IT'S RAINING!

There is lightning and thunder and everything! I think the last time it rained was in February. It is not technically the monsoon because the dewpoints are too low, but you could have fooled me! YAY! The shit in my yard will live to fry another day. Want proof?

Let's pretend like nothing happened.......

Hello to all four people who read this! Actually, I know it is a few more, but you know how I always like to look on the slightly dim side of life. I am feeling a little pressure to post. We have done a lot of things lately, but none of it has been documented by the shitty camera. BUT, today is your lucky day because I just happened to take a picture with my phone on Sunday.



Can you guess what that is? It is a watermelon! At the time this picture was taken, it was the size of a lemon. Last night I checked on it and it was the size of a bigger lemon. This is evidence that you can indeed have a garden in the desert. We also got a couple of yellow tomatoes and a pepper out of it yesterday. We planted a square foot garden in early May. Way to late to get a lot of the tomatoes, but we are good on the melon/squash front. Too late for the peppers, too. Even though we effed up the planting schedule, the whole process is so easy that we are going to become the ultimate dorks and try to start growing all of our own produce. Big, big plans people!

We were spending the equivalent of $22 a week on the CSA. Although I fully support CSA's, by having our own garden we will get more of what we like and at the same time be a little more environmentally friendly because the food will be coming from our yard and not Phoenix. Down with Phoenix!

This thing on?

I am debating ending the whole blog thing. Life is busy, and although I should be documenting it, I am essentially a lazy ass.

I also feel like no one really looks at this thing anyway.

SOOOOOOO...I am taking a vote. Yay or nay? Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Laziness, 100; Motivation, 0

Ok, well that is not totally true. Things have been moving along, just not on the blogging front. Since the last time we saw our heroine (moi), A visit from dad, the gem show, and a crapload of yard work has taken place.

Dad came for the gem and mineral show, which was awesome. I got a whole flat of zeolites for only $40! Put that in your nerd pipe and smoke it. In addition to some other things like pyrite and aragonite, the "good" aka "I didn't find these" mineral collection in the front room is coming along nicely.

Besides shopping for a box of rocks, dad also fixed our non-venting bathroom vent. Fortunately, I have a picture of dad in action. unfortunately, it is the only picture I have of him from when he was here.

In other house news, spring is springing and we are planting. Part of the dad projects was getting the drainage away from the house. Dad figured out the piping situation. Steve dug a little drainage area. I pulled a gagillion weeds this past weekend and planted some sedum and bulbine.


Rey helped by catching the baby horny toads in his mouth and relocating them to other places. This was followed by us yelling "release!" and putting them back where they belong. Our dog is a pervert who likes to have lizards wiggle in his mouth. Moving on.

I also planted some sort of something that I can't remember...delphinium?...in gigantor planters we got from Costco. Pretty sweet.

Another sign of spring is the oklahoma redbud is blooming. yay!

And Steve started on the daunting and time consuming task of sanding and repainting the kitchen cabinets, but blogger won't load that picture, so it will have to be for another time. The end.

Plants, Fish, and Weather Whatnots

We had a nice visit with our friend, JB, this weekend. He came to work on a study with Steve for a few days and we had a good time taking some small hikes and eating out. The best part, though, was with Steve being busy, I was left to my own devices. This usually means trouble in the yard sense. The weather is starting to warm up ever so slightly, but it is still too cold to start pruning things back and planiting new stuff (except of course for a few cacti and succulents I got at Mesquite Valley Growers). Need proof? This was taken mere minutes ago. SNOW!

The cure? Terrariums! I made two little ones for the kitchen......

And then one for the bedroom.....

And then a super sweet one for our friends' housewarming gift.......

They were so much fun to make and the cats can't really get to them, so I am quite pleased.

I also worked this past week on some bathroom art. I ahd an idea in my head and ran with it. I frame was from a mirror I found at Goodwill last week. It was black, so I primed it and spray painted it with a white hi gloss paint. Because there was no glass, I decided to give it a paining look by gluing textured paper to a pices of cardbard and then gluing the other stuff on top. The fish and the collar were both things I found online. The mustache is all me. I covered everything wiht glue at the end to help along the painting look and to attept to seal it from the damp conditions of the bathroom.

