Another Day of Fun and Cleaning.

I did set a new house record for the Wii Island Free Cycle of over 10 Wii miles in 30 minutes. I hope that all the Wii fit I have been doing is contributing to the slightly smaller me. The thing I really think is unfair about exercising is that it takes about an hour to burn 250 calories but I can consume those same calories in minutes. Such is life in the big city.

I did some clothes shopping today. Nothing to dramatic. I have lost enough inches to get into a brand that I have wanted to try but in the past there has been a little too much me. In my usual brands I am down one size from last year. To make room for the smaller items, I filled one box for Goodwill and plan on adding some more items to the Goodwill drop off pile tomorrow.

I got a lot of ganga's* today. most of the items were 40 to 70% off the original prices. Plus the store was having a buy so much get $10 dollars off your next purchase. So I had the sales lady ring it up in 5 different transactions. I don't think that is what the store was planing but it did help to bring the cost of everything down just a bit more.

After a nice lunch at Sweet Tomatoes we came home and did some more work around the house. There is always laundry to catch up on and this time of year the junk mail is enough to comfortably fill the large blue recycle barrel every week. I also packaged 50 sample bags of stitch markers for a sample box. Look for details later.

After dinner we caught up on Haven, which is a cool new show on the Syfy network. If you have not seen it catch up on Hulu it is a terrific new show. Yes I would love to have it come back for another season. well I think our boy has finally gone to sleep so it is now my turn. Goodnight and enjoy your families.

*Ganga - Tucson speak for a great deal

A Very Busy Week

It has been a very busy week since I last blogged. John had the week off so we got a lot done around the house. The craft room was semi cleaned and the 2 old machines, manuals and parts went to our Local Goodwill for their program. They will be cleaned and refurbished for someone else to use. So 2 more boxes out the door.

I also picked up my new sewing machine. I practice on some pillows for some small dogs. They are filled with scrap yarn, old clean rags, sewing scraps and poly fill picked up from the thrift store. The fabric is left over from other projects.  They are a real up-cycle project. I still need to fiddle and play with the machine before I start making some new bibs for Eric. But so far so good.

Eric finished one of his favorite holiday projects. He gets to choose some toys that he thinks that other kids will like. He then gets to deliver them to a Toy for Tots drop off location. I really think that he enjoys this more than the people collecting the gifts for the kids.

We landed up with an extra turkey for Thanksgiving. Don't ask. So John made a mad dash to the Tucson Community Food Bank with a frozen turkey in the back of his car. It was all the way across town in the middle of rush hour and dropped it off 2 minutes before the food bank closed. We really hope that this will make someones X-mas meal a little better.

John and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner together. John sliced and diced.  I mixed everything together. Since it was just the two of us we skipped making a pie and sweet potatoes. The rest of the day was a just hang around the house day. We did get to talk to Teri who spent Thanksgiving with a classmates family. It was just to much for us to ask her to fly home in the middle of finals for a few days.

After a very slow start to today we did manage to do some clothes shopping and sneak out to our last dinner out for this vacation. Well it has been a long busy week and I think my closet is next on the cleaning agenda.

 I almost forgot. I am thankful for all my family and friends. So have a good weekend and enjoy your friends and families.

Sunday

Wonders of wonders, we actually got out of the house two days in a row. Yes we did see a movie today. Eric and I saw Morning Glory.  The movie was so good that not a lot of knitting got done after the first fifteen minutes or so. I did not even notice that I lost a stitch marker during the movie. Oh well I will just have to make myself some more. John saw Skylight which he said was good but not for Eric. I landed up eating almost a whole small bag of popcorn during the movie and landed up skipping lunch. A little shopping later and it was time to head home.

We came home and made chicken soup together. I did something totally different today. I took my tea strainer to de gunk the pot and get all the small floaters out of the soup. The plus side to using my tea strainer is that the mesh was so small I was able to get most of the chicken fat out of the soup without leaving in in the fridge over night. I am really not a big fan of fatty chicken soup.

I am almost finished with a few projects and hope to show off some on the blog this week. I have a full day tomorrow so it is time for me to turn in.

Saturday

OK, we actually got out of the house with Eric today. We took Eric to see the new Harry Potter movie. He is a big Harry Potter fan and dress up like Harry every Halloween. This is the best Harry Potter film yet and the special effects are awesome. No I am not going to tell you anything more, but if you are going to knit during this movie I recommend a very light yarn. I am no spoiler. But I will say that if Teri does not find time during finals to see this movie I will go see it again. Enough said.

Here is one spoiler that I am willing to give away. I just picked up the November copy of Simply Knitting and I will be making the blue shrug on the cover for Teri and I. I will let Teri pick her yarn out when she is home for winter break. The cowl on the front cover looks cool too.

As you can tell from this blog I did get a full nights sleep and Eric is doing much better. A lot of knitting got done today but I have so many projects going on at one time that nothing got finished. I guess knitting is like reading, I have to have a couple of books going at one time too.

Well it is time to do some more knitting.

Things I Dislike

Okay, I am normally a very up beat person; but, I do dislike it when Eric gets sick. What mother does not. So yesterday my day started at 4 am with a boy who did not feel well. Eyrping and 4 loads of laundry were soon to follow. I spent the day with Eric taking care of all his needs and was the official TV channel changer.

