10,000 Steps

Today I walked over 10,000 steps, with about 8,000 steps before noon thanks in part to the Tucson Community Food Bank End Hunger Walk. After all that I did not have much energy so it was 4 loads of laundry, working on Eric's quilt and some knitting. I am calling it an early night, with the hope that my body does not resemble a 2 x 4 tomorrow.

Oh by the way I am planning on doing the Hunger walk again next year so now is the time to start training. I will be walking about 2 miles. They also do a warm up before the walk. I did what I could but I would have been able to do it all 20 years ago. Sigh.

Odds and Ends for Friday

My day started out with 2 hours of yoga like stretching before I could get up this morning. Yes I did get Eric to his program on time.  I just started out at 3:30am doing the stretching. I guess that the 2 hours I spent putting quilts together on the floor was not the best thing I could have done for my body.

I was too tired to knit this morning, but found spinning during knitting very relaxing. Not to mention that the fluff had enough natural moisturizers to offset me working with the poly fill yesterday. I now remember why I stopped spinning this fluff in the den. There was too much hay in it.  My hands are not to bad just a little bit of soreness around one of my thumbs. I did manage to finish one hat during lunch and cast on another one this afternoon. I am working my scrap basket down so there should be a lot of hats coming off the needles in the near future.

We I am leaving the guys to solo tomorrow morning so that I can do the Community Food Bank Walk to end hunger. I have to be there at 7 am. It will only involve me getting up 1 hour earlier. I have every thing laid out. A hat, a long sleeve shirt, long pants and tennis. Yes I will remember my sunscreen.  So I am going to call it an early night.

An Open Letter to Frederick Smith of FedEx

Dear Mr. Smith,

A while ago I went to visit my mom. While there I picked out a few things of my dad's. Since I had to many things to carry on the plane with me I went to your FedEx Pack and Ship store in Northridge,  California.

I had contact with Elizabeth and Faith. One helped me to bring the items in and the other one packaged them up for shipping. The Transition number was 78055128786. I purchased 3 Large fragile boxes, paid for packing, shipping and insurance.

When I got home I unpacked the boxes and found that one of the items that I had shipped was missing. So my sons aide and I went through everything again and the plaque with a piece of the flooring from McKale Stadium from the University of Arizona, engraved with my dads  name Jay. G. _____ C.P.A  on it was missing.

I called your 800 number and talked to Anthony and was given a case number of 0703746545. He said that you would do your best to find the plaque or to send me a check to cover the loss. After that I left to be the support system for my daughter while she took the California Bar Exam. There was a call while I was gone and your employee told my husband she was closing the case. My husband did not have all the details and the case should have been left open until I could talk to your claims person.

When I called back to try to reopen the case I was told "We can not reopen the case until we receive a picture of the lost item as you received it." I tried to explain that it was not damaged, but did not show up with the rest of the shipment. She stood her ground saying that until I had sent a "picture of the lost item as I received it they would not reopen the case." Since I have neither access to a time machine or a Tardis I can not provide you a picture of the item.

I thought yours was a company that I could trust, but apparently when it comes to family heirlooms that happen to be sports memorabilia all bets are off and your employees feel it is there right to lighten the load and take what they want.

May I suggest that you remind all your employees that even though they receive a check from the company for their wages. That in reality it is we the customers that ultimately pay their salaries by using your services. If we hand something over for shipping it is because we want the item. Our shipments are not to be used for the personal gain of your employees.

If on the other hand you approve of your employees having the right to the items in your customers shipments I would like you to post a sign at all of your shipping locations and in all your ads that says the following.

"We give our employees the right to remove any item you have brought in for shipping for their personal gain. We consider the amount of money you pay for insuring the item a money maker for our bottom line. Our share holders don't care as long as the checks keep coming every quarter. We will not pay you for your loss."

I still have those dammed boxes in my storage room. If you would like someone to come to the house to inspect them, please call and set up an appointment. If you can not find and return the plaque, I feel the ethical thing to do would be to refund the insurance money or pay the claim.

Sincerely,
Sheri Karobonik

November 13,2012
 Addendum

I would like to say that this issue has been resolved. With the Help of Teri and a very nice gal at the Fed-Ex office. No they did not find the plaque but I did get a check for the replacement cost. Someday I hope to stumble upon the plaque and get it back, this is a very long,long shot. A girl can dream can't she?

Maybe it's a Good Day

I am still dealing with my recent flare of the Sjogrins Syndrome. I got Eric to his day program fully intending to work around the house this morning, but my body said no. It really did say no and I slept for 3 1/2 hours. I did manage to send a package off to Teri this afternoon. I tried to put a batting in a new quilt for Eric but will have to wait for help. Putting batting in a quilt is a two person job. I did manage to get into a purse that was 2/3 smaller than the last one I was using, but don't ask me for a knitty noddy, spindle or a nosprine, there was just no room. No, not even room for knitting.

Eric and I did some relaxing outside , but there were not many birds chirping today. There was however a butterfly that seemed to like Eric and spent about 10 minutes flying around him. This I think is not usual behavior for a butterfly. Animals tend to react differently around Eric.

