Still looking...

Not a heck of a lot has been going on at chez urbanpagan. Between work, tae kwon do, and looking for scholarships, not a lot of knitting or cross stitching has been done. I didn't realize how difficult it is to find scholarships for adult students! It looks like I may end up having to pay for some of it myself. I really hope not because we can't really afford it... but oh well. I'm still looking.

In between all this, I of course keep an eye on the news and on Fark. I love Fark. You can find the strangest news stories and some that don't even break on the major news media outlets until long after Fark has run them.

Now a quick tangent, everyone knows I am insane for four legged, furry mammals. Just nuts. People sometimes react oddly to the way I get about them. But I keep trying to tell them "It's not just me!" There are plenty of other animal nuts out there. And with the help of Fark, I have proof.



Someone obviously knows me and more people like me. :)

To stay on the topic of all things non-fiber, I always seem to be drawn to or notice the weirdest/oddest things. Well weird/odd to me at least. Like this sign for example:



I pass this sign every single day on my way to tae kwon do class. What is with the little guy right in the middle of the sign? Doesn't he look like he's about to go ass over tea kettle? Or is he dive- bombing his mama? What is up with that little guy?

Then there's this sign:



That's a stop for the "A, G, NS, and T" buses. Mind you, there is an "N" and an "S" bus as well so they really could have spelled "ANGST". I was undergoing a bit of angst while waiting for -any- one of them to show up since I was 20 minutes late getting back to my office by the time I took this picture.

Then of course there are the great questions of the universe:



I'm thinking if they did, it was a brontosaurus with black olives. Who doesn't like black olives?!

Then there is the clever stuff:



Can you believe it took me a minute to get it? *shakes head* It had been a long day. After that though, I was craving some Chinese buffet.

Oh well, I guess I should get back to looking for scholarships... you know, that or working. Since I am at work. :P

You just never know...

Obviously, you all read about the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I didn't hear about it until Tuesday. I was home sick on Monday and didn't look at any news at all.

When I got in to work that day, someone had put these on the bulletin board in an attached building:



and:



I thought it was nice that someone did. A lot of people are forgoing their Carolina Blue here and wearing maroon and orange. I am as well. Well... maroon anyway. I don't have anything orange.

I did it to honor a friend of a friend. See, when I heard of the tragedy, I was shocked and horrified as I'm sure most of you were, but it hadn't affected me. I suffered no loss. I know none of these people. And after reading some of their bios, I really wish I had. They all seemed like wonderful people. But it was only yesterday that I learned two friends of mine lost a dear friend of theirs to the tragedy. His name is, or was, Jamie. Please take a moment to read about him. He seemed like a wonderful guy and knowing that he was very good friends with my two friends... that means he was 'good people'. They are not the sort to have friends flippantly. They make close bonds. I am grieving with them now.

Like most of you, I'm sure, I feel powerless. Could it happen here at UNC? Could it happen again anywhere? Sadly, the answer is yes. What can we do about it? I just don't know. The only thing I can think is that at least he had said goodbye to his wife when he went to work. She at least has that. Really that's all I can think of. Remind those you love daily that you do.

I'm going to go call Eric right now.

You ever have one of those days?

You know the ones... where you get to work late, you get your shirt wet because you obviously have a hole in your bottom lip and/or you were never taught to drink properly and then you get called into your boss' office and told you were a bad girl? All before 9am? No? Yeah well that was my day yesterday. Not a good day at all. Kind of made me feel like this:



And if someone crossed my path, they would get a bit of this:



Yeah, it was a hell of a day.

On the good side, I did some more work on the Cut Your Teeth Socks. I'm pretty much back to about where I was before I frogged them. See...:



Realizing I'm a fool, I cast on the correct number of stitches to accommodate the cuff but didn't think about my gauge and you guessed it, they are too big around my instep. *sigh* But I'm going to finish them dammit! Oh yes I will. It's not a promise, it's revenge. You ever have revenge knitting? I think this is my first. I will finish these socks no matter how much swearing, screaming, tantrums and the like it takes. I'll finish them.

