The Guardian

I love my dogs. I think more highly of my dogs than I do most people. This is Josie, the smaller of my two dogs. To the casual observer, she appears to be sleeping, but I'm certain she was guarding the ridiculously expensive throw I was knitting. Either way, she's just so sweet all snuggled up against my handiwork. This was the same day she came to my rescue after a movie with a horrible, horrible ending made me cry. She's a good dog and hopped up on the recliner with me to love me and make me feel better. Josie is the best little dog in the world and I love her.

Yes, I know I labeled a post about a dog with "People Who Rock." I happen to think of my dogs as people and they certainly do rock, so I figure it's appropriate.

Tulip

Since it's been so long between posts, I thought I'd put up something pretty to hopefully break back into more regular posting. This is a tulip from my mother's flower bed. I'm not sure exactly what kind of tulip it is, but it's one of the prettiest flowers in the flower bed. Several years ago, I gave my mother a very early Christmas present consisting of a variety of flower bulbs. I had to give them to her early so she'd have time to plant them before the ground froze that winter. Every year since then, these beautiful tulips bloom in the spring and make me happy to see their lovely colors. This is a rather good photo, too, if I do say so myself.

Prettyful

I love spring. It's my third favorite season, after winter and fall. I despise summer, but that's neither here nor there because this is not about summer. It's about my favorite part of spring...flowering trees. I love, Love, LOVE flowering trees. They're just so pretty with their tiny petals covering the branches, all white and pale pink. My second favorite part of spring is when the the petals start falling off in a rain of loverly confetti, floating delicately to the earth. I only wish this part of spring could last just a little bit longer than it does because it really is the prettiest part of the season.

Note To Self

Self, do laundry more often. That way, you can avoid the 10.5 hours of agony the last clean pair of underwear inflicts on your poor body. There's a reason they're always the last pair.

Almost Done

I've been a diligent and industrious little knitter the past few days. The Breast Cancer Socks that I started last summer are nearly done. I've finished the first and the second is over 50% finished. I'm in the home stretch and then I can finally give them to my aunt to raffle at the Relay for Life event next month. I've been planning to give them to her ever since I saw the pattern, and I started them with gusto. Then procrastination set in as I realized how much time I had before they needed to be finished. That, and I wanted to do other projects. But with only a foot left on the second, I'm getting excited to be done with the project and free to embark on other knitting endeavors. I can't wait!!!

Not Even the Birds Are Awake

It is officially the butt-crack of dawn. I am up exceptionally early today (by my standards, anyway) in order to be at work exceptionally early so I can go with 7 other people on a road trip to help out another store. Thankfully I'm not driving so I can take my Dramamine and fall asleep for the couple of hours it takes to get there. Yay for sleep!

In Cognito-Girl

Yeah, I've been laying low for the past few days. The weekend seemed to start early and was very busy. However, I did get to catch up with some friends whom I hadn't seen for quite some time, which was much fun and I can't wait to see them again. I also managed to squeeze in meeting a politician, so it's been a full few days.

My pet died on Sunday, which made me sad. She was a cow and her name was Bunt. Yes, I had a pet cow. She was good for such tasks as mooing and being pretty. She was very old for a cow (roughly 16-17 years old). I loved the cow and I miss her.

That's pretty much it for the time being. It's hard to write about things when I've nothing noteworthy going on. Oh well...I'm sure more interesting things will happen as Spring progresses.

Triste

I learned today that one of my pets is going to have to be put down. She's really old and losing hair and she's just declining, as I was told. I'm sadder than I expected to be about it, but that's life, I guess. Or death...whatever way you want to look at it.

Four Horses

So many of my stories involve my drive home, and for that I apologize. Not really. Anyway, I was a mere half mile from home when I saw them; four beautiful chestnut-colored horses, statuesquely standing side by side in their pasture, looking in the direction I was driving. (It was yet another moment where having my camera handy would've been nice, but it's never in my purse when I need it.) As I drove past them, I realized why they were looking in that direction. The pasture is right next to the farmer's lawn, which still has some green grass in various patches. I think they were looking at the tender, tasty niblets that were just out of their reach. It was such a pretty sight that made this gray and drizzly day more lovely.

A Letter...