I did manage to clean out the fridge today. At about 6 pm or so I decided that the pantry had to be cleaned out TODAY. I started from the top down after I found a step stool. I am feeling very short today, said the woman who had to find a pair of high heels to reach the packing tape. I kid you not.
The common them of today's cleaning was getting rid of expired food tucked into a back corner and a shelf way above my head. I did straighten the shelves as I went.

I also managed to get some laundry finished today. John did bring home some lovely salads for dinner. I am feeling very lucky to have Teri, Eric and John in my life. With that bit of rambling I think I will try to get some sleep.

A Good Weekend

This was a lay low weekend for us. We had lots of rest time and a few journeys.  Eric and his friend went to the Tucson Ronald McDonald house to drop off tabs. They had over 8 pounds at 1,600 tabs per pound.  So we need more tabs please.  Then where else do you go when you have been to RMCH to McDonald's of course.

We got to Costco today and filled our bag for Project Issiah.  We also got a few things for the house. Another hat was finished and one more cast on.  A few chores were accomplished too. I managed to complete 2 pairs of  pants in the mending pile, with more sewing scheduled for this week.

The good news is that I am managing to get enough rest so that the flare up will be a short one.

Cascade Cleaning

After being up half the night with Eric I still did manage to get a lot of work done today. It was mostly roundabout but it got done. With any luck he will go to his day program tomorrow.

Today was my day for cascade cleaning. You know the type. You start in one area and say I am going to finish this area today, but....one thing leads to another and you have expanded your cleaning range. This afternoon for me it started in the craft room. The box I was working on moved to Eric's room because he wanted company. So there I sorted out a box of mostly makeup. I had the keep pile and the pass it on pile. Well this lead to the bathroom storage area. Where I threw out expired items. Put samples of products that were not quite right for me, along with a lot of eye shadow and lip sticks in the pass it on pile. I found at least a years worth of cotton pads for make up. The shelf's are now in some semblance of order. But the best part is I feel better about the whole process.

I do have a question that I can't seem to find the answer to. Just how long is nail polish good for. After how many years does it have to be tossed or is it considered hazardous waste and needs proper disposal. The first person to answer this question will get a treat sent to them.

Well it is time to go finish making dinner. Yes I did get this written before bed time. Are you amazed?

I am amazed that Lisa W. called me from the park with the answer not even 5 minutes after I posted my blog. Way to go Lisa.

I Need a Redo on Monday

Today did not go as planned. But the most important thing is that we are all home. All a little tired from wear. I am just to tired to write much tonight. Tomorrow I get another go at it.

La Shana Tova

First off I would like to wish everyone a sweet New Year. May you have a year full of health, happiness and learning. With that out of the way I would like to say that I admire my friends that have spent the entire week cooking for their families for this occasion. I could not pull my self together enough to do any cooking this year. I would like to thank the cooking staff of my local Whole Foods for the wonderful grilled salmon and the side dishes that I served for dinner. Also to Beyond Bread for the bread and honey cake.

It just seems to me that the sicker that Eric becomes the less I am ready for the holidays. This is coming from the person who gets the most excited about birthdays and holidays in this house. So tonight instead of putting the last minute touches on a holiday dinner, I sat at my spinning wheel and plyed some yarn. I still had time so I started spinning another skein. For some reason this gave me more joy than cooking tonight.

I will probably not understand the reason for this for years to come. For right now I will chalk it up to being to tired. Also not having the energy to put into a truly fabulous meal or the shopping involved. With that said my sincere hope is that Eric sleeps tonight.

Procrastination

Eric was home sick again today. Since Eric was feeling better but not quite ready to go back to his day program, I decided to play catch up on deep cleaning.  Today was also my day to work on the filing. Now you might not know this about me but I hate to do filing. So it was a major procrastination day for me today. Instead of filing I did the following chores.

1. Roombaed Eric's room.
2. Unpacked the box from i-robot and put a new filter in Roomba.
3. I put a new battery in Scooba and then charged him.
4. Scoobaed Eric's room.
5. Roombaed our bedroom, twice because he ran out of power half way through the job.
6. Gathered and sorted laundry, but did not do any for lack of a full load.
7. Organized the dining room table. Now I just need to find someone who wants to dust and polish the table. Especially the under the table part. I wonder if the folks at i-robot can come up with something?
8. Loaded, ran and emptied the dishwasher.
9. Filled and emptied the recycling basket twice.
10. Found time to spin at the wheel.
11. Found time to do some knitting.

That brought me to 11 am and my list was done so I had to do the filing. So I sorted, shredded and recycled as I went along. Once everything was sorted the actual filing took 30 minutes. I guess it was just going through everything that I did not want to do.  By 4:30 I had gotten the job done.

By the way Eric slept the entire day. I sure hope he sleeps tonight.

Thursday Really!!

My only question tonight is how it got to be Thursday night. Eric came home from his day program Tuesday and spent the entire night eyrping. Wednesday was a tired blurry day of child care with some knitting thrown in for my sanity. Today Eric's temp made it under 100. This deserves a big yeah!! He also started back on food this afternoon. All of which means that if you were expecting to see me at all on Friday this is my regrets note. Yes I would love to hang out tomorrow, but I will be home with Eric.  Because of the Holidays the soonest he will be back at his day program is Wednesday.

