06.25.09
Posted in odds 'n ends, daily life stuff, knitting at 11:34 pm by Shari
Just ‘cuz I spent more years than I’d like on a farm, and helped with the garden more than I’d like, it doesn’t mean I’m able to grow anything.
The tomatoes are going well - no blooms yet, so obviously no produce, but it’s looking pretty promising. The cukes (what lasted when I first planted) and squash are going well too. Lettuce, on the other hand, and herbs - not so much.
Ever hear of hydroponics? I could pretend that I was trying to learn about that. But the fact of the matter is that I didn’t realize the flowerbox style planters I had had drain holes that were PLUGGED. And we got a TON of rain last week. When it cleared enough to go check on everything, I went out to find all the lettuce under at least 2″ of water. Oops! The water’s been drained, and the plugs removed and the lettuce isn’t exactly dead, but I’m not sure if it’s bouncing back either. Time will tell
The herbs have been living in the house and were all gangly looking. I decided once it had gotten more consistently warm (but not blistering yet) that it was time to take them out to be conditioned. The next day, nearly all of them were dead 
What’s left is back inside for the moment, seeing what happens to them.
The last thing planted is some mint in a few pots. Still waiting on those to come up. If for some reason they don’t come up - it’ll be time to quit. My recollection is that mint grows even if you don’t want it to.
The other thing I was planning to plant was some sunflowers - but the birds attacked the seed packet and relieved me of the seeds, so I either go get some more or skip that for this year.
Amber’s acting all lethargic like she did last late summer/early fall. Last time she just kept slowing down. This time it’s starting with her bugging the heck out of her ears… rubbing them and digging at them to the point that she’s opened up all kinds of next to her ears. We started trying to massage the ears with damp cloths which she seems to really like us doing, but then she started slowing down in the last day and a half or so… and the clinch-pin is not eating again. Made a vet appt for tomorrow morning and I’m hoping it’s easier (read cheaper) to sort out than last time. And if she’s gotta take any drugs, you can bet I’ll make them write an Rx to take to Walgreens.
One good thing about tomorrow is that I’M ON VACATION. Yeah - for a single day…. a day that I didn’t know I was even eligible for until 2 days ago and then had to make sure I took before next Wednesday or I’d lose it. I could have sworn that I had to be there 6 months before I’d get my first day. 6 months is Monday. Nope… for some reason I looked at accruals in the timekeeping system on Tuesday and saw that I had 7 hrs! Since I’m scheduled for training activities next Monday and Tuesday, and vaca has to be scheduled in advance and the daily phone schedule set a day ahead, it meant the ONLY day I could take was tomorrow. So I requested it and hoped there’s be “enough bandwidth” to approve my request. Luckily it was approved so that means I don’t have to sweat getting out of the vet TOO fast. Not that I want to be there long - that just means more $$$’s, usually, but it’s one less stress factor.
On the knitting front - I’ve been working on the Sockotta socks but it’s time to turn the heel. I was gonna try Wendy Johnson’s directions. I started it and then realized that I hadn’t set up properly. Put them down and started a pair using Paton’s Kroy Stripes (in the cyan stripes colorway) that are turning out great too. With the vacation day tomorrow, I hope to have the time to focus on the Sockotta pair to get those heels done so they are back to mindless knitting, ie knitting that can be done at work.
Are you tired yet of the MJ coverage on TV? It’s not even 12 hrs yet and is totally overshadowing FF’s death. Word of both deaths spread so fast today, what with everyone having a cell phone and getting/sending text messages. I grew up w/ his music and did like lots of it, but didn’t like the personality or persona or something once he passed his teens or so… Now the rumor mills and spin doctors are going crazy and we’ll probably never know what really happened, but then again, is it really our business?
If I don’t get to bed, it’ll be impossible to get to the vet on time, so I’d better shut up for now.