I bet you can tell that my inspiration is the guy from the Muppets that throws fish, no?

What's that you say? Two posts in the same week?

Yes, it is true. I promised pictures, people, and I came through for once. Don't get used to it.

Knock knock.

Who's there?

A shit load of dinosaurs.

In the past month, I have officially made a shitload of dinosaurs if four qualifies as a shitload. My friend, Rich, welcomed baby Georgia (GiGi) in december. I let him pick his present. He wanted a dinosaur like the one i made Kevin's kid. But he wanted a family. Ask and ye shall recieve. Here is the dinosaur family made with Debbie Bliss cotton cashmere and cotton angora yarns. I overstuffed them a bit, but oh well. This is right after I pulled them from the dryer and glued the eyes on. I am not too, too thrilled, but I figured a non-knitter would still appreciate them. I once again used the X-treme knitting dino patterns.

And then because I was in a dino mood and I promised Sarah that baby B wouls get a dino, I sewed another one from a sort of felted cashmere sweater and some actually cool fabric from Jo-Ann. Presto-chango! Viola! Dino-mite!

Abscess Makes the Fart Go Honda

That is the punch line to a joke that I thought was dumb when I was a kid. Now that I am an adult, I understand it, and I still think it is dumb, but not dumb enough not to use it.

Obviously updating this blog has not been a priority. We have been extremely busy, and still are, but you have got to start somewhere. One of the reasons we were/are busy? We drove home to Chicago for Christmas. Two adults, one dog, a Subaru, and the open road for 27 hours. Although the drive sucked ass it was worth it to go home, see some friends, and get green chile from Hatch, NM on the way back. Best part was the day before we left, it finally snowed.





The snow was short lived and didn’t affect our travels so we were able to stop in ABQ on the way back and see Kali and Shawn and their new bambino, Kalden. Of course, we had to subject him to the wonders of the road and brought him a baby sombrero that we picked up along the way.



More soon. I still have to show you guys the patchwork scarf I made, some knitted and sewn baby things, and new bathroom art.

CALEXICO!

So Amy and I just were at Ike's to get some hot chocolate to celebrate the cooler weather. On our way back we passed Little Poca Cosa, and who was sitting our front you say? Joey Burns and John Covertino! Seriously. This is my second Joey Burns siting in as many months. I could flatter myself and think that he would recognize me and now be scared that I am stalking him, but I am sure that I am not that recognizable. Nothing like a little excitement in the Old Pueblo from time to time.

Thanksgiving, a few days late

This past weekend was pretty relaxing. It is pretty rare that we have days off and can stay at home. This weeknd was a mix of friends, football, and knitting. We had some friends, and friends of friends over on Thanksgiving. We all split up the Turkey Day duties, so it was actaully very manageable. One of my duties was to make the celebratory Thanksgiving Mobile of Death. I fashioned this out of felt and fabric glue. I also busted out my mad embroidery skills. Making an appearance were a bloody cleaver, a dead turkey, a decapitated turkey, a dead onion, a dead sweet potato, a dead loaf of bread, and rounding out the stuffing trio, a dead celery. Steve was a little fearful for his life during the construction of this masterpiece, but the cuteness took the edge off a bit.



We also had some veterinary fun. We should have seen it coming. Whenever I get a bonus from work, an animal goes down. This time it was Rey. We were playing soccer last Sunday and he cracked and twisted his dew claw 180 degrees. On Wednesday Steve took him to the vet, and $200 later, we have a bandaged foot with a very, very stumpy dew claw. To prevent chewing and licking of the bandaids, Rey needs to wear a sock. This is bad because now I want to knit him socks and he will get beat up at the park. Anyway, Exhibit A and B are said evidence of sock covered dew claw.


