Malware and Other Harmful Junk

The topic of malware came up this morning on Twitter. I am far from a computer expert but John has installed Norton Primier 360 on our computer. It seems to work pretty well in my non expert opinion. It even lets me know of sites that might have a problem and should be avoided. It can also be set up to run weekly scans and has patch update features available for the latest viruses.


I will provide a direct link to Amazon for the program. If you decide to use the link and purchase the program I will get referral fee. I have not been paid to write this blog and we have paid for our own copy of Norton Primer 360.

Have a great day and enjoy your families.

Living Life on the Sunnyside

I don’t know if it is just me but I try to find the upside of everything possible. Take today for instance. This was the second night in a row that allergies have kept me up at night and I feel a little on the crummy side of life.


So I slowed the pace down a bit today and only did 2 loads of laundry from start to finish. But I did get 3 blocks done on Teri’s modular blanket which finished another row of blocks, and started another row. I caught up on some old TV shows that were stored on TiVo.

Around lunch time I realized that I was still on my first glass of liquids for the day, so it was time to play catch up. I did manage to make 2 perfect glasses of iced soy chai tea. And have been pushing the liquids since. Physically I still feel blah, but I know the temperature will soon rise above 100 f and put all that pollen out of my misery.

Well John just got home and it is time to toss dinner in the oven and microwave. This is my version of not cooking. I am cooking baked fish and chips and microwave vegetables. This is defiantly a very lazy dinner.

By the way Teri has only one more final to go and it will be the end of her L-1 year.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

My Mother's Day

Well today was Mothers Day in the United States and all in all I had an ideal Mothers Day. I got to sleep in until 8 am, which is a luxury. We had a very slow morning followed by Dim Sum (Chinese sweet treats) for brunch. Followed by a quick trip to pick up odds and ends at the supermarket.


I do admit that I got a small chink in my armor today at the checkout line. I have not seen many of Eric’s friends from school since they graduated from high school. One of his friends was our cashier today, I am so proud of her; she is at the University of Arizona now. I did forget to ask what her major was; however. There was just enough emotion to make me a bit sad. I am happy for Eric’s friend and sad for all the roads Eric will never travel in this life.

When we got home we watched the movie the Invention of Lying, all in all a pretty good movie. During the Movie I got a quick call from Teri wishing me happy Mother’s Day. I did get a lot of knitting done today, a little on Teri’s blanket, a little on a baby blanket that I keep in Eric’s room, and a little on a lovely Llama and mohair scarf. I know I have multiple projects going, but it is more convenient to have different projects in different areas of the house and car.

John made a lovely salad for dinner and I cut the bread for the sandwiches which we each assembled to our own liking. We watched a little more TV after dinner and I did some more knitting and blogging.

Well it is now time to get ready for bed. 6:00 am comes awfully early. So have a great night and enjoy your families.

A Very Long Night

Last night was a very long night with Eric. Usually I can manage to get him to sleep by midnight, which is fine. I can knit, play word games, surf, do laundry find someone to chat with on Twitter. After 1 am those options seem to run out. I become too tired to do things that require a lot of thought. So I have come up with a list of quiet chores to do after 1 am. When everyone else is sleeping and I have to be wide awake to deal with the things that come up.


First there are thing that never should be done after 11 pm. These include paying bills, running any noisy appliances such as the vacuum. Watching anything on TV or TiVo that I want to comprehend. Knitting after midnight seems to leave my hands too tired to do anything the next day or two so that ends at about 11 pm. Sorting through paper work is also a no go unless I want to do the work twice.

So my list of quiet chores includes some of the following folding laundry, no critical thinking involved. Doing laundry, but unfortunately last night I was actually caught up on laundry. I also pick up around the house.So at around 2 am I came up the absolutely brilliant idea to mop the hallway and entryway. The plus side is that it needed to be done and the floor would be guaranteed to stay clean until at least 6 am when the day starts. With the hall floor mopped I moved on to the laundry room and did the worst spots in the kitchen. I admit it I am a wimp it was 3 am and I was beyond tired. So I did a little dusting and Eric was finally asleep at 3:30 am. Well I did manage to get to sleep till 6 am, wow a whole 2 and 1/2 hours. When Eric’s aide arrived at 6 am I managed to get a little more sleep until 8 am. For a total of 4 and 1/2 hours.