I guess I will use the time at home to do some filling and a little more deep cleaning. The end is in sight and I don't want to do the last bit, but I will play the grown up me and do what needs to be done. I will be planing a low key holiday. No days of cooking for me. Since it is just the two of us and we don't eat like kids anymore it will be a light single course dinner.

Well its getting late and I have a full day with Eric tomorrow so I am calling it a night.

I Surived Monday

Eric decided at 2 am it was time to get up and ready for his day program. I tried for 2 hours to get him to go back to sleep. At 4 am I caved and turned on PBS kids, got a soda and did some knitting until it was time for me to get my day going. By the time I was ready to drive Eric to his day program it was blazing headache time.

Eric was all smiles when he got to his program. He was happy to see all of his friends. I on the other hand made an extra trip back to the car to get the umbrella that I forgot to grab. I decided to get some juice and a sweet roll for breakfast. That was a decision that I would regret later as I was really to tired to eat. My tummy let me know loud and clear that this was a bone head move.

After a few errands I caved in and took a 2 hour nap. I felt much better afterwards. It is a good thing the call to schedule round 3 of Eric's ISP came after the my nap. I think if it had woken me up or came before my nap I would not have been as nice. You all know just how much I love filling out the same paperwork 2 times and having it get lost in the system. I am trying to decide just how cordial I will be at meeting number 3 and whether to serve ice tea and a small cake to help things go smoothly. Did I mention I now have to clean the dinning room before Thursday because there will be to many people for the kitchen table. This time we get to have not one but 2 supervisors coming along to help fill out the paperwork. My personal feeling on this is, that if someone with a Masters in Social Work can not fill out the form properly maybe just maybe its time to dumb down the form and make the system a little easier for the staff to use. Also the people in Phoenix need to look a people like Eric as real person and not just some dumb number on a page. I am sure that they got all their information from books and real life has nothing to do with their jobs.

Now on to my next rant of the day. Stupid drivers that I encountered today. The first was weaving in and out of traffic with his left leg hanging out the window. Speeding to boot. I don't think I have ever before seen the "This is your speed sign" just flash red and blue like that before, it is usually blank or has the speed if you are going over the limit.   The second was driving an SUV with a dog sitting in her lap. She was paying more attention to the dog than her driving. She almost hit me :(  My personal feeling on this is that small dogs like small children need to be properly restrained in a car for their safety and the safety of others.

I do have one cooking tip for today. When the pizza crust package say preheat the oven they really do mean it. I did not today and landed up with a crunchy crust and barley melted cheese.

Well as you can tell from this blog I am really tired and need to get some shut eye.

A Rainy Sunday

Would you believe that I walked 4.5 miles today, only leaving the house for dinner. I have just about finished organizing the only stash of yarn and weaving in the house. Just 1 more basket to be moved. This week I plan on giving my sewing machine a run for the money getting all my sewing UFOs finished. I have a feeling that by the time I finish my craft room will not look like a craft room at all. It will be already for my mom's visit in October.

I hope to have the bulk of my cleaning done by Friday so I can get back to knitting and spinning. After 6 to 8 hours of cleaning and organizing a day I am just to tired to move or knit at the end of the day.

Team Eric in the UCP World Challenge needs a few donors. We have fallen to Second Place in fund raising. Every little bit helps. The money raised will replace state and federal dollars for direct client care for people with special needs. Please check out the link on the side of my blog.

Well tomorrow is going to be a long day that will start very early.

More Deep Cleaning

I am in the process of doing more deep cleaning.  In some ways I am moving forward. As in more junk out of the house. In other ways I feel I am moving backwards as in there will be yarn going into the storage room again.  No I did not go on a yarn shopping trip, quite the opposite.  I have cleaned out the guest room closet so it can be a real guest room.

The 1st thing I did was to organize Teri's closet. I felt that I could get all of the fluff and weaving supplies in there. No one but me seemed surprised that this did not happen.  So it was off to clear yarn and stuff that was taking up unnecessary space in my closet. I would like to highly recommend that everyone deep clean their closet every so often so you do not have the marathon cleaning secessions that I am encountering now.

So I now have 7 full storage bins of yarn to go to the storage room. I now have room for the looms in my closet. With a little more cleaning this week I will have all the weaving supplies in there too.

On another note I would like to add that the Keurig Diet is going very well. I am down a full dress size since my birthday. Which by the way lead to more decluttering of my closet getting rid of the clothes that are to large. Yeah me!!!

Eric is still looking for a few sponsors to help him meet his fund raising goal for the UCP World Challenge that will be going on this month.  We need a few more 5 to 10 dollars pledges so that Team Eric can meet its fund raising goal of $600.00 dollars. Just use the link on the top right corner of my blog.

Well it is getting very late and I am very tired after 5 hours of cleaning today. With a few rows of knitting in the evening to wind things down.

Labor Day

We had a very laid back day today.  Our big accomplishment was clearing out 3 boxes of shoes and clothes that did not fit from my closet. Teri was a great help in this endeavor. They will be going to the UCP fundraiser coming up.  Well I think its time to call it a day.