Other craftiness has taken place, but I will only show a couple of things for now. In September (on my b-day, actually) our neighbors Jeannie and Matt had a baby. They got this lovely parting gift from us. I think that they are Christine's Booties and a hat from Itty Bitty Hats. The yarn is Cascade suoerwash and Louet Gems.


Then we got invited to a U of A basketball games by our friends, Kate and Jeff, who have little preemie Henry. Henry is doing quite well and has grown out of his hat. I got some of the Lout Gems in blue and made him his own little elf hat.

And finally, the baby borats. They have been in the US for about 2 months, and my slow ass finally finished thier toys. Of course, I have not sent them yet. I suck. Anyway, I present a cordoroy brontosaurous from my new (and free thanks to a Bookman's thing that is compllicated...just know it was free) Sew a Dinosaur book. Notice the Neutrogena lip protector for scale. Also, a little bunny from a free pattern form Wee Wonderrfuls, I think.


I'm outie!

Marathon

First off, since a lot of you have been asking, Steve is fine after running the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. He finished in just over 3:22. Considering the heat and the problems that others were having, this is an excellent time. True, it is about 30 minutes over what he trained for and would have run if it were normal temperatures, but I am just very, very glad that he came through with no major problems. Steve looked good through the whole race, but he said that after mile 18, things got bad for everyone. He started in the “A” group, which basically means you are one fast individual. The only people before him were the Elite and the Top 100 group. He said EVERYONE was walking at about mile 18/19. He finished looking really good, but had some effects of heat exhaustion and was pretty sick once he sat down outside of gear check. Luckily, my dad saw a cop he knew and we were allowed to get our car right up to where Steve was to load him into the car (a little hairy to have cops stop traffic on Lake Shore Drive so you can get in your car, but whatever works). While we were waiting for the dads to come get us, we saw about 50 ambulances come and go from the medical station. Sirens were constantly going. People were laying everywhere. It looked like a disaster simulation that high schools have for the fire department, but this time it was real. We heard the announcement that the race was shut down about 30 minutes after Steve finished. I think that it was a good call. Despite all of the problems, the Chicago police and fire, as well as suburban ambulance companies that were called in, all did a remarkable job.

Because, thankfully, Steve is doing great (other than puking Gatorade out the window of the car on the way home), here are some pictures.

Katie and Dad waiting for Steve at about mile 3. We already missed him at this point, so we were waiting for the runners to thin so we could cross the street. People were already soaked through their clothes at this point.


Runners on their way to Greek Town.


Steve in Greek Town at about mile 17. He looked great.


Outhouses in Grant Park.


The finish. Looking at him, he looked fine. I only knew that he would be feeling bad because his time dropped significantly from the half-way point.

This really takes the cake.

You have probably heard me complain about yoga before. I like to go for exercise and stretching reasons, not some sort of spiritual crap. I don't want to learn Sanskrit. I don't want to become vegan (damn cheese haters). I don't want to be inspired to become a fake Buddhist.

Yesterday I knew that I was in trouble the minute I walked in. First, not the regular teacher. I was prepared for the regular teacher's own form of yoga craziness....overly happy, huggy, sings in Sanskrit at the end. It used to make me want to get up, scream, and leave the room. I learned to "breathe through" my anger. No, this teacher was a new form of wacky. We had to all sit facing each other in a big circle because she "loves circular flow." ok. This seemed doable at first until i realized that there would be no privacy when you were literally 2 feet away from the person facing you. I soon realized that this set up gave me a clear view of this doofus three people over who chose not to wear a shirt. This must have been so distracting because it took me about 15 minutes to realize that he was wearing BOXER SHORTS. Who does that? I feel bad for the woman right in front of him because she has to be getting nut sack views the whole time. SO. GROSS.

It went downhill from there. I kept getting distracted. Then we had the sleepy time thing at the end. I much have had bad chi or yang, or some other shit because the teacher insisted that I use an eye pillow. I soon hat itchy eyes and a nose from whatever twigs and berries were in there. An just when I thought I was free to leave, I had to sit though 5 minutes of candle light Sanskrit chanting. LORD! I can't wait for the overly happy teacher to come back.