Dear Idiot Drivers Who Pissed Me Off Today,

I know that rush hour traffic can be tiresome and a total bother.* I know that we all just want to get to our respective homes, eat dinner and relax. However, that doesn't excuse your total lack of respect for other drivers. In particular, Ms. Ford Explorer, you needn't have tailgated me from Horseheads all the way to the Elmira exit when I was already going nearly 80 MPH. Seriously, do you really need to go any faster than that on the highway? It's not as if I was lane-clogging, and you could have gotten around me with great ease had you applied yourself. But no, you waited for me to shift lanes and then buzzed on by. Why you couldn't use your signal and press your foot more firmly on the accelerator is beyond me, but perhaps you could keep that in mind for next time.

This brings us to Mr. Ford Explorer (Eddie Bauer edition).** I was totally prepared to chastise you for your lack of awareness of the green arrow lighting up. Then I realized that the light had turned red and you legitimately thought you had to wait, not knowing that the Traffic Gods would smile upon the intersection and give us left-turning people a wonderful green arrow. So I'll forgive you for making the line of traffic wait a few extra seconds while you were doing whatever it was you were doing while thinking you had to wait. I will, however, yell at the jackass who waited all of 3 seconds before he decided to lay on his horn to alert everyone that we were waiting. Dude, you were, like, 5 cars behind me...you wouldn't have had the arrow even if Mr. Ford Explorer (Eddie Bauer edition) had hit the gas the second the arrow lit up. Relax man, relax.

But seriously, kids, have some freakin' patience. It's only driving.

Thanks,
Minxy

*In all honesty, the "rush hour traffic" of which I speak is not very heavy at all. I mean, it's Rt 17...it only gets really bad at Christmas and even that's nothing compared to your basic, everyday traffic in a big city.

**Yeah, total coincidence that both vehicles of note were Explorers...must've been a Ford kind of day.

Always in March...

I'm sick. Stuffy nose, sore throat, the general malaise that often precedes a wicked cold. I'm not thrilled about this. It always seems to happen in March, too. It's as if my body decides to herald in the new spring season with discomfort and postnasal drip. :(

Rain+Cold

Sure this is a couple of days after the fact, but here is a picture of the hill across from my house the day after all the rain I previously mentioned. It was tricky getting a decent picture, but those trees are covered with ice from the freezing rain we got on Saturday. The sun was shining on them in such a way that everything looked tinsel-covered and sparkly. I haven't seen such beautiful ice in many, many years. I wish the picture came out better...sadly it came out a bit overexposed, even with my hand shadowing the camera a bit. This was the best of all the pictures I took.

Here's another of the same view, only to the left and zoomed out a tad bit (and not quite so shiny). This one has a bit more color and better detail. Still, not quite as magnificent as seeing the sight with my own eyes, but pretty nonetheless. I'm one of those not-so-common people who really, REALLY love winter and all that comes with it. Sights like this only serve to make my love of winter grow.

Result of Rain

So I was chatting with my friend Bonnie last night, having an decent discussion that somehow led to Dante's "Inferno" (which was OK because it was in the context of old memories...I'm too lazy to elaborate). While trying to remember the passage that we liked so much, the ice, wind and snow caused the power to go out around 9:45. It was totally spooky because I was all alone out in the sticks and I had nothing at all to give me a point of reference...there was no moon shining to help me find my way around the kitchen. I had to do it all in pitch blackness. Luckily, I have a knack for visual-spatial relations (a.k.a. semi-photographic memory), a mostly useless skill that enabled me to make my way to where I needed to be in order to get some light without so much as stubbing my toe. I was rather proud of that, if I do say so myself. I lit a bunch of candles and realized that I had absolutely nothing to do, so I tried reading by candlelight. After about 20 minutes all I could think was "How the hell did pioneers do this all the time?" It was exhausting, and I felt really old holding the book so damn close to my face. Rather than continue, I blew out all the candles and went to bed. Oddly enough, I took the flashlight with me and read in bed. Why I didn't use the flashlight to read before I went to bed is beyond me...clearly, I wasn't thinking. Then I slept, had extremely weird dreams and woke up a few times because it got really cold in here without the heater running. The power finally came back on around 7:00 this morning. Now I can see enough to cook myself some delicious food. YAY!!!!