Enjoying Teri Time

We are enjoying our time with Teri very much. Although I am not used to running all day long. This has lead to have about 10 knitting and spinning projects that I am currently working on at once and being to tired most of the time to realize  that if I only work on one or 2 at a time I might actually finish something.

Well I am officially rambling. So it's time to say goodnight.

Tuesday in Tucson

I have found that if I walk 3 miles in the morning instead of just 2, I get to my 10.000 steps earlier in the day.

Now on to the fun stuff. Teri and I went out to breakfast after we voted in the primary. A little walking and shopping. Lunch with John and a trip to Bookman's. I did find a little time for spinning and knitting today too.

Well its going to be another busy day tomorrow.

Happy Times

I am enjoying my time with Teri very much.  Even though we walked 3 miles this morning and I wales another 3 miles during the rest of the day for a total of 12,000 steps, I am not quite able to keep up with Teri.

We had fun at Savers, lunch with John and found some time to catch up with TV.  Well it's late and time to call it a night.

Family Time

For a very short time we are all under one roof. John and I will enjoy this time immensely. I am really enjoying the very bright and nice young woman that Teri has turned in to. Eric is really enjoying his Teri time too. When Teri is in the room I am all but invisible, which I don't mind at all, more knitting time for me. Did I get to mention I always love watching them together, I am glad that my children get along so well. John and I are just so lucky to have these two wonderful children.

Too Busy

I have been too busy to blog lately. My excuse is that I have been deep cleaning the house. From the linen closet to the craft/guest room and everything in between. No drawer was left untouched. All the shelves were gone through too. Up to 8 hours a day, yes that's right up to 8 hours a day of cleaning. My hope is that when I am finished I will have more time to do what I want. Also to spend less time looking for things. Or even worse buying duplicates because I have lost something I need.

Even after I finish there will still be some fine tuning to do. I hope that will not be as involved. I really want to go back to spending more time spinning, knitting and enjoying my 5 hour break when Eric goes to his day program.

Well my ice cream cup is empty so I think its time to try some sleep. caffeinated tea with dinner was not my best idea of the day.

To Early to Count my Time Off

Just when I think Eric has turned a good corner, I find myself sitting in the rocking chair again. It's an hour past my bed time with no new bedtime in sight. Well I guess I should back track a little.

Eric had 4 very good days at his day program. He is enjoying his time with his friends and staff. Well the first thing he did when he came home today was eyrp.  So here I sit after 10 pm. I am slowly ramping up hi fluid intake.  We are at 12 and need to be at 30 before I can go to sleep.  I am to tired to knit , spin or play a game on my pod.  I am actually watching Sprout and following the story line. Wish me luck that I can get to bed before midnight.

I am very seriously contemplating some caffeine about now. It is either caffeine or a solid sleep. Just a little loner. I think I can last a few more hours. By the way I will be home tomorrow.

A No Fiber Day

I did not manage to spin or knit even 1 gram of fiber today. But what I accomplished today was awesome. Shopping for groceries, 3 baskets of recycling and 1 bag of trash out of the craft room.  I decided to not do any mending on a few thing and recycled the or put then in charity.  I finished filling up the 4th quart jar and 2 jam jars with buttons. I will be using a lot of buttons in my one of a kind pieces. Every box was gone through before I put them back on the shelves with the exception of my father-in-laws mending kit, someday,but not today.  I also started a second bag for Bookman's.

I managed to get Eric to sleep before 10. It is finally cool enough to run a load of laundry.  It is 16 degrees cooler right now than earlier today. Cues it was officially hot here today. It hit 11 at The house today.  Did I mention how much my joints enjoy he heat?  Just 5 minutes outside at mid-day was enough to make my muscles and joints feel better. I really do love summer in Tucson.

I think I am rambling so it is time to put a close on a very busy day and get some sleep. V

A Busy Day

I spent a very long day cleaning and throwing. Followed by bits and pieces of organizing. It really is slow going but I am cleaning every drawer and shelf in the craft room. Throwing out what I don't need. I have started a Bookman's bag and perhaps Teri will be kind enough to make a trip to Bookman's when she comes and visits us next.  A trash bag, recycling bag and a charity bag have also been started.  Sheer exhaustion has set in so this will be a very sort pot tonight.

Vacation?

Eric had a week of vacation from his day program. We did a lot of hanging around the house. So as a result I got a lot of knitting and deep cleaning done. I did manage to run away to the spinnings wheel a couple of times. Speaking of spinning, my fluff which does not have a permenant home yet is on a tour of the house right now. In this week aline it has travlwd to 3 different  rooms.   With a little more deep cleaning I am sure that a permenant home is not to far away.  well it is almost 11pm and I think it is time to wind down for the night.

Knitting Time

I seem to get a lot of knitting done when Eric is sick. This is very good for the 1 million row challenge.  Today was no exception.  Right now I have 2 UFO ponchos in Eric's room. I am 1/4 of the way through both.  One has quiet needles the other has noisey needles. Depending on his mood is what I knit.

I was lucky enough to get a few mInutes of spinning and a trip to the supermarket in today also.    It is going to be a busy day tomorrow, so I think it is time to turn in. Sp

A Day Off in Mommy Speak

Today I took a mommy version of a day off.  I went light on the laundry.  I did one load but did not fold it.  Brought the dry clothes off  the line and put them away. Re did the linen drawer in the kitchen and moved the towels that had seen their better day to the rag pile. Of course the drawer is all nice and neat now.  Got Scooba ready to run on the kitchen floor and started her. This was all before I dropped Eric off at his day program.