I have never hated a pattern so much in my life. It's pretty sad. But thinking about it, I only seem to work on these socks when I'm angry in the first place. I think they are my rage socks. I think that's what I'll call them from now on; Rage Socks. *nod* Much more fitting.

I was back at my cousin's house again this weekend. We got some cross stitching done. I finished the one I was working on for a friend of mine. Now to iron it and frame it. Here is it post hoop:



She doesn't even know I made it for her so I have to get it all framed up by Sunday. I am watching her kitty while she is out of town so I want to be able to have it all framed and wrapped up for her so when she gets home, she'll see a giftie sitting there for her.

In response to comments:

Helen said: great colours on you! very nice. close call with the black!

Thankies! I'm liking the colors too. And I know what you mean by close call with the black. I was sweating!

La Bean said: YES. You finished!! It looks great!! The blues are a good color on you.. I'm seeing a silver chain with a pendant with one of those light blue stones.. Is it Aquamarine? or Opal? The light blue is bright as hell, and I love it!

Thankies to you as well. And actually, I have a dark sapphire necklace I wore with it the other day that was just stunning!

Deawn said: Love the tubey on you. Very nice, indeed. Thank you for making it, because I now know that actual women with actual breasts can wear it, and not look as if they're in traction. (The model used for the pattern basically scared me off)!

And thankies to you too. Yeah, I know what you mean when you said the model scared you off. I looked at the neckline on her and thought.... hmmmm... my breasts are -definitely- bigger than hers. I'll let you know, I had to seam in the neckline about an inch extra on either side to get that neckline right for me. Without it, I was popping right out! :O

Heather said: Hi Lisa, the Tubey is fantastic, and I think it looks great on you! Super colors, and it's gonna look great blocked, too. Congrats!!!

Oh now I'm just gonna start blushing... thanks. :) Yeah it blocked very well. But the back is a bit poofy. I'm not too sure how I feel about it. I may have to see if I can alter it in some way so it lays flatter but for now, I'm not worried. :)

Ponytail said: It looks really good. I'm just finishing off the arms, and then I have the body to do. I was starting to feel it was never going to get finished (I have a few other things on the go too) and wanted inspiration from someone else who'd finished it. And I got it !
It looks great - different to the original pattern photos, but great nonetheless. Congratulations !

That's it, now I -am- blushing. :P I'm glad I was able to give you inspiration. What size are you making? I made the large. I knew I wouldn't need to but I wanted it looser than the pattern called for.

When I showed Eric, he said:

Eric: "Well, I'm not sure about the neckline, but it's nice."
Me: "Well hell, it's not bad for my first sweater."
Eric: "It is? I was sure you had made one already. Well in that case, I love it!"

He's such a nut.

Tubey. Oh yeah baby!

Brace yourselves.

I finished Tubey.

Yup. I can't believe it either.

Voila!



This is it unblocked. I finished weaving in the threads and put it right on. I'm so happy! I made it in the large on purpose. I wanted it to be a bit loose and flared before I washed/blocked it.

I can honestly say I finished it so quickly in this past week because I went to visit my cousin. :) I even finished one of those Cut Your Teeth Socks I frogged and started over. *blink* I can't believe it either!

Oh and remember how I was worried I was going to run out of black yarn? Yeah... this is all I had left:



I was mighty close!

I got my yellow belt on the 23rd too. You can see the pics here. I don't have any taken with my camera. Sorry! Eric was supposed to be there but unfortunately, he had to be up at 3am the next morning so he had to pass so he could sleep. If you look at the pictures and you see a young man getting his hair cut off it's because he decided to donate his hair to Locks of Love if he got his black belt. And he did! I was so happy for him. :) His father is a professional hair stylist (even has his own business) so he did the cutting and supervised all our cuts to make sure we were cutting long enough strands of hair.

Everything else is the same old, same old. Just a lot more of it so I've been busy as hell. I've sent out so many applications for scholarships I think my head is going to spin. And I have even more to do. I'm getting seriously nervous about going back to school. On the one hand though, I am feeling better because, based on advice from one of the Profs, I pulled out my old General Biology book and started reading. I didn't forget nearly as much as I thought I had! I still forgot a lot, but I was pretty surprised at what I even remembered.

Oh well, off to go fill out more applications. Wish me luck!