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06.01.09
Posted in odds 'n ends, knitting at 6:57 pm by Shari
I didn’t finish up the G&T socks last night. And, it’s going just fine working on them at work today, and they aren’t quite finished even though work is nearly finished. Hmm… wrong on all accounts.
One of the other distractions when I’m at work is reading cnn.com and browsing the articles there. Last Friday it took me to Philly.com to read an article, then I read another and another. None of them noteworthy, but it made me think back to the 2 yrs I lived down there. Somehow that made me nostalgic and I decided to try using maps.google.com to see what it looks like now.
What fun that was! Plugged in my apt’s address and it landed me about a block from the building. I switched to street view and starting going up and down streets… It was funny to see the windows for the bedroom I had the first year I was there, that overlooked the next door frat house’s yard (that house looks rather abandoned now), and the front bedroom window that we used to open to throw keys down to visitors so we could avoid 3 flights of stairs to let them in. I don’t remember there being a tree on the sidewalk, but I guess in 28 yrs, a lot can change. We might get keys stuck in the branches if we tried that trick now.
I went on a walk to school, to Mr. O’Malley corner store, the sub shop another block away where my buddy Scot worked, up and down the neighborhood streets, the walk over to the UP campus, etc. Visited the grocery store and the church I attended, the dorm where some friends lived, etc. It was so much fun to see what was changed and what was still the same.
I think I’ll take another trip to Center City one day. Likely I won’t recognize nearly as much there.
Argh… time to quit and my phone just rang… later…
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05.31.09
Posted in odds 'n ends at 5:54 pm by Shari
And that’s a good thing.
Growing up on a farm wasn’t my idea of fun. No, we didn’t have tons of fields planted and no, I didn’t have to work in the barn except for when we were haying. But, we had a HUGE garden. All 3 of us kids shared in the planting and weeding and picking, and as the only girl, I did tons of the “putting up” of what came out of it. When I left the farm, I didn’t want anything to do with planting and weeding and putting up of ANYTHING anymore.
Not so much anymore (it’s been 30 years, about time, huh?). I’ve done strawberry jam and apple butter from time to time over the years and actually have contemplated putting in some raspberry canes at the end of our pole barn. I’ve even planted flowers a few times. The last couple of years, though, nothing.
I had good intentions last year and even got some great pottery for planting in - and then did nothing.
Yesterday I got inspired. I called home and told hubby I wanted the planters brought up before I got home and then went to Lowes to get some plants and soil. When I got home I started right away with getting some of it planted.
I started with the “wavy petunias” in these planters that look like they’re coming out of the house. I loved the pots as soon as I saw them last year, and we have them again this year. I kept looking at them yesterday since I was doing a demo right by them and just really wanted to finally make use of them. So, I did.
Today we FINALLY got out onto the deck (we didn’t use the deck at all last year - access was blocked all summer long). I had already planted the cherry tomato plants in the strawberry pots last night, so those got moved to the deck, as well as pots for the regular tomato plants. There’s some cukes waiting to be planted (I have a huge tub they’ll go in) and I also started some chives, rosemary and basil that’ll get added to the strawberry pots once they are ready.
I have a couple of hanging baskets out front that I want to fill, and I want to do a planter to put on the well cover. Chuck suggested something else on the front porch, but knowing the dog, it’ll be tipped within the first hour of her being out there, so I’ll skip that one.
Amber remembers being out on the deck and took advantage the moment she was able to do so. There’s lots to be done out there especially after 2 winters, but now that I can get there, I’m looking forward to hanging out there.
The Gin and Tonic socks are very nearly done. I’m just rows from starting the decreases. I’ll probably do that tonight and make sure I have something else to work on tomorrow at work since these socks a) won’t last all day and b) will probably get screwed up if I keep picking it up and putting it down during calls.
