4 Booties, a building and a begging kitty

So I finished the second set of booties last week. It' s just been a crazy week so that's why I didn't post anything sooner. My crochet skills are getting better already. This second pair took me a little over one hour. :) Here's both pairs:



Here's another shot from the side:



Call me happy with how they came out. So now it's on to finishing the hats and the onesies. Jeri was getting big near the party. Seeing her this week, she's even bigger. I may not have as much time as I thought. I mean... she can't get much bigger than she is now!

As you may remember, this past Friday (the 21st) we went to the dedication of the new School of Medicine building now called Bondurant Hall. It was a big shindig. They had a small band playing:



There were waiters walking around with plates of crab cakes, fried eggplant (yummy!), mini quiches, little cups of parfait, and juice in wine glasses. *laugh* It was a lot of fun. When I left the dedication party I was absolutely stuffed because we had also had the baby shower that morning. I didn't need to eat dinner that night. :P So of course, we all got to wander around in our new offices so we could take in some of that "New Office Smell". Here's my new area:



Now I know... you may think "There's nothing special about that." Oh but there is! I can see the sun... sort of:



Well hell, it's better than what I've got now. When I turn around in my office, this is what I get to see right now:



Right now if I want to see the sun it requires me to get out of my office, go around a corner and if someone's door is open, then I can see the sun. *laugh* I'm a delicate flower. I need sun. Of course you may ask what type of flower. I say I'm a peony since peonies have a fat bottom. But the women in my office have decided that I am a venus fly trap. *insert big, sly grin here* I'll take that as a compliment since their other choice was a morning glory. *shakes head* I ain't no mornin' glory!

On the kitty front, I have decided that I have one of the strangest cats on the face of this earth. She eats popcorn. Will even beg for it too. Here she is, staring at the bowl of popcorn sitting on the futon next to me:



Once I just couldn't take it anymore... cuz she's just so funny wanting popcorn, I gave her some:



She only usually eats two or three pieces and then moves on. It doesn't even have to have salt or butter on it. Does anyone else's cat eat popcorn?!

In response to comments:

Stephanie said (with regards to giving my bitch neighbors some cookies for Yule this year): Don't even *think* of putting exlax in the chocolate chip cookies. (It may be a felony.)

*innocent look* I never thought of that. Not once. *shakes head* Nope. Not me. (Tee hee!) Oh and it's a misdemeanor. (I looked it up... out of curiosity... yeah...)

Bean said: I saw a newborn in at a LYS yesterday and I so wanted to cuddle him. Then I remembered holding babies always renders me extremely fertile and grabbed some Trekking instead!

*rolls on the floor laughing* I can just see you know... getting that look on your face where you remember what affects your fertility and then bolting toward the bins and grabbing some yarn! :) Okies well off I go to start packing my office up. I haven't even started one thing and it's all got to be done by next Thursday. Yes for the record, I know I'm out of my mind and should have started sooner but hey... no pressure!

Kickin' booties and some estrogen overload

Well last night, I came to the realization that I was not going to have everything done for the baby shower today. That's okay though. I just went to the store and bought a couple things so that I can now take my time and make sure the hats, onesies, and booties come out good. :) As a matter of fact, here is the first pair of booties:



And another angle:



I'm really happy with them since they are crocheted. I haven't crocheted since I was in my teens and well... I never even knew what the names of the stitches were. I couldn't help but laugh at myself as I slowly followed the pattern. It took me nearly two hours to make that pair! LOL! (I'm sure Ragan is just going to faint when she reads that. She's a crochet goddess with a lightening fast hook!) By the way, thank you Ragan! She sent me the pattern for the booties and was most kind to me when I called her for advice yesterday... Twice! *snicker* I was so glad I had bought a book about crochet because I didn't want to call at 10pm to ask how to slip a stitch. :D Now that I understand the pattern, I'm so going to make some for the Children's Hospital.