Rain

Rain freezing
Freezing rain
Soft then sad and weeping
Thrashing here
Drizzle there
Color gray it's keeping



There should be more...but I suck at writing.

Master of Boredom

It's been a quiet few days. Not much is happening other than work, sleep and knitting. Occasionally I'll have a bite or two to eat. Apparently, mine is not the life of thrills, chills and excitement; Scrabble, Playstation and pizza are more my speed as of late. The most notable thing I've done in recent days was delete a bunch of games on my GameShark only to learn that the thing decided not to work and I'll have to reset it to the factory default in order to be able to use it again, thus negating all my hard work.

Promise Kept

Although I procrastinated, I did knit some on my socks both Monday and Tuesday. I knit a round or two today as well. I'm rather amused by the fact that the endless rounds of stockinette that make the foot (which usually seem to take forever) are taking almost no time at all. The interesting cabled part felt like it took years to finish...it was so slow to knit, I almost scrapped the whole project. Perhaps the second sock will go a bit faster. I am, however, planning to put the second sock on hiatus in order to finish the lace scarf I mentioned in a post awhile back (yeah, I'm too lazy to link to it). I was going to make it for myself, but I've decided to make it a birthday present for my sister. It's a color she'll like, I know she appreciates hand knits and I think she'll really like the simple lace pattern. So that's the plan for now...if I get the scarf knit up soon, I won't have to lose too much time on the socks AND it'll feel like I've procrastinated more, fulfilling that need. Yes, I need to feel like I've sufficiently procrastinated on some things...I'm a sick, sick individual.

Wanting to Stray

Recently, I've been noticing that I want very much to abandon all projects I have going right now and make something completely different. I have three projects that I've started, two lace things and a pair of socks, and a few others that are pretty much in the frog pond...I just have to get off my lazy ass and rip them all apart. The problem is that I really must get them all done. I know if I would just buckle down and get at least the socks (which I'm beginning to loathe their obligation-like aura, but that's beside the point) done, I'd feel much better about beginning a sweater for myself. [A short aside here: I have the strangest timing when it comes to projects...I want to knit lightweight stuff in the dead of winter and warm sweaters for myself going into spring...I'm bass-fucking-ackwards if you ask me.] Bah! Stupid socks...I really don't want to work on them at all, but I must as I made a promise to myself. In true procrastinator form, I'll work on them tomorrow.

Filed Under: What the Hell?

After getting home from work today, I found in the mail a letter from some organization called Biltmore Who's Who. Upon reading the letter, I learned it pertained to placing me on some registry list for a Who's Who Among Executives and Professional Women and 2008 Honors Edition. Apparently the "Publishing Committee" (and yes, that ridiculously vague term was used) thinks that I have potential to be on their registry list based on my "current standing as well as criteria from executive and professional rosters." Hmm...I wonder what the hell gave them the idea that I was a professional or executive. I mean, hell, I work in retail...you can't get much less executive than that.

The Excitement of Sleep

Yeah, I know...random title. I'm sure this will have absolutely nothing to do with sleep, as I'm currently wide awake and in no way, shape or form contemplating the sweet, sweet bliss of dreamland. I did, however, sleep fairly well last night, so I suppose with that teeny little bit, I did mention sleep much more than I had planned. On to other topics.

Yesterday, I finally dug out the breast cancer socks I started knitting months and months ago. I decided to make them last June for a charity raffle that won't actually take place until this coming May. Had I known a few months before the fact, I may have made them for last year's event, but I didn't know the pattern existed until the owner of my LYS happened upon the pattern while we were discussing various charity knitting projects. Yeah, so I started this sock in June (or possibly July, I can't remember), got a little more than half of the leg knit and proceeded on another project (or five). So, the poor partial sock has languished in a knitting bag since then, only to be picked back up yesterday when I realized that I needed to finish the damn things so they'll be done in time for the event (I'm nothing if not a procrastinator). I managed to knit a whole TWO rounds on it yesterday during my work breaks. I know I can crank out a pair of socks in, like, a week and a half, so I should have had these finished by now. Sadly, though, I have a tendency to take a million times longer making things if I feel an obligation to finish them. I don't always have that feeling, but I do now and it sucks. Oh well. I should probably go knit something.

Inside Joke

The eagle flies at midnight....hehehehehe...