Friday, December 15, 2006

Buddy the Betafish

It's a sad day today. After my youngest daughter went to school, I went to feed her betafish Buddy and change his fishbowl water. We suspected he was not in the best of health lately, as he wasn't as vibrant in color as usual for awhile now and he was looking "old", but I didn't expect to find him no longer alive this morning. I'm trying to remember how long we have had him, and I think it was going to be 2 years in February. She had received him as a birthday present. The internet says the life expectancy is usually 2-5 years at most and that when you buy one, they are usually close to 6 months old. The above picture of him was taken last June for a school project in which she had to present directions on how to do something. She chose to do a power point presentation on how to clean a fishbowl. She did a great job on the power point. I think she's known he was starting to fail for the last couple of weeks. She has been detaching herself from him, so I've been the one to feed him lately. I'll have to be the one to break the news to her when she gets home from school and we'll be having a "funeral" this afternoon. At least it's the weekend, so she'll have a couple of days before having to go back to school as I know she will be very sad, even I am. It's amazing how attached you become to a pet.... Buddy, may you rest in peace in fish heaven.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

No More Quarentine

Woohooo! The dogs are officially off quarentine. I've instructed all in the family though, if it's dark outside and you can't see what's in the yard, you must go out with the dogs! While the invisible fence is great at keeping our dogs in the yard, it stop other animals from coming into ours and I don't want to have to deal with another episode of this again! The holiday concert for my oldest daughter last night was good. Tonight is the one for my youngest daughter. Looking forward to hearing her sing too. I'm heading off to go shopping for some holiday gifts and then to work this afternoon for a fetal monitoring tracing review and a meeting. Since there won't be much time for making dinner, it's pizza night!!!!!!!!! I'll be picking it up on the way home. Well, off I go........TTFN

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Vacation Day 2

Managed to get off and about later in the morning. Yes, there was hot water! Keeping fingers crossed, the furnance is continuing to work. Picked up a gift for my niece's birthday this coming weekend, bought the 2 gifts for the giving tree at Church, the item for my son to give his older sister, and a little something for my Mom. Came home briefly then had to pick up my son and take him to the dentist. Worked on the Christmas stocking while in the waiting room. Stopped at the grocery store to get something for dinner....hate having to make the decision of what shall we have? My son decided on a spiral honey ham. They were on sale. Needless to say though, we didn't have dinner till 7pm. That was okay though because everyone was able to be home by then and we had a family dinner. I went online to Amazon.com and ordered gifts for 3 of the nieces/nephews. By the time I finally sat down in my rocker to knit though, I was so tired that I fell asleep. I was going to go out shopping today, but haven't really pinned down what else to buy. I do need to get some gift cards. I think instead I'm going to chill out today at home...clean the house a bit, do some laundry, and knit of course! Tomorrow I have a meeting at work at in the afternoon so perhaps I'll head out earlier in the morning and do some shopping. Tonight my oldest daughter has her choir holiday concert at the school. Looking forward to that. Oh darn, I didn't get the picture of the stocking taken. Maybe I'll try to do that today. Well, TTFN.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Vacation

Yesterday was the first day of my vacation week. I went to Church in the morning and then me, my Mom and 2 nieces that were at Church also went for lunch. Once home, I needed to make a trip to the grocery store. My son and nephew loaded up the car with the bags of soda bottles and cans that have been collecting in the garage. I hate returning the bottles and cans! However, with help, it does make it a little easier. We had about $25 worth hanging around. So I gave them each $5 and put the rest towards the grocery bill. When I got home, it was all ready mid-afternoon. I settled into my rocking chair and sort of watched the Patriots football game while knitting my oldest daughter's Christmas stocking. I finished it up after dinner. It came out pretty good. I still need to crochet the hanging loop for it though. It is supposed to be done with the Twirl yarn as well, but since the one hank should be enough to do 3 stockings, I want to finish the other 2 before making the hanging loops. This way if I do run short, I can use the yarn I used for the sock itself to make the loops instead. If I have time later I'll take a pic and post it. This morning we found the furnace had stopped working during the night. No hot water! So what if the house was a little chilly......I want hot water to take a shower! Initially the reset button didn't work, but after trying it again a short time later, it's working! So I'm waiting for some hot water so I can shower and then head off for some holiday shopping. ACMoore has a coupon for 30% OFF my complete regular price purchase good for today. My son wants me to pick up something he had seen when we were there once before for him to give his sister for Christmas. While there, of course I'll go check out what's new in the yarn section. Unfortunately, other than the Lion's brand sock yarn, there are no nice sock yarns......... and I'm not all that fond of the Lion brand one. It's somewhat limited to a few colors that are jacquard or self-striping. I may pick up a few "notions" that I can use in swaps with my internet groups that I belong to. Speaking of swaps. I mailed my first "bottle swap" on Friday. I was mailing out of the country and was required to mail with a way to track the package. Wow! it's costly mailing that way out of the country. I may have to ask for a domestic swap partner in the future just because of the cost of mailing packages this way. I do understand the importance of being able to track the package though. It protects me.....I have proof that I held up my end of swap by mailing, it's insured in case of loss or damage, and there is proof that the partner did indeed receive it. In the past, I belonged to some crochet groups where people did not hold up their end of the swaps. It's so disappointing when people do that. It may be a bit before I receive my swap though as the coordinator emailed me that the person sending to me was having some health issues and was going to be delayed in mailing to me. That I can understand, I hope for her it's nothing too serious and that she is feeling better soon. It's no fun being ill, especially with the approaching holidays and so much to do. Well, I think I'll go feed the dogs and check on the status of hot water so I can get on with the shopping and be back to pick my son up from school to take him to the dentist for a dental cleaning (knitting time for me in the waiting room hehe) TTFN

Friday, December 08, 2006

Stockings in the works

I am soooo happy. Yesterday my order from Knitpicks finally arrived! I ordered yarn to make new Christmas stockings for my 3 kids with the free pattern and recommended yarns they have on their site. So today while I was waiting for the 2 new tires I had ordered were being put on my car, I casted on and started knitting away for the first one. I'm about 1/2way to the heel flap. It looks like these will work up fairly quick :-) Needless to say, I'm going to quick finish up checking my email and get offline so I can sit and knit some more tonight before I fall asleep.....I'm working tomorrow so the alarm will be ringing at 5AM before I know it. The only thing good about that is that after working tomorrow, I start vacation for a week :-) TTFN

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Chevron Socks


While these socks have been finished for a bit, I finally got around to taking a picture of them today. The chevron pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks. I really like that book! There is going to be another book called More Sensational Knitted Socks that is due to be published in the Spring that if it's anything like the first, I'll be adding it to my collection. For these socks, I used the 2 circular needles method with Parade yarn by Knitpicks. My oldest daughter is going to be the lucky recipient of this pair. She wants me to make some wrist warmers using this pattern to match, though I'm not sure if I have enough yarn left, so she said I could use a different color if need be. I'm going to give her the socks when she gets home from work as she is going caroling tonight with her Leo Club and it is a bit chilly out there tonight. If she wears them, they should keep her toes nice and toasty warm.