Weaving Rainbow: This & That

Happy Blogiversary!! (And Happy Birthday to my sister Carol!) (from other Blog)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR CAROLLLLLLLL!!
Happy Birthday To Youououououuuuuuu!

And lots more & lots of love!

I've been blogging since 2003 I think? 5 years... wow... not consistent but during that time, my blog has always been part of my life, part of my herstory...records of some of my projects & endeavors.

Made some progress on my socks this week... why does it take me so long to knit a pair of socks yet it takes some people a few days to whip up a pair? Granted I'm a slow knitter, but ya know what? I don't care how fast other people crank out socks (without a sock knitting machine)... I'll just take my time & have my fun & yada yada blah blah blah!

August is almost here... the summer is flying by. We enjoy going to the swimming pool & I've been doing a bunch of laps & it's lowering my blood pressure & overall just feels good. Hopefully once summer ends & the temperatures drop below 90, I'll get into walking a couple of times a week... anything to strengthen & make for a healthier lifestyle.

I'd like to lose weight but I don't want to go out of my way to do it. I think I have a good reason for it and that is that in the past when I've lost weight, when the thrill of watching the pounds drop wears off, I start gaining again & often gain to the point where I weigh more than when I started. I'd rather just aim for *healthier* and after last summer, when I had some bloodwork done, although my blood pressure was still on the high side, the doctor said that my blood levels were pretty good...

That's all from here for now!

Tuesday Stuff (from other blog)

SInce the last entry, I haven't been able to get on the computer as much... first we had some hardware problems, and then I couldn't get onto Movable Type because something was not set properly. Both issues are fixed now & we're busy setting up the new computer system but it's functional now!

Still using Slackware Linux (but version 12 instead of 11) but I may be switching to Kubuntu once the CDs get here... we'll see how that goes. I don't love Slackware because I'm not a technogeek (in spite of my score in one of the geek quizzes) and would like to have a system that I can manage myself. Slackware is DEFINITELY not an intuitive system... I mean, where did they get "sudo su" to get into root from a terminal from... and who on EARTH came up with having to type XINIT to get into your window manager... ugh... gimme something I can remember easily & not because I typed it so many times that I just HAPPEN to remember. And oh... type "help" in a terminal window doesn't do a whole lot either (well I just tried it & apparently they've changed that for slack 12 but it's still a lot of technogeeky stuff... you have to use "man" for the help command... (why not woman? LOL)

Knitting

I'm getting somewhere on my sampler socks but can't show them off because my camn damera is not working... will have to save up for a new one. Meanwhile I will see if I can't just scan them next time we go to the library. I'm working on the heel now and in one or two more rounds I should be ready to turn the heel. This is a toe up sock.

Since my ankles & leg are a little on the heavy side, I need to adjust the stitch count to go from ladies medium for the foot to ladies extra large from the ankles up... since my stitch pattern is a 6 stitch repeat, I'll need to base my stitch count on that... I have not decided whether or not it has to be an even or odd number of repeats. I THINK it has to be even & 14 (84) might give too many stitches & 12 (72) might be too few. Also I'm putting beads in the design & am having fun with that.

I've also been working on the Casablanca stole some, and have gotten up to clue 3 but I'm not crazy about the color... I'm using the "brindle" color and if I finish the stole, I'll do a swatch or two with the yarn & do some color tests & overdye the stole... not sure what color though...

Dogs/Puppies

We've been browsing petfinder for dogs... we were supposed to meet a dog when we went up to Wichita Falls about a week ago but communications got confused & the shelter did not bring the dog. I've tried calling a couple more times since, but have given up at this writing. No biggie, there are a couple of other pooches we're looking at & we'll see how that goes. We'll be going to see a rescue/shelter later this week & who knows what will happen. I think when we're ready, we'll find the right dog for us! I miss having a big dog in the house, Goldie is sweet, but she's old and doesn't really play very much...she's also on the small side.

Summer

It's been hot & has gone over 100 degrees the last few days...we try to go swimming a few times a week & that's nice. Last night we went to family swim & that was pretty nice...

Sad News

On Thursday, 7/10, our dog Opus died... he was the best dog...

He bolted out of the house when one of the boys was coming in or going out & he couldn't catch his leash in time. We kept his leash on him all the time because of the bolting tendency. The front gate was open & he ran into the road & got hit & run over by a pickup coming down the road...the people whose pickup it said they didn't see him in time... Opus was yelping pretty good... we got him into the car to take him to the vet but he died on the way over.

I'm still having trouble with the concept of him being gone because he was fine, young (4, he'd be 5 in January) & perfect... it's awful that he had his life snuffed out like that...

He was a wonderful dog.

This may have been one of the last pictures I took of him:

Yeah, he liked sitting/laying in funny positions... sometimes he would sleep with his head in the empty food bowl or with a kid or two on him & occasionally he would cuddle up with one of them... I'm sure I have some pix of him with the kids through the blog...

We still have Goldie & all the cats, but we still feel a huge emptiness without him... it's hard to believe that any other dog will be able to measure up to him, but I'm sure we'll eventually find another big pooch that we'll love... meanwhile, we'll deal with a better solution for the front gate (a 2 way latch & a spring so that it'll close automatically)...

I didn't want to post this, still don't, but my blog is part of my history...

Smokin' July 4th (from regular blog)

Today we've got the smoker loaded with goodies: a whole brisket cut in 2: 1 is corned, the other is not... bologna, spam & a pickle. The pickle was suggested by my youngest, it sounds weird, but I thought "well why not, let's try it!"

Also there are 2 lbs of pinto beans in the water bowl... beans done this way with the fat from the meat dripped down are awesome!

Projects

Have been getting the socks closer to the heel... using a knit-purl design on the instep, using US 0 needles when I'm doing more purl stitches since I tend to knit purls more loosely...
The first clue of Casablanca is done & I've started working through the 2nd, which is a fairly easy knit & purl combination except the edging which is lace... clue 3 came out this morning & it looks more interesting, back to lace!

Photos another day as I'm already worn out from setting up the smoker... we'll also have potato salad & I may make a carrot cake. Depends on whether or not we have enough eggs since I boiled a bunch for the potato salad...I could always run over to the corner store & see if they've got some!
I'm toying with the idea of making the carrot cake in loaf pans & putting one loaf pan in the smoker & see how it comes out... doesn't SOUND very good, but who knows...

Nuffernow!