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05.28.09
Posted in odds 'n ends, daily life stuff, knitting at 10:47 pm by Shari
Work’s been going fine lately. short breaks between calls but enough to feel like I’m making a contribution. I’m still trying to adjust to the best way to deal with the schedule and optimizing my use of non-work hours, but I guess it’s coming.
The socks I’ve been working on are coming along. I realized that I wasn’t doing the gusset decreases consistently/correctly, so I slowed down while I assessed where I was. I’m about back on track now. Here’s how they look at the moment:
The color isn’t quite right and I expect the lace is going to be more obvious once they are “blocked” on my fat legs, but I’m liking them now (now that I’ve got the number of rows between cable crossing rows memorized)
I’m holding off on the purple sweater at the moment, but expect to be back at that very soon.
When I took these pics off the camera card, I realized I never took off the pics from Christmas. Here’s a few:
Knitted Ornaments: 
Mom’s knitted shoe bag
Gift bag(s) :
Mom’s casserole carrier:
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12.06.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, Crafts at 9:26 pm by Shari
is here. Click on the play button and go to about 5:50 into the piece to hear about the food bank he works in. I liked this better than the AP article that I posted last week.
I’ve been working on Christmas gifts. Won’t talk too much about them here just in case any of the recipients are reading… I’ve settled on a “same for all” for the nieces and nephews - a fairly small project that I’ll wrap in see thru cellophane and let them choose their own.
I’m also making some reusable giftbags to wrap other gifts in. I’m using this tutorial, and probably making some of my own changes to it. The first one, my test drive, worked out really well. I’ve decided, though, rather than sewing them right sides together, turning and topstitching, I’m going to serge the 4 sides of the 2 square pieces, then do the rest on my regular machine. I think it’ll turn out great. I picked up red and green thread so I can do a 4 thread overlock that’ll be red on one side, green on the other. Should be cute.
The leftovers (I’m starting with fat quarters and there’s scraps) will turn into criss cross coasters (tutorial here) I should get 1 coaster for every 2 bags I do… I’ll probably commit a fat q or two to just coasters though so I can have a couple of sets to show for my efforts. I had bought a set of 20 fqs a while back - all in burgundy/deep green/gold - perfect for Christmas but not Christmas fabrics per se. Got a great price - it was clearance and I was able to get it on double discount day, so I scored 20 fq’s for 7 bucks!
Today I did a birthday party again and we (again) did a sculpey photo frame project. It’s turning into a nice project to do, so I’m going to make one of them up for display. I’m torn between doing it in a very cohesive manner or doing it so each of the tiles shows different ideas of things the kids can do on theirs. Probably the second is better to give them more launching points. I did this frame as a demo and use it to show and share the idea, but we don’t do the antiquing and we use a smaller frame. I also bring in a bunch of other rubber stamps and Wilton Fondant cutters so they can make letters and shapes to layer on their tiles. Our biggest problem is getting them to cut tiles to accurate sizes, so I’m working on ideas to make that happen better. Anyway, it would be good to have one in more kid-friendly colors and the size we’re using to make it more appealing to both parents and kids.
One fun thing that we do when we do this party is to have each of the kids make a bead (or two) so the birthday girl (well, so far it’s been girls) gets to string a bracelet on memory wire and go home w/ her frame as well as a gift that everyone contributed to.
Here’s another fun project with Sculpey that I demo’d awhile ago that gets lots of good comments. And next Saturday I’ll be demo’ing this one, which turned out adorable as well.
Well, it’s time to put some time in on website work so I can pay a bill or two this month.
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10.14.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, daily life stuff, knitting, wls at 10:28 pm by Shari
I did this wordle thing today (click on it for a bigger image of it):
It surprised me which words were bigger than others. Work - I get it…. but crochet bigger than knitting? And done so big… must be I talked about all that is NOT done, huh?
