Yesterday was not my friend. My darling girls drove me crazy, I had to clean lots of things, and by the time I got my exercise in and dinner done, that was it. Mom needed to remove herself from the house.

Before I prattle on and on about my difficult day (feel free to skip it and move on to another blog), I will show you the little bit of fun I had.

This just doesn’t get old for me. I love it. The top set is really lovely. You can’t see it, but the beads have a slightly greenish tint to them that looks quite striking with the copper wire. The bottom set look pretty close to the photo.

Now, on to my yesterday- I won’t give you the play-by-play, but I’ll select a choice few examples of what drove me nuts.

Veronica spent what felt like a full hour asking me why she couldn’t call Hannie, her very imaginary friend. She wasn’t talking about a pretend phone call. After 30 or so times of trying to be polite and considerate of her feelings, I finally had to say that she couldn’t call Hannie because Hannie isn’t REAL!!! I didn’t know what to expect at that point. I certainly wasn’t expecting an impish smile and then an argument about how because Hannie lives in a pink house with a roof, she ought to be able to call her. What do you say to that?

My girls are the type that can’t say anything without expecting and demanding some sort of a thoughtful response. If they feel like saying that the plate is green, they’ll repeat it 500 times until I say, “yes, you’re right. It’s green. What a smart girl you are.” A full day of this type of conversation and/or mental interruption can drive a woman mad.

I made every possible effort to have a nice dinner last night. I anticipated every scenario I could think of and had half of the kitchen on the table so I wouldn’t have to get up the usual 50 times during dinner. It didn’t matter. Veronica decided she had to wash her hands, but is incapable of turning the water on and off herself. Abby refused to tear apart a tender chunk of pot roast with her fork or fingers, and needed it cut for her. Olivia insisted that she absolutely HAD to have her roll before eating the beef and asparagus on her plate. Abigail burst into tears when I told her the A-1 was all gone. It went on and on. I fully acknowledge that none of this is exceptional, or out of the ordinary with children, but I just couldn’t take it last night. So half way through the very nice dinner I had made, I announced I’d had enough and took my plate to the bedroom, sat on my bed, and tried to enjoy the SILENT company of Ilsa and Agatha, my two beautiful and appreciative fish. It would have been enjoyable had I not already passed the emotional point where enjoying myself was no longer possible. Then I left for awhile, commiserated with my wonderful friend, Celeste, and returned after the monkeys were in bed.

They are good girls, but yesterday, their exuberance exceeded my strength.

And so it was yesterday. But I am better now. I wouldn’t be surprised if you aren’t convinced at this point, but I am better.

I really enjoyed our Valentine’s giveaway in February. It was a fun way to get to know some of you a little better, and I’m at it again. OK, here’s what’s up. I have loads of stitch markers, as you can probably tell, and I’m going to give away sets of 10. If you are interested, leave a comment or email (see sidebar for address) telling me you want in. I will randomly select 5 names, and I’ll contact you for mailing info. If you participated in the Valentine’s Day giveaway and want more, feel free to comment. Everyone qualifies, and I am happy to once again say “thanks!” to my readers and friends. Shipping internationally wasn’t nearly as expensive as I had thought it would be, so don’t let that stop you. The winners will get to pick what they like, or make special requests. Matching set or a random selection. Anything you like. The markers I showed here are also available.

A big THANKS to Donna, who sent me some wonderful sock yarn!

It was such a pleasant surprise! Thank you!

UPDATE- the sign up is now closed. Thanks to all who participated, and if you missed it, stick around. I’m sure I’ll be doing this again!

A warm, happy Mother’s Day all around. I had a lovely, and I hope yours was pleasant as well. Nate surprised me completely. I wasn’t expecting anything significant, and here I am- owner of a new digital camera and loads of batteries and photo paper.

It may sound silly, but I’ve wanted photo paper for, like, a year. For whatever reason, it hadn’t happened. So, as silly as photo paper may sound for a MD gift, I was thrilled. But the camera? Wow. It’s a humble camera, to be sure, but it’s a 4.0 megapixel with some manual control. Considering I’ve been using an old, hand-me-down 1.3 megapixel for the last 11 months, I’m ecstatic.

I would again like to thank cousin Elisa for giving me her old digital last spring. It has been fab, given me no troubles, and even survived being dropped on concrete more than once. (By me).

But I am very happy to have a new camera with better resolution. And a manual. It’s amazing how helpful those things are.

As for knitting, I did some. I finished the final flower washcloth, and they were well received. I’m still working on the Flower Basket Shawl, and I’m actually having some trouble there. My pattern is going great. It looks fab. Everything is lining up and seems peachy, but I’m having trouble getting to that “195 stitches” number the pattern calls for before starting the edging chart. If I do one more repeat of the lower chart, I’ll have 191. Unless I’m an idiot and can’t count. Which is possible. But I think I’ve figured it right. Anyone know what happened? I can’t find a mistake anywhere. Everything seems to be working out like it’s supposed to. I’ll spend some more time today staring at the pattern and adding 16 to 175, in the hopes that one of these times, it’ll equal 195.

Look at me and my bad self! I’m pretty happy with what I’m able to report this week. Yes, I’m down a couple pounds, but I’ve been jumping around quite a bit, so that’s not a big deal to me. Tomorrow, I might be up three, who knows? BUT, I got to exercise this week. Not only that, but I FINALLY DID WEIGHTS! I’m SO happy.