So of course when I got into work today, I instantly had to run upstairs and start with the decorations and putting out the food. It was a great party, And Jeri (the mama to be) never even realized that we were having a shower for her. :) Here she is in all her big tummy glory:



She's having twin girls. Here she is modeling some of her presents for the girls (letting them try on the outfits as it were): :P



And of course since it's a shower, we had to have a theme of sorts. That's when one of the women in our office started laughing and wrote "Welcome Jeri's Kids" on the board. We all laughed so hard when we saw it. Jeri did too:



We all pitched in and got her a stroller for her twins. The poor thing, she had given away all her other baby stuff since she thought she was long since done having kids. (She's got a 14 year old, a 12 year old and a 5 year old at home.) So of course that means she didn't have anything! I couldn't believe how expensive it was but you can tell it's a nice one and well worth the cash.



Well time to head off for the new school of medicine building dedication. Yup, it's a busy day of partying here a work.

Can you believe it? I'm knitting baby stuff!

I never thought I would. But here I am and there is baby yarn on my needles.

One of the women in my office is having twin girls. These will be kids number 4 and five. Her current youngest is turning four. She had gotten rid of -all- of her baby stuff about a year ago. So now she's got nothing so I felt I just had to knit stuff now.

We're holding a baby shower for her this coming Friday and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish everything I want to do for her by then. I decided to make two Miss Dashwood hats. Here's one so far:



And here's that picot border:



I'm going to let you know... that picot border is really easy to do... but seriously time consuming! It took me -forever- to cast on those 125 stitches for the small size. *whew!*

I decided to alternate the colors between pink and yellow for one hat and yellow and pink for the other on Ragan's suggestion. The gal I am knitting them for really likes pink and yellow so I think she'll like them.

Before I head back to my needles (cuz I still have to finish the hat's ties and then make a second hat, then some booties, and some onesies...) I wanted to reply to comments.

In response to comments:

Alden said: I'm doing Sockapal3za too, and let me tell you I have NO IDEA what to send (besides the socks, obviously) to my sockpal! Do please post about it when you come up with some ideas? So I can shamelessly steal said ideas?

Oh hey no problem! I'm actually going to go pick up a few things tomorrow. A few people emailed me with some suggestions and they were awesome! Thanks folks!

Stephanie said (with regards to my sewer issues): I'm glad the pipe is fixed and I think you should give her cookies anyway. kill 'em with kindness. That way if the neighbor turns nasty again, it's her bad karma.

Heh. *insert sly smile then witchy cackle here*

Bean said: Crochet! That's great. I don't really do it anymore except maybe edgings and stuff but I think it's a good idea for knitters to know this craft too. I just can't understand why all the warring between knitters and crocheters?

You know I've never understood it either! Frankly it makes no sense to me. *shrug* Come on people. Love thy fellow needle crafter! *hugs*

Marlene said: I used to crochet, but I had a wrist injury a few years ago, and crochet hurts now. It's why I took up knitting. I still like the look of crochet lace better than knitted most days. But knitting makes a better fabric.

Geez I'm sorry to hear that. Does crochet really take more wrist movement than knitting? I knit english and my hands, arms and wrists fly all over the place! :P

Penny Karma said: Bravo for sending thank-you notes! Especially the one to the neighbor. A kind word to an enemy is like putting hot coals on his head. Kill 'em with kindness. Brilliant! And PS, I thoroughly enjoy your blog.

Thanks! Like Eric said, nothing says "Get bent" more so than a smile and a flipping of the middle finger. Since we couldn't do that, a thank you card worked just as well. Thanks for the comment on my blog too. I really do try to make it semi-legible and enjoyable. :)

Okies back to the baby stuff!

PS... you should have seen the look on Eric's face when I pulled out the Miss Dashwood pattern and cast on. He calmly looked at me, raised one eyebrow so high it hovered somewhere near the ceiling and said "What are you doing?" *insert wild laugh here*

Stick a fork in 'em! They're done!

I finished my sockapaloooza socks. And I couldn't be happier. Take a look see:



The colorway matches perfectly too! I hope my sock pal likes them.

Now I've got to figure out what else to get her before I send them out on May 1st. *ponderponder*


In other news... not a damn thing is going on. :D See you later!