Went to guild tonight. I dunno - they had already started the beginning of the meeting when I got there so I probably missed some explanations, but still, I felt kinda left hanging as far as what was going to be going on. The theme of the meeting was “finishing” and there were several mini-workshops and finishing elves wandering around offering to help with whatever finishing assistance they could offer. I was doing a miniworkshop on i-cord cast off. The sign said I-cord, and there wasn’t any write up in the newsletter telling what we’d do at the mini-workshops, so I’m not sure it was clear what was going to happen there, or what prep could be done in advance. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that I came home sick from work this morning and was not up to par.
Cheri has volunteered to be shop liason. I had suggested once the idea of doing a yarn store crawl kind of thing - bingo boards or something of that type. So, I talked to Cheri about it. Turns out she was thinking/talking about the same thing, so I told her I’d be glad to work with her on a project like that. I think it would be fun and encourage activity at shops that folks might not normally visit.
Despite having my MP3 player (that can have photos and video on it as well) for 9 or 10 months, I just last night finally got around to finding out how to add photos to it. A couple of weeks ago, my buddy from support group, S, showed me a little photo album that she carries in her purse w/ pictures from pre-surgery. I decided that I should do the same, but ended up putting them onto the MP3 player. It still blows me away when I see some of them… These are the ones I have on there now to show the “before”.
Tomorrow is support group for this month. I’m not as anxious to get there because I know I’m not doing everything that I should be…. I haven’t been walking as much as I was…. The home scales have been hovering around the same spot for almost 2 months…. I’ve branched out to eating things I probably shouldn’t more often that I should…. I haven’t been able to get to the lab for bloodwork so that I can get my 6 month followup done… Everybody keeps telling me how great I’m looking 
, but I’m feeling guilty because I’m not sure I’m working as hard as I could/should be
Apparently my comments aren’t working - AGAIN - so I have to check into that.
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09.20.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, daily life stuff, Crochet at 8:32 pm by Shari
So it’s Fiber Fest weekend. As usual (since starting work at JA’s), I couldn’t go out today, but I’m going tomorrow. Buddy Robin, from Tuesday night knitting group, is tagging along for her first visit to the fest. Given the monetary situation at our house, I’m not planning to buy much if anything, but it’s always fun to get out and see friends - some that I see only once a year. I always try to work there for a bit too - either at the spinning guild booth or the knitting guild booth. The fest has really grown over the years, thanks to lots of work from the many on the committees over the years. Thanks too, to the fairgrounds doing a lot of renovating and building new buildings that just NEEDED to be filled One thing that I’ll have to try to remember to do is bring home a chicken dinner for Chuck. He’s only been to fest once, and the only thing he really remembers about it was the chicken guy. Leave it to him to only remember the food.
We had a support group meeting this week and I’m re-energized. I had fallen off the wagon in terms of tracking what I was eating and walking. Just plugging it into a form someplace, like sparkpeople, really helps me, so I’ve been good about tracking the last few days. We had a good surge of activity (nobody new, but comments on the meeting and sharing of additional information that was partially discussed) on our support group’s spark team there too.
Yesterday, apparently, was “talk like a pirate day” so there were some interesting threads on Ravelry. I’ve seen Eggface talk about other days of “importance”, like eat pizza day and there was another one that sounded goofy. So, I went on a quest to find out how does anyone know about these weird things. Well, leave it to Wikipedia to have them. Of course it takes 365 clicks to find all of them, but I did see that “OneWebDay” is this coming Monday. Found out, too, that there’s nothing interesting on my birthday or Chuck’s. Checking for all kinds of weird days sounds like too much trouble… do you know of a place that you can just find all the weird ones? Let me know if you do.
So the reason I couldn’t go to the fest today was because it is class preview day. Once upon a time it was a big deal day, only 4 times a year and we were busy. Now we do this once a month and it’s not nearly as busy. I had quite a few samples out for display and Nikki, the new Wilton instructor, was there to talk about her classes. We’re doing “Christmas Crafting” on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings in October and there were a lot of people interested in those, but I didn’t have a single person sign up for a single class. Some will probably be back, but it can be so discouraging.
