Moving Forward

Ah yes. Moving forward. New year, new things. It was a truly long holiday, that is for sure. Last I heard, Cody was renting a new apartment and moving this week. Then he was off to La Quinta, by Palm Springs for a little R & R. Must be nice. I got my plane tickets for Vegas for Feb 17th. Ahhh, it will be nice to see some bare ground for a change. It seems the worst is over, and it’s getting brighter everyday.

And snowier. I shoveled  more today. I am running out of places to put snow and have had to resort to the wheelbarrow-again.

Today is a work holiday, Martin Luther King day; one of the perks of a government job. So it is a short week this week, and next week as I flex a day. WooHoo. Already dreading work tomorrow. But that’s another story.

In the meantime, work was ok late last week when our Tater Pie came to visit.

  Look at how big that girl is getting. She is walking now. She wasn’t too sure about all of us standing around staring at her. Laura came up and got her smiling with a little peek-a-boo.

This weekend I have been working on a quilt to give as a housewarming gift. I had the top done forever.

I decided to burn up some stash for the back, instead of buying 8 more yards of fabric. So, I made up a quick Turning Twenty in browns, so the quilt will match all decor.

It only took about a day to make this top. Any and all delays in manufacturing were the direct result of this:

Jack cannot be out of your face whatever the occasion. Started Saturday PM when I was trying to do some computer work.

He sat on the mouse first, then stretched out and pushed my letter holder off onto Dave’s desk. Only the beginning.

I then decided to get this quilt thing done-got the fabric out and cut Saturday PM, and finished cutting and started sewing Sunday.

This is what I put up with.

 

This was a favorite spot throughout the day.

 

It was constant. And Jack is not exactly a light dainty cat to be moving around.

I tried putting him in his bag, but he lost interest and pretended to ignore me while sitting on the milking stool.

He then ran over to the table and knocked the little garbage can onto the floor.

This morning when I got up to finish the last part of the quilt, I found this

Look closer

Does that look like garbage to you? Does it look like the garbage that came out of this bag?

With some more garbage in front of it? Hmmmmm. Let’s see. I wonder how THAT happened? So, I had to get the broom and clean that up before I could start sewing. See what I mean?  It is freakin’ endless.

I finally got done this AM and took top and bottom to the quilt store. I also stopped at Kristen’s Knits to pick up a few skeins of Noro for the wrap me up. The roads were crappy this morning and I saw cars in the ditch and an accident by Eyota. I didn’t have any problems.

And did anyone notice the Packers are a step away from going to the Superbowl? Fabulous.

The Seahawks? Not so much. It would have been tough, though, having to root for both the Packers and the Seahawks in the same game.

So, back to business. Gotta go and knit on my KAL socks. On to instruction #3 and I am not quite done with #2-

Happy Week!

 

Go Pack Go!

Seriously, the Seahawks won last night. They won. I’m still pinching myself to make sure it’s not a dream.

And why I didn’t make some book on this game is beyond me. The odds were something like 50:1. Dang it. But soo happy. Today is the Packers and the Eagles.

Let’s hope we can have two wins this weekend. I’d hate to see the Eagles win. Not a big fan of Mike Vick, no matter what anyone says, or how much he says he’s changed. Plus, I really like that Aaron Rodgers. I hope he remembers to slide this week.

Cody went back to school last weekend. We did go to Sushi Tango and yum, it was delish. We got another picture in before he left because the picture at the table….not so much.

It’s kinda blurry because Dave took the picture. Enough said.

Blane left the next day, after we watched the Seahawks beat the Rams. I was sad to see them go, but there were some in the household that  were quite happy to see the end of it….

Uh huh. That is not a happy face. (Just to be clear-I am talking about Jack).

Dave turned 50 something on Tuesday. (Not trying to be cute, I really can’t remember and shouldn’t have to think that hard right now).

There’s a bad picture. How about this one

If you click on it and make it bigger, you can read the funny card I got him. We had a nice dinner and chocolate cake.

Cora’s birthday party was yesterday.

It was quite the party. Ali and Chase were there

Morgan was there too, but she didn’t want to be held by us too much.

She did have a good time though.

Cora got some good stuff-

 

But the best thing was the Gator, which all the kids seemed to know about, but I had to Google when Angie told me about it.