Monday, I did 50 minutes of treadmill, PT, and weights.
Tuesday, I did the same.
Wednesday, my foot hurt, and I was extremely tired from being up late two nights in a row. So I did nothing.
Thursday, my foot legitimately hurt, but in all honesty, I couldn’t put my Flower Basket Shawl down. So I did nothing.
Friday, I did 50 minutes of treadmill, some of my PT, and then weights while rocking out to Bon Jovi. (I haven’t listened to them in about 15 years. It was way fun).

Today, I intend to do treadmill, PT, and weights again, which will bring my total to 4 days of exercise and weights this week. I am very happy with that! Woo Hoo!

I need some excitement, because after being sick and stationary for much of the past two months, my pants are getting tight. I’m having none of that.

How did you do? Our friend Jenny had a good week. Let’s hear about it! Anyone else?

I decided early in the day yesterday that I needed to do laundry and make bread. Both of these chores require keeping up with, meaning I needed to spend the whole day on them, but I’d have frequent breaks. So I also decided that if I did both of those chores, I could spend the down time in my chair, feet up, and knitting. Considering today is Knit-along day, I should have worked on Cable-Eight. But I didn’t.

It’s getting bigger! The picture is rotten, I know, but trust me that it’s coming along nicely.

So, who’s got something? Where are the Cable-Eights? Or, if you don’t have anything, follow my example and share your excuses!

I see that Rox has made progress on a lovely green one.

Anyone else?

Bad pun. I couldn’t help it. Despite Cable-Eight, the frogging of the VCC, and the other knitting commitments I have, I started something new.

I started the Flower Basket Shawl for the fifth time or so. This time it’s actually going to see completion. There were issues with the last few times, such as needles too small, yarn too variegated… But this time, I think we’ve got it. It’s about time.

I’ve been dreaming of lace knitting, but that’s nothing new. I’m always dreaming of lace knitting. I’m hoping that this project will tame the beast within for awhile. It isn’t intricate, but it’s a small project that should go quickly, and I’ll enjoy it until I can get my hands on something more intense. I have a number of friends I would like to give the Flower Basket to, so I’m not sure exactly where it will end up yet.

I finished yet another gift for Mother’s Day. No photo. Use your imagination. It’s green.

Veronica was a little princess yesterday.

I like having her home while the other two are at school. It’s such a great opportunity to see her individual personality without the competition or distraction of the sibs. She is fully aware of my feelings in this matter, and uses it to her advantage on a daily basis. She’s a lot of fun.

Monday night, I stayed up ’til 1am helping Nate with something for work. Tuesday morning, I had an early physical therapy appointment. Last night, we were up late at the Mariner’s Game, and this morning, I have an early morning doctor appointment. I want to die.

Back to the baseball game, which we lost. Dangit. We had the great misfortune of sitting next to some of the STUPIDEST, most obnoxious angry drunk guys EVER! Eight long innings of:

“Your Mama!”

“No, your mama…..”

“Oh yeah? Don’t you guys have boy-band practice or something?”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Will you guys all shut up and watch the game?”

“Hey, look at Mullethead down there! Why don’t YOU shut up!?”

“Well look at you in a visor, punk! Who wears a visor? What a loser, ponytail-boy.”

“Hey, look! He has braces! What? Did your mama pick those out?”

“Well, your mama…”

and of course there was the disgusting chant of, “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” I am completely serious.

Yeah, it was great. Eventually, the official “Alcohol Enforcement Team” showed up and kicked them out. Apparently, after some of them had kissed and made up, there was some sharing of alcohol between Losers #1, and the punk high school minors they were fighting with. Un-be-freaking-leavable. Aside from getting the highly condensed version, you’re also getting the highly cleaned up version. There were foul expletives being shouted all over the place. I am SO glad we didn’t have the girls with us. That would have been awful. As it was, Nate and I had the good sense to keep our comments between us, and we laughed through most of it. To be honest, I was quite incredulous.

You expect some of that at a game, particularly when fans of the visiting team are being loud, condescending, and drawing as much attention to themselves as possible. One of the Angels fans was so drunk at the beginning of the game, it took him, (no lie), FOUR tries to actually say Seattle.

Towards the beginning of the game, before things got really interesting, I did some Mother’s Day knitting. That’s all the mention of needle craft we have for the day. Sorry. On the plus side, and despite the fact that we lost, I had the pleasure of seeing Gil Meche pitch. I’ve always liked him. Even when he’s in a slump.

I keep forgetting to talk about my attempt at seaming the VCC on Thursday. Well, I have some frogging to do. I’m still backing and forthing about whether to frog the armholes and add a couple of inches to the body, but no matter what I decided there, I’m going to have to frog the sleeve caps. No big deal, sleeve caps are easy enough. The problem is that as I was setting the sleeves into the armholes, I had many more rows of armhole than sleeve. I made it work, but it didn’t look as nice as it could have, so I’m going to make the sleeve cap bigger. That’s all. It has to wait a little while because I’m full into Mother’s Day Gifty knitting, and when I’m not doing that, I’m Cable-Eighting. It won’t be too long, though. I like the VCC.

Here’s a picture of my Mother’s Day knitting, if you aren’t my mom or Anita…..

It’s luscious.

My Cable-Eight is coming along swimmingly. The fabric has a slight sheen to it, which is pretty, and it drapes very nice. I’m having some sort of mind block when it comes to counting rows, even with a clicker/counter, so I have to do it manually and often. But I don’t mind.

These cables are SO pretty. I thought they were great in the photo, which is why I wanted to knit it, but they’re even better in person. I love the depth, the curves, and the flow of this cable pattern.