One of the samples I finished up was the Market Bag (click here or search for it on Joann’s - go to projects, knit and crochet and select crochet and purses/bags - it’ll show up there). I made it from Bernat Handicrafter and was a little dubious as it was in progress - it seemed so BIG at the top edge, but the last 4 rows of the body did a great job of pulling it all in, then the handles go across most of the top, continuing to hold it together. As I put it in my Ravelry project log, I searched what others had done with it and found one done as a watermelon (dark green base, narrow stripe of lt green, the rest rose colored w/ black beads) that was ADORABLE. Well, getting into the Halloween mood, I decided to do one, scaled down a bit (smaller yarn, smaller hook and not quite so many rows in the base), in yellow (base), orange (wide stripe on the body) and white (stripe at the top and handles) to look like candy corn and to be used as a halloween treat sack. Not that I have anyone that can use it, but it should generate some interest as a class sample and maybe even get a sign up or two for the class.
I had a panic yesterday. I was walking around at the grocery store, listening to a book (Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult) and it just shut off. Okay, so the battery probably needed to be charged - a bummer since I had the ride home from work and the real grocery shopping to be done before I could plug it in to be charged. Fine. I get home and plug it in and…. NOTHING! Yikes - what’s going on? It was late, so I just finished my day and went to bed. Went to work today without it. Tonight I go online to check it out and find out that if I hold the on button down for 10-15 seconds THEN plug it in, it might work. Voila, it worked! So now it’s charging just fine. What a relief! I just can’t imagine being without it.
I’m going to go work on the candy corn sack now for a bit before getting ready to rest up for festival visiting tomorrow. (I had a typo there - I wrote candy *cane* rather than *corn* and just went down a whole “what if” design thought process)
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09.10.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, knitting, wls at 9:23 pm by Shari
So this week was the beginning of our (knitting) guild year. Of course I managed to not have a pair of mittens done for the mitten drive (note to self - get working on some!). Nor did I remember to take a skein for the skein swap. When I read about it, I figured I would take one or two and have my tickets passed on to a visitor since I don’t need ANYTHING more at my house. It was fun getting reactions from folks after about 3 months of not seeing me Several people claim to have not recognized me, or only recognized me because they were specifically seeking me out. Now, I don’t *quite* believe that because I think I still look pretty much the same except my hair is being pulled back, but I guess there’s a difference after a 3 month absence.
Last night we had our weekly knitting group at Louise’s shop. I was pretty late getting there, as usual. Louise has a schedule together for fall classes. I had to make a couple of modifications, but hopefully the classes will take off. We’re doing some on seafoam lace, the jojoland swirl shawl, I-cord techniques, and entrelac.
Amber’s been up and down these last weeks. Two Fridays ago, her packed cell volume was up (to 27 from 15, should be around 40), so we were feeling very good about things. Last Friday we went back, hoping it was up some more so they’d start to ramp down on the prednisone. Nope - the value was down (to 23), so I had to go home and wait for a call from Dr. V. She had also gained 12 lbs in the 2 wks from the initial vet visit. Now she’s on a second medication - more expensive, of course - that does seem to be helping, but we’ll know that better this Friday when we go AGAIN for bloodwork. Pretty soon she’s going to get wise to “going into the vet” = “getting poked for blood” 
Needing meds for both of us AND the dog has lead us to joining up to Walgreen’s “prescription savings club” program. Believe it or not, you can add your dog to your family plan and get discounts on their meds. Now that she’s added, I’m thinking the next prednisone might be coming from there rather than the vet.
I dragged Amber out for a walk with me tonight. Actually, she was pretty hyped to start the walk, but about 3/4 the way through the walk she was starting to lag behind. I had to keep prodding her to keep up until we were about 200 paces from home, when she apparently “saw” something and tried to take off. I’d become pretty blase about holding tight since she was so slow but I recovered pretty quickly! So, we did our 2.75 mile walk around the block rather than the 2 mile walk I originally intended and I am feeling more positive about having done what I needed to for me.
