've become, it will be nice to use.  It's so much easier to get back into the habit of running when a treadmill is available.  I won't have to worry about the weather or the darkness.  I can run for 5 minutes 3 or 4 times a day if that's what it takes to build my stamina back up.  And I have to admit, I do enjoy watching the numbers click by.  And best of all, Mike will use it for walking.  We tend to get a bit competitive with our weight loss  So, if he walks, I'll make sure to run.

I think I'm thankful for this thread meant for cross stitching.

My plan is to knit with it.  Exactly how thankful I am remains to be seen.  But the colors sure are pretty.

And of course I'm thankful for all the normal stuff.  My family, our health, my friends, their health, a roof over my head...  I tend to take those things for granted and I know I shouldn't.  I have a friend who's spending Thanksgiving in the hospital with her child.  I have another friend, actually several, who have either recently lost their home or are fighting hard to keep their home.  I may bitch and moan, but I'm actually very thankful for the life I have.

I'm also pretty thankful for my four-legged children and the unconditional love they provide.  Not to mention their entertainment factor.  Today, I've been enjoying watching Minnie guard a paper bag full of empty notebooks that I keep forgetting to take to Good Will.

She's been sitting by that bag for over 5 hours now.  When Max comes to close, she barks her, "Get away from me!" bark.   I'd like to say that she won't let me come close enough to the bag to shut the file cabinet drawer or to put the vacuum away, but....

I'd also like to say that I'm thankful for the photos on this blog.  They show me over and over again what areas of my house need to be cleaned.

But mostly, I'm thankful for my husband for doing the holiday grocery shopping.

What are you thankful for?

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Decisions, decisions

I call myself a runner, except I haven't run a single mile this month.  I didn't run a single mile last month.  In September, my mileage was in the single digits.  I'm not a runner.  I'm a poser!  Aack.

Yesterday, I went for a walk with my daughter.  It about killed me!  I could barely haul my butt up hills I used to run with no trouble.  Good grief.  I need to get back to exercising.  Regularly.  Regularly meaning at least every other day, not every other month.

And my diet.  Good grief.  My diet lately has consisted mostly of coffee and candy corn.  It's no wonder my jeans hurt.

I have to get back to leading a healthier lifestyle.  So, today I decided to go for another walk.  I think it was snowing.  Ok, I know it wasn't - it's in the low 50's.  Too warm for snow.  But it sure felt like snow.  And tonight, after dinner, I'll finish the candy corn and be done with it.  I know, I know.  If I was a better person, I'd throw it away.  But I'm not.  Besides, I can't waste it - all those starving children in Africa and what have you....

Ok, on to knitting.  That is, if you can get past this horrible photo.

What an awesome example of bad lighting.   The red is actually a much deeper red.  Sort of holly berry red.  Actually, I think it is named Hollyberry.  And the purple, well, in real life, the purple is actually a pretty purple, not that glaring, Walmart purple.  The problem I'm having is that I can't decide which to use next.  I plan to knit a small scarf/shawl type of thing and I just can't decide.  I want to use the red because Christmas is coming.  I want to use the purple because it's pretty and because it's sock weight instead of lace weight.  The purple will knit up faster.  But the red is pretty too.  Decisions, decisions.  I hate decisions.  Which would you pick?

Laughing With, not At

I’ve talked before about how much I’ve enjoyed my Etsy  experience.  Today, I’m going to tell a funny Etsy story.  I really hope I don’t offend anyone, but the fact that I’m worrying about it probably means that I will.  I’m sorry.  I remember back when I was 11 or 12, I went to Ithaca, New York to visit a friend who lived there.  I remember how embarrassed I was when all her friends would say, “say something” to me then crack up laughing when I did.  Remember, I’m from Virginia.  My southern accent was hilarious to them.  Luckily, I couldn’t understand 90% of what they said so I have no idea how badly they were poking fun of me and my accent.  That story reminds me a little bit of the story I’m about to tell.  Except, I’m not telling it in meanness.  I promise I’m not.  As my father used to say, I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with you.

I highly admire the folks on Etsy that are from foreign, non-English speaking countries and yet are communicating in English.  I took two years of French in school and the only two words I learned were one I can't use in front of my children and bonjour.   Thus, I think anyone trying to run a business in a foreign language deserves high, high praise.  But having said that, I love to read the descriptions of items that foreigners have written.  Sometimes the spellings are wrong, because after all, the American way is the right way.  Right?  (Said with sarcasm.)  Sometimes the adjectives come after the nouns.  Sometimes even the English speaking British word things in a manner that sounds odd to my American ears.  And then sometimes, you just gotta stop and wonder what the heck the people are talking about.  Take, for example, these washing instructions:  “You can wash dry.”  What?  I can wash dry?  I read it and reread it and reread it once again.  And suddenly it dawned on me.  You could dry clean the item.  I giggled for hours.