Check it out. That thing can go 4.5 mph. Laura (who was also there) and I were all about getting into it and taking off. However, it looks bad when we are shoving little kids out of the way so we can play with their stuff, so we held back. This time.

This party was also all things Dora. Dora is quite the deal. We had Ninja Turtles when my boys were little. Laura was kind enough to sing part of the theme song for me, and to name all the Turtles and ancillary characters. I have go to figure out a way to make some cash out of Laura’s memory for all things trivial. Seriously. It’s a gift.

Dave’s boys were over and I got a group shot of them. Note that when I take the picture, it is not blurry.

On the home front today, it’s cold outside. My thermometer on my computer says 4. That’s 4 BELOW zero.

I am busy working on my Skacel KAL. Got the second instructions, and hope to finish this week’s part during the Packer game. Started a new BOTM at the knitting store-the Wrap Me Up shawl.

I know, the model doesn’t look very thrilled. I am knitting it in Noro silk garden and I think it is going to be very fun to do. Much better than the GAAA. Which, by the way, I blessedly only have two squares left.

So I am off this AM to finish up the a Thimbleberry wall hanging, then I am going to make a Turning 20 to use for a back on a square in a square quilt I made a couple or so years ago.

This will make a good back, the quilt will be two sided, and will use up a bunch of stash. WooHoo.

Have a great week all, and don’t forget-Go Pack Go!

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year.

Today I am off to the cities to take Cody back to the airport. We are planning on having lunch here-

In Uptown.

Then, after I drop Cody off, I plan on going here

Which would be Borealis Yarns. I am trying a KAL with Skacel yarns by Knit Purl Hunter and maybe win a prize. But probably won’t win. Sigh. I said I wouldn’t buy anymore yarn for the new year, but New Years is over and now we are into the next day and all bets are off.

I guess I didn’t mention that we decorated the office before Christmas. We felt a little obligated since we were one of the only bays not decorated and there was some sort of contest going on. We thought that the amount of decoration done was inversely proportional to the case load of the workers.

              It wasn’t much, but it was something. You can’t really tell by the pictures.

Christmas was quiet here, and pretty subdued. We were a little sad, what with Cody’s situation and all. But we had a nice breakfast, and I got some nice presents.

The boys got good presents too-but were shy about the picture thing

Cody gave me this card

We thought it was a little like Thanksgiving…I got a good chuckle out of it.   

Dinner was delicious. I tried to get a good Christmas picture but not so much.

 

It’s the best we could do. We played a couple of games of Trivial pursuit-Dave won both times. Seriously, he got the question “What number did Brett Favre wear when he played for the Green Bay Packers?”. Yes. That was one of his winning questions. Completely not fair, and demonstrates perfectly how he was able to win.

We enjoyed some couch time and some Green Bay victory on Sunday.

Our new TV came on Friday. I called it Dave’s birthday present since his birthday is this Tuesday. Then I remembered that  he got his last TV on his birthday. He gets good presents. It sure is a good TV though. Can’t wait to see Seattle lose play on it tonight. I’ll likely miss the Green Bay game as I’ll be in the cities working on breaking my New Year’s Yarn resolutions at the yarn store.

It’s been cold at work, this week between Christmas and New Years. 

       At least it was cold at first. By the end of the week it was rainy, but now it is back to being very cold. The thermometer outside broke, it’s stuck at 27. Which is a nice winter temp. But it isn’t 27. It’s 1. 

So, the TV broke, the upstairs cable box broke, the pilot light went out in the furnace (we fixed that instantly!), the thermometer broke, and the cat broke the torch lamp last night. We are riding a serious wave of breaking and break ups.

Laura was out at the farm and tried to give Twinkles an apple. Of course, there was some grain in her pen so she was interested in the grain, which I think negates the whole apple experiment. I am waiting for the pictures because I know everyone is simply dying to see them. Twinkles is as cute as ever. And so smart-she is now letting herself out of her pen into what she thinks are better places to be in the barn. Both Dave and Laura share the same “Cows do not excite me” attitude, which I do not understand at all.

Anyway, I wish everyone a Happy and Safe New Year-

Welcome to 2011.

Merry Christmas

Twinkles says…..

Jack says too…..

Cat agrees….

Kitten seconds the motion…..

Bodie is wondering why it’s taking so long…..

Trixie and Beta say Get on with it and tell everybody…….

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!