Sounds like I will see the baby girl briefly tomorrow. She’s needing to come home to do some paperwork, so she said she wanted to stop by for a few minutes. I wonder if I can wrestle those pictures away from her while she’s home. Probably not
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07.23.08
Posted in odds 'n ends, Crochet, knitting, wls at 3:55 pm by Shari
…. by 117 lbs.
Yep, I finally got a chance to stop by Dr. D’s office today to check it out. What a relief! The scales at home aren’t very reliable and haven’t done much shifting, so I was a little anxious about checking it out. I guess I felt it SHOULD be down some, because I found this week that I can wear the jumpers I bought just before surgery, and and am THIS CLOSE to wearing the denim jumpers I got in the stash from Mary. I’m so glad about the black jumpers because it gives me a little more variety for wearing to work. The bad thing is that the pair of jeans that I got out of the stash that was already big is WAY big now… gotta retire them already (I think it was almost 3 wks ago that I got them out).
The family picnic is coming soon. It will be a year since I saw most of the family except for Mom and Brian and his family. I was officially down 20 when I saw them at Christmas (I had lost some between mid-August and mid-October too, but we aren’t counting that). Don and family, Randy and family and Debby and Mike haven’t seen me, though, since before I made the decision to go for the surgery. Having had several people this week not recognize me, it’ll be interesting to see what their reactions are. I wish I’d be seeing Shaun at the same time, but I have to wait a little longer for that.
Speaking of Shaun - I’ve been kinda pre-occupied with what the weather is like down there. She assured me this morning that she’s far from the hurricane, but I know how wide the area of effect can be, so I’m not totally believing her. Between seeing radar maps online and remembering this is the child that assured me she’d be fine in France because “Everybody there speaks English” and later found herself lost for a full day in rural towns in northeast France where nearly nobody spoke or admitted to speaking English. Hopeful thinking? Trying to convince herself all is fine? I’ll keep my eye on the weather channel just the same.
One of the groups of gals that I sometimes spin with are getting together this evening. I guess they haven’t been meeting as often lately, and even when they do, it’s usually on an evening I work (oh, wait… isn’t that every evening?) During the summer, though, I don’t teach many Wednesdays, so I am free this time and I get to go. It’s been so long since I did any spinning that I’m going to take some crochet and/or knitting with me instead. Besides, it’s raining and I’d rather not drag my wheel in the rain to and from the car and houses.
I did get that purple and aqua spiral crochet headband started last night. Debated about what size hook to use and did 2 sample spirals. After consulting w/ Louise and Robin, we settled on the one done w/ the smaller hook so now it’s time to make the motifs. They look really nice so I can’t wait to have that headband done.
I also played with the spiral pattern in 3 colors of Vanna’s Choice and turned it into this water bottle cover (like I needed another one of those ) I did learn a bit about how much to increase as you move out from the center, and some of my motifs will need to be a little bigger than others, so that was a worthwhile exercise anyway.
So I guess it’s time to grab a quick bite to eat (how weird is it to have to remind myself that I have to eat rather than trying to hold back from eating all the time) and then head over to S’s house for some knitting/crochet/spinning fun.
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07.10.08
Posted in odds 'n ends at 8:17 am by Shari
I woke up today to an email from my hosting provider asking for my blog admin password - they thought there was a plug-in installed that was causing problems. I had a panic, opened another browser that I never blog from and attempted to figure it out. Fortunately I was able to guess it pretty quickly and dutifully sent it along. Then it occurred to me that *I* could probably check what *they* were checking, so I did. there were 3 activated and none were familiar to me - I could see WHY I’d want them activated, but didn’t recall doing it. Anyway - they are deactivated and voila, comments now work! Yippee!
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