The it was waiting for the Century Link guy to fix the telephone yet again. This time it was 2 bare wires touching each other and doing random shorts in the system. So I caught up on e-mail and such. Then it was off to do a return, get some lunch and go to Trader Joe's. Since I went after lunch none of the food looked appealing at all, so we landed up with goat cheese sandwiches and salad for dinner. I put most of the grocery's away and did some light picking up before it was time to go get Eric.

Then it was Barney, followed by Dinosaur Train. When Eric's aide arrived I did some finishing work on 3 projects so I could take their pictures and post them to the 1 Million Row Challenge. If the mittens look like they are different sizes please remember that I knit each one on a different flight. I am 327 rows into the challenge, I only count rows on finished projects. I will get more knitting done tomorrow.

Eric was a bit fussy tonight and wanted more mommy time. It is all quiet at the back of the house so I think is is time to go to sleep.

A Busy Day

It has been a very busy non-stop day for me. It took me most of the day, all 5 hours of it with out Eric to get through the top 5 items on my to do list. So to save time tomorrow I wrote my to do list tonight. That should save a good 5 minutes, which might be useful tomorrow.

I did not have much time for knitting or spinning. I still did find the time to get 1/3 of the way through the first fingerless mitten. I really think the person who picked the yarn will be happy with them. All I can say is the merino/silk combo is just yummy. John says my new found fondness for small projects is that the row count for the 1 million row challenge will go fast.

Well it seems that my boss has settled in for the night and I have another very busy day tomorrow. it's time to say good night.

Back Home

I am back home after a week of helping Teri. Yes I did leave her with a freezer full of home cooking. We do have to wait until November for the bar results. Which is going to be hard because I want to know right now.

While I was gone John got the washer fixed, the leak in the roof fixed. Also had Eric home sick for the entire week, and still managed to get into work. Isn't he just awesome? No I am not going to share him.

  I spent the day recouping, doing laundry, unpacking,and redoing the linen cabinet. Tomorrow will be scouba, bills, pictures. I will see how much I can get crammed into 5 hours.

Teri Time

As I write this blog post, Teri is on day 3 of her bar exams. There are a couple of things that I found out about myself this week. The first being that I can not knit for more than 6 hours a day. I packed way too much fluff, Teri has been very calm and has not needed to zone out to the spindle just turning around endlessly. The new clothes I bought for Teri's graduation are all getting longer and the waists are getting looser.  I though I would be more nervous so I brought a lot of snack food. The good news for me is that most of it is staying with Teri and her roommate when I leave. Most of the packages have not even been opened, including the chocolate covered almonds.

Teri is doing well. I am so pleased how she has turned out as an adult. I have enjoyed spending time with her this week. I hate the fact that we have to wait until November to to get the results of this weeks test.

John has been doing very well considering that Eric is giving so a run for it. Well It is time for me to go pack up Teri's stuff as we have a 1pm check out.

1 Million Row Challenge

Well the washing machine is officially down for 2 more weeks and I will be making twice weekly trips to the Laundromat. I don't think I could stand doing it once a week and doing 20+ loads at once. As it was I used the jumbo machines that hold between 2 and 4 loads each today.  I still had 6 full wash loads today. I brought along a wool cowl to work on today and now understand why people in hot humid climates prefer cotton for summer knitting. Did I mention that the Laundromat has a swamp cooler.  It was at least 85 degrees and 50+%  humidity outside today, this is not what the cooler was designed for.  I still did manage to get 3 rows knit while doing the laundry.

We are up to 57 members in the 1 Million Row Challenge .Just use this link if you would like to join us. Remember we are there to have fun and use up our old and newly acquired stash yarn. Yes any yarn that crosses our thresholds is considered stash yarn. I wounder if any local yarn shops would like to get involved, by hosting knit ins or party's? After all having a bunch of fiberholics around is sure a good way to add to our stashes. Did you really think 1 Million Rows would reduce my stash by much?

We are crossing our fingers that the leaky roof is now fixed so that we can tear out the damaged wall board and replace it. Then repaint. I hope the carpet decides to dry out with out any mildew otherwise we will be replacing that too, but not with white. Beige or brown would be my first choice, after all it does not show the dirt. Which of course would leave me more time for knitting and spinning.

Next week will be my official spin/knit-a-thon week. I have heaps of projects lined up from wrist warmers to shawls. I also have my drop spindles and braids lined up.  My goal is to have as many projects done as possible by next Saturday. I will give my row/skein count and show pictures next Sunday.

I wonder if I have time for a quick nap?

One Million Row Challenge

Last night I decided to share the One million Row Challenge with my fellow knitters and crocheter's on Raverly.  We are using the hash tag 1 mil rows to identify the projects, I would like to thank Melissa for coming up with the hash tag. We have also found a counter thanks to Annette & Alexander and here is the link to The Ticker Factory .