"The sewer saga is over" or "Hooray for Poop!"

Oh yes boys and girls, the sewer line has been fixed! I can do my laundry. I can take an actual shower. I can wash my dishes. But best of all, I can poop! You have no idea how good that makes me feel! (No pun intended.) :D

I don't even care how the lawn looks:



and a close up:



I danced when I saw it was done. Danced! Then promptly went to the bathroom and took a half hour long shower and shaved my legs. It was so nice!

And the final damage? $1100.

:D

I ended up sending thank you cards to the City Manager, the Assistant City Manager, the Director of Public Works and at a suggestion from a friend, the Mayor. Oh and our neighbors too. Oh yes. Yes I did. *insert huge sly grin here* See as Eric says, nothing says "fuck you" more than a thank you card in a time of strife. I put so much in that 'thank you' note that I had to type it. I explained the entire situation to them in that note. Hell, they had a right to know. *laugh* When I came home from the store that same day, I saw my neighbor lady outside washing her car. She yelled to me "Thank you for the note and the best of luck." I accepted. But they still ain't getting cookies at Yule this year.

I got a letter back from the Mayor too saying thank you for the thank you card. *laugh* To tell you how small of a town this is, he knew of our problems and was glad to hear that all had been taken care of. And he was also happy to hear such nice things about his staff. I really did tell him how kind they had been to me and how they all helped me.

In knitting news, I'm almost done with my sockapaloooza socks. See:



It even looks like the colorway is matching up too. Sweet! I hope she likes them. :)

When I was outside running around taking pictures of the house, the kitties were of course, looking at me:



They've been so happy since Spring has sprung. Oh and since we've stacked the bean bag chairs downstairs so they could sit comfortably and look out the window:



Wow I baby these cats!

Oh and guess what I'm up to? Crochet! Yup, one of the gals in my office is having twin girls sometime in June and well Ragan had this great onsie that she crocheted (it was on her previous blog which has since died or I would link you a pic). It's been a really, really, really long time since I crocheted and really I only knew a few stitches and not even what they were called so really, I am learning all over again.

I'll post pics once I have something to actually take a good look at. :)

Holy crap I got "shooshed" in a bar!

My mother in law and her husband are in town this whole week. They are really good people and I'm so glad they are here. So when Eric got home last night, we decided to go out for a drink (cuz I've been needing one for a while with this sewer issue).

Well as we're sitting in The Lantern (my favorite place in Chapel Hill) we have having a few drinks when the couple sitting next to us asks us to please keep it down becasue they couldn't hear themselves talk and well, it was quite rude of us to be doing so. (Direct quote by the way.)

*blink* Do I have a rude people magnet on my frigging forehead?!

Let's just say, it threw all four of us for a loop. They were eating dinner in the bar for some reason and well, they said they couldn't hear themselves talking and after the woman in the couple had been going on and on about how loud we were, the gentleman said "That's just enough." The concensus between the four of us weren't sure if he was talking to her or to us. *shrug* Mind you, everyone else in the bar was just as loud if not louder than us. All I could think of was "Um gee... it's a bar. People get loud. Why aren't you eating in the restaurant? ... you know, where people eat."

But of course I didn't say that. No, instead I just stared at her for a second and said, "...'kay..." and then looked back at the rest of my group. I must have had a great look on my face because they burst out laughing after that.

And if Eric hadn't been there, I would have handed her a $5 bill and said "here... have a drink on me and loosen up!"

But he wouldn't let me! *grumble* I would have done it too!

So yeah... shooshed in a bar. Beat that!

Oh and no knitting news nor a stash flash yet. Sorry ladies and gentlemen but this whole sewer thing isn't completely done yet (soon though... soon) and well once it's done I think I'll be able to get back to normal. :P But I will flash my stash soon. I promise. :D

Update! I forgot to share this with you as well. I've been thinking about taking up cross stitch but I've never really been all that crazy about the patterns I've seen. Well check out this site!

Pussy got me dizzay! (I love that one!)