Where to start?

I sort of got off the whole blogging kick for a while. Surprised? I didn't think so. I guess I will start at the beginning.

What do you get when you put a bunch of Italians in 1920's costumes in the same room? No, not The Godfather Part II. Nani's birthday! My Nani turned 80 (can you believe it?) and of course had to have a blow out party. Granted, this is normal for my family, so really no one questioned a 150 person themed costume party costing thousands of dollars being held at an authentic location. This is why we eloped.


Mom, Katie, Nani, and Me. You can see that 1. Nani does not look remotely near 80 and 2. I strategically used my fabulous blue faux fur wrap to cover my 80 year plus disgusting armpit stains.

oh, and the best was one of my aunts, who shall remain nameless, but is a super crabby appleton. Hopefully there really is Karma...she's due. Ok, so she says to me "I really like your costume the best because it reflects your personality the most. Conservative and plain." Beee-atch. You know what is conservative and plain? Wearing the same black flapper dress that everyone else and their mother (really, that is true in this case, everyone was related)was wearing. At least I stood out in the crowd! How is that conservative? Grrrrrrrr.


Sort of all the grandkids. This is going to be one of those pictures that we all end up hating 5 years from now. I cringe when I look at old family pictures with me in them. I had an abnormally long devo stage. In fact, that seems to happen with all of the kids. Hmmm. Maybe it is genetic.

Just like me, they want to be, cloche to you......

As part of this weekend's endevors, I made a cloche hat. My Nani turned 80 this week and next weekend my family is throwing a Roaring 20's themed birthday party at home in Chicago. I ordered a real vintage dress from ebay (it has armpit stains, ewww. I hand washed it and they didn't come out. I had to change out the water and soap at least 10 times, the water was black almost every time. So gross, but I am wearing it). ANYWAY, I needed a cloche to go with it but I really wasn't into spending any more money, so I decided to make one myself. I had a hell of a time finding directions online, and buying patterns would have been antoher $15. Screw that. I have a winter hat that is a cloche, so I decided to see what I could do....

First I traced the parts of my hat. I figured that to get the right shape, I would need to have four top pieces so I folded the hat into quarters.



Then I made a mock hat out of 60 cents worth of cotton.



It fits!



Then I traced that pieces onto medium weight white felt. I think that this would look good on really heavy felt or darker felt. The white is a little too translucent, but I needed that color for my ensemble.



Sewed it together and added a flower. Viola!




It still needs to be blocked a little. Or ironed. Whatever, it works. However, between the hat and the dress and the blue fake mink that I bought to make a stole, I feel more like Miss Hanagan from Annie than a gatsby girl. Although the though of always having a drink in my hand at this party might not be a bad idea.

I know that only two people read this, but if anyone would be intersted in me making a pdf of my pattern pieces, let me know.

Week Recap

Last week was one busy-ass week. First off was the annual Arizona Hydrological Society conference. Not only was I *lucky* enough to spend all day Wednesday in a water well rehabilitation class, but then I had two additional days of conferencing. Some of it was good. Other parts made me want to kill myself. The food kicked ass. The comedy troupe at lunch on Friday, not so much. Seriously, who thinks comedy troops are a good idea? I also realized that most people in my field are dorks. Too bad. There were a few normal people, but the were all younger. Maybe there is hope for us all yet. Then again, I would rather have a dork who has nothing better to do spend their time on figuring out our water crisis in the southwest. God knows I would get distracted by knitting or something shiny. Anyway, The conference was at the Westin La Paloma. We used to live up there before buying the house. I had forgotten how pretty Tucson can be when you don't live amongst the thugs and car filled lawns like we do.



Sunday was the baby shower for Kali and Shawn. I was a little nervous because scheduling conflicts only really allowed us to plan the night before, and I guess some during the conference during breaks. Anyway, it went off without a hitch. Kali looks adorable pregnant. I think she now weighs like 10 pounds or something. Of coure I have no pictures of people, but I do have pictures of knitting! Baby Hardeman, aka Baby K, aka Wayne Bo will be sporting this little number come winter.