If you would like to join us in this journey just follow this link to Raverly 1 Million Rows Challenge . As of this blog Post we have 32 people going at their own pace, trying to bust their stashes. We all plan on having a good time doing it.

Have a great evening of knitting and family time.

The Million Row Challenge

The guys are very creative in thinking up ways to get me to use up my stash yarn.  So tonight they came up with the million row challenge. Its suppose to be knit entirely from stash yarn. I am not sure if that includes new stash yarn that just happens to land in my stash. You know how those stash fairies can be. They did not say if I should count the newly spun yarn, after all once it is spun it is technically stash yarn. They said I could choose any patterns I wanted to do, with any stash yarn I had. The goal is to knit a 1,000,000,000 rows.

They also threw in a bonus that I could count the shawl I am working on now for the challenge. This is a good thing because I am already 100 rows in. Which leaves 999,999,900 rows left to knit.

What I am looking for is a good row counter for the blog. So any ideas would be wonderful. Also does anyone want to join me in this endeavor? I would love some company along the way. In that train of thought do you think I should start a Raverly group? Who would like to join the group, if I started it?

Well it is getting late and I have dragons to slay tomorrow. So Good night all.

Getting Organized

I spent the weekend zenning the house. I decided to put all the kits together (this should read that I lost some yarn and a pattern that I wanted to start knitting). I found projects that I would no longer be working on and recovered the knitting needles and project bags. The yarn has already been passed on. I found at least 18 pairs of needles and circulars. Which is very good, it means that I don't have to go buy knitting needles for the projects I have lined up for my week of knitting.  I have a week coming up where I will have 9 hours a day to knit and spin, so I want to see how many me projects I can get out of the way.

I did find that my spinning projects had less UFOs that were stored. Well one to be exact. Looking at the fleece I can see why I had stopped spinning it. So today it went through the carder twice and is now a fluffy mass without a lot of VM in it to spin. It may not match the first 2 skeins but I am OK with that.

I did manage to put all the raw fleece in separate bags by color, breed and animal. It is all piled under the carder for some play time. I think I should probably put the roving by breed and color too. The sewing machine is now recovered too so I see some sewing happening soon too.

The more I clean and organize the better that I feel. I am also finding more time to take part in my favorite creative endeavors. I am having an easier time letting go of things too. Well it is getting late and it has been a long day.

Content

Although Eric is still home sick, I feel very content. This might have to do with the fact that I got out of the house today and now have some good snacks in the house. Summer fruits and crunchy stuff. Nom, nom nom.  I did get some spinning and weaving done today too. Laundry was at a minimum of the obligatory 2 loads.

We put Eric to bed 3 hours ago, now if he would just fall asleep so I can get some shut eye too.

It is Tuesday All Day

I am having a very surprising good day today. Eric work up with a fever of 99.5 and a stuffy nose. So needless to say, we got off to a very slow start. I got my mojo realigned about 10:30am. After that things went quite well.

Three rooms got a visit from Roomba. The master bath mats got washed and dried in the sun, it only took 2 hours for that crispy dry. The master bathroom was mopped. One load of laundry was washed and hung to dry. Two loads of laundry were folded, no they were not put away yet. I did not have that much ambition today. All the odd socks were matched up and at least 6 pairs were reclaimed from the odd sock basket, yeah me!!!  I caught up on part of the back filing and found that I did not need everything so the shredder got a real work out, half a basket shredded!!!

I am way behind on my spinning for Tour de Fleece. My plan was to get mounds of spinning done. the reality is that some days only a 12 to 24 inches are getting spun. My goal was to have all my WIP off all the spindles, not so much now. So I will be happy with what I have and not stock up on fleece and roving before next years tour. To have a less lofty goal and go for pretty and artsy instead of volume.

I really have to say that today lacked a  lot of pre planning such as not having Scooba charged so that I could get Eric,s floor mopped after vacuuming with Rumba. I also need to fire the lady in charge of snacks, she really feel short of having the right crunchy food in the house today.

My goal for tomorrow is to get Mondays errands done. I will really get that package out to Teri. I have help for 4 hours tomorrow. Well it is time to go make dinner. I might not barbecue the steaks the rain just started.

Lazy Summer Days

It is well in to July and I am still searching for the lazy,hazy days of summer. I am still very busy and seeking some down time. If you happen to stumble across them please lets know where to find them. I seem to be stuck in the crazy part of summer.

5 Hours

I am trying to find the right balance in my life riht now. I have exactly 5 hours a day to call my own. The first thing I do most days is to walk for 30 to 60 minutes. That leaves exactly 4 hours to sechdule appointments, run errands, clean, do laundry. Those are the have to do things. I still need to find time for the want to dos like knitting,spinning, weaving,sewing and maybe even do the most unusual thing of turning on the tv and watching a show. If anyone has a secret workable plan please let me know how to do it all. In the mean Ike I will try not to get hit by drivers using cell phones while driving. I swear people should not be allowed to drive a chat on the phone at the same time. It just makes them careless and I attentive. Well it sounds like someone is asleep. So you guys know the drill by now. Night all.