And that dear friends, just goes to show you how desperate I’ve become for daily blog fodder.  Exactly how many days are left in this month?

As penance for poking fun of those struggling with American grammar, I decided to offer a discount to anyone that can find an error in any of my own descriptions.  Unfortunately, I'm sure there are a few.  Click  here  to find out what I'm offering.  The details are at the bottom of my profile.

On the knitting front, I finished the cabled hat that I'd started yesterday.  Photos will follow soon, but first, I have to find my camera charger.    In the mean time, I'll leave you with this, just because I think it's pretty.

Daylight Savings Woes

Wow.  The end of Daylight Savings is seriously messing with me.  Yesterday, because it was Sunday and I could sleep in, I woke up at 6:00 a.m.  Except it was now 5:00 a.m.  Well, that wasn't too bad.  I was able to drink the entire pot of coffee without having to share a single drop, (yes, I'm stingy when it comes to coffee) and I listened to my Kindle while I knit on the purple yoga sock.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.

The Daylight Savings problems started around 10:00 a.m.  I was ready for lunch.  By noon, I was ready for supper.  Around 4:30 p.m., I started thinking about how, since I had an extra hour, I still had plenty of time to go for a walk.  Except by 4:35, it was starting to get dark.  Drat!  I had that extra hour thing wrong, didn't I?  By 6:00 p.m., I was eating my second supper of the day and by 7:15, I was asleep on the couch.  Between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m., I woke up, as in Woke Up!  Like, as in, being ready for a new day.  I got a few loads of laundry done, washed the dinner dishes that were still sitting on the counter because apparently, I'm the only one in the house who knows how to open the dishwasher, then I plopped myself back in front of the TV & played Solitaire on the Kindle until the battery gave out.

This morning, I was wide awake at 5:30 once again.  It's now 8:39 a.m. and I've finished my morning routine.  The routine that I don't normally finish until 11:00 or 12:00.  So now what do I do with myself?  I'm certainly not going to spend this found free time doing the backlog of housework that's been on my to-do list for longer than I care to admit to.  Guess all I can do is knit.  Poor me!

A Space of My Own

I've been busy, but apparently, not busy knitting.

High speed internet finally found it's way to our little slice of rural Virginia and we immediately signed up. There was a bit of a waiting period because all 500 other houses in our little slice of the world also signed up.  At the same time.  The arrival of high speed internet was such big news, the county had a town meeting so everyone could learn about it and get on the waiting list.

Yesterday was Installation Day.  Needless to say, the family was a tad bit excited.  I got no more than two hours sleep the night before, my husband took the entire day off from work to stay home & Google & watch TV (a gazillion channels comes with the internet package) and my daughter, who normally sleeps until 2 p.m., woke cheerfully around 8:30 a.m.  Meanwhile, Zack sat at the window so that he'd be the first to shout, "They're here!"

I can't wait to see how quickly this blog post posts.  It used to be, I could hit "Publish Post" then go hit the bathroom and the coffee pot and when I'd return to the computer, it would still be swirling the post into public existence.   That is, if the computer hadn't thought it had been abandoned and shut itself down prior to the post actually being posted.

You'd think that I have been busy Googling, but no.  What I've actually been busy with is rearranging my craft space.  I wish I'd taken "before" pictures, although I'd never have had the nerve to post them.  You'd have reported me to Hoarders Anonymous.  Because rather than a craft space, it was more like a huge gigantic pile of junk in the corner.  And my craft stuff was under the pile.  The pile made me quite uncomfortable and sucked every ounce of creativity out of my system so I'd moved my favorite 'spot to park my butt' to another room.  Which meant I'd started a whole new pile.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the Internet Guy had to get to the phone line and the only incoming phone jack we have in our entire house happened to be under and behind my huge gigantic craft junk pile.  Things had to be moved.  So I took the opportunity to rearrange.

Ok, it may not look like much and it may take the term Shabby Chick to the extreme, but I'm happy.  I have a desk, granted, it's so tiny I have to set the laptop on a pulled out drawer to type, but I have a desk.  My family's crap is not spread out all over my desk and it never will be.   As I sit at my desk, I'm surrounded by craft supplies.  None of the knitting stuff shows up in the picture, but the books are shelved off to the left and the yarn is behind me.  As soon as I get a brighter bulb for the lamp so I can see with the lamp shade on, I'll be super happy.  And once I get a bulletin board, I'll be in heaven.

So you now know where to find me.  In my corner, watching on-line videos while knitting.