Good I had enough sleep to get me through the day, but not a lot would get accomplished. Around 9 am I struck the parents ideal, Eric who had been up most of the night sick for what I still cannot figure out finally took a nap. I got 4 more hours of blissful sleep. Then things started to get done again. Eric seems a lot more comfortable tonight. I am really hoping for a real night’s sleep, The kind where I get 6 to 8 hours in one stretch, only time will tell.

Well enjoy your families and have a goodnight.

It is Contest Time Again

I took advantage of my virtual day off today by organizing the yarn I dip into on a daily basis. The good news for me is that I have a better Idea of what yarn I have. There is also no yarn in the front hall closet. I thought a big announcement was the right thing for this mile stone of the de-stash process. By the way I also did find a stash of beads with the yarn so more stitch markers and earrings will be added to my shop.


It is contest time again at Handmade~by~Sheri. The good news for you is that I have a full basket of “What was I thinking when I bought this yarn”. The winner will get a full basket of yarn without the basket (I like the basket that I used and it will be less expensive to ship without the basket). There are cottons, wools, blends that include some nylon.  There is no padding under the yarn it is all yarn. Some are in the original skeins and some are wound. It could be all yours if your number is drawn.

It is going to be a little different than last time. So here go the rules of this contest.

1: You must go to http://www.tinyurl.com/handmadebysheri and comment on something you like in my shop. I have made some changes to my shop and I would like to see what is working and what is not. This will count for 1 entry per day. I will be updating my shop with new items as often as I can during the contest.

2: Follow my blog. This will count for 1 entry.

3: Follow me on Twitter for 1 entry. http://www.twitter.com/skaro964

4: Tweet about this contest. This is good for 2 entries per day. This is good for 1 entry per tweet.

5: Blog about this contest or include a link to my blog. This will count as 2 entries.

6: Facebook about this contest. This will count as 1 entry. Just leave a link.

7: Each entry must be logged separately. I will be going to RandomNumber.org to select the contest winner this time.

The contest will end May 18th at midnight Mountain Standard Time. The winner will be notified as soon as possible after that. Good luck and have fun.

Knittng and Winding Yarn

I have found that if I wind the balls and hanks of yarn into cakes, they tend to get knit faster. So earlier in the week I took a nice piece of pottery put a vase in the middle for knitting needles and started winding. I only put the needles in the vase for the weight yarn I had wound.


The progress was great, 4 scarfs were finished this week and the pot started to look empty. I think that it helped that Eric was home sick from school on Friday; because I knit 2 scarf’s on Friday. So today I went into my yarn stash and pulled out 8 more balls of yarn and wound them. I also wound 8 more skeins for Teri’s blanket which John has dubbed my enormous project of the year; I have passed the 34 skein mark and will knit a little more each night. You can see the work in progress. The blanket is 17 modular squares across.

I really know that I have made progress in my stash reduction process. The 2 closets that I had full of yarn no longer have the yarn in them. Yes I know that this involved filling another 95 quart box with yarn; but I am being more honest with the amount I have and am working hard to stash down. In case you were wondering it was the box of yarn that I knit through earlier when I went through 95 quarts in 3 months. So no new boxes were purchased.

Well it is time for Eric’s breathing treatment and time to make dinner. Yes multi tasking is essential. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Driving Safely

I have to admit that I don’t get out of the house as much as I would like to. Having said that I would like to comment on the awful driving I have witnessed in the last few days here in Tucson. I would like to give these anonymous drivers the following awards.


The I Am King of the Road no matter what award goes to the driver who refused to pull over for the ambulance with full lights and sirens going. I only takes but a moment to pull over and let the emergency vehicle pass. The life you save might just be someone you know; after all it’s a very small world.

To the multiple drivers who are on the phone. The I am just in too self centered to pull over and finish the call award goes to the many drivers who slow down to a crawl and chat away on their cell phones. Call me old fashioned but I learned to drive before cell phones and frankly we just don’t need any other distractions while driving. My humble suggestion is to just pull over take your call and then get back on the road. So you arrive a few minutes late but you do arrive alive and don’t annoy all the other drivers on the road.

The Red Light Runner Award goes to the too many people who did not even slow down for the red light but just speed through the intersection. You might be in a terrible hurry but it will take a lot longer to get there if you land up in an accident.

Just remember that when you get behind the wheel of your car you are not in a little cocoon shielded from the outside world. But instead a tiny cog in the community that you live in responsible for the lives and safety of All of those around you. Even the few and the brave who walk or ride their bikes to where they are going.

So drive safely so you can enjoy your families for a very long time.