I did get a lot of knitting done so I really should not bulk much. I think I got 3 whole repeats done on a green shawl being made with hand spun yarn by Kathy at http://www.uniquedesignsbykathy.com/. I really do love her yarn. I even got to got outside for a little while,while Eric's afternoon aide was here.

I was thinking about Teri also, but since it is finals time I let her make the calls when it is convenient for her. I got a wonderful call while I was outside. It is just so nice to see how well she handles herself. I am just so lucky that she is in my life.

After a full day of feeling yucky and getting a low grade fever I thought that Eric would be tired enough to sleep through the night. Boy was I ever wrong. I finally got Eric to sleep at 4:30 am, did I mention my day normally starts at 5:30 am. After a 24.5 hour day I got an hour of sleep before today started.  After Eric's aide got here this morning I managed to get out and drop food and a check to the annual stuff the Mayflower event hosted by 94.9MixFM. Then I splurged and went to Einsteins to get some bagels and Starbucks for some much needed caffeine.

Nancy and Caroline stopped off after the guild meeting to drop off some yarn goodies. The yarn is just perfect for some scarfs for the shelter ladies that Nancy works with. They did not leave empty handed, I sent some small storage bins with Nancy, but I forgot to give her 2 scarfs for the shelter ladies, sigh, I just get so forgetful when I am tired.

Luckily we both zonked out at the same time from 10 am to 3pm. I think the Venti glass of tea must have worn off around 10 am. I really think Eric was ticked at his body for not letting him sleep longer. He woke up coughing and even managed to get to his yellow zone. I managed to get him back to his green zone. So I just sat there propping him up for a while. Then it was off to grab a bag of knitting to make sure he did not do any funny stuff.

When his afternoon aide got here I did manage to sneak out of the house for a little over an hour for dinner. I just did not want a third bagel meal for the day and leftover fish and chips just did not sound as good as they did last night. So one Mayco's taco later it was time to blog.

I have declared this a very successful day because everyone made it though the day. It is time to say good night as I still have to get the trash out. Enjoy your families and join  me in hoping that Eric has a better night. Enjoy your families and have a wonderful night or day if you are reading this earlier in the day.

Driving Around Town

Today I spent part of the day driving around town doing errands. About half way through my errands I realized how easy having a car makes all this possible. I also started to wonder weather all this would be possible without the use of modern transportation.

When I stopped by the Post Office I could not find a parking place, not a good sign. So I went and made my next stop at Goodwill, 2 large bags and 1 box to charity. Yes a little less clutter in the house. Then I was passing another Post Office, yes there was room to park my car so the Halloween candy went off to Operation Gratitude, 1 more box out of the house. Things are getting better, less clutter. I found a unique way to lighten my purse. I dropped off the change in my wallet at the bank, $5.00 in change gone did make my purse lighter. I did not realize how heavy $5.00 of change is.

Then it was off to World Care to drop off new and used medical supplies. Now this is truly an organization that would be hard pressed to operate without modern transportation. These wonderful people keep used medical equipment out of the landfill. When equipment is used in this country we generally do not reuse it, crutches, braces, wheel chairs can all be refurbished and sent to disaster zones and third world countries where these items are very scarce and are always needed. 1 more box out of the house and hopefully a new home for some ankle foot orthoics.

Then I made a little time to test drive a new sewing machine, 2 more brands to test drive. I was way out on the east side of town and had just under an hour before Eric arrives at home. So off to Trader Joe's to get things for dinner and then to Sunflower to get the things I needed that Trader Joe's does not carry. 

Hulling 2 large bags and 3 boxes would be very hard with out a car. So would my 20 plus miles of driving be hard to do without a car. I do love our modern age and my car.

I just got the frozen food put away when the school bus came.  Eric and I, with Joe's(Eric's afternoon aide) help filled another box for Operation Gratitude with a lot of small beanie baby toys. This means 1 more box will be gone tomorrow. I hope I can get into the parking lot of the Post Office tomorrow.

With dinner cooking it is time to work on tomorrow's to do list. Yes I know that this will make me look like an over achiever today, but I never know what tonight or tomorrow will bring. Have a good evening and enjoy your families.

Meeting Yumiko Alexander

Last Saturday at the Tucson Wool Festival I meet the most charming and delightful Yumiko Alexander. Yes that Yumiko Alexander the very lovely pattern designer. Her booth was right next to mine. When things did slow down we had a chance to sit and knit. Since we had very easy patterns we were working on we had time to talk.  I would love the free time to drive to Phoenix to have more time to chat but Eric does keep me very busy.

Yumiko was born in Japan and was a knitting designer there before moving with her husband to the United States. Her company is called Dan Doh translated into English it means warm earth which is also the title of her new book. Warm Earth is available from Universal Yarn at the following link: http://www.universalyarn.com/book_pages.php?book=10 . I am sure you could also persuade your local yarn shop into getting it for you also. I was lucky enough to snag a singed copy* and can not wait to knit the cover sweater. You may also find her patterns on Raverly http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#view=captioned_thumbs&designer=Yumiko%20Alexander&ravelry-designer=yes&page=1&sort=created. .

Yumiko also has a blog http://dandoh.blogspot.com/. I was already a fan of her blog when I meet her. She does not update it often but when she does it is worth while to read.

So despite very slow sales I had a great time and meet a new friend. Well it is time to make dinner and straighten the house. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

*I purchased the book.