And now for something completely different…

I finished something! Ta friggin’ da!

Cheque Day

The last Wednesday of the month (as long as there are 3 clear working days before the end of the month), around here is cheque day. Everyone on social assistance gets their money. Then things get interesting in the neighbourhood. Where I live could politely be called “a neighbourhood in transition”.

I was just at Subway for lunch and doing some people watching. Fantastic people watching around here. One man, who seemed to be in a very altered state, was walking along with a red balloon in his hands. Talking to it, in a very serious manner. I totally wanted to be a fly on that wall.

Another man walked by. Maybe 22 or 23 years old. You could see that he had been the BMOC in high school, or a bully, hard to tell the diff. Still handsome, still with the semi-slouching cool walk, the don’t mess with me . You could see all that in him, just barely. What you could also see was that he was a drug addict and all that he could think about was scoring. Head pivoting back and forth, jerky eye movements, hands in and out of his pockets 20 times per minute.

I always want to stop time and ask people I see how they got from A to B. How they became what they are now. Nature? Nurture? Luck, good or otherwise? Was it a fluke? What would you change if you could?

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

Phew, where was I?

Wow, it has been nuts around here lately and I’m just not getting a lot of spare minutes to blog about all the activity. Really quick, here are a few things that I’ve been up too:

1. Went and say Maya Angelou speak on May 11th. She was amazing and made me want to be a better person. Not in a big ol’ scary Anthony Roberts kind of way, but in small daily ways that make small differences for people.

2. Got a second mortgage on the house. We’ve been here 11 years and she wants some loving and we want some renos. Roof, windows, bathroom, kitchen, flooring, etc, divorce court. Just kidding. I’m sure one of us will just kill the other one instead of divorcing!

3. Frantically knitting baby items for all the pregnant women in my life. Baby clothes are good though, almost instant gratification.

4. Finishing up the Philosophy course so that I’m ready for Accounting in the fall.

Those are the big ones, I guess. Then there’s all the little stuff that goes on each and every day, you know, work, dogs, cats, feeding oneself, cleaning (okay, granted, that’s a minimum!)

Here’s a pici of the current baby sweater. Pattern is here and it has been super easy and fun. I omitted the hood on this one. I might make it again for Dulaan with a hood. This one is done in cotton for the body and the stripes are in Red Heart Baby Teri. I love the Baby Teri stuff for kids. It is so soft and knits up nice. I swear, it’s the Dorita’s of yarn for me.

Okay, gotta go. The birds want their breakfasts and I need to start playing around with the home renovation ideas and getting some prices. Eeek. Please wish me and my marriage good luck!

Who got socks? I got socks!

And here there are!

The lovely and talented Amy from Frottez sent me crew socks, made with Koigu! Yeah baby, Koigu! This is my first experience with Koigu (Yummy) and with toe up socks (very nice, a technique I’m going to have to try). They are lovely. Amy also included a funky dice tape measure and a very cool fortune telling fish. It says I’m passionate. Mmmmm hmmmmm. About getting me some Koigu!

Thanks Amy! I love the socks and the prezzies. You’ve made my day.

Some days the title is the hardest part of posting

Thank you for the nice comments on the socks guys! Y’all are making me blush. The specs are as follows:

Pattern: Lovely Lacey Socks – Interweave Knits – Spring 2006
Yarn: Aarlan Cashmere – Vintage stash diving baby – 40% cashmere/30% Lambswool/30% wool
Needles – Brittany 2mm/US 0 (until I broke one that is! My first broken needle and they’ve already replaced it. That’s great service.)

The only mod I did was to do the foot in stocking only, no tbl stitches on the instep for this camper. I was afraid it would pull in too much and make the sock too small so I vetoed that.

Nice socks, I think I’ll prolly make me a pair from the same pattern. Yeah right! ‘Cause I’ll be able to resist making new and different socks to go back and repeat a pattern. Probably not. I have the attention span of a gnat lately.

Okay, and before I go I wanted to show this:
When I walk to work in the morning I pass a carwash place. Every Tuesday when I pass there is a new batch of cut up fruit. Always the same fruit: apples, oranges, and strawberries. Enough to fill an icecream pail. The picture at the left is this Tuesday’s contribution. Off to the left are the previous weeks, gradually breaking down. Odd, right? And it’s good looking fruit, not bruised nasty stuff. I don’t understand. Any ideas? I’m hoping it’s not poisoned and someone is trying to kill something off.

I tell you, when you walk around instead of ride in a car you notice an entirely new world you just weren’t aware of. Every morning something amazes me.

Ta Da!

Excellent! Graft the toe, a bath, a block, and that’s all she wrote folks! They’ll be in the mail tomorrow.