A Long Day

My day started at 4 am with Eric. I spent the rest of the day knitting, cleaning, doing errands, baking and last but not least 2+ hours of phone time. Since I have now hit the 18+ hour work day I am hoping that Eric goes to sleep soon. Tomorrow will be filled with baking, cleaning,sewing and a party. With any luck I will find a few minutes to knit and spin. I would like to wish everyone a happy 4th. Please enjoy your family time.

Project Bags

The thought occurred to me today that I do not have to many projects. Ok I see you all laughing. Now get up off the floor and finish reading this post. I have to many project bags. Yes that's right to many project bags. I don't want my project bags to get lonely,so I pick a pattern and some yarn. Then I cast on. I work steadily on the project until Tje next project bag says it lonely. So being the social butterfly that I am I just have to find some suitable yarn, a pattern and some needles. This is just to make the bag feel better I cast on yet another project. The cycle repeats it self dozens of times a year. This is why I have so many ufo's. Today I did get some work on various projects done, but nothing was completed. I am going on another UFO hunt tommrow to find more unfinished projects. Now if I can just find a way to make all those empty bags less lonely.

Day 37 of 100+

Today Eric and I caught the movie Madagascar 3. The movie was very good. Eric enjoyed the music so much that we got him the cd of the music. The story line was very good. I would rate this as a good one to take the kids to. Please note that we did not see the 3D version, but you could clearly determine what was suppose to be in 3D. I have declared this week get the ufo's finished week Even if i am tired of the yarn or pattern I will finish as many as possible On the knitting front I finished 2 more ufo's today before I lost my knitting mojo. For Tour de Fleece I started and got a little over half way done with a colorway called Maple Leaf by Natlie of http://www.cloudlover.bigcartel.com. It is a very lovely blend of one of my favorites BFL combined with silk. The color is flowing very well. I am finding it a very delightful spin Eric is asleep and I am just waiting fi the dryer to stop so that I can get one more load in the washer and dryer befor I call it a night.

All Things Fiber

Yesterday was filled with friends and knitting. I finished a shawl and worked on a charity scarf. The shawlette does not look quite right on me. It really needs a size 12 or smaller person to wear it. The shawl was knit using the crazy sock yarn from Germany. It is just wide enough to keep your neck and shoulders warm. I will post a picture of it on my twitter and face book feed. If you are interested please let me know. The price will be $80.00 until I post it in my etsy shop and then the price will jump to cover the listing fees. Today was spent cleaning, napping( I got 2 naps in today), spinning and knitting. I skein of yarn was finished for the 1st day of The Tour de Fleece on raverly, all 102 yards out of 2.1 ounces of fiber. I can't wait to boil it up so I can knit with ot. Well it sounds like Eric is asleep so it's time for me to sleep too.

Normal

Today I got a taste of normal. After I dropped Eric off at his program I tanked up the car and got it washed. This was followed by 40 minutes of walking, the good news is that I covered 2 miles. Yes that was 2 20 minute miles today. Followed by knitting,lunch with friends. The service was bad so the eatting establishment shall remain nameless. I did manage to get a quick nap in. I have also made the decision to make a list of political robo calls, whom ever wakes me up from a nap will be put on the list and will not get my vote in the primary or general election coming up. We it is getting late and I have a very early morning tommrow.

Overwelmed

This has been a very over whelming week for me so far. I did training Monday morning followed by a lot of errands. You guessed it Eric got sick again this week, but thanks to Lisa I only had one 29.5 hour day this week. Yes I know that it is technically more than one day. My feeling on the subject is that the day is not officially over until I go to sleep, so that's how I get such strange days. I am project hopping right now. I will do a few rows of knitting on one project then hop to another project or some spinning. Exhaustion will do that for me. So this will be a very short post tonight.

Hot and Busy

Here in Tucson we are setting a record pace for days over 100. So today I tried to beat he heat by getting the laundry done very early on Saturday morning. I almost made it. By 9:30am we had hit slightly over 100, just as I was taking the last load out to hang on the line. I have no doubt that they were dry by bed time . A great summer family activity is going to the movies then taking a lap or 2 around the mall. So we did both.

We saw Men in Black 3, not a bad movie. It was well written with lots of twists that I did not see coming. You will be surprised by the cliff hanger. That is all I am going to tell you until you see it for yourself and want to talk plot line. I did knit about 1/4 of a new scarf while watching the movie. It is a simple broken rib pattern in light pink for the charity bag.

Later my friend Lisa and I went through my new Phat Fiber box together. I have been doing a pretty good job about teaching her about fiber. The good thing about sharing the box with Lisa is now I don't have to worry about any allergies, she can use the fiber I am allergic to. Then it was time for her first spinning lesson. Man I got to tell you her first time spinning was great. After about 15 minutes of fumble she had that spindle going  and going. He first spun yarn was at least 10 times better than my first spun yarn. Lisa had watched me enough to join fiber with out help. All I can say is wow!  Lisa is the second person I have taught to spin, and I think she was hooked before she even picked up the spindle.

Sunday we got off to a rather slow start. Then it was off to see Tucson's new Iron Chef. We had one of those roving lunches where we tried a little of this and that from the various restaurants in town.  Afterward it was nap time for all.