Pattern: Basic hat and a sweater pattern on Jimmy Beans that I can't remember the name of rihg now.
Yarn: Crap. Blanking on that too. I think it is All Seasons Cotton.
Needles: Again, I suck. 6's?
Time: You guessed it! No idea. I wasn't keeping track because I couldn't post it right away for secrecy purposes. I think that the sweater took 3 or 4 nights. The hat took 2 nights.
Comments: I can barely remeber what I did to make this sweater, let alone comment on it. I do know that I made the arms a few rows wider because I hear that it can be hard to get baby hands through things.

I also made Nautilus from Knitty with the leftover yarn. This was a pretty quick knit. Maybe a couple of nights. I would like to make it bigger next time and maybe with safety eyes instead of gluing felt. Yes, I know he is sideways. I didn't mess wiht things directly after importing, and now I can't rotate it and get it to save that way. Stupid Mac. That is also why the formatting is weird on these posts. Steve says it is the browser. He is wrong.



After all that action, you would think that we would be sleeping in on Monday. Au contrair mon frere. Steve had a race at 6:30 AM. A M! We got up at 4:30 and headed out to Saguaro East. I guess it is the only race in a national park. The could be lying, but I am too lazy to look it up. Anyway, it was 8 miles and Steve said it was the hardest race he has ever run. He did awesome, though. He finished in 50:13 and was 14th overall, 3rd in his age group. Good practice for the marathon next month. Here he is running right before the finish. Those old dudes are just walking. They didn't beat him or anything.

Austin Part 2 and other musings

Better late than never.

So, as part of “Austin Part 2,” here are some of the things that I got in my former cit-tay. Fabric and yarn. Are you surprised? I also got a shirt from Parts and Labor, but I forgot to take a picture.



The fabric and the Amy Butler Weekender Bag pattern are from Craft-o-rama. Craft-o-rama is south of South Congress, down by St. Ed’s. It is a cute store with a small selection of fabric. All of it is good though. They have classes and sewing machines set up that you can rent to use in house by the hour. The flowery fabric is Amy Butler. The other one is by the guy who rips off Amy Butler, but I can’t remember his name. They are produced by the same company.

We also went to Hill County Weavers. I was completely overwhelmed, and not just because it is the first time that I have been in a decent yarn shop in a while. The prices have gone up a ton in the past two years. My friends were saying that it really has been in the last few months. Really frustrating. Anyway, between confusion and principal, I only came out with three skeins of yarn. One for me, one to make my mom something with since she always gets gypped on the knitting end, and one to make baby things for my neighbor who is due in October.

Speaking of Austin, while I was there I missed the one year birthday party of my coworker/friend Kevin’s daughter Maddie. So, being the retard that I am, I decided to make her a present.




Pattern: Dinosaur by Jennifer Thurston
Yarn: Leftover Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere from the Pea Pod sweater (yay!)
Needles: Size 5 circular, but it is knitted flat and seamed
Time: Started 8/25 finished 8/26
Thoughts: LOVED this pattern. It is so cute that I want to make one for myself. TO make it a dinosaur for a girl, I added a skirt from scraps of cotton yarn I had. The skirt took longer than the dino. I, of course, was thrilled this morning to give this to Kevin. He, of course, was gracious but didn’t seem so thrilled. CRAP.

Speaking of Jurassic, we also tackled the weeds in the yard this weekend. That took FOREVER, but things are looking up. Also bought a couple of ponytail palms for some pots in the front of the house. Things are shaping up. Now all we need is for our new window to finally come in. Drats.

In other knitting news, I have made some cute things for the baby shower that is taking place this weekend. I will have to wait to share until Sunday night. I also am thinking of going to the local Stitch and Bitch tomorrow. A couple of weeks ago Steve and I (well, more me dragging Steve with) went to the local café where they meet to scope them out first. Bad, I know, but I wanted to make sure that the people at least looked normal before I started investing time and guilt into another group. Everything checked out, but we were at a distance.