A little spinning but no knitting got done today. I had to wait until after dinner to start the laundry because I got off to such a slow start this morning. Since Tucson is on pace for a record year of over 100 degree days, I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of early morning or late night loads this summer. Anything over 100 and I give the appliances the afternoon off. It just messes with things when it hits 100 so early in the morning, then stays over 100 until after dinner.

Well I have a long day tomorrow. The final load is in the dryer so it is time to go to sleep for the night.

French Vanilla

Today went so smoothly that if it were an ice cream flavor it would have to be the rich creaminess of French Vanilla ice cream. The training went well. They liked the fact that Eric came with a cheat sheet on the basics of Eric. It did hit 108f in Tucson today. 3 degrees hotter than yesterday. This might be the reason why I am spending time thinking about ice cream. No I have not indulged yet, but just thinking about it is refreshing in an odd way. I have been hitting the ice tea and iced water with gusto though. Now if only tomorrow was Monday. It has been a very long and trying week so you can see why next week is looking good me right about now.

Rocky Road Better Known as Wednesday

If my day was classified as an ice cream, then today would be named Rocky Road instead of Wednesday. There were a lot of bumps along my path today. Lunch did not happen. But I did get some watermelon after I got Eric home. The day turned around when John came home and I choose the hot dogs and beans for my left over meal. Ah starchy comfort food. Followed by a little TV and knitting. With a large bowl of Rainer Cherries for dessert.

I know tomorrow will be a better day. I will be training a new advocate for Eric in his day program. In between teaching and answering a lot of questions there will be plenty of time to knit and spin. Well its time to get some sleep so I can get through a busy day.

Just the usual stuff.

Well Eric was home sick today. So I got all the laundry done last night. Today was filled with cleaning, taking care of Eric and a nice walk at the mall ( it was too hot to walk outside in the middle of the day, 105 I think.) when I got a little help with Eric.  I might have to either wear different shoes, or cut back a little on walking until my left heal and right knee feel better. Did I forget to mention lots and lots of knitting.

Well its late and time to call it a day.

Summer Time

Summer time in Tucson never fails to surprise me. There is always the really crazy driving and the tempers tend to flare as the heat goes up. But what surprised me the most today was that I boiled some yarn and had most of it hanging in the garage to dry by 1 pm. At 7 pm it was still damp even though it hit 107 at our house today.

I have been walking on a very regular basis since I got back from L.A., some days are better than others. Being sore and achy does not lend it self to me wanting to walk. I am hoping that it will help in the long run. My hope is that the walking will help lessen the pain. I will let you know how that goes.

My summer in Tucson tip of the day is to park in the shade when ever and where ever possible. Even if that means parking at the back of the parking lot and walking farther in the heat. Your car will be much cooler and you will be able to touch the steering wheel.

Suprised by my Family

Even after 28 years of marriage my awesome husband can still suprise me. Yesterday I mentioned that my mom had this lovely machine called a Keurig, that made wonderful tea without having to deal with a kettle of hot water first thing in the morning. With Eric's new schedule my day starts earlier. A cuppa tea is always a breakfast thing for me. I need a little caffeine to start my day. My body does not always love me first thing in the morning so I have been doing soy chai 7 days a week, don't get me wrong I love my soy chai, but it should not be an every morning thing. So with the Keirig I figured I could save over 1,500 calories a week. I broched the Keurig at dinner, but John deflected with the simple matter that I had. Ot done my homework. I had only looked at one C-Net review. I had not gone to the holy grail of reviews,Consumers Reports. So he tabled it pending more research on my part. So I was totally suprised when one showed up in our house today. The whole gang also had a number of other suprises today. My very own copy of a Dinosaur Train DVD, a Danish strip from Nadine's and some awesome slider cup cakes made by Lisa. I have already asked Lisa to do a guest blog to share the recipe. It is well after 11 pm and Eric is not close to falli g asleep so I think I will break out the knitting and hope that the rhythm will put him to sleep soon.

Busy

I spent last weekend with my mom and came home to a boy who caught the stomach flu that was going around. This was after he was told he was not allowed to get sick until I came home from my visit with my mom. John has a much greater apperation for my all nighters or near all nighters with Eric. I personally think he did a terrific job with Eric.

Since I got home Sunday night, I have had 1 all nighter and one relatively early night where he went to bed at 1:30am ish. It is now Wednesday and my body has hit the very tired stage. As a result I am very grumpy and not a lot got done today. I am sure that things will be better in the morning.

I did manage to finish 1 scarf today. Then did the finishing work on that scarf plus 7 others that are now tagged and bagged. The only thought related to the scarfs is how 2 kitchen trash bags full of yarn only translates in to a little over 1/3 of an XXL Ziploc bag full when knit into scarfs. It seems to me that the finished bag should be fuller.

Well it is getting late and it is time to call it a night.

Random Acts of Spinning

If you hang around me long enough you just know how I love getting my fluff samples from Phat Fibers. This sfternoon I took a bunch of samples in the same color range. All kinds of different fibers and colors, not to mention prep styles. Preped them and mixed them all up in a one gallon ziplock bag. I then started pulling them out at random from the bag to spin. What I am getting is a one of a kind art yarn. I am so into this one that at 10:30 I had to pull myself away from the wheel so I can get some sleep. Tommrow I plan to be back at Tje wheel in between chores. Pictures will follow. Fibers